Ok, FINE, I'll Play

I've been going back and forth in recent weeks about whether or not to do the Bout of Books (8.0, if you will!) readathon because unnnngh readathons that last all week, but also yay making me read more often in the week and stuff? ANYWAY, I'm a gonna do it because hey, why not track my reading for a week? Works for me!

ALSO- I have four library books out at the moment which I realise isn't THAT many, but at the same time, I own more than 200 unread books so actually it's far too many. The thing is, they're all so WELL REGARDED that I can't just take them back. So. My main goal for this week is to read some of them because then they can go away and I can stop looking at them guiltily. Also I need some JK in my life, and I picked up The Cuckoo's Calling last week, so that's just swell.

Regardez, les books!

So these are the library ones. Of them, I really really want to read The Cuckoo's Calling and Tell The Wolves I'm Home, and I feel like if I do that, I can take The Newlyweds and The Song of Achilles back without shame. (NOT that I don't want to read them too, but they can wait, I feel.)

And then THESE are the books I actually own that I want to read. I'm about 120 pages into Middlemarch, but I could definitely do with some loooong reading time with it (I... have not read enough classics this year. So the thing that's not being said here, is basically 'it's haaaard.') I know this pile is tiny, but I'm being realistic, AND these are basically the only books left of the books I said I was going to read this summer (minus The Corrections, which I'm saving so Alley and I can readalong it for moral support) and imagine if I actually managed to stick to that?! It would be mental, obviously.

And, for the purposes of togetherness, all the books:

Oh yeah. They're pretty.

To avoid clogging up everyone's blog feeds (and because, you know, I don't want to make THAT much of an effort) I think I'm just going to do a little sum up of the days reading at the bottom of this post and if I do any challenges (Might. Might not.) then I'll stick them on here too. So it'll be a nice, BIG post by Sunday. Yay?

Monday
Monday! You were alright. I didn't anticipate reading very much because Monday mornings are for catching up with US TV (Breaking Bad and True Blood, obvs) and then for reading about said TV and whatnot, and then, you know, work and stuff. But I did fine! I finished the Moomin book I was reading (One book down, yesssss!) before work (this is because I wake up early on Mondays to watch Breaking Bad... Apparently that's a thing I do now) and then this evening I had a bit of a read of The Fault in Our Stars (I thought I would either love it or hate it, and I definitely... One of those things [hate. It's hate.]) in spite of the great temptation to watch Pushing Daisies because apparently I really like reading! Who knew?! Anyway. Bedtime now. Or in a bit. Whatever.

Pages Read: 156
Books Finished: 1
Books Read From: Comet in Moominland, The Fault in Our Stars
Snacks: Swedish Fish. But someone finished my doritos and I am not pleased.
Non-Reading Activities: TV and Internet. Like my liiiiiife.
Reading Activities: Rolling my eyes at teenagers being dicks

Tuesday
I worked all day today to help out at work, so I didn't anticipate much reading being done because I only get half an hour for lunch and everything is stupid. I did get through one chapter of my Bill Bryson book (woo! One chapter!) but I also read during breakfast and then also for quite a bit of the evening- although I did of course have to watch The Great British Bake Off and ALSO Don't Tell The Bride because that's how I roll. But anyway, I think I did quite well, and oh yeah, what was that other thing? FINISHED ANOTHER BOOK. Fuck yeah. Even if it was a YA book which could be read immensely quickly, DOESN'T MATTER.
Today's page count is going to look HUGE because I'm counting the pages I read right before bed (and, so, just after I turned my computer off) too, so don't take it as fact or anything. Also, I have totally and completely sucked at visiting other blogs, but all I have planned for tomorrow morning is washing my hair so I will try to do some social activities tomorrow.

Pages Read: 237
Books Finished: 1
Total Books Finished: 2
Books Read From: The Fault In Our Stars, The Lost Continent
Snacks: Not really! Or not reading snacks, anyway. Had a little cake slice while watching the Bake Off, naturally.
Non-Reading Activities: Work and TV.
Reading Activities: Getting a welcoming hug from Bill Bryson familiarity and genuinely laughing at a funeral... I don't like what this book has done to me.

