It's Monday what are you reading?

It has been a while since I posted in this meme, but since this year I am trying to get back to normal, I thought I would try and join in again. Basically what you do is list what you have been reading for the week and what you are planning on reading in the coming week. It is a great way to meet new bloggers and get more book ideas. (As if I needed any more, lol)

Over the last week I read:

1. NYPD Red by James Patterson
2. Duncton Stone by William Horwood

I havent read James Patterson for a while, but since the beginning of the year I have read a few more. I was starting to get a bit tired of Alex Cross, so it is nice that there some more variety now. NYPD Red I must say is one of my favourites. Duncton Stone is part of the Duncton series which I am just finishing up now for about the 4th time. I love this series, such a pity it is out of print. I am about a quarter of the way through and need to get a move on since it is not even the end of January and I am already falling behind on my hundred books challenge!
Click on the picture for more book sharing.

Bout of books day 4 & 5

Totally forgot to blog on Thursday and Friday and I am not sure why. I was quite busy, but did get online for short amounts of time. I did however get some time to read and have managed to finish a 2nd book.

Progress for Day 4 & 5:
Pages read today: 312 (Summer Madness)

Pages read from start: 926
Books read today: 1 (Summer Madness)

Books finished today: 1
Books finished from start: 1

• Now you see her by James Patterson.
• Summer madness by Cathy Lewis.

I hope you all have a good weekend with lots of time to read.

Bout of books update Day 2 + 3

Ok, day 2 has come and gone, and actually went relatively well. I made a bit of time to read. Might have helped that it is just WAY too hot to go outside.

Progress for day 2:
Pages read today: 318
Pages read from start: 455
Books read today: 2 (Now you see her 247 pages, Duncton stone 71 pages)
Books finished today: 1 (Now you see her)
Books finished from start: 1

• Now you see her by James Patterson.

Progress for Day 3:
Didnt get as much time to read today, but I am getting there slowly!

Pages read today: 159 (Summer Madness)
Pages read from start: 614
Books read today: 1 (Summer Madness)
Books finished today: 0
Books finished from start: 1

• Now you see her by James Patterson.

Bout of books updates Day 1

So the first day of the readathon is over and I have done okay. Not great but okay. I started off with Now you see her by James Patterson and am thoroughly enjoying it. I hope to finish it on day 2!

Progress for day 1:
Pages read today: 137
Books read today: 1 (Now you see her)
Books finished today: 0

I am working from home until Friday, so may get a bit more chance to read although I am not counting on it, since I have a lot to do.

I hope everyone is enjoying the readathon.

Bout of books 6.0 starting post and goals.

I signed up for this readathon last year thinking it will give me a bit of a boost starting off my 2013 reading goals. Unfortunately I didn't factor in that it would be my first day back at work following my 3 week holiday. Anyway, I am going to try and get as much reading done as possible inbetween the work!
Since I have been back from my holiday for less than 24 hours and worked a full day in that time, I dont have a proper TBR pile and definitely no picture as yet. However, my goals are as follows:

• I want to read at least 2, preferably 3 books, namely:
• Now you see her by James Patterson
• Blue Horizon by Wilbur Smith
• Will decide about the other.

If you would like to join the readathon pop over to Bout of Books blog.
 

100 books in a year

Last year I didn't do too well at this challenge. Only got to 80 books. However, I am back again this year and challenging myself to read 100 books in 2013. I am hoping to have a quieter year at work and so be able to devote more time to reading. If you would like to join the challenge pop over here to Book Chick City.
1. Falling for you by Jill Mansell
2. The asking price by Caroline Upcher
3. The postcard killers by James Patterson and Lisa Markund

New Author challenge 2013

This is one of the challenges that I really enjoy but I totally failed last year (mind you, I failed at most my challenges last year.) However, I am back again since I do enjoy finding new books. My aim for 2013 is to read 25 new authors. I only read 17 last year, so have a bit of work to do. If you would like to join in, pop over here.

22 on 22nd Readathon sign up, start and update!

I found this readathon on twitter yesterday and signed up. It may be just what I need to get out of my reading slump. I am writing exams next week, so do need to do some studying, but have had some time to read, but no time to post!
For this readathon I just have 1 main goal which is to finish the two books that I am currently reading,  and hopefully get halfway through another.
Books to read:

• Duncton Rising
• Voyage of the beagle
• I have about 10 books on my TBR pile, so after that will see what I feel like.

Day 1 update:
Books read today: Duncton Rising
Books finished today: 0
Pages read today: 113

Day 2 Mini challenge
1. What book did you start reading for this read-a-thon?

I started reading Duncton Rising by William Horwood. This is one of my very favourite series, I think I am on my 3rd reread.
2. What is one of your favorite books to re-read?
Well, I have a few. I could say The Duncton series, I could also say Lord of the Rings, however, I think my absolute favourite of all time is The Wheel of time series by Robert Jordan. I am currently rereading the series for at least the 5th or 6th time. I started in 2000 and after about the 6th book I reread as the new ones came out. I absolutely love how as you read each new book you find little hints in the previous books as to what was going to happen.
3. Do you have a strategy for read-a-thons to maximize your time?
This really depends on how much else I have on. If I dont have much else going on then I tend to just become a bit of a hermit. I dont make any plans, stay at home and read as much as possible. In that case I tend to make firmer goals and try to stick with them. However, if I have a lot else going on e.g. exams next week I just take it easy and read when I can.

4. Do you snack while reading?
Guilty as charged, although I keep a cloth or towel next to me to wipe my hands on.

Day 2 update:
Well, didnt get too much reading done yesterday, especially after our geyser burst!
Books read today: The voyage of the beagle.
Pages read today: 78
Pages read from start: 208
Books finished: 0

 

Bout of books wrap up

I have been trying to post since Friday and for some reason blogger wouldnt let me post. So, this is a final 3 days update as well as wrap up post.

Pages read day 5-7: 606 (Lord of chaos 211, Pyramid 395)
Books finished since last update: 1 (Pyramid by Tom Martin
Books finished in total: 2
Pages read in total: 819

Over all although I didnt quite meet the goal I set myself, I am very happy with the amount I have read. I really need to get into the habit of reading shorter books for readathons, lol. Looking forward to the next one!
 

Bout of books 5.0 updates

Day 4 was a little better, and the weekend should be even better!

Pages read today: 136 (Temple of the gods 81 & Pyramid 45)
Books finished today: 1 (Temple of the gods by Andy Mcdermott)
Pages read in total 213

I hope everyone is enjoying the readathon

Reading candy

The challenge over at Booksmartie this evening is to talk about your reading snacks. Well, this is actually a trick question for me, lol. Since going to the dietician at the beginning of the year in an effort to lose weight, I have totally banned snacks except for a very select few! To be honest, I havent really missed them excepting for twice ...... firstly during the time I was writing exams and then during the 24hr READATHON.
So, in honour of what I am missing, here are my ideal snacks


Willards Flings, which are a kind of chip, a bit like cheese puffs although they are a more savoury flavour. I think they are supposed to be chicken flavour, but not sure really, lol. Whatever they are, I love them!


Chocolate and candy all in one! I love Smarties!

Hot chocolate, yummy

Pizza - stems from my time living in the nurses home during my training. Every few weeks either my reading partner, Judy or I, or sometimes both, would catch the bus into town with a huge pile of books for the book exchange. We would change our books and then stop off for a pizza and coke on the way home, and then sit and read and eat pizza and drink coke all night! Perfect.

Unfortunately at the moment my reading snacks consist of

Nutri rusks

Cheese triangles

biltong

Now, all of these are fine on their own, but they dont really compare to what I would rather be eating lol!
Pop over here if you would like to join in.  http://booksmartie.blogspot.com/

Bout of books day 1 - 3

The fact that it is now day 3 over and this is my first update will tell you how bad my readathon is going :-(
I really have had no time to read at all! Hopefully things will improve from now on.

Pages read to date: 71
Books finsihed to date: 0!

I am now off to check the site to see if I can join in any of the challenges.

Bout of books 5.0 Goal post

I was so busy with the other readathon and work etc that I almost forgot to do a goal post for Bout of books which is one of my favourite readathons. Mind you I am a bit addicted, lol.

Goals for this week:

• Finish Lord of Chaos
• Finish Temple of the Gods
• Read at least one more book.

I will try and post a picture of my TBR pile, but need to get home while it is still light in order to take one. I do have a bit of work to do for one of my courses, but hope to finish that by tomorrow and should be able to read a lot thereafter. As a real sucker for punishment I am in my final year of a Bachelor's year and am currently doing not 1 but TWO other courses through work, so add that to working full time and having a teenager to contend with you can see why reading time is at a premium. Lest you think I am totally mad, I volunteered for the work programmes 3 years ago, the plan was to do them before I started the degree. They kept getting cancelled for budget reasons and suddenly was sprung on me about 3 months ago! So, this year is shaping up to be mad.

If you would like to join in the readathon, click on the picture above!

Summer wrap up readathon day 7 - 9 and wrap up.

Didnt get a chance to update on the last three days so here is a final wrap up!
Day 7-9 update
Pages read: 829 (Prisoner of paradise: 286, Lord of Chaos 166, Temple of the gods 377)
Books finished: 1 (Prisoner of paradise)

Final wrap up of the readathon
I did get more time to read over the last few days, but as always would have liked more.
Total pages read: 1565
Books finished: 2

Altogether looking at my page count I am quite happy with what I read although I didnt finish the 4 books I wanted to!

Summer wrap up readathon day 4-6

It seems funny to be writing about a summer wrap up readathon when we are having the coldest winter that I can remember!
I have had very erratic internet for the last 2 days and so been unable to post, then this morning Google wouldnt let me post, so this is an update for the last 3 days.
Day 4-6
Pages read: 262 (The prisoner of paradise 80 and Lord of Chaos 182)
Books finished: 0
Pages read from start: 736
Books finished from start: 1 (Crusader Gold by Dan Gibbins)

I didnt get as much time to read as I would have liked but tomorrow should be better, since I am off work and wont have a car for most of the day!

Summer Wrap up readathon Updates Day 1

I will try and update this post each day for the first few days, and then will start a new post.

Day 1 update
I didn't get as much time to read today as I would have liked, had to do some shopping and a couple of other chores.
Pages read today: 193 (Crusader Gold by David Gibbins)
Books finished today: 0
Pages read from start: 193
Books finished from start: 0

Day 2
Once again got some reading done, but not as much as I would have liked! I found the book I was reading a bit slower today too.
Pages read today: 72 (Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan)
Pages read in total: 255
Books finished today: 0
Books finished from the start: 0

Day 3
Finally I am starting to get somewhere. Despite the fact that it was back to work today I actually managed to read more!
Pages read today: 224 (Crusader Gold 200 and The prisoner of paradise 24)
Pages read in total: 474
Books finished today: 1 (Crusader Gold)
Books finished from the start: 1

Thursday is a holiday here and I am taking a day off on Friday, so I should be getting more time to read after tomorrow.

Summer wrap up readathon

I have signed up for this readathon which runs over the next 10 days. Although it is winter here, I have a bit of a lull in my assignments (i.e only 3 due, lol) and I should have more time to read. My goal for the readathon is to finish 4 books, the 2 that I am currently reading (Lord of Chaos and Crusader Gold) and 2 more. I am not really sure what I will choose, will just see where the mood takes me! I will be updating here and on twitter. Just click on the picture above if you would like to join in.
Ok, so for my readathon to be read pile I have 4 books. The top 2 I am busy reading currently, the other 2 are the ones I am most excited to read from the TBR pile, so will more than likely read them next. Having said that I have been reading a lot of heavy books lately, so may switch to something lighter during the readathon.

 

High smmer readathon wrap up post

Well, the readathon is over and although I did read the two books I wanted to, I would have preferred to read a bit more!

At my last update I stood as follows:
#pages read since start: 375

#books finished from start: 1 (The fires of Heaven)

I didnt get much chance to update over the weekend and very little chance to read :-(

What I read over the weekend:
#pages read: 192 (46 The winter ghosts, 146 The Red breasts)
#books finished: 1 (The winter ghosts)

So, that brings my total to:
#pages read in total: 567
#books finished in total: 2

All in all, I enjoyed the readathon, it was just a bad week for me! I hope everyone else managed to achieve what they wanted to.

High summer readathon

I signed up for this readathon a few weeks ago. Unfortunately what I didn't realise at the time was that I would have a portfolio due next week, so I wont have as much time to read as I would like. However, I am 10 books behind on my goodreads challenge, so in an effort to catch up I will do what I can.

I don't really have any major goals, I would like to finish the two books I am currently reading (The fires of heaven by Robert Jordan and The winter ghosts by Kate Mosse) and maybe 1 other.

So, for a week of reading fun hop over to Michelle's blog, and join in. You can sign up at anytime until Friday.

Day 1 update:
#pages read: 51
#books finished: 0
I didnt have too much time today to read, so only managed 50 pages! Hope tomorrow is better.

Day 2 update:
Going from bad to worse, oh dear.
#pages read: 36
#books finished: 0
#pages read from start: 87

Day 3 update
Slowly things are looking up!
#pages read: 83
#books finished: 1 (The fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan.
#pages read from start: 170

Day 4 update
#pages read: 81 (The Winter ghosts by Kate Mosse)
#books finished today: 0
#pages read since since: 251
#books finished from start: 1 (The fires of Heaven)
I am glad this week is over so that I can read some more.

Day 5
#pages read: 124 (The winter ghosts)
#books finished today: 0
#pages read since start: 375
#books finished from start: 1 (The fires of Heaven)

Bout of books readathon day 3.

Ok, things didnt go too well yesterday either, but I guess every little bit counts!
Pages read today: 57
Page read in total: 194
Books read today: The Shadow Rising
Books read since start: The shadow rising, Forgive and Forget
Books finished: 0
#insixwords More reading of tweets than books!