Category: Book Challenges

2017 Netflix and Books Challenge

Posted December 12, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 40 Comments

We have a book blog here so obviously we love books… but another thing Erica and I noticed in the community is the love of Netflix (or binging TV shows in general). We wanted to include both of those in a challenge for the year of 2017, which led to… the Netflix and Books Challenge! We previously put together the Netflix and Books Tag that people seemed to enjoy, so we already had some pretty great ideas in place to take it one step further. 😉 This will be a year-long challenge held by Erica from Novel Ink and me! What exactly is the Netflix and Books Challenge? This is going to be a yearly challenge focused on watching television shows we’ve been wanting to get to (both new and old), and reading books we’ve been wanting to read that match some fun challenge prompts. If you choose to, you’ll have the chance to earn points throughout the year (thank you Aentee from Read at Midnight for allowing us to use her point system idea!). Level One for the Casual Participant The first level of the challenge is to simply make a TBR list and TBW list (to be watched) and then link it up with us here. You’ll see prompts below that describe certain book and TV settings, plot points, tropes, time periods, etc. Develop a TBR list based on those prompts and see how many you can actually read in 2017. Then, share some TV shows with us that you plan to watch in 2017 as […]

ARC August and Bout of Books Wrap-Up

Posted September 3, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments

ARC August is officially over and I did a fairly decent job honestly. Let’s recap on my goal: My goal was to have a 1:1 ARC to regular/backlist ratio this month. I was really hoping I could push it to 2:1, especially with my goal to only read ARCs for Bout of Books at the end of the month. How did I do? Let’s investigate. Progress/Tracking Week One (8/1 through 8/6) Non-ARCs finished: 0 /// ARCs finished: 2 Non-ARCs: None this week August 2nd: Finished WRECKED, Started IF I FIX YOU August 5th: Finished IF I FIX YOU Week Two (8/7 through 8/13) Non-ARCs finished: 2 /// ARCs finished: 1 Non-ARCs: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, Truly Madly Guilty August 8th: Started GEMINA August 12th: Finished GEMINA Week Three (8/14 through 8/20) Non-ARCs finished: 3 /// ARCs finished: 1 Non-ARCs: Nantucket Red, Before I Fall, Crown of Midnight August 15th: Started GAME ON August 18th: Finished GAME ON August 19th: Started SWEET CAROLINA MORNING Week Four (8/21 through 8/27) Non-ARCs finished: 0 /// ARCs finished: 2 Non-ARCs: None August 21st: Started THIS ADVENTURE ENDS August 22nd: Finished SWEET CAROLINA MORNING August 23rd: Finished THIS ADVENTURE ENDS August 24th: Started THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY Week Five (8/28 through 8/31) Non-ARCs finished: 0 /// ARCs finished: 1 Non-ARCs: None August 29th: Started CHERRY August 31st: Finished THE YEAR WE TURNED FORTY Wrap-Up I ended up finishing ARC August with a total of 5 regular books to 7 ARCs. YAY! That’s better than the 1:1 I was hoping for. I read more ARCs than backlist titles, so that’s great for me. Bout […]

ARC August Check-In and Bout of Books Sign-Up

Posted August 15, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 4 Comments

ARC August is somehow already halfway over, so I wanted to check in on how I’m doing with my goals so far. I have to admit I didn’t really make a lofty goal because I was afraid of my mood reading biting me in the ass, but let’s remind ourselves what I set out to do regardless… My goal is to have a 1:1 ARC to regular/backlist ratio this month. I knew I couldn’t push it even though I’d love to have a 2:1 ratio. I decided to track all of the ARCs in this post until it was time to share my progress, so you’ll see how I’ve been doing below. I didn’t include all of the non-ARCs I read in-between just because it would muddy it up… but I did track if I read regular books in that week so I knew how good I was doing with my planned ratio! I also usually track the days where I continued reading a book, but I think that’s a bit obvious, so I’m leaving that out. Just the highlights (starting and finishing books) below. Progress/Tracking Week One (8/1 through 8/6) Non-ARCs finished: 0 /// ARCs finished: 2 Non-ARCs: None this week August 2nd: Finished WRECKED, Started IF I FIX YOU August 5th: Finished IF I FIX YOU Week Two (8/7 through 8/13) Non-ARCs finished: 3 /// ARCs finished: 1 Non-ARCs: Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, Truly Madly Guilty August 8th: Started GEMINA August 13th: Finished GEMINA Week Three (8/14 through 8/20) Non-ARCs finished: 1 […]

Must Read in 2016 Halfway Point (Link-Up + Giveaway)

