Skip to main content

Throwing my hat into the ring (or, rather, joining Bout of Books readathon)

Posted on
Bout of Books

After much consideration, browsing (and snooping) through other bloggers' posts, and loving the idea of this event, I've decided to take part in the Bout of Books readathon. I've seen this event mentioned many times in the blogosphere, but have never been a part of it before. Now is probably a good time to do it. My reading has considerably slowed down, my trysts around the online book world has reduced, and I find myself often wondering what happened to my dedicated reading hours. It took finishing an amazing book in four hours to make me want to do this. Bout of Books starts today and runs all the way to the 18th. It will be great to be able to just read and rediscover all the thrills it brings with it.

So here are my goals for the week:

1. Find at least two hours every day when I can just read. I need to get away from online and TV distractions as much as I can. I also need to not read unless I will get a good amount of undistracted time with the book. My enjoyment of the book tends to suffer when I am reading a sentence here or there and doing something else.

2. Finish at least two books. Try to aim for a third as well.

3. Keep my reading as diverse as possible. I need to stick to the goals of my Armchair Reading Project.



As far as books go, I am mostly going to read what I am in mood for but I do have four books I am hoping to get to.

1. Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
3. The People of Forever are not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
4. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Tags

Comments

Shannon @ River City Reading said…
Glad you're joining in! I've always wanted to read Delusions of Gender, so I'm happy to see someone picking it up :)
May 12, 2014 at 7:00 AM
bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
Good luck, Aths!
May 12, 2014 at 7:36 AM
Christina T said…
I am thinking of joining the read-a-thon too. I have participated in Bout of Books a few times in the past and I missed the recent 24 hour read-a-thon. This is much more manageable since it goes all week long.


I have heard good things about We Need New Names and The People of Forever are not Afraid. I loved The Joy Luck Club and the movie is a favorite.
May 12, 2014 at 8:45 AM
Vasilly said…
I love the look of your stack! Good luck!
May 12, 2014 at 10:48 AM
Sam_TinyLibrary said…
Yay, you decided to join in :)
I'm reading We Need New Names too, just started it today and so far it's very good. I also really enjoyed People of Forever, so you have some great reading ahead of you this week!
May 12, 2014 at 3:32 PM
Athira / Aths said…
I just started reading it and it is intriguing so far!
May 12, 2014 at 6:42 PM
Athira / Aths said…
Thank you, Kathy! :-)
May 12, 2014 at 6:42 PM
Athira / Aths said…
I like the low-pressure aspect of the weeklong readathons too! I feel like it's much more motivating.
May 12, 2014 at 6:43 PM
Athira / Aths said…
So glad to hear that you liked it! I started with Delusions of Gender. I may start with We Need New Names next.
May 12, 2014 at 6:44 PM
literaryfeline said…
I think your goals are very reasonable! Good luck with the readathon! I missed hearing about this until late and so am not participating, but I figure I can unofficially join in by trying to make more time for my reading.


I really enjoyed The Joy Luck Club when I read it and hope you will too. Delusions of Gender sounds like an interesting read. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, but the subject matter interests me so I might pick it up if it's good.
May 13, 2014 at 1:30 PM
Kim Ukura said…
Good luck with the Bout of Books, it always sounds so fun! I hope you find alot of time to read from your pile.
May 13, 2014 at 9:34 PM
Care said…
Let me know when you finish Delusions of Gender - I am reading it, too!
May 16, 2014 at 10:04 AM
Athira / Aths said…
Delusions of Gender is intriguing so far. But it's hard to read it at one go, so I have to put the book down once in a while. I did not read as much as I hoped to during the readathon but it was still fairly good.
May 17, 2014 at 11:04 PM
Athira / Aths said…
Thanks! I didn't do as well as I wished I did, but it was still good enough.
May 17, 2014 at 11:05 PM
Athira / Aths said…
So far it's good, but I'm reading it slow - it's hard to read too much of it at one go.
May 17, 2014 at 11:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hell-Heaven by Jhumpa Lahiri (Short Fiction Review)

Posted on
I first read Jhumpa Lahiri years ago, when her Interpreter of Maladies was making a huge buzz. At the time, I didn't catch any of the buzz, but for some reason, when I saw the book on the shelf at the store I was browsing in, I felt it just might be a decent read. Funnily, I read the entire short story collection without complaining about it, but for some reason, I cannot read any collection anymore without agonizing over its disjoint nature.

I did enjoy Interpreter of Maladies, but I did get bothered by the thread of loneliness and infidelity and distrust that laced through the stories. For that reason, I have been reluctant to read Unaccustomed Earth. However, when I came across Hell-Heaven at the NewYorker - a free short story from her book, I decided to go ahead and read it. I can't resist the pull of stories set in India or featuring Indian characters, and it is that same aspect that hooked me throughout this story.


In Hell-Heaven, the narrator contemplates the relations…
13 comments
Read more

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Posted on
Maybe that’s what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place.
Bernadette Fox has a reputation. While her husband and her daughter Bee love her, there's barely anyone else who share the sentiment. Her neighbor Audrey loves to gossip mean things about her with her close friend, Soo-Lin. The other parents of kids at Bee's school look down on Bernadette because she doesn't involve herself in school affairs. Bernadette herself goes out of her way to avoid company.

And then one day, Bee comes home with an excellent report card and asks for her reward - a family trip to Antarctica. The very plan throws Bernadette into a panic but she has no other option. She hires a virtual assistant, based out of India to take care of all her demands, including getting prescriptions at her local pharmacy, doing her online shopping and taking care of some of the logistics of her trip. (It is ridiculous! Bern…
27 comments
Read more

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (Short Fiction review)

Posted on
With the Hunger Games hype that engulfed us last week, it was hard to avoid all the discussion of similar works that existed. Of the many titles that I came across, two stood out particularly - a short story called The Lottery and a Japanese novel (and movie) called Battle Royale (which I'm reading right now and just cannot put down). The novel will be fodder for another post, so for now, I just want to rave about the awesomeness that was The Lottery.

In contemporary America, villagers across the country are gathering on the 27th of June (and some a day earlier) for an annual event called the Lottery. Children, women, men, all come to the main square of their village or town, where the lottery master keeps a black box full of paper chips. One of these chips is marked has a special mark on it to identify the winner (the person who draws that chip). Not everyone draws however, but only the head of the family. Husbands are viewed as the head of their families/households, and if the …
19 comments
Read more