Before I Go by Colleen Oakley

 Title : Before I Go

Author : Colleen Oakley

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Contemporary Fiction, 

Number of Pages : 320

Publication Date : January 6, 2015

Publisher : Gallery Books

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

A Triple Knot by Emma Campion

Title : A Triple Knot

Author : Emma Campion

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Historical Fiction

Number of Pages : 480

Publication Date : July 8th, 2014

Publisher : Broadway Books

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

A to Z Bookish Survey

Well...guess who has pinkeye? Scratch that...pinkEYES. Yup. I am currently operating half blind and working hard to prevent myself from clawing viciously at the itching, burning orbs inhabiting my face. I woke up yesterday morning with my eyes glued shut...always a great start when your job relies on you having good vision. Then...well, then there was purulent exudate - which is a nice fancy medical term for pus. Appetizing, right? And now I have an unplanned day off where I am concentrating on not spreading my contagion throughout the house and dreading the 8 hour mark when I have to go dose myself again with super fun antibiotic eye drops. The medication has helped, but the eyes still refuse to operate at 100%. Basically I'm struggling today. So...it's time for something laid back and fun. 

I first saw the A to Z Bookish Survey over at Karsyn's blog. She got it from Jamie over at Perpetual Page Turner. Since I've been on a total book kick lately, I figured it was appropriate to go ahead and slip this on in. And now you get to learn more about my reading habits. (Because I know you were all just dying to find out more.)

Source

Author You've Read the Most Books From : John Grisham. 19 books.

This was not a surprise to me at all. I had a minor obsession with John Grisham novels for a few years, reading them as soon as they came out. A Time to Kill still ranks up there as one of my favorite books. To be completely honest, I've probably actually read more books by Mary Higgins Clark, but I read them as a teenager (prior to Goodreads), so I can't keep track of them all. I'm sure it's pretty close to a tie between the two.

(I learned how to figure this out thanks to Jamie and Karsyn. Go to your "my books" section in Goodreads and select "most read authors" from the left hand side under the list of your shelves.)

Best Sequel Ever : 

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy #2)

I actually have quite a few good series reads in my completed list...many of them rated at 5 stars. But the second book in the Millennium series has to be the pick for this one. After all, it was the winner for 2011's BOTY Bracket. The whole series was really well written and I'm totally bummed that Stieg Larsson passed away. I loved these books.

Currently Reading : There are a few books on the "currently reading" shelf. That's what happens. I spread myself out a little sometimes.

1. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

2. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (current Classics Spin read)

3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (current Deal Me In read)

4. Anathema by Megg Jensen (current ARC read)

Drink of Choice While Reading : More often than not, plain old ice water. I'm fancy like that.

E-Reader or Physical Book? Honestly, this one depends on my mood. I love my Nook for the convenience, but I still enjoy the feel of an honest to goodness book in my hands. If I'm travelling, I prefer the e-reader just because I can haul a library's worth of books without the heft. If I'm at home, it just depends on the day.

Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Actually Dated in High School : Hmm...in high school I dated a little bit here and there, but had two fairly serious relationships...both of them with "bad boys". I would've really liked to say a character like Kostas from the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series or Adam from the If I Stay series, but they weren't really my style back then. I'd have to say that it would've been more likely to be Cam from the Fallen series. Dark, brooding, and plays by his own rules. Yup. That's about right.

Glad You Gave This Book a Chance : 

Finding Alice by Melody Carlson

I picked this one up on a whim. I'd heard nothing about it, just riding on my obsession for all things Alice. It worked out quite well. I loved this book so, so much.

Hidden Gem Book : 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This one blew me away. I was expecting just another YA read. I was expecting good. I was not expecting amazing. But it was just so, so great. It wowed me so much that it ended up taking out a pile of other books and becoming my favorite read of 2013.

Important Moment in Your Reading Life : Wow. I don't really know how to answer this one. There have been so many good books and so many good moments along the way. I will say that participating in read-a-thons and other book events online has been wonderful for me and finding a group of amazing book bloggers to follow has helped me to find all kinds of new opportunities and great new books.

Just Finished : 

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

Kinds of Books You Won't Read : I do read quite a bit, but there are a few genres that just generally aren't my thing. I really can't do bodice rippers...though I did read the Fifty Shades series, so maybe I just haven't found the right books in that area. I'm also not huge on non-fiction, but I've read a few good memoirs lately, so that may be changing. Maybe the lesson here is that any genre can be a genre for me if I find the right book.