Posted July 23, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 0 Comments

Do you ever look at a book and think “HOW have I not read this yet?!” I created a link-up for 2016 where you challenge yourself to make a list of those books and then read them, instead of sitting around and waiting for the next year to come and go again. These could be books you’re super excited about and somehow never read (and maybe you even preordered them!). I dubbed this challenge/link-up the Must Read in 2016 Challenge, and a few of you decided to join me! I said that we’d check in around the halfway point in the year just to say “oh shit I forgot about this!” and hopefully use it as motivation to READ. THOSE. BOOKS. I welcome you to join in for the 2nd half of the year! The linky is available for you to post your TBRs and the Rafflecopter is available to enter into the giveaway. That’s really all you have to do. Sometimes making a TBR post alone is enough to get me to read the damn books. I’ve edited the “rules” a little bit so they make more sense, now that half of the year has passed us by already somehow. So here’s what you can do if you’re interested in joining in still: 1. Write a blog post or create a Goodreads shelf that shows what books you were HYPED for in 2015 or early 2016 but somehow never got around to. It doesn’t have to be 2015 or 2016 releases – just any […]

Make Me Read It | Readathon TBR

Posted June 16, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 14 Comments

Thanks for voting in the poll for this readathon! I laid out all of my potential reads and you guys helped narrow my list down. I pulled some of the top books (more than I’ll actually read, to be honest) and will be reading them in order starting with the most-voted-for book. Hosted by Ely @ Tea & Titles and Val @ The Innocent Smiley /// July 9th through 16th Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the readathon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Alright friends, here are the top books that your voting gave […]

Make Me Read It | Readathon Sign-Up and Poll

Posted June 11, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 17 Comments

Last year’s Make Me Read It Readathon was actually quite successful for me! It pushed me to read a number of books that I kept putting off for one reason or another. I will be including a few from last year’s poll, some now-published ARCs I have sitting around still, and a few from my Must Read in 2016 Challenge. Hosted by Ely @ Tea & Titles and Val @ The Innocent Smiley /// July 9th through 16th Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you’ve borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I’d pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten. Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read. When the readathon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there’s a tie, then it’s your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. Now that you […]

Top 10 Underrated Contemporary Romances

Posted May 28, 2016 / Book Challenges, Book Lists, Features / 8 Comments

As you (probably don’t) know, one goal I had when starting this blog was to feature recommendation lists for people seeking new books to read within different topics. Top Ten Tuesday kind of took over for this area for me, which is perfect, but sometimes I like to create my own. The Contemporary Romance Challenge hosts a monthly topic to partake in. Past topics this year: Anticipated Early ’16 Romances • Recs for Newbies • Favorite Tropes • Favorite Contemp Romances Ever Here’s May’s topic: Underrated Contemporary Romances I have to say, I tend to follow the trends within romance. I don’t go out on a limb much because I’ve gotten SUPER picky about the romances I like and don’t like. I have generally found that self-pubbed romances contain too much angst for me (with the exception of one series you’ll see on this list!!), so I don’t read them unless they’re highly recommended to me. I’ll split this up into different “age groups.” Young Adult New Adult Adult

Bout of Books 16 Wrap-Up | Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Midpoint Check-In

Posted May 15, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features / 1 Comment

Bout of Books 16 Wrap-Up Bout of Books is coming to an end late tonight, so here’s my big wrap-up post. Check out my original sign-up and TBR options or look at the daily progress I made if you want specifics. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal: Read ARCs and required reading books (3-6) I did well! I was hoping to read between three and six books during this challenge. I was reading a lot of books at the same time, so it was nice to finally start finishing a few of them off. My total numbers for Bout of Books are below, as well as the books I ended up reading for this challenge. Final Numbers Number of books finished: 5 Number of books still reading: 2 2 ARCs and 3 regular books Clean Sweep ARC Challenge Midpoint Check-In Check out my original sign-up post here! May 1st through 31st 24 Hour Readathon on May 21st Use #CleanSweepARC Hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Kristin @ Addicted to Happily Ever After […]

Bout of Books TBR and Tracking

Posted May 8, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 10 Comments

Bout of Books 16 is Coming Tomorrow! I signed up for Bout of Books again! What else is new? I love participating even if my reading doesn’t increase as much as I always think it will. At least it motivates me to finish some things! More details on Bout of Books: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal and TBR Original goal: Read only ARCs during Bout of Books! Newish goal: Read ARCs and required reading books (whoops?) So I wanted to get a good start for the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge this month by reading only ARCs during Bout of Books… but it looks like that will get derailed. Based on books I just got and books I NEED to read, my TBR will be a little stricter and a little less ARC-oriented. I plan to read between 3 and 6 books this week! This TBR is subject to change because I may read/finish these earlier than I thought. Let’s see what I’ll be potentially picking from: Because they’re ARCs I […]

Bout of Books 16 Sign-Up | Clean Sweep ARC Challenge TBR

Posted April 29, 2016 / Book Challenges, Features, TBR Lists / 10 Comments

Bout of Books 16 Sign-Up & TBR Options First things first, I am going to be signing up for Bout of Books again! What else is new? This is a pretty great post to tack this onto because it’s going to tie in directly with the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge. More details on Bout of Books: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th 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 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team Goal: Read only ARCs (below) during Bout of Books! I would love to get a jump start on the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge by reading only ARCs from the TBR below during Bout of Books. It takes place during the second full week of May, so it’ll be a good way of ensuring that I get off on the right foot. Because I have an actual TBR to choose from, I don’t want to set a specific goal for how many books I’d want to read. As usual, I’d like to read 2-4 books in a week. This is pretty standard for me so let’s see how it goes! […]