Stikkord: Bout of Books

Like last time I will stick to one post for the week, updating every morning or so.

Goals for the week:

1. Finish some books. I’m in the middle of… too many. Most of which I really like, but due to the reading mojo being somewhat absent they hang around for a lot longer than they should.

2. Blog about some books. Not necessarily the same ones as in point 1, but it wouldn’t hurt.

3. Have fun.

Monday 14 May

Travelling all day in a car, so no reading. Had I planned better I could have brought an audiobook, but I didn’t.

Tante Ulrikkes vei – Zeshan Shakar: 280-288 = 8 pages

Better than nothing, but hardly impressive…

Tuesday 15 May

Need to read for work today, so should get quite a few pages done.

Tante Ulrikkes vei – Zeshan Shakar: 288-300 = 12 pages
The Data Warehouse Toolkit 2nd Ed. – Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross: 62-88 = 26 pages
Mister God, This is Anna – Fynn: 13-68 = 55 pages

Total: 93 pages. Not too shabby.

Tuesday challenge is «Year of You», to share a book that was published the year I was born. I had a look at Goodread’s «most popular books published in 1974» list and noticed a few familiar titles, but not that many I’ve actually read. I was considering Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I did read at some point, but then I scrolled far enough down to find Mister God, This is Anna. I can’t remember when I discovered this gem of a book, but I was completely in love with it for a while. It’s one of the books I own more than one copy of, two almost identical paperbacks, and while I can’t make a good cause for not getting rid of one of them, I can’t seem to find it in me to do so. It’s been years, probably 20 or so, since I read it, so that’s what I’m reading this evening, in defiance of my actual goals for the BoB.

Bout of books 22 challenge for Tuesday: A book first published the year I was born. Turns out Mister God, This is Anna was published in 1974, a book I adored when I first discovered it 20+ years ago. So guess what I’m reading this evening? #boutofbooks #boutofbooks22 #bookstagram

A post shared by Ragnhild Lervik (@lattermild) on May 15, 2018 at 12:01pm PDT

Other book-related things done today: Booked airplane tickets and hotel for Bokbloggertreffet 2018. Woot!

Wednesday 16 May

Last working day of the week, really, since tomorrow is our national day (not expecting to get much reading at all done tomorrow), and we’re going away for the weekend Friday morning as the kids have time off. Though I suppose I can read work-related stuff while away (I should, I’m behind).

Tante Ulrikkes vei – Zeshan Shakar: 300-324 = 24 pages
The Data Warehouse Toolkit 2nd Ed. – Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross: 88-118 = 30 pages
Mister God, This is Anna – Fynn: 68-90 = 22 pages

Wednesday challenge: «Show me your precious»:

Bout of books 22 challenge for Wednesday: «Show me your precious». I’ve featured this copy of Pride & Prejudice before, but in terms of physical qualities it remains my favourite book. Handy format, protected by slip-case, gilded edges, nicely tooled cover, illustrations and, not least, several decades (by now) of marginalia by my younger self. #boutofbooks #boutofbooks22 #bookstagram

A post shared by Ragnhild Lervik (@lattermild) on May 16, 2018 at 3:58am PDT

Thursday 17 May

Norway’s national day, which means zilch reading, at least while the kid is in a band and I am in the 17th May committee: Up at six to get the eldest into band uniform and me in decent clothes for assembly at 6:45. Marching, flag up, bus to town, follow the band until they’re where they need to be for the parade, escape for a brief while to see the other kid and watch parts of the parade (crucially the one with the eldest, I wanted to see her school, too, but missed it), pick up the kid again at the end point, stop by the school briefly (I actually missed this part, my husband to the kids and I went home to nap for an hour or so before:), assemble at the local school (which the band belongs to) to finalize the setup for the afternoon’s games and grill and café, wander around helping out where needed and trying to get to spend some time with the kids, getting the public to leave at six and tidy up everything after, home shortly after seven pm, tidy away the things that have to be put away (in the fridge/freezer, anything else can wait), fix some sort of dinner for myself, collapse. The fact that I squeezed in 4 pages is a miracle of sorts. By the end of the day I was too tired to read, so I started the rewatch of MASH that I’ve been thinking about forever.

Mister God, This is Anna – Fynn: 90-94 = 4 pages

Friday 18 May

Travelling to Hitra by boat with the kids today, some reading should actually be possible…

Today’s challenge is space-themed (I’ll start off now, but may have to think about some of them for a while):

Mercury – Favourite short story/novella: En plutselig frigjørende tanke by Kjell Askildsen
Venus – Favourite book with female protagonist:
Earth – Favourite book about nature/nature word in the title: One by Gerrald Durrel, let’s go with The Bafut Beagles.
Mars – Favourite book with a red cover:
Jupiter – Favourite tome over 500 pages:
Saturn – Favourite book with circle/ring on the cover/in the title:
Uranus – Favourite book set in winter:
Neptune – Favourite book set at sea, on a boat, or under water: All of the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O’Brian
Pluto – Favourite books featuring a dog/with a dog on the cover:
Moon – Favourite book set anywhere other than Earth: Dragonsinger/Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Sun – Favourite book set in summer:
Space – Favourite book set in space: The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Tante Ulrikkes vei – Zeshan Shakar: 324-430 = 106 pages
Mister God, This is Anna – Fynn: 94-140 = 46 pages
Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett: 1-14 = 14 pages

Saturday 19 May

Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett: 14-78 = 64 pages
Grensen – Erika Fatland: 192-220 = 28 pages

Sunday 20 May

Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett: 78-240 = 162 pages

Day six Instagram challenge completed today: Shelfie.

