Bout of Books 10: The Finale

So the week of reading intensely turned out to be...pretty much like any other week of reading for me.

I had all sorts of grand aspirations which was fun to fantasize about, but in the end I meandered around reading this and that, finishing some books, starting some others and never getting near most of the books I listed.

I'm not saying it was a failure or that I failed, because that's not how I see it. Because the Bout of Books is about fun and I had lots of fun.

First off, I finished four books:

• The Martian by Andy Weir
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
• I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora
• Mothership by Maritn Leicht and Isla Neal (and led a book group discussion with the authors taking part. They were charming and funny and smart and ate the cakes that my daughter made using the recipes in Isla's (aka Lisa Graff's excellent middle grade book from last year, A Tangle of Knots).

Plus, I made a good bit of progress with a four others:

• Equilateral by Ken Kalfus
• The Fever by Megan Abbott
• Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Over the course of the week, I read 1,337 pages which seems like a lot more pages than it did while I was reading.

Other Bout of Book activities:

A big highlight of the week was hosting a challenge here that asked participants if to propose a pairing with a book and anything that they felt went with the book: a drink, a food, a film and even another book. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by and put thought and creativity to come up with some great pairings. I had a great time reading and commenting on the 90+ entries.

I learned a lot about running a good challenge contest from checking in on, and participating in (Cover Treasure Hunt, Rename Your Current Read, If You Like X, Try Y), the great challenges that other bloggers ran during the week. I very much hope to be able do it again in a future Bout of Books round.

The great random number generator (aka Excel) has spoken and the winner was Mandy Zani of My Reader Life! Mandy, the gift card is on its way to you!

Now it's back to the regularly scheduled reading and reviewing, until Bout of Books 11.