Bout of Books Read-a-Thon! *Wrap Up Post*

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, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th 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 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team

I've decided to join up in the annual Bout of Books read-a-thon this week!  It will be my very first time participating. I kept seeing it around so many of my favorite blogs and it just sounded like so much fun. Plus it comes at a perfect time---my reading time has been so short lately with holidays and visitors and all the kids home.  Today is their first day back to school and I'm hoping to get back to  get lots of reading done this week, so this is the perfect way to get me going!

Here's the stack I'm hoping to tackle:

I'm nearly done with Splintered--despite loving it, all the holiday busyness lately has caused me to take forever reading this book! I can't wait to dig into the other three. Hoping to read all three, but realistically, I will probably only make it though two.


My goals:
☻Finish 2-3 books
☻Read at least an hour daily (which will be a  challenge since I work a few full days this week!)
☻Participate in 2 mini-challenges
☻Visit at least 5 participating blogs a day--at least two that are new to me.
☻Update my progress on twitter

Daily updates:
Monday
Book I'm reading today: Splintered
Read from page 265 to 288
Notes: Turned out to be a busy day and I only got about a half-hour read in. Booo..

Tuesday
Book I'm reading today: Splintered & Paper Valentine
Read from page 288 to 371 (done with Splintered!)
Note: Not sure this counts, but I started  Paper Valentine by pulling up the sample at Amazon.com while on the desk at work. ;)

Wednesday
Book I'm reading today: Paper Valentine
Read from page 1 to 168
Notes: Even with working another full day on Wed, I got over half-way through this one! Loving it so far! I also visited blogs, but still found no time to tweet updates or do challenges.

Thursday
Book I'm reading today: Paper Valentine
Read from page 168 to 304 (end)
Notes: Done with book #2!  This one flew by for me and I really enjoyed it, aside from a few weird moments.

Friday
Book I'm reading today: Asunder
Read from page 1 to 29
Notes: Hardly any time to read today.  Laaaaame.


 Saturday
Book I'm reading today: Asunder
Read from page 30 to 115
Notes: Really enjoying this one so far!

 Sunday
Book I'm reading today:
Read from page 116 to 142
Not much time to read today, we went on a family outing instead :)


Final thoughts: OK, so I over-estimated my reading time during this read-a-thon!  I did finish two books and make it halfway through a third! But I didn't reach my goals to do a few challenges and I didn't get to visit as many blogs as I'd hoped to.  Ah, well! It was still fun to participate! :D

The 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge!

As the year comes to a close, I decided to jump into one more reading challenge for 2012! This is such a brilliant idea, and definitely much needed for my poor leaning tower of a reading pile!

You can click on the image above to get all the details at the host site, Bookish, but the gist of it is to get us reading those amazing books that we bought, were gifted, or we won, and are now patiently sitting on the shelf collecting a not-so-fine layer of dust! Poor things! :)

So, here are the levels of participation:

1-10 - A Firm Handshake
11-20 - A Friendly Hug
21-30 - A Sweet Kiss
31-40 - Love At First Sight
41-50 - Married With Children

I've decided to take on A Sweet Kiss, so hopefully I'll be able to get at least 21-30 of my lonely TBR books read!

Here is a tentative list of what I'll be reading:

Lola & The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
The Revenant by Sonia Gensler
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Chime by Franny Billingsley
The Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Clockwork Angel (& Prince!) by Cassandra Clare :)
Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
Through Her Eyes by Jennifer Archer
The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab
The Name of the Star by Mareen Johnson
Nevermore by Kelly Creagh
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Falling Under by Gwen Hayes
Siren by Tricia Rayburn
Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa (and hopefully the rest of the series! LOL)
Tempestuous by Lesley Livingston
Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
Bright Young Things by Anna Godberson
Sea by Heidi R. Kling
Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
Eon/Eona by Alison Goodman
You Against Me by Jenny Downham

Did I mention there were monthly challenges and prizes?? Go sign up!!
To all those participating, Good Luck & Happy Reading! :D

2012 Debut Author Challenge

It's time once again to sign up for the Debut Author Challenge, hosted by The Story Siren! This will be my third year participating, and it's always so much fun. You can get all the details at Kristi's site here, but here's the gist of it:

• Set a goal of at least 12 YA or MG 2012 books by debut authors
• Read and review those books between January 1st, 2012 and January 31st, 2013
  
• Post those reviews on your blog or on goodreads
• Link up your review at The Story Siren each month for a chance at some awesome prizes!

Here is the list I'll be tackling this year. I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of awesome-looking debuts coming out in 2012---I tried to pare it down, I did! But I still ended up with a list of 28 irresistible titles that I'll be picking from! I'm hoping to read at least 20 of them!

(All titles link to goodreads)

• Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswod
• Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (done)
• Above by Leah Bobet
• The Alchemy of Forever by Avery William
• Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
• When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellison
• Fracture by Megan Miranda (done)
  
• Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
• The Selection by Kiera Cass
• Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
• The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova
• Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne (done)
• What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang
• Storybound by Marissa Burt (MG)
  
• Touched by Corinne Jackson
• The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
• Grave Mercy by R.L. LaFevers
• The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze
• The Vanishing Game by Katie Kae Myers
• Auracle by Gina Rosati
• Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
• The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
• Survive by Alex Morel
• Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown
• A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton
• The Girl with Borrowed Wings by Rinsai Rosetti
  
• Small Medium at Large by Joanne Levy (MG)
  
• Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Phew! So are you taking the challenge? What's on your list?

