#csreadathon and 2018 Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

 As you can see I am signing up for both the Christmas Spirit Readathon and Reading Challenge at the same time. 

For the readathon, I am going to read A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny and Washington Black by Esi Eugyan and the new Christmas book by Debbi MacComber.

For the reading challenge I am to attempt the Christmas Tree level and Fa La La La Films

You can find more information at the Christmas Spirit blog.

Bout of Books 23

Well it is that time again and I am planning on doing this this time around, as I haven't done the last few for whatever reason.

If you have forgotten what it is, here is an explanation:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 20th and runs through Sunday, August 26th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 23 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

If you can join me, that will be great and you will need to sign up over at their site.

As for the books that I will be working on then, I don't really know, but I should have a list up the weekend before the read-a-thon starts.

If you wish to follow me during the readathon, I will be tweeting reading updates on my main twitter account, @melissawiebe.

Happy reading!

Bout of Books 19

I am going to try this again and hopefully I can get my act together.  If you have forgotten what Bout of Books is about, here is a little blurb about it:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 8th and runs through Sunday, May 14th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 19 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team


My reading goals are to read:

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
• Lab Girl
• Outlander
• The Handmaid's Tale 

These are only a starting point but I may add more books as I get closer to the date.

#boutofbooks 17 signup

I am posting this kinda late.  Been so engrossed with the Olympics that I forgot about the readathon, but this is a good reset.

My reading for the readathon as such is going to be:

• The Fireman
• Winter
• The Elite
• The Sympathizer
• The Danish Girl

If you are wondering what Bout of Books is, I am not going to presume that everybody that reads my blog knows this, this is what it is about:

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, August 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I hope you can join me.

Bout of Books 16 sign up

I thought for some reason that today was the start, but at least now I have an extra week to get prepared.

For those that are wondering what Bout of Books is, the lovely ladies over at the site can say it better than I can possibly do:

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, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I hope you can join me!  Happy reading.

Write On Review-a-thon

I realize that this might be up a bit later than when I had hoped to have this up, but I suppose later than never.  This is just my official sign-up for the book review-a-thon at Book Vixen.  I am hoping to get a number of my book reviews that I need to work on.

3rd Annual Beat the Heat Readathon Sign-up

Beat the Heat readathon is hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Phantasmic Reads. 

Thought I would do this once again.  So here are the rules:

• The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from August 24th at 12:00 AM to September 6th at 11:59 PM. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well, read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach your goal!
• There will be mini-challenges throughout the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end!
• Sign up at Novel Heartbeat or at Phantasmic Reads. You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize giveaway, you must sign up by August 28th.
• To join, all you have to do is make a sign-up post – even if it’s just a “Let’s do this!” thing – and add your post URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (will be required for the final giveaway) in your sign-up post, or you can make it separate. Totally up to you! (You are welcome to use the template we provide in the kick-off post as well.)
• In order to enter for the grand prize, you must have a post to keep track of your progress so we can see that you participated.
• Follow along on Twitter and share your progress with the hashtag #BtHReadathon!

I will have a post up closer to the 24th with the books I am planning on reading.

Bout of Books 14 sign-up #boutofbooks

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, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

As most of you that have been following this blog for sometime, know that I enjoy this particular read-a-thon or that I have participated in most of them over the years.  This year is no different and it gives me an excellent excuse to get some of the books I have been wanting to get done, done.  But because of the time is about a week in the future, I at the present time have no idea as to what I am going to read, as some books that I would want to work on during this time may be completed by that time.  So my plan is to update this post with the books that I plan to read probably later in the week or I might put up a separate post with the titles.

But I will put down a list for the time being:

• Jacob Have I Loved
• The Odyssey
• Far from the Maddening Crowd
• Belzhar

The list may or may not be expanded, but when the read-a-thon starts on the 17th, I will probably put up a master post with the actual books that I will read.  In the meantime, Happy Reading!

#boutofbooks 13 Sign-up

This is one of my favourite read-a-thon's (my other being the 24 hour readathon, among a couple of others) and the start date is creeping up on me.  If you want to join, you can still do so.

Here is some information about Bout of Books:

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, May 11th and runs through Sunday, May 17th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 13 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I hope that you will be able to join me as well.

Here are the books that I hope to read from:

• The Book of Life
• The Color Purple
• All the Bright Places
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Vanessa and Her Sister
• Moon over Manifest
• While We're Far Apart
• plus maybe a one or more two books

I know that I won't be able to complete everything on this list, but I can probably at least start or make some headway on most of them.  