Longest Book You've Read : 

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - 1463 pages

(Another tip from Jamie and Karsyn...on the "read books" screen in Goodreads, select the "num pages" option from the "sort" menu at the bottom right of the screen.)

Major Book Hangover Because of :

Number of Bookcases You Own : Let me preface this by saying that we have turned our upstairs bonus room into a library. That will make this number seem slightly less crazy. Slightly. Bookcases I own: Twelve. Put all together, about eight of them are full. 

One Book You Have Read Multiple Times : 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

I freaking love that book. I reread it about every three years.

Preferred Place to Read : I have four places I like to read in my house. It depends on temperature and time of day. Rainy day? Library in the Papasan chair. Holy crap I love that chair. Sunny day? Chair on the patio (with a second chair to use as an ottoman). Late at night? Sick? In bed. Any other time/weather pattern? Comfy red couch in the family room.

Quote That Inspires You/Gives You All the Feels From a Book You've Read :

"Don't you think it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?" - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Reading Regret : Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger No. Just no. 201 pages of incredible boredom. Why didn't I give up???

Series You Started and Need to Finish (All Books are out in Series) :

Alright, this one is a little embarrassing...

1. The Tudor Court by Philippa Gregory

2. Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

3. Jenna Fox Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson

4. The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle

5. Robert Langdon by Dan Brown

6. The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

Three of Your All-Time Favorite Books :

Unapologetic Fangirl For :

Very Excited for this Release More Than All the Others : I don't even have an answer for this one. Why? Because my TBR list has over 1,000 books on it. Almost all of which have already been released. Too many good books to read. If you would've asked me a couple of months ago, I would've said City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. But...it's already out. So I've got nothing.

Worst Bookish Habit : I bite off more than I can chew. (See the above answer.) I can't get enough. I have four books on my currently reading list. Four. And I have sooooo many books I want to read. I'll never read them all before I die. Yet I keep letting the list grow, unashamed.

X Marks the Spot (Start at the Top Left of your Shelf and Pick the 27th Book) :

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung

Your Latest Book Purchase :

Is it horrible that I can't remember? I buy a lot of used books at thrift stores, usually multiple books at a time. They end up getting stacked vertically on a shelf in the library until I drag them downstairs for temporary residency on my nightstand.

ZZZ-Snatcher (Last Book that Kept You Up WAY Late) :

I stayed up until about 2:30 in the morning trying to finish this one when I was working the next day. I didn't make it. I ended up having to finish it the next day (well...later that day). Bummer.


There. Now...back to my regularly scheduled program of watching comedy specials on Netflix and obsessively washing my hands.

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Wrap Up

We took on the family day thing full force yesterday, so there was no reading...and no post. I did do a bit of reading in the wee hours of Sunday morning, but it wasn't enough to make my goals. Oh well. It was nice to spend some time with my family.

And now this week I'm mostly hanging out alone. Dar's at his mom's for the week and Collin is on a short work trip out of town. I have plans to get a few projects done around the house (including some sewing and other craft projects). We'll see what all I can manage.

Now, how about a wrap up on last week's read-a-thon?

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Day 5/6

A couple of unproductive reading days for me. Despite having most of Friday afternoon off, I managed to distract myself with YouTube videos of Eddie Izzard's comedy performances. I attempted Netflix first, but apparently they don't have any of his videos in their streaming options. Not cool. I'm mildly obsessed with the man and find him hilarious. I sincerely hope that he finds his way out to within reasonable travelling distance for me sometime during his Force Majeure Tour. Seeing one of his performances live would really make my day.

However, my choice to get sucked into the YouTubes may prove disastrous. You see, after that Collin returned home and we had a family night out for dinner. As a result, I completed very little reading for day 5. I repeated the laziness for day 6 and we spent the evening watching movies together.

I'm also kind of riding the struggle bus with my current book. It's a more serious novel than my last two have been, which means that I'm moving a little slower on reading it. Between that and my knack for finding distractions, I may very well not reach my goals for the read-a-thon. I think that the time goal might still be within my grasp. The page goal could go either way. The book goal...well, I think that one may be a miracle. The only thing I do have working in my favor is that the two books in the stack following the one I'm currently reading are the two shortest in the bunch. We'll see what happens.

On the flip side, Darian has pretty much just won the read-a-thon. Being on summer break and spending a good chunk of the week at my office has totally worked in his favor. Friday he went ahead and wrapped up his remaining goals. He went to a birthday party today and then spent the evening watching movies with us, so didn't read a single page. For him, though everything from here out for him is totally icing on the cake. Pretty impressive.

