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
Read-a-thon Goals:
Pages Read: 1500 (at least)
Read: 4 books
Participate: 2 Twitter chats
Participate: 4 challenges
Visit: 8 blogs that are participating in the challenge
^To Be Read Books:
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
Vows to Kill by Mark Capell
Dark Persuasion by Vicki Hopkins
My Challenge Updates:
Monday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 plus 1 short (Dark Persuasion by *Vicki Hopkins & The Gift by Tiffany Reisz)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 359
Total number of books / pages I’ve read: 1 / 359
Tuesday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (started Girl Gone by Gillian Flynn)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 215 pages
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 1.5 / 574
Challenges completed: 1 (guessed ALL of the covers on Never Too Fond of Books: Guess the Cover challenge and it was fun, but a few let me scratching my head. I’m happy to note I got the info correct).
Visited: 8 blogs as I planned.
Wednesday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (finished Girl Gone by *Gillian Flynn)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 217
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 2 / 791
Challenges completed: 2 (page 48 challenge over at Booking In Heels):
* Turn to page 48 of your current book, or 48% if you’re using an e-reader.
* Take the first complete sentence on that page and copy it.
* Now you’re going to continue the story! Ignoring the real plot or anything else you know about that book, add four new sentences of your very own. You can morph the plot completely, kill everybody off or go off on a huge tanged – anything goes!
I’m reading Girl Gone by Gillian Flynn and here is my attempt:
It was a fifteen-minute drive, straight north along River Road. He wondered if it was possible to find out anything about his missing wife or maybe there was nothing to know. He continued to tap his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for the light to turn green. What if he went back straight home and said to hell with it all? Deep inside what worried him the most was, what if he never found Amy? What if Amy was gone forever and his own selfishness let it happen?
Visited: 8 blogs as I planned.
Twitter: participated in 1 chat as planned
Thursday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (started Vows to Kill by Mark Capell)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 58
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 2 / 849
Challenges completed: 3 My book spine poem as hosted by Escape Through the Pages
Visited: 8 blogs as I planned.
Friday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (finished Vows to Kill by *Mark Capell)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 234
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 2 / 1141
Challenges completed: 4 Rewrite the synopsis (hosted by A Dreamer’s Thoughts): Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to take any of the books that you have read for this read-a-thon (or plan to read over the last three days), and re-write the synopsis just from the books cover. The aim is to make it sounding completely different from the original synopsis!
Charlotte Gray and Patrick Rochester have a problem…they can’t stop looking at one another. Even though they aren’t married, they are happy to risk it all just so they can stare into other’s eyes; after all, the eyes are the window to the soul. Patrick’s friends think this is creepy, while Charlotte’s think it okay because let’s face it, Patrick is a Greek god. Secretly Charlotte wishes he would look away because she’s getting a crick in her neck from staring at him and wonders if it would be rude to offer him a mint (yup his breath reeks). On the other hand, Patrick is thinking of a way to tell Charlotte to eat the cakes offered at tea because she’s just a little too thin and men like curves. Who will look away first? Find out in this intriguing tale about two lovers who are destined to be together. (Original synopsis here)
Saturday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (started The Midwife by Jennifer Worth)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 150
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 3.5 / 1291
Challenges completed: 6 Bookish Dress up & My Book Crack
Visited: 8 blogs as I planned.
Sunday
Number of books I’ve read today: 1 (finished The Midwife by Jennifer Worth)
Number of pages I’ve read today: 152
Total number of books / pages I’ve read so far: 4 / 1443
Challenges completed: 7 Character New Years Resolutions (hosted by Ex Libris): Pick a book and choose one or several characters from it and make up what would be their New Year’s resolutions if they made any. No need to be realistic, the wilder the better! 😀
I picked characters from Chelsea Cain’s Archie / Gretchen series:
1. Archie: Put the past behind and realize that I’m not going to solve every crime no matter what. Also stop thinking of Gretchen so much.
2. Gretchen: Limit the amount of people I actually kill. Maybe take a break from it all since killing can be messy.
3. Susan: Stop dying my hair. No wait…stop liking unavailable men and that means Archie. No more Archie.
4. Henry: Stop worrying so much about Archie. He’s a grown man and can take care of himself. Also arrange for something to happen to Gretchen, bitch needs to fry for her crimes.
5. Bliss: Participate in more protests because the government is trying to limit our rights.
Key:
* Review coming
^ Subject to Change
Literary, etc 
Ooh, my paperback copy of Gone Girl just arrived – I’m intrigued by it! I don’t know anything about the story or anything, I just know that it’s apparently gripping and brilliant and that it’s better to dive in WITHOUT knowing all about it. My favourite kind…
Happy reading for day 3!
Ellie @ Musings of a Bookshop Girl
I kept hearing about how amazing it was, etc. I can say with 25% left, I’m not sure how this will end. Thank goodness my Kindle Fire died on me at 4 am, otherwise I wasn’t going to get any sleep. When you are done reading it let me know your overall thoughts on it! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m seeing Gone Girl everywhere at the minute! It’s probably a good thing I’ve already spent a lot on books this month or I’d be adding that one to the basket!
Thanks for joining in with the Page 48 Challenge though, and I love your continuation. I hope the real book is as good as that 🙂
Gone Girl actually is pretty good! I’m always a bit iffy about books that people keep raving about, but was quite surprised at how good it was.
Thanks for hosting the challenge! It was a lot of fun. 🙂
Oooh yes Gone Girl is Fabulous (capital F) and I read it in just a couple of sittings. I got to 90% done and still didn’t exactly know how it was going to end up 🙂 Enjoy!
I thought I knew what Flynn was going to do with the plot, etc and just when I thought I had things figured out, she pulls the rug from under me. Mind blown and loved it. I’ll be doing a reread of it sometime this year.
Absolutely! I’d like to get it on audiobook the next time I have a road trip. I read her Sharp Objects last year too and hope to get to Dark Places sometime this year.
I just got Sharp Objects at the library. Looking forward to reading it sometime next week.
I just added The Midwife to my TBR list. It looks like a great read. I love books like this.
I haven’t started Midwife yet, but I loved the BBC series based on the book. I’m really looking forward to reading this.