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
This was inevitable, really. I *love* the Bout of Books read-a-thons. There's none of the scary having-to-stay-up-all-night pressure of a 24 hour read-a-thon, they're super social and the aim is basically to read a lot and talk about reading a lot. I can do both of those things.
It's not exactly the BEST week for me, it being my first full week back at work and all but starting the year off with a week focussed on good books and finding new bloggy friends can be no bad thing.
The Goals
Reading: For my reading goal, I'm going with that old adage, "Quality, not quantity". Obviously ideally I would be striving for both but I sadly only have a certain number of hours in the day and I am a regular human. So quality it is! This week is going to be less about how much I read and more about what and how I read. I've started the year out well with a superb Man Booker Prize shortlisted read and I'm continuing with The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. As well as picking great books, I need to start giving them the attention they deserve. I'm a bugger for having a book in one hand and a laptop on my lap/iPhone in the other hand/TV on. I need to stop trying to fit reading in amongst other things and focus more on enjoying what I'm reading, instead of just sort of going over the words, if that makes sense. Well it makes sense to me so I'm going with it!
Blogging: I pretty much always aim for this but it'd be great if I could catch up on a couple of reviews. I started out well today: when I got stuck on hold at work earlier when I was away from my desk, I scribbled out some ideas while I was waiting. I should do that kind of multi-tasking more, not the multi-tasking I bemoaned a moment ago.
Social: Comment and tweet more. I'd like to participate in at least one Twitter chat (which mostly just means that I have to remember when they're happening...:-/) and refresh my GoogleReader with some new blogs.
AND THAT'S IT! I'm keeping this one relaxed and see if I can pick up some new good habits! Are you taking part? What are you planning on reading if you are? Any special tips and tricks or are you more a grab-and-go type read-a-thoner?