Amazon GC Winner!! (week 2-Spooky Reads Challenge)

The second week is over of the...

and the winner is:

Mary of Sparkling Reviews

Congrats, Mary!

For those of you participating, get those reviews in for more chances to win!! There is one more week to go for the Amazon GCs, and the Spooky Books Prize Pack at the end, so if you haven't signed up, now is the time!

Amazon GC Winner!! (week 1-Spooky Reads Challenge)

So the first week of the challenge is over and I have a winner for the first Amazon GC!!

Link #10 - Jen Ryland!!!
Congrats, Jen!

Thanks to all who are participating! :)
Hope you're all enjoying those spooky reads!!

It's not too late to sign up!! I have two more weeks worth of Amazon GCs to give away, and don't forget the Spooky Reads Gift Pack at the end!!
To sign up and post reviews, see this post!

The Winking Witch Spooky Reads Challenge!!

Happy October, Everyone!!
It's almost
Halloween!!
As you can probably tell, Halloween is my favorite time of year. It is my favorite time to decorate for (yes, even more than Christmas!) so in just a few days my house will be covered in webs and skellingtons and sparkly skulls. Yay!
Well, I couldn't let my favorite holiday go uncelebrated here on my little home on the web,
so I give you...

Get out those spooky books!!
So I'm actually going to keep this pretty easy. The challenge will run for the entire month of October. I kept the goal nice and low because I know that we all have tons of books to read this month, spooky or not! Here are the basic details:

♦ Challenge goal: 3 Spooky Reads! This can include Ghosts, Vampires, Witches, Evil Fairies, Demons,...really anything that scares the pants off of you! :D

♦ Make a post about participating in the challenge with a list of book you plan to read. Come back and post a link below; this counts as your first entry toward prizes! Feel free to add the banner to your sidebar!

♦ Come back to this post and add a link to each of your reviews below.

♦ After the end of each week (October 9th, 16th, & 23rd), one winner will be chosen from the posted reviews for a $10 Amazon GC!

♦ At the end of the Challenge, 1 lucky winner will be chosen from all those who complete the challenge to receive a Spooky Books gift pack!! I will post a photo of this later on, but it will include 2 Spooky Books (2011 releases), and some other fun Halloween stuff (stationary items, bookmarks, and of course, candy!)

♦ Because I want my international blog friends to be able to play, too (but seriously couldn't afford to send a whole gift pack internationally!), I have some alternate prized for the overseas folks! The weekly prize would be choice of 1 book $10 or under at Book Depository. If the Challenge winner is international, he/she will get to pick $20 in books at Book Depository!

So who wants to play?? Break out the spine-tinglers and leave the light on!!

I'll be reading my spookiest books, too! Here's my list to choose from:
Envy by Gregg Olson
The Hollow by Jessica Verday
On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker
Half-Blood by Jennifer Armentrout
Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton
Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby
Damage by Anya Parrish

Remember the goal is only 3, but the more reviews you post, the better your odds are to win the grand prize at the end! Post your links below! :D

Have fun, everyone!

It's Netgalley Month!!

Emily at Red House Books has declared April to be NETGALLEY MONTH!!

She put together a great challenge to help all of us Netgalley users catch up on all the ebooks we've got waiting to be read! Check out this post for all the details---there's going to be prizes!
The idea is to read as many Netgalley books as you can throughout the month of April. Here's what currently on my Nook from Netgalley (um..sadly, I'll probably realistically only get to a few of these but here's hoping! lol)

Always a Witch by Carolyn McCollough
Die For Me by Amy Plum
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
Lost Voices by Sarah Porter
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Huge thanks to Emily for the inspirational kick in the pants to get these read! :D

Once Upon A Time Challenge 2011!!

The annual Once Upon A Time challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings is starting up again, and this year I've decided to join up and go on the quest! :D I am really excited to participate in this. Anyone whose been around my little blog for awhile knows how much I love books that are fairy-tale retellings, fantasies, or based on any kind of myth or folklore, so this event will be right up my alley! If you love them as well, definitely stop by the challenge site and get all the details!

So, for my first time participating, I have decided to jump straight in with both feet and take on "Quest the Third". To fulfill my goal, I will be reading at least FIVE books that fall into the categories of fairytale, folklore, fantasy, or mythology between now and June 20th, AND in June I'll be finishing off with a viewing of Midsummer Night's Dream (the one with Michelle Pfeiffer, Stanley Tucci, Anna Friel, and company. I loved that one and haven't watched it in so long!)

Here's a quick list of a few of the titles that I'll be choosing from, because I haven't made a solid decision which books I'll be reading for sure:

• Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
• Pegasus by Robin McKinlay
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
• Huntress by Malinda Lo (I've actually just started this one today!)
• Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
• Eon & Eona by Alison Goodman
• The Hollow by Jessica Verday
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
• Siren by Trisha Rayburn
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland on a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
• Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
• Plain Kate by Erin Bow
• So Silver Bright by Lisa Matchev
• Wings by Aprilynne Pike
• What the Dickens by George Maguire
• Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
• Wildefire by Karsten Knight (IF I can somehow get my hands on a copy of this before June!)

So there's my candidates---what do you think? Any that I should definitely add to the list? Any from the list that you'd excitedly recommend?

Anyone else participating in this challenge? Link me up so I can see your book picks!