Wednesday
Pfffffffffft. Did you hear that sound? That was the sound of not-much reading getting done. I read a bit this morning but spent most of it writing a scathing (SCATHING) review of The Fault In Our Stars, which I'm glad I did now so I could remember the things that most annoyed me, and also so that I can get rid of the book (getting rid of books! Success!) so it was worth sacrificing that extra reading time. I did start The Cuckoo's Calling though which so far is very good- It honestly has the best descriptions of London I've maybe ever read, but I don't know if that's just because I've been there a lot or whether it ACTUALLY makes it easy to picture. Either way, I'm right there with them. And I read a teeeny bit of Middlemarch last night and this morning. I'm trying. I would have read this evening but instead I went to have dinner with my friend which was lovely- friends are actually even better than books- or at least this one is, anyway. And I did visit some blogs today! Yes! Not... NEW ones, but still.
Tomorrow is my auntie's birthday so I believe we're going to do some kind of something (present giving?) before I have to go to work, so WE SHALL SEE how the reading goes. I always think I'm free on Bout of Books weeks (or... I did last time) and then things always keep popping up, but oh well! At least they're nice things.

Pages Read: 95
Books Finished: 0
Total Books Finished: 2
Cumulative Pages Read: 488
Snacks: Um... I had some pringles? They were nice.
Non-Reading Activities: Looking at the Ikea catalogue and hanging with my frieeeend.
Reading Activities: Wandering through London in my brain.

Thursday
Suuuper quick update because it's late and I've been tired allllll day. But I read things! We ended up not going to see my auntie until lunchtime (i.e. about an hour before I had to go to work) which was lame in one way, but in another, oh the reading I did this morning! And then also I did reading this evening, before and after losing about an hour and a half on the internet (GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK, INTERNET). But, the important thing is, The Cuckoo's Calling is so good that my bath went cold and it's now really late and I don't even caaaaaare and really I just want to stay up and find out who did it. But I won't because of that sleepy thing.

Pages Read: 230
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Cuckoo's Calling
Total Books Finished: 2
Cumulative Pages Read: 718
Snacks: More Swedish Fish, but that's pretty much it
Non-Reading Activities: Staring around tiredly and eating cake (seriously, I had two kinds of cake today! Go birthdays!)
Reading Activities: Trying to solve the case- I have not even a CLUE who did it.

Friday
I'm pretty ecstatic that it's the end of the week (3 day weekend, yo!) and I am SO TIRED. It's barely 10pm here, but I'm already contemplating sleep and I'm definitely (clearly) contemplating turning my computer off in a few minutes. It's MADNESS, I tell you! I'm in a brain state where I'm either going to fall asleep as soon as I turn it off, or stay up reading for another hour, and right now I can't tell which way it's going to go (but it's probably the former. SO TIRED.) Today's reading... I'd call it average. I didn't do the MOST reading in the world, but I didn't really slack, either. You'll see in the stats. I'm excited for tomorrow's weekendness- I'm going to go out in the morning to get a few bits, but I'm thiiinking that the afternoon might be dedicated to reading, glorious reading (and it doesn't hurt that it's supposed to be rainy either- perfect reading weather.) I'm sort of tempted to 24 hour readathon it, but I SHAN'T for I am sensible. Mebbe.

Pages Read: 169
Books Finished: 1 (Yes!)
Books Read From: The Cuckoo's Calling, The Lost Continent
Total Books Finished: 3
Cumulative Pages Read: 887
Snacks: Hmmm... I don't think I ate anything while I was reading today, actually! I did have a diet coke (natch)
Non-Reading Activities: Working and walking in 80-odd degree heat. Unpleasant.
Reading Activities: Gasping at The Cuckoo's Calling and then going a-travelling with BB.

Saturday
Oh, Saturday, I had such grand reading plans for you, and yet... Nothing. Or hardly anything, I should say. A combination of things added up to conspire against me reading, including: waking up about half an hour before my mum wanted to leave the house (and she was giving me a lift to the station, I should add), forgetting to take a book with me so there was all this spare time on the train where I just sort of stared instead of, you know, reading, and then the shopping, and then the cake-making, and then the dinner making... There was not much time for reading, but it was still a pretty good day! (cake! Note: if you want a lot of random strangers to like your instagram photo, just tag it as vegan. Works every time.) But anyway, I did buy a few books so it wasn't a total bust!

Pages Read: 83
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Newlyweds
Total Books Finished: 3
Cumulative Pages Read: 970
Snacks: So much chocolate frosting. Also, doritos.
Non-Reading Activities: CAKE
Reading Activities: Pondering cultural differences and multi-cultural marriage.

