Bout of Books Day 4

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

Well, we've passed the half way mark of the read-a-thon and I think I'm starting to burn out a little bit.  Last night before bed I finished a book I'd been working on for around six months, 158 pages of How to Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.  I gave it 4 stars.  I really liked the majority of the book which was about how your attitude and perception of a situation will influence what happens in your life, but I disagree that serious illness such as cancer is caused by resentment or childhood issues.  I think people just get sick sometimes, and there's no real reason for it.  Even with those concerns I still related to a lot of the book and found it to be an interesting read.  

I also listened to 25 pages of City of Lost Souls and I started Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, but I don't know how far I am.  I say this because I got a playaway from the library, which is awesome but they don't tell you page numbers.  The hardback edition is 369 pages and I'd guess I'm no more than 20% finished, so I'll estimate 75 pages read.  I'll be sure to finish this before the read-a-thon's end so I can know an exact page count.

And that's as much as I've read today.  When I got home I decided to play a new video game called Gone Home.  It's a beautiful story and at first I thought it was going to be scary but it's not so don't worry.  I won't spoil it for you but I would recommend it if you have a free evening.

There were two challenges today.  The first was hosted at In Wonderland, and this is the road trip challenge.  For this challenge we're supposed to come up with a list of places we want to visit and then find a book set there.  Here's my list, some of the places I've already visited and want to go back and some are destinations I've yet to see.  

Bookish Road Trip

Amsterdam, Netherlands - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Prague, Czech Republic - Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Florence, Italy - A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Portland, Oregon - If I Stay by Gale Forman

Seattle, Washington - Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

New York City, New York - The Diviners by Libba Bray

Austin, Texas - Queen of Shadows by Dianne Sylvan

The second challenge was hosted by Paperback Dreamer and was definitely one of my favorite challenges so far.  It was a game of book shelf I spy and we had to look around our shelves and find books with certain images on the cover.  I managed to find 13/15 which is pretty good!

1.  Snowflakes - Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle  (You can't really tell but there are snowflakes on the wrapping paper of the present as well as on the spine)
2.  Flames - The Kill Order by James Dashner
3.  A City Skyline - The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
4.  The Moon - Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
5.  A Sword - The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
6.  A Wedding Dress - Envy by Anna Godbersen (this may be cheating because I don't know if that's actually a wedding dress or just a white one, but it could be a wedding dress so I'm counting it)
7.  High Heels - Cinder by Marissa Meyer
8.  Fog -  Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
9.  A Christmas Tree - ??? (damn my first one I couldn't find!  I have a copy of A Christmas Carol so I thought I had this one in the bag but nope!  The cover just has people at a party, not a tree in sight!)
10.  Sunglasses - Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John  (This might work for the combat boots as well)
11.  Lightning -  Drink Deep by Chloe Neill
12.  A Tattoo - Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
13.  Combat Boots - The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth  (Another one where I'm kind of cheating because I'm pretty sure those are cowboy boots.  Oh well close enough I guess)
14.  Hand Cuffs - ???  (And here's the second one I couldn't find.  Maybe I need to read more erotica?  What other genre of books would have handcuffs on the cover....uh true crime, police drama, dang it of course my mind goes to the dirty things)
15.  A Road -  Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

These challenges were a lot of fun!  How many can you find on your shelf?

Overall today was a lighter day, but that's ok I'd been going very hard for three days straight, I needed to do something else!  I think we're going to go see the City of Bones movie tomorrow and then we're having a board game night with our friends on Saturday, but I think I'll be able to finish at least one more book.  Good luck to everyone else in the challenge and happy reading!

Number of pages today:  258
Total number of pages:  1042

Books started:  1

Books completed:  4