#RYBSAT Final Wrap-up

Before I reveal the total amount of pages I read, I'll quickly wrap-up the last few days of RYBSAT.

So, as you might have been able to tell from the distinct lack of posts, the last three days of Read-Your-Book-Shelf-A-Thon were pretty much no shows. I spent all day Friday out, firstly at the dentists, then with my sister seeing The Fault In Our Stars, and finally with my girlies in the evening. I was working 9.30-4.30 on Saturday, and with only a 20 minute lunch I barely had time to walk onto campus and grab some food, let alone read anything! I went straight from work to the fella's, who was having a Summer Solstice meet-up. We stayed up till the sunrise, and by the time I got home the next day all I wanted to do was sleep. Across the whole three days I managed to read till the end of Tigers In Red Weather (about 50 pages or so). So not great, but here is my final wrap-up:

Total Books Finished: 4 – On Beauty, The Book Thief, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Tigers In Red Weather.

Total Pages Read: 1,484

You can find all my daily update posts under the Wrap-up's heading on my homepage.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my reading progress. I read three whole books and a third of a fourth (I had started On Beauty before the week began) in pretty much four days. I'm a bit sad that I couldn't have carried on the progress, as I was on a real roll, but after the busy couple of days by the time Sunday came round my eyes were far too tired to read!

I'll be posting reviews of most of the books I've read over the past week in the next few weeks. 

I'd also like to say a huge thank you to the organisers of RYBSAT, in particular Miranda, who was so encouraging and re-tweeted all my blog posts!

#RYBSAT Day 4

Pages Read: 246

Books Finished: 0

Total Books Finished: 3 – On Beauty, The Book Thief, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Total Pages Read: 1,430

Today didn’t go so well. I had no time to read in the morning, and zero motivation to read in the evening. I made myself read through the England match, as reading through the football has helped before, and managed to read about 200 pages. I read another 46 before bed, and could probably have finished it as I had trouble getting to sleep, but I really needed to rest my eyes.

Tomorrow I’m going to see The Fault In Our Stars at the cinema with my sister, as well as meeting up with my girls in the late afternoon/evening for cocktails (my look for that will be up post-read-a-thon: it’s a take on Tanya Burrs’ Birthday Look). I’ve got an early start the next day too (I’m working from 9-4) and then have a meet-up in the evening with a the fella and a slightly different group of friends, so I’ve no idea if I’m going to be able to get much reading done over the next couple of days. The fate of this read-a-thon may lie in Sunday!

#RYBSAT Day 3

Pages Read: 421

Books Finished: 1 – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Total Books Finished: 3 – On Beauty, The Book Thief, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Total Pages Read: 1,184

I am super happy with my page count today! I started the morning carrying on with Harold Fry but found it really difficult to read – I had so much sympathy for Harold but it felt like nothing was going his way, and after the heartbreak of The Book Thief I didn’t think I could face another sad book. I managed to plough through a hundred or so pages before lunch, which was less that I’d have liked to. When I got home from work I steadied myself and picked up Harold Fry again. Thank goodness I did! The plot took a turn for the better, and it made the book so much more enjoyable to read – it almost read a bit like The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared – which, in all honesty, is what I expected it to be like from the start. I flew through the remaining 200 pages and immediately picked up Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann.

This has been the quickest turn around I’ve had so far – normally I give myself a small non-reading break between books – and I think it’s worked out okay for me. I managed to read another 87 pages before my eyes began to hurt. This brought my total up to 421 pages! I really didn’t think I would read as much as I did yesterday, but I’m so happy I did!

Tomorrow I’ve got another busy day. I’m going to see the fella in the morning, and have work in the afternoon, so I’ll only really have the evening to read. I’ve got 300 pages left of Tigers so hopefully I should just be able to finish it by the end of the day. 

#RYBSAT Day 2

Pages Read: 428

Books Finished: 1 – The Book Thief

Total Books Finished: 2 – On Beauty, The Book Thief

Total Pages Read: 763

As I said yesterday, I had a full day at work today, but a lot of time on the bus. In those bus journeys, I managed to read over 200 pages, which I was pretty happy with. I flew through The Book Thief (full review to follow), and I’d have to say that it is the kind of book which is perfect for a read-a-thon. Lots of short chapters are really good motivators to read (not that you need any extra motivation with this book), and the character voice was so unique that it was really enjoyable and easy to get swept along with. In total I read 417 pages of The Book Thief.

Before I went to bed, I picked up my next book – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I’ve slightly bent the rules for this book. It was on my TBR shelf, but it was further down the line. However, it was lent to me by my grandma a while back, so I thought I should boost it up there. It’s only 381 pages long, so judging by my pace I should finish that in day 3. If not, once again it’s got short chapters, so if I’m finding it slow there are plenty of places to pause and pick up a different book (which will be Tigers In Red Weather). I only read 11 pages (the first chapter) before my eyes started feeling it! I’m up to page 22 (it started on 11).

Tomorrow I’ve got another shift at work (although this is the same as Monday, so it’s not a super long shift and leaves me with all of the morning and all of the evening to read). I’ll also try to tweet my progress @VickiMaitland and I’ll be using and following the #RYBSAT tag!

#RYBSAT Day 1

Pages Read: 335

Books Finished: 1

Total Books Finished: 1

Total Pages Read: 335

(I meant to post this this morning, but miss-timed and had to run for a bus, sorry this is late!)

I stayed up till midnight (albeit accidentally) so I managed to get a head start reading. I only read 25 or so pages, but that put me on to a good start for the next morning. The book I was reading was Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, and I was just under 2/3 of the way through it at midnight. I finished this book 168 pages later just before lunch and after eating, getting ready for work and having some internet time, I had to leave for work before I could pick up the next book. I got home just before dinner, but as soon as I could I began to read Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. This has been on my TBR shelf (the one I’m using for this read-a-thon) since Christmas, and on my wish list for a few years, so I’m super excited to get round to it. I read all evening, and have got 167 pages through it so far, bringing my total page count to 335, which I’m relatively happy with.

Tomorrow I’ve got a pretty busy day, with a long shift at work, but it does involve 2 long bus journeys, which means I should get a decent chunk of reading done, despite not being able to dedicate my whole day to it like I’d hoped. I’ve got the whole evening at home though, so hopefully I can catch up on missed out time then.