Well, that was a fun little stretch.
This was my first year taking part in Booketubeathon. I did a few challenges and read a few books and I call that progress. Especially since this is the first time I have picked up a book for myself almost since I started University, which is over now.
Here’s my daily breakdown:
MONDAY
I began with Beauty by Sarah Pinborough and finished it in about five hours. While I wrote a much longer article on it which you can read here, I’ll be less long-winded and say that it was an okay book that lacked plot and character creation as well as development. I found myself walking through the book with one eye lazily shut and my mouth hanging open from boredom. Not to say it was a boring book, but there just wasn’t any umph to it in any way at all. That being said, it was the smallest book I read and the first, so it did get me going.
TUESDAY
On this day I read through Soldier X by Don Wulffson. This is a book that I had read before, but I chose to read this book again because it’s probably one of the only war stories that caught and kept my interest. I first read it in high school when I was about fourteen, so it’s been ten years. I still enjoyed this read as it had great plot, characters, and scenes. It was an all around well-rounded story based on history and I firmly enjoyed it even though I didn’t finish it in one day.
WEDNESDAY
This was the day that I finished Soldier X and started Freaks by Annette Curtis-Klause. This too was a book that I had read previously, but this one I have read many times before. This also was another book that I had read in high school originally, but I love it just as much as I always have. To me, that’s a sign of good storytelling and character building, two things that I believe are crucial for any successful book. This book is another I did not finish in one day.
THURSDAY
I finished reading Freaks at this point and had begun reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. To be entirely honest, I didn’t get that far with this one. Only a few chapters in and I gave up. While I only work a part-time job, Booktubeathon mixed with it and created a concoction of exhaustion. However, not all was lost. Even though I didn’t get far in reading on this day, I did work on some of my writing–another thing I haven’t worked on in a while–so, to me, the day was still relatively successful.
FRIDAY
Unfortunately, the exhaustion really tore me down and, similar to Ariel Bissett, I read nothing on this day. Not a single page. Again, worked on some writing, but otherwise lazed about and went to work.
SATURDAY
This was the day where I was supposed to read Uglies by Scott Westerfield. However, that did not happen. I had barely even dented Pride and Prejudice at this point and my goal for reading one book a day had already failed. I’m not the type to start one book after having just started another (although in the past I did use to read two books at once. Where did all that gumption go?), so I deleted Uglies from my list and…still read almost nothing. Again, it was not an unproductive day, necessarily, as I did exercise (as I’ve started up again as well), cut my hair, and wrote.
SUNDAY
I had two more smaller books on my list that I had wanted to complete on this day and it simply didn’t happen. They were both comic books (one manga, one not), and yet I just lacked the energy to read. I really went downhill since Friday. This day wasn’t even a productive one, so I can’t use that as an excuse for why I didn’t read. I was just dead tired and ready for the sleep of a thousand years.
As for the challenge recap:
- Read seven books–Did not happen, but I did read three to entirety and began another.
- Read a book with yellow on the cover–My copies of Pride and Prejudice, Freaks, and Soldier X all of some shade or tint of yellow on the covers.
- Read a book only after sunset–This was a challenge since I have work in the morning and the sun sets here at 9pm at the earliest, which gave me limited time to read. However, while I didn’t finish Pride and Prejudice, it was the only book that I happened to read after the sun had set.
- Read a book you discovered through Booketube–This one I did not complete since I haven’t actually discovered any books through Booktube. That’s not to say that I haven’t seen books that seem interesting to me, but I really only watch Ariel Bissett and I currently don’t have the funds to go out and buy new books based on ones she’s read or will read. Therefore, I had no such books and could not complete this quest.
- Read a book by one of your favorite authors–This one was also quite difficult for me since I don’t particularly go and read books by authors I like. On occasion, I might notice that two books I have liked are by the same author, but I really don’t pay too much attention to that. However, I do like one particular series from Scott Westerfield (the Uglies series) and I have almost always liked Jane Austen. While I never got to read Uglies in this challenge, I did read a bit of Pride and Prejudice and I’ll count that for this one.
- Read a book that is older than you–Again, Pride and Prejudice wins this one.
- Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation–Once again, Pride and Prejudice was meant to carry me through this one. It was the one book that would have fulfilled all of these challenges, and yet I never finished it. And while I’ve watched this movie probably one-hundred times at least by now, I did not watch it during Booktubeathon, so I can’t say that I completed this challenge.
So in total, while I didn’t reach the goals of each challenge, I did complete the one goal I had: read more. I finished three books in one week. I haven’t done that since high school. Even during community college, I would read two books at once on top of all of my school reading, but I almost never finished one book a week at that rate. And when it came to University, I was way too swamped with all the reading from each of my English classes (cause I’m an English major and all) to pursue my own personal literatures. And after three years of that bad habit, I find it difficult to resume the reading stride I once had, even if I have more time now. So while I wasn’t successful in completing every challenge I wanted, I was successful in reading again.
Now it’s time for me to set my own goals and challenges to keep my newly lit reading spirit fire alive and bright. Now it’s completely up to me.
Bookends Review 