Sunday
For the purposes of completion... Sunday was a pretty good reading day, I neaaaarly finished a book but didn't because I had to go to bed early to go to the zoo (ZOOOOOOOO!) today, but I did finish it Monday morning so am tempted to count it in this count (but I won't because that would be a lie). Anyway. I didn't read so much in the morning, but from 5pm onwards basically all I did was read rather than my usual going-to-my-room-and-watching-internet-telly act on a Sunday. So that was good. In fact, the whole of Bout of Books has been generally good for me, reading-wise- I think last time I did it I sort of felt the pressure to take part (my own pressure, rather than anyone else's) whereas this time I was just like 'oh yeah reading, cool' and just prioritised it over tv. So, excited as I am to start watching telly again in the evenings (Pushing Daisies, I am coming to finish you!) I think I'm also going to make a better effort to read the things. She says...

Pages Read: 223
Books Finished: 0
Books Read From: The Newlyweds
Total Books Finished: 3 (NEARLY 4)
Cumulative Pages Read: 1193
Snacks: Grapes dipped in Nutella. Look into it!
Non-Reading Activities: Um... I did a facemask and saw my family?
Reading Activities: Being slightly perplexed by the plot direction of The Newlyweds...

Shit I'm Going To Be Reading This Summer

Yesterday's Top Ten Tuesday Topic (say it 10 times really fast) was the ten books at the top of your TBR for summer. I already had a post for yesterday (and I'll be DAMNED if I post more than once in a day. Unless it's a readathon day) and also I was going to write this list yesterday but something something lazy.

But it's a whole new day now, and I've decided two things- 1) it's good to have some kind of idea of the books I'm going to read next because otherwise I just finish a book, stare at my shelves for about half an hour, shrug and go and watch something on Netflix instead, and 2) you totally want to know what I'm going to be reading this summer. I can tell. So I picked out 10 books and here they are!

TA DAAAAA! And here are some things about them.

1. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner- This book seems fun, and also short, and ALSO it's set in Australia (or, the land of perpetual summer) and Kayleigh will be sad if I don't read it sometime soon (I mean, she'd probably be fine. But do I want to risk it? I do not!) Also it's rumoured to be kiiind of like Little Women in certain ways, so I. Am. Sold.

2. Middlemarch by George Eliot- I've been meaning to read this for a LONG time now, and this summer could be it's time? I hope so. Also it's my firm belief that BIG classics are at their best in the summer, read outside with cool drinks and warm weather.

3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- Most of the firm belief from above is based on that time about 5 summers ago when I read the majority of Gone With The Wind in my nan's garden, or, more accurately, when I time-travelled to Civil War era Georgia because that's how amazing it was. I'm trying to recreate that experience this summer, so... Wish me luck!

4. What Maisie Knew by Henry James- The movie comes out in the UK in August, so I want to read this before then. And why do I want to see the movie? No comment.

This is my comment.

5. My Life in France by Julia Child- France! And food! And Julia Child! There's no way this book isn't going to be cheery and excellent and will hopefully let me travel to France in my brain, just like a real summer holiday (note: Nothing like a real summer holiday.) But anyway, I'm excited to read it.

6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver- I... Don't really know what this book has to do with summer. But dammit, I want to read it and so I shall. I SHALL, I tell you.

7. Eating for England by Nigel Slater- I know for a fact that I have been seduced into thinking this is a summer book because THERE IS ROCK ON THE FRONT COVER which almost guarantees that I'm going to be transported to the seaside immediately. Presumably all the foods he talks about can't be summer foods, but still. It looks awesome. 

(aside: Do places that aren't England even have rock? It's terrible for your teeth but so so so good. Let's see what Wikipedia says about it)

8. The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson- For more of that travelling in my mind stuff, this time across the small towns of America alongside everyone's favourite grumpy travelling companion, Bill Bryson! I dunno, my mind just associates Bryson with summer maybe because he fills my brain with fucking sunshine. (That was getting too poetic so I added in fucking. You're welcome.)

9. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen- It's big. It's chunky. I kind of like Franzen's writing in spite of all the things that are wrong with him as a person. Do I need any more reasons? I do not.

10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green- I am all out of summer reasons, but I've been meaning to read this for ages (as in, it's been next to my bed for a long time) and so I SHALL. Because crying outside is the best kind of crying, correct? (No.)

So yeah! That's what I'm planning on. I worked it out, because I am the kind of person who does such things, and altogether that's 4694 pages I'll be reading this summer, which is a ridiculous average of basically 470 pages per book. It might literally take every second of summer, but I CAN DO IT (probably. I don't know. Whatever, I might just read some other things anyway.) Anyway! Summer! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE.