Showing posts with label Reading challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading challenges. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Mid-Year Book Freakout




I got challenged to do this by my friend and fellow blogger Mara at The Reading Hedgehog. And I thought it looked like fun and a good idea so here is my post, kind of a wrap up of the entire year and not just my summer reads.



1- Best book you've read so far in 2014
Okay, this is tough. I've read lots of good books, but only a few really awesome, epic books. As far as books that came out this year, definitely Jackaby by William Ritter. But as follow up books that I just read this year, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga and Vicious by Victoria Schwab were close seconds.

2- Best sequel you've read so far in 2014
Probably The Shadow Throne (Ascendence Trilogy #3) by Jennifer A. Neilson was the best sequel book I read so far.

3-New release you haven't read yet, but want to
Ooh, soo many! I have heard many good things about The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen and really want to read that. I also really want to read Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne. Looks like a good adventure fantasy novel.

4- Most anticipated release for the second half of the year
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater (Raven Boys III) I'm both anticipating this one and scared to death by it. I almost wonder if I just want to have it so I can see where it goes.

5- Biggest disappointment
I don't know if I had any books that were a HUGE disappointment. Half Bad by Sally Green wasn't nearly as awesome as it sounded nor was Crusher by Niall Leonard, but it didn't keep me up at night.

6- Biggest surprise
This would probably be Spookygirl by Jill Baguchinsky. This was one of those books that could go either way, but ended up being good. Not one of the best books ever, but very enjoyable.

7- New author (debut or new to you)
I'm going to do both. For a debut, William Ritter, author of Jackaby definitely and for new to me, Rob Thurman, author of the Cal Leandros series.

8- Newest fictional crush
Ummm....wow, that's a hard one. Maybe Niko from the Cal Leandros series. Off the top of my head.

9- Newest favorite character
Jackaby, definitely.

10- Book that made you cry
I think I've spent most of this year so far crying over TV series instead of books, but I did cry reading The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Neilson. It tore me up.

11- Book that made you happy
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel. Classic adventure novel, and I always adore his books. Makes me feel like a kid :-)

12- Favorite book to film adaption you have seen this year
As crazy as this sounds, I have not seen a book movie this year. I have actually only gone to see three movies this year so far, and none of them were book adaptions. I can probably say with conviction that my favorite will be the third Hobbit movie when it comes out.

13- Favorite review you have written this year
This might sound bad, but my favorite review to write this year was the one I wrote for The Friday Society which I gave one star to because I got to say what I thought about it and use lots of gifs. It's here if you want to read it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/446704041?book_show_action=false

14- Most beautiful book you have bought this year or received
The Barns & Noble Classics edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales It is sooo pretty :-)

15- What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
Um...all of them? I don't really plan that far ahead and I actually finished up all the books I told myself I needed to read this year that were already out over the summer, so I'm pretty clean right now :-) Maybe you should tell me what books I need to read before the end of the year??? (I'm serious, I love to hear people's suggestions!)

I'm not going to tag anyone for this, but I would like to thank Mara again for tagging me, because I enjoyed it a lot! Hope everyone has a good September! I'll be back before long with...something :P


Monday, June 9, 2014

Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon Challenges

My last post about about the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon hosted by Hannah at The Book Tower. This is the post where I keep track of my daily reading so you can all see how I'm doing on my challenge. I'll also be posting the individual links to other blog challenges I'll be doing in correlation with the Read-A-Thon as some of the other bloggers will be hosting additional challenges as well!


Monday 9th

Pages read:

66 pages of This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

Extra Credit:

Share Your Selves Hosted by Book Reviews from a Christian Gal

http://hazelwest.blogspot.com/2014/06/share-your-shelves.html

Notes: I didn't get much reading time today, due to other projects that needed finishing, but I'm going to up my page number tomorrow!

Tuesday 10th

Pages read:

232 pages of This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

Extra Credit:

Rainbow Spines Hosted by The Rainbow Bookshelf

http://hazelwest.blogspot.com/2014/06/rainbow-spines.html

Notes: I read twice as many pages today to make up for the lack of reading on Monday and ended up finishing This Dark Endeavor which I enjoyed a lot, even if it made me cry. Kenneth Oppel's books are always amazing.


Wednesday 11th

Pages read:

32 pages of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
104 pages of Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Total: 136

Extra Credit:

Spell It Out hosted by The Book Tower

http://hazelwest.blogspot.com/2014/06/spell-it-out-challenge.html

Notes: Working my way through Sense and Sensibility as my classic read for the challenge and started Cinder as well. Been wanting to read that one for a while and I've been enjoying it so far!


Thursday 12th

Pages read:

36 pages of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
143 pages of Cinder by Marrissa Meyer

Total: 179

Extra Credit:

Summer Reads Challenge hosted by Books and Bottles

http://hazelwest.blogspot.com/2014/06/summer-reads-challenge.html

Notes: Almost made it to 200 pages today :-) Still enjoying my reads, hoping to finish Cinder tomorrow!

Friday 13th

Pages read:

46 pages of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
140 pages of Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Total: 186

Extra Credit: ~

Notes: I missed the blog post challenge for today so I didn't do it. I did finish Cinder though, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Trying to decide on my next read now.

Saturday 14th

Pages read:

44 pages of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
89 pages of The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Total: 133

Extra Credit:

Something Old, Something New hosted by Beth At the Coffee House

Notes: Started the first Lockwood & Co. book by Jonathan Stroud, this is the first of his books I have read, and I'm liking it a lot so far. Hoping to finish Sense and Sensibility tomorrow to complete my classic read of the Read-A-Thon!

Sunday 15th

Pages read:

64 pages of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
61 pages of The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Total: 125

Extra Credit:

Notes: Didn't get to read as much as I wanted to on the last day of the Read-A-Thon, but I did finish Sense and Sensibility as I had hoped to, so that made me happy :)

Friday, June 6, 2014

Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon

So to start off the summer with my piles of reading, I joined a Read-A-Thon that Hannah at The Book Tower is putting on from June 9th--15th.


Here are my goals for the Read-A-Thon:

-Read 100 or more pages a day
-Read a Classic
-Finish last month's book club read (got behind!)
-Get some research done on the side


I'll mark the books that I read for the challenge on this post as I finish them.

There's also other challenges to participate in during the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon that you can find out about on Hannah's blog. And if you'd like to join the read-a-thon, too, just follow this link! http://the-book-tower.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/sweet-summer-read-thon-sign-up-here.html