December 27th

Building blocks

I'm back again for another day of hosting! Today's challenge is to build a structure out of your books. I'm interested to see what kind of things you come up with! Myself, I went for a snowflake. Being as it's the holidays, I thought it was fitting. I mean, the structure itself is awful and getting a good photo of it was difficult, but it's the effort and idea behind it that count!

As for reading yesterday, I deviated from my TBR even more by reading A Pop-Up Guide to Westeros by Matthew Christian Reinhart. It was short and fun, and I was busy and not really in the mood to read much of a 'proper' book in the afternoon. It added 10 pages to my total for the read-a-thon, so it's all good. In the evening, I did get a couple of chapters into This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, and I'm going to carry on reading it today and see how far I get with it.

Don't forget to link your posts in the comments if you took part in today's challenge!

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon: Day 7

December 26th

I apologise for the lack of post yesterday, but I was so caught up in everything going on I didn't get the chance to blog, and honestly, it was a nice little break to just celebrate Christmas with my family. 

Although I didn't take part in yesterday's little challenge, I did manage to read 245 pages, which was all of Every You, Every Me by David Levithan, and on Christmas Eve I finished Psycho by Robert Bloch, which adds 185 pages to my total.

I'm also not participating in today's challenge as I have a lot of plans for the day (Boxing Day sales!), but I'll be back tomorrow for my second day of hosting. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

End of 204 Read-a-Thon: Day 5

December 24th

Movie marathon

So, yesterday I finished reading Linger and decided to pick up Psycho next. It's quite short so I'm hoping I'll be able to get through it relatively quickly over Christmas. I also may end up making some changes to my TBR for the read-a-thon, depending on any books I get as presents, but we'll see how that goes.

As for today's challenge, it's all about the books we'd like to see made into films. I actually found this tricky, but I did manage to narrow it down to five.

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon: Day 4

December 23rd

Psychic or not

Day 4 and today I am your host! The challenge for today is to try and guess what's going to happen next in the book you are currently reading. Please be mindful of spoilers whilst doing this - some people don't want to see them!

I'm currently reading Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, I've only got about 80 pages left and I don't really know what's going to happen because so far the plot has been... non-existent. Anyway, here are my predictions: 

• Grace is going to shift
• Cole will find a way to shift without being cold

Make sure to leave a link to your post in the comments if you're taking part! I'll read through everyone's entries and see which I find most interesting.

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon: Day 3

December 22nd

Spell it out

I've finished The Young Elites! That's book one complete and 275 pages read (I read 80 pages of it before the read-a-thon started). Next, I picked up Linger by Maggie Stiefvater because I've been meaning to read that since last Christmas. I managed to read about 100 pages of it last night, so I'm off to a good start.

As for today's challenge, I didn't think I would take part in it, but I've given it my best go. I chose the word SNOW because it's short and easy. Well, not so much easy, as it did take me a while to hunt down books starting with the correct letters. Despite that, I managed it and here are the books I chose:

Savage Wolverine - Frank Cho

Needful Things - Stephen King

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon: Day 2

December 21st

Colour the rainbow

So far, reading is going okay. I've read about 140 pages of The Young Elites and I plan on getting some more done as well today - hopefully I can finish it. As for today's challenge, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to complete it because I had some trouble finding covers in the right colours. In the end, I called in some help (thanks, mum) to decide on the final order of things. I tried to make it entirely out of books that I've read, but unfortunately, I haven't read The Song of Achilles. Yet. Here is my book rainbow:

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon: Day 1

December 20th

Your TBR for the read-a-thon

Today is the first day of the read-a-thon! I do have some homework to finish over the holidays, but I'm hoping I can find the balance between reading and work, else one will have to suffer. And while I don't want that to be reading, it would most likely have to be. But without further ado, here are the books I want to try and get through:

1. The Young Elites - Marie Lu
2. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - Holly Black
3. Linger - Maggie Stiefvater
4. The Forever Song - Julie Kagawa
5. Psycho - Robert Bloch
6. Asylum - Madeleine Roux

Recommendations: Historical Fiction

Changling by Philppa Gregory

Quite a simple read that combines fantasy and mystery with life in 15th Century Italy. While this isn't the best book out there, it is worth persevering with for the second and third books in the as yet incomplete quartet.

Fleshmarket by Nicola Morgan

This has a much darker tone than most historical fiction I've come across. It deals heavily fairly heavily with death and squalor - and Burke and Hare, who don't really need much of an explanation. Still, a very interesting read that made me think.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

For such a big book that focuses on such an important and heavy topic, I actually found it to be a very quick and easy read. It wasn't the tear-jerker I expected (blame that on my heart of ice) but it still got me thinking and feeling and being grateful for the world I live in now. 

End of 2014 Read-a-Thon Information

I know, I know: I did a post about this not too long ago. But that's not the point. Now, there is more information to share with you so you can all start preparing for the It's the End of 2014 Read-a-Thon.

So, for twelve days starting on December 20th, myself, Sarah, Jayne, and Once will be hosting the read-a-thon on our blogs and on the official Twitter for it. As you can see from the calendar below (which - along with the banner - was made by Jayne) we will each be hosting three days. That means, if you're interested in taking part in the challenges, you need to make sure to visit whichever of us is hosting for that day, because I'm sure we'll all take part in the challenges ourselves. Or at least, I plan on trying to complete my own days' challenges.

Challenges

There are just three challenges that will last for the entire twelve days, the rest will be specific to certain days, but we'll get onto that in a second. The big challenges are as follows:

1. Read a total of 2,000 pages

2. Re-read a 2014 favourite

3. Set your own challenge (e.g. read a book that starts with the same letter as your name)

The daily challenges will be judged and there will be winners. So be sure to let the day's host know you're participating by linking to your post in the comments! I personally will not include any hosts when I judge entries, as I feel like that's not fair (but I'll still definitely check them out, of course). The days each host has been assigned to correlates with the daily challenge, so keep your eyes open. My days will be 23rd, 27th, and 29th. 

December 20th - Your TBR for the read-a-thon

December 21st - Colour the Rainbow: find books on your shelves with covers/spines that make up a rainbow

December 22nd - Spell it Out: spell any winter/Christmas word with the books you have read this year

December 23rd - Psychic or Not: try to predict what will happen next in the book you are currently reading

December 24th - Movie Marathon: top five books that you think would make awesome films

December 25th - Winter Wonderland: create a winter scene with either natural materials or things inside that are associated with the season and display the book that you are currently reading

December 26th - Tell Me A Story: use book titles and author names to create a mini story

December 27th - Building Blocks: build a structure out of your books

December 28th - Scavenger Hunt: find items from the covers of your TBR for the read-a-thon or from the covers of the books that you have read so far

December 29th - Shake it up: re-enact or recreate your favourite book cover

December 30th - 2015 Most Anticipated: top ten most anticipated books of 2015

December 31st - 2014 Gems: top ten favourite books of 2014

Of course, the challenges are optional, so don't feel like you have to participate every single day if you don't want to or feel like you can't. It's all just a bit of fun at the end of the day.

More information can be found on Goodreads in the group or on Twitter, both of which will continue to be updated as things go. Good luck to everyone who plans on participating!

November Wrap Up

Last month, I read a total of sixteen books and graphic novels - although it was mostly graphic novels. There was a lot of The Walking Dead involved in last month's reading, mostly because I used to my birthday money to buy loads of the graphic novels. I also went to the library and borrowed quite a lot, managed to read a few books I've had on my shelf/TBR for a while, and I finished a 900+ page book. Pretty good, if I do say so myself.

What I read

What did you read in November? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments.