≡ Menu

Bout of Books: Goals and Books

bout of booksThe Bout of Books 8.0, a week-long readathon, officially started at 12:01 a.m. today, but since I was sick most of the weekend I definitely didn’t stay up late to sneak in a few super-early-morning hours.

After going back and forth a bit, I decided that my one goal for the week of the Bout of Books is to eliminate all of my solo time in front of the television. I will still watch some tv with the boyfriend (we usually watch during dinner), but otherwise the television is staying turned off this week.

I don’t care how many books I read or even how much time I spend reading. I just want to see what I do with my time when I’m not sitting in front of the tv for a good chunk of my evenings.

Books to Read

I don’t have a specific plan or goals of which books to read, but these are the books grabbing my attention at the moment:

  • Night Film by Marisha Pessl — I splurged and pre-ordered a copy of this one. It’s supposed to arrive in the mail on Tuesday (fingers crossed!).
  • Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed — I’ve been reading this one very slowly over the last month or so. It’d be nice to finish it sometime this week.
  • Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti — I found this one at the library this week and I’m really curious about it.
  • Geek Love by Katherine Dunn — I borrowed this book from a friend several months ago but haven’t read it yet. I saw it on Andi’s readathon pile with some enthusiastic endorsements so on to the pile it goes.
  • Visiting Tom by Michael Perry — I’m on a book tour for this one at the beginning of September, so I might try to finish it up this week.

Updates

I think the plan will be to do short updates on this post everyday, with a final update and reflections at the end of the week, maybe next Sunday night or Monday morning. I don’t want to spend a lot of time doing readathon updates on the blog, so if you want to see how I’m doing I’ll mostly be on Twitter and Instagram.

Monday

  • Pages Read Today: 168
  • Total Pages Read: 168
  • Books Read/Finished: Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (in progress)
  • Other Notes: I didn’t watch any television yesterday, so it was a good start to the week!

Tuesday

  • Pages Read Today: 115
  • Total Pages Read: 283
  • Books Read/Finished: Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (in progress) and Night Film by Marisha Pessel (in progress)
  • Other Notes: I’m so excited to finally have a copy of Night Film. It’s an absolutely gorgeous book (well constructed, nice paper, lots of visuals) and, so far, a fun read. I also really like the extras you can uncover with the Decoder App — that’s a fun extra.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Katie @ Doing Dewey August 19, 2013, 12:38 pm

    I’m shamelessly stealing (actually there’s an attribution, but still… borrowing) your goal for this post and also working on eliminating tv. This morning I read instead of watching tv while I worked out and I’m not sure if it’s something I’ll keep doing or not. I can watch tv while I do exercises, while I can only read between sets, which I consider not ideal. But I feel so much better about myself for starting the day with reading than I do when I watch tv, it might be worth it 🙂

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:26 pm

      I’ve tried reading while doing cardio on an elliptical — sometimes it works and sometimes I find it really hard to concentrate. I feel better starting my day with reading than tv, so I am going to try to continue it.

  • Bekka @ Pretty Deadly Reviews August 19, 2013, 1:12 pm

    Good luck with your goals! I just finished reading Why Have Kids? and it was really enjoyable! I love Jessica Valenti’s other work, too, so I knew I’d have to read it. Also, I’ve heard great things about Night Film and now it’s definitely on my (massive) TBR. I hope you enjoy it 🙂

    Bekka @ Pretty Deadly Reviews

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:27 pm

      I’ve never ready anything by Valenti before, but so far I like her style a lot. She’s very blunt, which I appreciate.

  • Andi @ Estella's Revenge August 19, 2013, 1:36 pm

    Looking forward to following your Bout of Books progress, and I hope you’re feeling much better! My colleagues always ask how I read so much, and the truth is that I don’t watch TV Monday-Friday. Greyson is with me, and we watch some cartoons in the evening, but that’s usually while I’m straightening after dinner or I’ll read a bit while he watches. It’s done wonders for my book life.

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:28 pm

      I go through fits and spurts with tv. When I get into a show I like, I watch a ton really fast. I need to learn to pace myself out better.

  • SuziQoregon August 19, 2013, 4:54 pm

    Glad to see you’re joining in too. I also have Night Film on my possibilities list. I’m worried that I really need to read that one before I hear anything more about it.

    Good luck with your goal – I set an amount of time spent reading/listening each day.

    Mostly – have fun!

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:29 pm

      I’ve been trying to avoid too many review of Night Film, but I’ve run across a fair bit of information about it. The first 200 pages are living up to the hype for me!

  • Shannon @ River City Reading August 19, 2013, 5:26 pm

    Oh man, I LOVED Why Have Kids, but I know it’s one that’s pretty polarizing. I read it in a few hours without putting it down. It just made me feel really validated in my kind of wishy washy feelings about waiting to have kids.

    Hope you have a great week!

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:30 pm

      I can see why the book would be polarizing — she’s taking on a bunch of “givens” about parenthood that it’d be hard to let go. It’s super interesting so far though.

  • Athira August 19, 2013, 5:58 pm

    I’ve been hearing plenty about Night Film so that’s a book I am excited to read. I hope you have a great readathon!

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:30 pm

      It’s a cool book — physically, really beautifully put together. I’m impressed with that!

  • Night Fiiiiiiilm! I hope you enjoy it. I was so delighted to get my greedy paws on it — I love a well-illustrated book. And it’s also completely lunatic in the plotting, the same way Special Topics was. I got such a kick out of it.

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:31 pm

      I love books with illustrations or other documents… like, so much! So as soon as it opened with the Time photo slideshow, I was hooked. I’m getting a kick out of it too.

  • Belle Read August 19, 2013, 9:33 pm

    Great goals. I want to read Why Have Kids. Best of luck and enjoy. See you around the read-a-thon.

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:31 pm

      It’s good so far, I like it a lot!

  • Julie Merilatt August 20, 2013, 8:10 am

    I am EXTREMELY curious to see what you think of Why Have Kids? Being a non-breeder by choice, I’m interested in perspectives about the pros and cons of parenting or choosing not to be a parent.

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:32 pm

      I’m, at this point, also a non-breeder by choice, but I’m not sure if I’ll change my mind on that eventually. It’s interesting to get a very different perspective on parenting.

  • Nikki Steele August 20, 2013, 1:11 pm

    Echoing the sentiment of other commenters and definitely want to hear what you have to say about Why Have Kids? It’s been on my list for a while, but a bit worried to pick it up honestly. Not in a bad way, but revolutionizing thinking kind of way.

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:32 pm

      I’m a few chapters in and while I don’t think I feel radically different yet, I am interested in the way she’s applying feminist principles to ideas of parenting so far.

  • Allison @ The Book Wheel August 21, 2013, 12:46 am

    Good job! Keep it up! It’s only Tuesday 😉

  • Danielle August 21, 2013, 11:19 am

    I love that your goal isn’t by amount of books read or time spent reading, it’s very refreshing! 🙂 I hope that you feel better enough to get lots of books read! Happy reading!

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:33 pm

      I think a page number or time goal would have just made me feel competitive. The no tv goal is a challenge, but I don’t feel pressured by it 🙂

  • Bemused Bookworm August 21, 2013, 9:36 pm

    Woo Almost 300 pages in the first 2 days, great progress! 😀

    • Kim August 22, 2013, 8:33 pm

      I flew through the first pages of Night Film — it’s great!