Bout of Books 12 - Wrap Up

Wrapping it up I can say:

- nope, didn't finish one of the books I was hoping to finish
- but made good progress with another one
- read like a crazy person on several occasions here a few pages and there a few pages, was fun, though
- didn't post even one blog post during the whole week - oh wonder!

I read about 350 book pages all in all (more probably, counting all the bits and pieces) and that is more than I would read in an average week, so yay!

And also I really enjoyed following the #boutofbooks tag and seeing what others read.

Bout of Books 12 - Plans

I'm in again!

Bout of Books 12, because of course reading with a hashtag is so much more fun! ;)

The good thing is that I won't be working for three of the Bout of Books days (yay me!) and this will hopefully mean that I will get a lot of reading done, which was what I planned on doing anyway. And on my work days I'll also hopefully spend at least an hour commute reading everyday at least (except for when public transportation once again is unable to cope with winter and then I'll spend +X hours waiting for trains etc), plus whatever I'll be up to after work.

What I want to do during Bout of Books:
- finish two books during this week (considering I'm reading like 10 books at the same time, finishing two would be great), top of the list are Among Others and The Handmaid's Tale
- read a lot of Lion Feuchtwanger's Success, so that I'll be all up to date when visiting the exhibition about the book mid of January
- write reviews of whatever I read
- finally come here again and often, book blog and post some of the nearly finished posts in storage...

So here we go!
Good luck to all participants!

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, January 5th and runs through Sunday, January 11th 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 12 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

[Bout of Books] Before the Weekend

So, well. I wish I'd had more time to read during the week. But research has kept me busy every day and after spending 8+ hours in the library, looking through library catalogues, databases and other sources to figure out the literature for my exams I was way too tired to read. :(

But, here comes the weekend and I hope I can make up tonight, tomorrow and even on sunday during work (which will hopefully be zero busy and give me plenty of opportunity to hit the books - study books and a bit of pleasure reads as well).

So far basically all I've read this week were some pages from "Cat's Cradle", a good 4 hours of the audio version of "North and South" (which has been such a comfort!) and a super short short story ("The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin).
And a few pages of required reading about Russian History.

Yep, that's it. So sad - and there's so many books at home that I desperately want to read...

But tomorrow! (Also, I'll hopefully be able to go to that booksale my hometown library is holding tomorrow... looking forward to that! More books!)

[Bout of Books] Highly anticipated books

Here are some books that I am really looking forward to reading come summer:

"The World of Yesterday" / "Die Welt von gestern" by Stefan Zweig: Joined a GR groups about Zweig, whom I loved forever, but read by far not enough. So this starts in June and I'll probably only be able to join in July, but I'm so looking forward to.

"Osmi povjerenik" by Renato Baretić: I'll be reading this in Croatian and German parallel in July, to study Croatian and to get a Croatian reading experience.

"Зеленый шатер" / "The Big Green Tent by Lyudmila Ulitskaya: I love Ulitskaya and am looking forward to some pleasure (because not study related) Russian reading.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin: Again, I love Le Guin and want to read more by her. And more!

"The Campus Trilogy" by David Lodge: After graduating I'm thinking I might enjoy some campus lit again. ;-)

"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens: Dickens again! There is a wonderfully read librivox recording of this book and I'm very much looking forward to it.

"Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations": This looks so much like a history book that I would love so much. I tried starting it, but with all the school work I really couldn't focus on it.

"Michael Palin: Diaries": These must be amazing and I am so much looking forward to reading these!

"The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery": I read Vol.1 of the Selected Journals and when the Complete Journals came out I knew I must read them. I love everything LMM and these are such a wonderful and interesting and sad read.

"Fabian" by Erich Kästner: Somewhat forgotten and censured German classic, a satire that only this year will be published (or has been published by now) in its original uncut version. seriously looking forward to this one.



So: no new books here, just what has been on my TBR shelf for a while.

Bout of Books - here I come!

So, I'll totally be doing BoB! And in my timezone it starts about right now (or maybe it already started a few minutes ago).

I'm with everybody who can't make the usual readathons (I totally just typed "readaTHONG"... what?!), I couldn't so far, because, you know, work and school and the rest of life.

I will be including the stuff I read for school, too. Because that week I will hopefully be studying a whole lot (I won't say I will have to study a lot, even though that would be true, but I have not been known for doing what I have have to do most of the time) and reading several books for my exams in June.

So, what are my intentions with this readathon?
Firstly, to read more than I usually would.
Secondly to get to all the study books that I need to read for this week.
Also, to finish at least two of the non-study books.
Then... also to blog regularly about the reading I do get done. And write reviews if it's worth it.
That's about it and it should be enough.

A list of potential books to read for the week:
For Pleasure:
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - which I will continue to listen to as an audio book.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
I finally want to read some Octavia Butler, either Dawn or Parable of the Sower.
Embassytown by China Mieville
Then maybe Nineteen Eighty-Four.
And I'll be continuing S., too.
ETA: As apparently May is Short Story Month (even though I think that makes about as much sense as Mother's Day... every month should be short story month...) I'll add that I want to read three short stories. And as such: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Ormalas" by Ursula k. Le Guin (because I want to read something by Le Guin again and because I've never read this famous story), one by John Cheever and another one that I don't know yet.
EagainTA: Other possible short stories are naturally by E.A.Poe and I'm also thinking about "The Lottery".

For History:
Catherine the Great by Isabel de Madariaga. (As it's for school I'll be reading the German version.)
A History of Yugoslavia by Marie-Janine Calic, that's a German book.

For Russian Lit:
The Double by Dostoevsky
Also some of Gogol's magical tales and some of Petrushevskayas short stories.
(And maybe I'll start a re-read of "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard" by Chekhov, probably while watching some taped performance of it.)

For Spanish Lit:
Some stories by Borges (have to pinpoint which ones exactly yet)
One or maybe two novels that have not been determined yet (I hope to have that fixed tomorrow.)
(There'll be four novels all together plus two I have to do a re-read of.)

And somewhere between Russian Lit, History and Pleasure I'll be going on reading Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes.

If I should finish North and South as my audiobook I'll probably try do something of my study books as audiobooks. If that should not work out I'll go on listening to something by Charles Dickens via librivox.org.

Here's the Bout of Books 10 blurb:
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 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

And now... I'll be reading a bit!