Trees of Reverie April 2015 Read-A-Thon: Reading Goals, TBR List and Daily Updates

It’s time for another Read-A-Thon, and I’m really excited.
It seems ages since I last participated in a reading event, so am looking forward very much to this one.
You can find out more about the event at this post, and hopefully you’ll feel like joining in too. Although it may be too late to register as an Official Participant, there’s nothing to stop you reading along for fun.

So, to get things going, some questions…

How much do you plan on reading?

At least 30 minutes each day. Another great part of participating in this event is the time I’ll spend checking out new blogs and no doubt adding an infinite number of books to my TBR list, so I want to make time for that alongside my reading. I also want to try and write entries for some of the Daily challenges, so that will take up some time as well.

List of the books you plan to read –

Paris for One by Jojo Moyes
Street Cat Bob by James Bowen
The Water Diviner by Andrew Anastasios and Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios
The Hawley Book of the Dead by Chrysler Szarlan

Why did you choose these books?

Two of them are Quick Reads which are a totally new idea to me. Lately I feel as if I’ve ploughed through a fair amount of massive tomes so I wanted a change. I think these short reads are an excellent idea as you can sample a genre you possibly wouldn’t have chosen before and try something new.
I chose Hawley because I’d already read some of it before the event began and want to carry on and finish it.
The Water Diviner I selected as I spotted the book by chance in the library and with the release of the film soon there will probably be a request list for it and it will have to go back.

What do you look forward to reading the most?

Street Cat Bob and Paris for One, due to appeal of the Quick Reads idea.

Do any of these books count towards some Reading Challenges?

They’ll all count towards my Goodreads Challenge to read 40 books, and they’ll all count towards my I Love Library Books Reading Challenge. The Hawley Book of the Dead may count towards my Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge.

Potential Read-A-Thon Challenges:

Read a book by an author you haven’t read before
Read outside
Read a book with an upcoming movie adaptation
Read a book you’ve had lying around unfinished

Progress Updates:

Friday 3rd April:

I’m going to write my updates for each day on the following morning, reporting on the previous day’s progress, so will be back here tomorrow with news of what I managed to read during the day and any other information.

I’ve had quite a good start to the read-a-thon. I settled down to read The Hawley Book of the Dead and it’s such an engrossing read that I couldn’t put it down so it looks like I’ve picked a good one to begin with. I can see that I probably won’t get around to reading half of the books I’d hoped to during this event, as this one is so good I’ll probably stick with it until the end.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 75
Total number of pages I’ve read: 75

Saturday 4th April:

Today has been as poor as yesterday was good, because I haven’t managed to read anything at all so far. I had to work, but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a few pages at least before the end of the day. On the plus side, a visit to the library (No, I can’t keep away, no matter how hard I try!) saw me come away with a book called Time Trips, which is a collection of Doctor Who short stories. I can’t wait to start reading that one.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 0 (!!!)
Total number of pages I’ve read: 75

Sunday 5th April:

Managed to get some early-morning reading done this morning, and it was wonderful, so quiet and peaceful, the perfect atmosphere to really soak up my story. The Hawley Book of the Dead is proving to be a very engrossing read, and I’m taking my time to savour it because it’s so good. I still can’t tear myself away to give any attention to the other books on my TBR list!

Number of pages I’ve read today: 100
Total number of pages I’ve read: 175

Monday 6th April:

What a lovely day! The sun came out at last and I had the opportunity to get out into the garden, so needless to say my book came with me and I spent a good while totally lost to the real world.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 100
Total number of pages I’ve read: 275

Tuesday 7th April:

Another gorgeous day outside but unfortunately I haven’t been able to devote so much of it to reading as I would have liked. I’m getting to the latter stages of The Hawley Book of the Dead now and have found myself slowing out, drawing it out to make it last longer, so I don’t really mind having less reading time today.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 25
Total number of pages I’ve read: 300

Wednesday 8th April:

I finished The Hawley Book of the Dead. I wish it had lasted longer, but in the end I couldn’t stop reading because I HAD to know how it ended. Am now off to check out my TBR pile and choose a new book to begin.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 32
Total number of pages I’ve read: 332

Thursday 9th April:

I didn’t think I’d get the chance to update my post today as once more the dreaded computer problems have struck! One minute all is fine, the next the screen goes dead, all sorts of technical messages come up on the screen, then the whole thing shuts down. The odd thing is that I’ve taken it in for repair for the second time and yet again they can’t find out what is causing the problem. I was lucky and managed to get a screenshot of the blue screen of doom so have given them a copy of that as well. Hopefully now they’ll get to the bottom of it and sort it out. In the meantime I’m occasionally borrowing a friends computer, so not sure how regular my updates will be.

Anyway, reading progress… I’ve started a new book, and it wasn’t one of the ones on my TBR list, so that was a bit of a surprise. When I checked my library record I noticed that Frog Music had been requested, which means I need to get it read so I can take it back on time. I’ve read 50 pages so far and I’m really enjoying it, so much so I almost made myself late this morning because I couldn’t seem to tear myself away. I kept promising myself – “Just read to the end of this paragraph”, then “to the end of the page”, finally “to the end of the chapter”. At some point I glanced up at the clock and realised that hard as it may be to stop, I simply couldn’t sit there reading any longer!

Number of pages I’ve read today: 50
Total number of pages I’ve read: 382

Friday 10th April:

Yet another opportunity for sitting outside in the garden reading. It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful (for a while) and I read more of Frog Music which I’m still enjoying as much as when I first started reading it.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 80
Total number of pages I’ve read: 462

Saturday 11th April:

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to devote a lot of time to reading in this final stage of the Read-A-Thon. I managed to grab a quick few pages before I had to leave for work this morning, but that will probably be all I’ll manage for today as I’m borrowing a computer again to update my blog so want to spend some time doing that.

Number of pages I’ve read today: 20
Total number of pages I’ve read: 482

Sunday 12th April:

I’ll be posting my final summary in a separate post later today.