My goals for Bout of Books 13 are:

1. Complete at least two of the books on the list
2. Read every day
3. Update my blog readers as to what I am up to
4. Read at least 600 pages
5. Participate in a Twitter chat
6. Participate in at least one challenge/giveaway

I also hope to get caught up on book reviews during the week at some point.  Hope you all have a great week of reading.

#writeonreiew Sign up

I've had a bunch of reviews that need to be written rough form and since I'll have time tomorrow and probably won't want to do much else after being up for the Readathon, this will be the perfect activity to do.  Look forward to joining tomorrow :)

24 Hour Readathon Spring 2015 Sign-up and Book Stack

As I look at the time on my PVR, I am realizing that it is almost time for the Readathon to start and I need to get to bed, if I wish to wake up at 5 am.

With that in mind, I will be short and sweet with this post.  This year is a little different for me since I got a new job in the last week and a half and can only read for a portion of the readathon this time around.  But still I will participate when I can.

So here are my books:

• The Narrow Road to the Deep North (finish)
• Vanessa & Her Sister
• Moon over Manifest
• Horrorstor

I am also going to watch some movies or TV as I read.  Happy Reading :)

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon Sign up #wintersrespite

When I saw this come across either my Facebook or Twitter feed, I knew it was that time again.  I am really looking forward to this.

The readathon is fairly simple: just read.  You don't have to read a book with any theme to it, but can read whatever you chose to.  You can find out more information and sign up at Seasons of Reading.

Here are the books that I aim to work on during that week:

• Station Eleven

• The Miniaturist

• Fall on your Knees 

• Pioneer Girl

• Ella Enchanted

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

#boutofbooks signup and goals

I am going to be doing this again.  Here is a bit of an explanation:

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 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

You still have a few days to sign up, if you choose to join up and can do so here.

This year the hosts aren't don't a goals post, but I do have a few goals that I wish to accomplish while reading this coming week:

• complete Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• start Half-Blood Prince
• complete at least Book 5 (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) of the Narnia chronicles and possibly even Book 6 (The Silver Chair).
• start reading one of the books I have set out to read for one of the numerous challenges.

Sunday Salon - Christmas Spirit Read-a-thon, Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge and Thankfully Reading sign-ups

I know that the Sunday Salon is a place to talk about one is reading and other bookish related things, not sign up for reading challenges/read-a-thons,  but it is also a space that I can do with what I like. So I am going to use that for those things for that reason.


Christmas Spirit Read-a-thon

I have done this for at least a couple of years and this will be my third time doing this read-a-thon.  The best part of this read-a-thon is that you only have to read at least one holiday tale during the read-a-thon and since it happens during Jenn's Bookshelves Thankfully Reading Weekend, its a nice way of easing into the holiday season.

Here are a few guidelines that Michelle has give for the Read-a-Thon:

• Read-a-Thon dates: Monday, November 24 at 12:00am CST until Sunday, November 30 at 11:59pm CST (adjust your time zone accordingly)
• You do not have to be signed up for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge to participate (but I sure would love for you to join us!)
• I am not requiring that you read only Christmas/holiday books during the read-a-thon, but I hope you will pick up at least one holiday tale, even if it's just to read some children's books with your kids or some holiday short stories
• to check in on Twitter, we'll use hashtag #CSreadathon
• as usual, you do not have to have a blog to participate...feel free to link up and check in from Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

And in conjunction with the Christmas Spirit Read-a-thon, Michelle is also hosting The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge.  I think this is my fourth or fifth year participating, but at this point I don't know.

Here are the guidelines for the reading challenge:

• challenge will run from Monday, November 24, 2014 through Tuesday, January 6, 2014 (Twelfth Night or Epiphany).
• cross over with other challenges is totally permitted AND encouraged!
• These must be Christmas novels, books about Christmas lore, a book of Christmas short stories or poems, books about Christmas crafts, and for the first time...a children's Christmas books level!
• Levels:

            --Candy Cane:  read 1 book

            --Mistletoe:  read 2-4 books

            --Christmas Tree:  read 5 or 6 books (this is the fanatic level...LOL!)

          Additional levels:

            --Fa La La La Films:  watch a bunch or a few Christmas movies...it's up to you!

            --Visions of Sugar Plums:  read books with your children this season and share what you read

          *the additional levels are optional, you still must complete one of the main reading levels above

I am going for the Christmas Tree level and will also be doing Fa La La La Films.