Here are my sad stats (and Darian's pretty impressive ones) at the end of day 6...

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

Title : The House We Grew Up In

Author : Lisa Jewell

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Women's Fiction, Contemporary, Chick Lit

Number of Pages : 400

Publication Date : August 12th, 2014 (First published January 1, 2013)

Publisher : Atria Books

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Day 4

After a worthless day at the office, we spent our afternoon and evening doing very little other than reading. It was really quite nice. Slowly, but surely my stats are coming up.

It turns out I was right to push Darian to keep reading Zombies vs. Unicorns. The part he didn't like was more or less finished and the rest of the book he found pretty interesting from the sound of it. He's now onto a second zombie novel. Apparently he's found a genre he likes. Not my taste, but at least he's reading.

I've apparently made a major shift in my reading. After two fairy tale based novels, I'm now onto one set during World War II. That makes for a rough transition, let me tell you.

We're both doing pretty well with the read-a-thon and I'm looking forward to the weekend's reading time. Here's where we stand at the end of day 4...

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Day 3

I lost half of my afternoon reading time to a surprise nap. It was lovely, but not originally intended. We had a good evening together and then Collin took off for a short out-of-town trip for work. He should be home late tomorrow night or Friday morning. In the meantime, Darian and I will keep on trucking along on our reading.

Speaking of Darian, the kid is still totally dominating. He didn't finish a book today, but has now met his minutes goal for the week and is already past his halfway point on pages. Pretty darned impressive. I'm just plugging along gathering up a few minutes and pages here and there. Tomorrow night should prove to be a quiet one with some good reading time, so hopefully I'll make some good progress before the next update.

Here's our stats at the end of day 3...

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Day 2

Another day with multiple blog posts planned and it was my shortest reading day of the week. Work was busy and long and I had things to get done when I got home. I meant to have this posted before I went to bed, but instead I passed out in my book. Oops. It was a long day and it just didn't happen. So it's time for another morning update instead.

Darian once again totally stomped me in the stats department. He not only read more pages and more minutes, he also managed to finish his second book. Not too shabby. He did bail out on Unicorns vs. Zombies temporarily because of a dislike for the language used in one of the short stories. I happened upon an article about the famed children's author Judy Blume stating that parents worry too much about what their kids read and that the kids will self-censor if it is beyond their development or cognitive abilities. Funny to see her exact theory exemplified in my kid on the same day.

Being an avid reader myself, I really haven't been to concerned about what books Darian chooses. I'm just happy that he reads. I do try and push him to try new things, but I trust that he'll choose books that are appropriate and if he doesn't, well then I guess it's a learning experience for him. I never had any problems with the books I chose as a kid, so it's never really been a source of worry. When it came to Unicorns vs. Zombies, I was a little surprised that the profanity offended him. I actually laughed about it a little bit. In the end, I talked him into either skipping that short story and moving on to the rest of the book or just toughing it out and pushing through. I hate to see him give up on a book that he was so excited about. We'll see what happens, he's going to try it again today.

As for me, I'm not sure if I'm liking Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister or not. It's getting better as I go, but it's a bit different. We'll see...

Here's where we were at the end of Day 2...

Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah

Title : Of Scars and Stardust

Author : Andrea Hannah

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Young Adult Contemporary, Fantasy (Paranormal)

Number of Pages : 336

Publication Date : October 8, 2014

Publisher : Flux

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Day 1 Stats

We've finished our first day of the Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon. We typically post our updates at the end of each day, but since I did three posts yesterday, that was totally not happening. I told Darian that I would put this post up in the morning and then we'd get caught back up. So...there will be another update post late this evening to wrap up Day 2's progress.

Darian was a total reading fiend for day one. I think part of it had to do with the fact that he was stuck at my office for a chunk of the afternoon, but the rest was because he was just far too excited to start his current book, Zombies vs. Unicorns, so he wanted to hustle up and finish the book he was reading. Whatever works; he got a great jumpstart on the week. He's putting me a little to shame on his reading time.

So far, I'm having good luck with the books I'm undertaking for the week. I'm hoping that this selection proves to be as good as last week's. Having all of those books be so good made it really easy to want to spend the majority of my free time reading. Day two probably won't be as productive on the reading front for me. It's my busiest work day this week, so I will only have time in the evening after dinner is all done and cleaned up. I also have some laundry that will need attention, so there goes a bit more of the night. Oh well...I'm sure I'll make up for it later in the week.

Here's where we are at the end of Day 1...

Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon: Goals

This week we're taking on another read-a-thon. This week it's the Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon hosted by The Book Monsters.

Darian has decided to join me this week, so we went over to the library this morning after his orthodontist appointment (where he got his fourth retainer...this time a more sturdy one that he hopefully can't destroy). We got him all stocked up and I traded in the books I finished last week for two new ones to add to my current pile.

We've both set goals based on our goals from the Bout of Books read-a-thon we did in May. If we met the goal, then we've set our goal about 20% higher. If we didn't meet our goal, well...then we've more or less stuck with that original goal.

I'll be finishing up my currently library book and then taking a slight detour for my Deal Me In book of the week before going back to the library stack. Darian is starting off by finishing his current e-book and then heading to his library books. We're both looking forward to some pretty great books.

Elle's Goals 

Total Reading Time Goal : 12 hours (720 minutes)

Total Pages Goal : 900 pages

Completed Books Goal : 

Currently Reading : Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Planned Reading : 
          1. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
          2. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
          3. Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
          4. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
          5. Glimmerglass by Jenna Black
          6. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Bonus Books :
          1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
          2. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
          3. How to Love by Katie Cotugno
          4. How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Darian's Goals 

Total Reading Time Goal : 1100 minutes

Total Pages Goal : 1200 pages

Completed Books Goal : 4

Currently Reading : Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull

Planned Reading :
          1. Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbaleister
          2. The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
          3. Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier
     
Bonus Books :
          1. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
          2. The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart


We'll be updating our progress daily. I tried to talk Darian into a 24-hour spree on Saturday, but he's apparently wimping out this time. Boo. We'll have to come up with something else we can do to make this one special. Any ideas?

Library Read-a-Thon : Day 7 & Wrap Up

Well...this week's read-a-thon is over and I'm happy to say that I met all of my goals. I was helped out by an extended power outage yesterday that left us without power from 8pm until 2:30am this morning. That delayed my posting, but also left me with little to do other than read. By headlamp. In bed. Like a dork. Oh well, it worked. I will say, I didn't really realize how much of my life truly depends on power. I was mildly panicked about the meat in my freezer until we knew exactly how long they expected the outage to last. I was also super bummed that my internet access from both my laptop and my iPad relies on power to run our modem and wireless router so all internet related activities were out. That was super inconvenient since most of the plans I had for the evening required the internet.

Now...how about we see how I did?

Summary Sunday (on a Monday): Power Down Edition

Well...this would've been posted last night, but shortly after returning from my parents' house last night, we lost all power...until 2:30 this morning. So much for being productive on a Sunday evening. Instead, I read...by headlamp. Yup. Looked like a dork, but got some reading done in the otherwise very, very dark.

Thanks to the power mess, there will be not one, not two, but three posts today. Crazy, I know. But there is a lot of blogging to be done. First will be this one (obviously), second is my wrap up post for the Library Books Read-a-Thon and then third will be the introductory post for this week's read-a-thon, the Summer Library Challenge Read-a-Thon.

This month is turning more into another book month than a Pinterest month, so I've considered making a change. Pinterest Challenge month has been scrapped and I'm thinking instead about creating a year-long challenge for myself based on my Pinterest pins. I think this might be more effective. Somehow, scheduling myself for specific projects just seems a little more obnoxious and unlikely to happen than making myself a big list to attack as I get the whim. I'll mull it over.

I'm also working on my 30 day blogroll cleanup. I started with 207 on the 10th. So far, it looks like at least 39 will be surviving. Come July 10th, I'll say goodbye to at least a small handful.

Now...back to work...let's sum up last week.

Library Books Read-a-Thon : Day 6

Only one more day left! It's day six of the Library Books Read-a-Thon. I'm glad I have one more day. I got some reading in, but took a little detour. The itch to sew started up, so I headed upstairs and made my niece a sparkly superhero cape. (She requested a cape at Darian's last band concert about a month ago. I figured it was time to deliver.)

One pattern from scratch, a couple yards of fabric, and a couple of hours later, and she's all set to fight crime. Her cape delivery is set for tomorrow afternoon. We'll see if she approves.

Here's my reading progress pre-cape...

Library Books Read-a-Thon : Day 5

It's day five of the Library Books Read-a-Thon. And I was right...not much reading got accomplished today. I did however complete my dad's Father's Day present, so I've got that going for me. That frees up time to read tomorrow and hopefully meet my goals!!

Here's my progress so far...

