Read-A-Thon Wrap Up

Well, yesterday was the last day of the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon, and I decided to do a wrap up post to calculate what goals I finished that I set in the beginning!

Read 100 or more pages a day

Read a classic

Finish last month's book club read

Get some research done on the side (didn't really get to that too much, but I did a little bit of writing instead.)

Total Books Finished: 3 1/2

Total Pages Read: 1,057

I was kind of hoping to read over a thousand pages by the end, so I'm happy I met that goal too! All in all, I really had a fun time with the Read-A-Thon. It was a great start to my summer reading.

Something Old, Something New

Today's challenge in correlation to the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon is "Something Old, Something New" hosted by The Coffee House. Basically it's just stating the first book (novel, not picture book) you remember reading and the latest you finished.

Here's mine!

Something Old: This was a hard one, but I believe that it was an abridged copy of Black Beauty. One of those that has all the pen and ink drawings in them :)

Something New: Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Just finished it last night!

Only two more days for the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon! When I'm done I'm going to make a write up of all that I read and the challenges I accomplished :)

Until then!

Summer Reads Challenge

Today in accordance with the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon, Jessica at Books and Bottles is hosting a Summer Reads challenge. It's simply to make up a top ten list of your favorite summer reads that you would reccomend to others.

Now, My idea of summer reads is a bit different than most people probably think. I don't technically read a lot of "Summer Reads" since I don't read Chick Lit and I don't read a lot of contemporary and that seems to be what most "Summer Reads" are classed as. MY idea of summer reads are sea stories, adventures, cozy mysteries, and westerns, so for a different twist on traditional summer reads, here's some that I have enjoyed:

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke: This is a fantastical adventure story and I love it a lot. Not a beach read, but good for rainy days.

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson #1): I read these last summer and they are so fun, and easy reads that they make perfect summer reading.

Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson: This is my book club's read for this month, and have always liked this story. Perfect adventure, and pirates make for good beach reads!

The Silver Pigs (Marcus Didius Falco #1) by Lindsey Davis: This goes into the cozy mystery category. Falco is fun to read, his sarcastic narration makes for easy reading. I'm packing a few to take to the beach with me this year.

The High Liners by Louis L'Amour: One of many books in his Sackett series, this is my favorite, but any of them would do. Summer always makes me want to read westerns.

The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice #1) by John Flanagan: Another fun summer series read like Percy Jackson. Good adventure, Easy reading.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman: I probably put this on all my top ten lists. It's one of my favorites. Great adventure, I've read it so many times, and it never gets old!

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel: Another great adventure with sky pirates and shipwrecks and all that good stuff. Another one of my favorite books.

Dealing With Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1) by Patricia C. Wrede: If you want a fun fantasy book, this is definitely a great series. I always recommend it highly.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (League of Princes #1) by Christopher Healy: Another funny and enjoyable fantasy/retelling series.

Let me know what some of your favorite summer reads are!

Spell It Out Challenge

Today's challnge is corelation with the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon is "Spell it Out" hosted by Hannah at The Book Tower. The rules are either pick your name or your blog name and spell it out with book titles. It doesn't say they have to be on your shelf, but that what I'm going to do anyway since I have them all right in front of me :P

Here we go!

C-inder by Marissa Meyer
H-and of Dinotopia by Allan Dean Foster
A-rchived (the) by Victoria Schwab
R-eckless by Cornelia Funke
A-llies and Assassins by Justin Sompter
C-alling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
T-hief Lord (the) by Cornelia Funke
E-ntwined by Heather Dixon
R-edwall by Brian Jacques

P-rincess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
U-nbound (the) by Victoria Schwab
R-ob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
G-reat Expectations by Charles Dickens
A-irborn by Kenneth Oppel
T-o Tame a Land by Louis L'Amour
O-utcast by Rosemary Sutcliff
R-aven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Y-oung Montrose (the) by Nigel Tranter

Rainbow Spines

Here's today's additional challenge for the Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon called Rainbow Spines which is hosted by Sofi at The Rainbow Bookshelf. You simply take a picture of books on your shelf that have covers in this order of color: Black, purple/violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and white.

Here's mine!

Share Your Shelves

Here's today's Sweet Summer Read-A-Thon challenge! This one's called "Share Your Shelves" and is hosted by Jessica Bradley from Book Reviews from a Christian Gal. I thought this sounded like fun because now you all get to see what I did last week by re-arranging all my shelves!!

This is where most of my books are, the pillow is where I like to sit to read or do research since it's bigger than my desk (yay fuzzy lamb slippers! ;) And the basket is for books that go back to the library or are waiting to be shelved. And then the pile are my library reads.

The shelf on the right is mostly for smaller hardbacks and larger paperbacks. The bottom shelf is completely double stacked and the others aren't quite so much anymore. The glass case holds classics, and my grandmothers collection of poetry and history, and now all my collection of Trixie Beldan books are up there along with some other paperback series.

This side of the glass case has my big books on the bottom, some of my larger hardbacks, and a collection of classic writings and a complete set of Poe's works. The top is for large reference books and histories. The smaller shelf is for my trade paperbacks. Mostly Westerns, Mysteries and Fantasy (the genre fiction that doesn't come in hardback)

This is my high shelf that goes above my desk and bed. It's all exclusively historical fiction categorized by time period. (And yes, that is a map of Middle Earth on my wall). I also have a shelf by my desk with all my writing and favorite reference books. 

If you want to do this blog post, let me know and share the link!

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 :)

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