Thankfully Reading Weekend

Even though Thanksgiving Weekend is long gone in Canada, I can't give up an excuse to spend a weekend reading.  Here are the details for the reading weekend:

There are no rules to the weekend, we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for the year. 

You still have plenty of time to sign up and I hope that you will sign up for one or all of them.

Did not finish anything this past week nor did I post any reviews.  Happy reading.

Write On Reveiw-a-thon Sign up

The Write On review-a-thon is a monthly event created and hosted by Brianna at The Book Vixen. It’s 2 days dedicated to getting reviews done, whether you have one review to write or 30+. This edition of the review-a-thon takes place all day Saturday, September 27th and Sunday, September 28th . Let’s get those reviews done!

I have a number of book reviews that I need to catch-up on and I know that I am not the only one that is behind.  This is how I am planning on getting caught up with the ones that I have remaining.  If you are behind, I would recommend that you join and get caught up with those reviews.

Review-a-Thon Details:

• Reviews can be of the written variety or in video format.
• This event is not limited to book reviews. If you write/vlog reviews for movies, super cool gadgets, or anything else, you are welcome to participate.
• To participate, create a post on your blog with a list of reviews you need to complete. Don’t forget to grab the official blurb (above) and event button (grab code below). If you don’t have a blog, you can announce your intent to participate via social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.) with a link back to this sign up post so others can join in as well.
• Add the DIRECT LINK to your sign up post to the linky found at the end of this post. The sign up linky will be open until 11:55 pm PDT on 9/27.
• On 9/27, get working on those reviews!
• There will be a wrap-up post linky here on The Book Vixen on 9/29.

Goals:

I am going to try to get caught up with the remaining 10 reviews that I haven't published on my blog.

FrightFall Readathon Sign-Up and Goals

Having a few gothic novels to read is giving me the excuse to sign up for this.  While I have things up this week, I do have some time to get in some reading and why not with some gothic/horror?

My plans for this coming week are to:
• complete Wuthering Heights and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
• start the Dean Koontz book that I have requested from the library
• work on The Woman in White (might have to start it all over again, as it has been awhile since I last read it)

If you do wish to join up, you can sign up here.  Hope you can join.

Write On Review-a-thon Sign up

I have a bunch of reviews that need to be written up and posted.  Looking forward to it.

2nd Annual Beat the Heat Readathon Sign-up Post

Beat the Heat readathon is hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Phantasmic Reads. 

I don't know how I heard about it; probably a blog post I read in the last few days.

So here are the rules:

• The Beat the Heat Readathon runs from August 11th to September 1st. What does this readathon entail, you ask? Well, read as much or as little as you want – the main point is to READ! You set your own goal, and for three weeks you read as many books as you can/want to reach your goal!

• There will be mini-challenges throughout the Readathon for participants, along with a grand prize giveaway at the end!

• Sign up here at Phantasmic Reads or Novel Heartbeat. You may join whenever you like, but to be eligible for our grand prize giveaway, you must sign up by August 24th.

• To join, all you have to do is make a sign-up post – even if it’s just a “Let’s do this!” thing – and add your post URL to the linky below! You can put your goals and progress (will be required for the final giveaway) in your sign-up post, or you can make it separate. Totally up to you! (You are welcome to use the template we provide as well.)

• In order to enter for the grand prize, you must have a post to keep track of your progress so we can see that you participated.

Here are the books that I will hopefully work on:

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Cuckoo's Calling
• The Word Exchange

• The Circle

• Bittersweet
• The Lady and the Unicorn
• Mrs. Hemingway
• The Invention of Wings

• a history book that I need to read for a course I am doing online.

I am sorry for starting a little late, but I hope to post updates, in a separate post, either just before I go to bed or when I get up the next day.

Bout of Books 11

It's almost that time again!  It's hard to believe that the last Bout of Books was just a few months ago.  I am really looking forward to this one, as I will probably be able to read more than I was able to back in May, but I shouldn't be counting my eggs before they hatch!  You probably guessed that I would be participating and if you wish to join, you can go and sign up on the Bout of Books blog.

For those that don't know what Bout of Books is... here you go:

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, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th 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 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

You can add your goals to your sign-up post, but it isn't a requirement.

High Summer Read-a-Thon - Time to Sign-Up!!! #HighSummerRAT

I have been looking forward to this for a bit and so glad that it is "getting off" the ground.  I am not going to list what I am going to read, but will save that for the night before.  I hope to post most days, but since I have company for the first few days, it may be delayed and I may not read much.

If you want more information, you can visit Seasons of Reading, where Michelle has more information and a sign up, if you wish to join.