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Title : Lucky Us

Author : Amy Blom

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Historical Fiction

Number of Pages : 256

Publication Date : July 29th, 2014

Publisher : Random House

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

Library Books Read-a-Thon: Day 4

It's day four of the Library Books Read-a-Thon. Today was an interesting day. I don't know how to describe it other than: not what I expected. I'd explain more, but really it wouldn't make much sense to those who don't know me outside of the blog and to those who do...well, it would probably just be boring. So we'll skip it.

I did do some reading today though. I managed to finish another book and find a new author to love in the process.

Tomorrow will probably be a pretty long day for me so I'm not sure how much reading I will get accomplished. I'm still aiming for my original goals of 4 finished books, 850 read pages, and 840 minutes of reading time.

Here's my progress so far...

Library Books Read-a-Thon : Day 3

I've made it halfway through my work week. Yay!! It's day three of the Library Books Read-a-Thon and I got some solid reading in today. I'm pretty happy about that. I even finished another book and am now reading an actual library book rather than e-books from my Nook. It's been a while.

This week has just been feeling extremely weird. I have to really think about it before I know what day of the week it is. I don't know why my internal calendar is so goofed up, but I am seriously struggling over here. I'm hoping the weekend will give me a reset. It can't come soon enough.

I did manage to start my blog reading clean out procedure today. That, of course, was after Feedly recovered from their cyberattack and I was able to access my feeds. I was a little shocked to see what I'm dealing with. Guess how many blogs I started with? It's ridiculous.

207.

I know, nuts right? I've already earmarked 24 of them to be saved for sure. I'm also pretty sure I've identified at least 5 that will be eliminated. Total drop in the bucket, I know. But it's just the beginning of this process. I'll let you know how many survivors there are come July 10th. All survivors will then be entered into my blog roll over at the right column of the blog. Because I like to share the love.

Now...as far as reading goes...here's how my progress is going so far:

The Right Thing by Amy Conner

Title : The Right Thing

Author : Amy Conner

Series : N/A, Standalone

Genre : Women's Fiction, Chick Lit, Southern Fiction

Number of Pages : 288

Publication Date : Jan 1, 2014

Publisher : Kensington

Rating :

I received this book as a free copy from NetGalley. These books are given to me as review copies to read and evaluate. I am not obligated to write a review for any of the books I receive, but it is an encouraged practice. I choose which books I review on my blog and on my Goodreads profile. I do not receive monetary compensation for my reviews. My reviews are always honest...I never lie about books. My opinions are my own and may be positive or negative depending on my feelings about a specific piece. Keep in mind, just because I may like or not like a book may not mean that you will feel the same way.

Library Books Read-a-Thon : Day 2

There are not enough hours in a day. That's all there is to it. I have been up and running since about 7 a.m. and for all that I accomplished, I am just now sitting down to write this post and I still want to squeeze in some more reading before I go to bed. That might be a tall order.

It's day two of the Library Books Read-a-Thon and I did finally manage to get started. I even finished a book. I know, shocking. I spoke to Darian earlier today and it seems he's bailing on me. His excuse was "it's not as much fun without someone to do it with". I'm pretty sure that's tween boy code for "I can sit around and watch TV and play video games all day over here. Why would I read?" But...he's promised that he'll participate for next week's read-a-thon. Slacker. You'd think it was summer or something.

Oh, and I realized that I kind of flaked out on last night's post and forgot to really state my goals for the read. It's going to be a bit of a weird week for me since I actually didn't start the read-a-thon until about midnight last night and Sunday is Father's Day. But I'm still going to try and get some serious reading done. I'm going to aim for 4 books, 850 pages, and 14 hours (840 minutes). We'll see how I do.

Here's how my progress is going so far:

Currently Reading: This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

Minutes Read Today: 3 hours 16 minutes (196 minutes)

Total Time Read: 3 hours 16 minutes. (196 minutes)

Goal: 14 hours (840 minutes).

Pages Read Today: 170

Total Pages Read: 170

Goal: 850 pages.

Books Finished Today: 1

Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
4 out of 5 stars

Total Books Finished: 1

Goal: 4 books.

Oh...and one last thing. I've made a decision based on tonight's experience. When I popped into my Feedly after getting home from work I expected around 100 entries to read/peruse. Umm...no. I had over 250. Ridiculous. So it's time to cull the herd. I'll be keeping track of the blogs that I actually read a post from over the next 30 days and still find applicable to me and my interests. The rest will be axed from the feed on July 10th. Executive decision. Sometimes you just evolve your blog tastes I suppose. Don't worry book bloggers, I would wager that 98% or more of you are totally safe. I seem to be in a bookish mode lately.