A day late, a #shelfie for the #bob22igchallenge day six. This is our emergency shelf at the in-laws’ summer house, though I notice some Reader’s Digest books have snuck in there (none of our doing!) and I don’t quite know what to feel or do about that…

A post shared by Ragnhild Lervik (@lattermild) on May 20, 2018 at 12:54pm PDT

Wrap-up

Number of pages read: 601
Number of books finished: 2

Considering one of the books I finished was also started this week AND I started another one, too, I guess I will call that a bit of a fail on goal number 1. As for the number of pages, it’s perfectly acceptable. I read (lots) more than I do on average, and this time it was mostly pretty dense text (and partly non-fiction of the drier kind) rather than comics. So yay.

I didn’t actually blog about any books during the BoB week, but I did write most of this post about Fargeglade vampyrer which I pressed published on today (Monday 21st). But on the other hand I should have realised that getting much blogging done this week was never going to happen, so I  will declare myself satisfied with goal 2 not really being reached.

As for goal 3: But of course.

Am I ready for Bout of Books 23? You bet.

Come to think of it, I read more! I read five chapters – 39 pages – of Doktor Proktors prompepulver aloud to the five-year-old.

Bout of Books is here again. Well, it will be here in two weeks’ time, this is my signup post.

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, May 14th and runs through Sunday, May 20th 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 22 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I will stick to having just the one post for progress this week, rather than one per day, I think, so this post will be updated as the week progresses.

Monday

Castle of Llyr pages 42-170 (128)
Taran Wanderer pages 3-44 (41)
Amulet #7: Firelight pages 1-198 (198)

Monday challenge

Wore an appropriate t-shirt for the first day of #boutofbooks and today’s challenge is to introduce yourself #insixwords : Opinionated bookish omnivore, crafter, nerd, feminist.

A post shared by Ragnhild Lervik (@lattermild) on Jan 8, 2018 at 9:56am PST

Another book-related thing happened today, namely the announcement of the Bokbloggerprisen 2017 (the book blogger price for Norwegian books published in 2017) longlist. None of my nominees made it (I’m most upset about Keeperen og havet), and I’ve actually read 0 of the books on the longlist. I’ve got one, Nesten menneske, on loan from the library and need to get to that soon. For the others I will probably wait for the shortlist to see which ones I should prioritize and join the readalongs (one book a month from February to August).

Tuesday

Goodnight Punpun pages 1-424 (424)
Pondus 1/2018  (comic magazine) 1-50 (50)
Taran Wanderer pages 44-218 (174)

Tuesday challenge

The Tuesday challenge is to sum up 2018 reading goals. In the Goodreads challenge I’ve set 70 books as a goal, which I’m well on the way to (10/70 already!), but I don’t expect to keep up this progress. In any case, exceeding that number is obviously just a bonus. I’ve also noted that I need to read more books with author AND plot from outside Europe/North America. More than in 2017 shouldn’t be too difficult, as I had a grand total of one dubious fit. In fact, since I finished Goodnight Punpun today I have already exceeded last year’s total… Still, I mean to read more.

As far as challenges go, I intend to make an attempt at the Bookriot Read Harder as well as the Swedish bloggers’ Kaosutmaningen. I’m also hoping to participate in Moshonista’s Biography reading circle (waiting for the 2018 prompts to be published) and may consider Boktankers Bokhyllelesing – reading shelf-warmers – again waiting for the 2018 prompts (the link is to the 2017 prompts).

Wednesday

The High King pages 3-106 (103)

The Wednesday challenge was a book spine rainbow. I finally got around to it on Friday:

#boutofbooks challenge for Wednesday was #bookspinerainbow. Better late than never, I say, and present some of my most immediate tbrs sorted by spine colour.

A post shared by Ragnhild Lervik (@lattermild) on Jan 12, 2018 at 4:04am PST

Thursday

The High King pages 106-248 (142)

The Thursday challenge is called All the Favourites, and there are a few prompts to set us going, so here goes (I may add more as I think of them):

Audiobook narrator
I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks, and I don’t normally pay that much attention to who the narrator is when I do, but the most memorable narration I’ve ever heard was David Suchet’s reading of Murder on the Orient Express, where he does (perfect!) voices for all the different characters.

Illustrator
Thore Hansen has been a favourite for as long as I can remember, but Lisa Aisato is becoming a major contender for the top spot.

Series
I’d have to go with the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.

Bookish blog
One I’ve read for a long time and which continues to delight and inform me is the Swedish bookblog Enligt O.

Vlogger
I don’t do videos.

Favorite library (librarian)
I’ve never had a conscious relationship to specific librarians since I moved away from my childhood library, Hamar bibliotek. There were two female librarians – and no, I don’t remember their names – who worked (mostly) in the children’s/youth section who were helpful and gave good guidance, but also annoyed me because they were the face of the rule that you couldn’t take out books from the adult section before the age of 12 (I got around it by reading in the library, but it felt massively unfair). At the time I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up, so they were both important role models.

Friday

Så du ikke går deg bort pages 7-48 (41)

Saturday and Sunday

Så du ikke går deg bort pages 49-111 (63)

The weekend was a bit of a disaster, reading-wise. I had a photgraphy workshop on Saturday (some of the pictures I took can be seen here) and on Sunday we had a birthday party for the (newly-turned) eleven-year-old. But I did finish a Nobel Prize Winner, even if it was short, so there is that.

Totals for the week

Books finished

The Castle of Llyr, Chronicles of Prydain III – Lloyd Alexander
Amulet #7: Firelight – Kazu Kibiushi
Goodnight Punpun – Inio Asano
Taran Wanderer, Chronicles of Prydain IV – Lloyd Alexander
The High King, Chronicles of Prydain V – Lloyd Alexander
Så du ikke går deg bort – Patrick Modiano

Books blogged

Goodnight Punpun – Inio Asano
Vernon God Little – DBC Pierre (read prior to Bout of Books week)

Total number of pages read: 1364 (updated Friday)

And that’s pretty marvellous, considering I read all of 200 pages or so for Bout of Books 20 back in August, when my concentration levels should have been much better. This time around I managed almost 200 pages a day on average, even if almost half is comics/graphic novels that’s still over 100 pages of text a day, which is much more than I normally read (I just checked last year’s stats on Goodreads, and dividing the 17,924 pages they reckon I read by 365 I get 49 pages a day, and that number, too, includes a lot of comics/graphic novels).

AND I blogged about two books!

More importantly, perhaps: Fun was had.

Bout of Books will be back in May. So will I. Well, actually, I hope I’ll be blogging a bit between now and May, too, but you know what I mean.

Well.

I am afraid I was caught up in a wave of renewed enthusiasm for sewing this week, so I read… next to nothing. I am 72 pages into Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, and unless I’m having a blackout that is the extent of my reading for the rest of the week (well, apart from sewing instructions).

I made a bookspine rainbow, though, and decided it’s time to reread Jasper Fforde. I just need to find The Eyre Affair first, it’s gone missing.

The next Bout of Books is in January. I’ll probably give it a shot.

Well, I must admit, the numbers are not looking particularly impressive so far.

Day 1 I read the entirety of Alex Rider Point Blanc, a graphic novel the eldest had borrowed from the school library and loved. I can see why she liked it, and I found it entertaining myself, but I am quite clearly not its target market.

Day 2 I read… well, at least 10 pages of a book about millinary. But I did go to a reading circle meeting, so that was a couple of hours of bookish activity, even if it wasn’t technically reading.

Must do better today.

Reading’s going well, blogging… not so well. I’ll make this a Bout of Books 18 roundup post.

Thursday: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 164 to 282, 118 pages.

Friday: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 283 to 432 and
Sweet Masterpiece 89-114, 174 pages.

Saturday: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 433 to 517 and
Sweet Masterpiece 115-121, 90 pages.

Sunday: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 518-674, 156 pages.

Which gives a total of pages read this week of 940. I’m happy with that. Only one book finished, but since I happened to be reading the two thickest books in the Harry Potter canon, that is not surprising. I’d have gotten more reading done this weekend if it hadn’t been for the eldest turning ten and family descending for a party and we had to, ahem, tidy and clean a bit in preparation.

Read pages 398 to 546 in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (so 148 pages). Decided on the spur of the moment late Monday evening to sign up for Bout of Books.

Started several book-related collections in my bujo (something I’m testing for 2017, we’ll see how it goes). I thought I might as well share them.

Books read. Reasonably self-explanatory. I’ve cheated with GoF as I wanted to see how a book would fit on the shelf. Will probably decorate the shelf a bit more and colour it in. I’m planning on colouring the books I blog about, to give me a bit of a visual push on that front.

Mount Toberead. It’s in reality a lot bigger than this would seem to indicate, but I’ve only noted the three books I KNOW I need to read in the next few weeks so far.

Book stats tracker. Saw this idea somewhere and had a go at my own version. So far tracking: Target age, gender (of author), genre, origin of author/place of action IN Europe/North America our outside, and whether the book is relatable to a challenge. In the empty column I may add score, or perhaps track some more diversity markers. We’ll see.

As you’ll notice, all these pages are in English. They just came out that way. Some of the other pages in the bujo are in Norwegian, some are mixed. This is pretty much inevitable, unless I make a concentrated effort to remember to use only one language, and since part of the point of the bujo is to make it effortless enough so I actually use it, «concentrated effort» doesn’t really come into it.

The pages above are not very exciting at the moment, of course. I’ll get back to them in a blogpost later in the year to show how they progressed (well, if they do).