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, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd 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 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Another year of signing up for Bout of Books in those last few weeks of crunch time before school starts. Ah, well. I've got to do something in the evenings, right? And Bout of Books is so low-pressure that it's the perfect way to celebrate the summer we have left. Hooray for read-a-thons!

Just one more month of summer left, which means I will need to be spending a fair amount of time in my classroom getting ready for school. Which should translate into getting fewer books at the library, because I will have less time to read them. Yeah, it didn't really work out like that. . .

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (I figured this was an appropriate book to get at the library.)
Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (I LOVED Seraphina, and I'm so excited to read the sequel!)
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (A Newbery winner)
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Another Newbery winner)
Faith of My Fathers by Lynn Austin (If you are looking for amazing Biblical fiction, check out the Chronicles of the Kings series!)
The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera (Libraries in France. Couldn't pass this one up.)
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown (Written by the astronomer who discovered the "planet" beyond Pluto which caused its demotion. Seemed like a good time to read this, since we have brand new pictures of Pluto now.)
Goodnight June by Sarah Jio (Who doesn't remember reading Goodnight Moon as a kid? This is a novel about how that book may have come to be.)

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (Wanting to read this book led me to visiting my third library of the day. Therefore, it is this book's fault that I ended up with more library books than I planned on, right?)
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (I love her YA novels, but I haven't read either of her adult novels yet. I'm excited to give this one a try.)
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (The Shakespeare overtones of this book intrigue me.)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Hope this one lives up to the hype!)
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages (I have no idea why the Manhattan Project is so fascinating to me, but that's more or less what this book is about.)
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (This really isn't my typical sort of read at all, but it helps me out with three reading challenges.)
Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings (This was a random find that sounds amusing and informative. And I'm a Ken Jennings fan.)

I don't normally seek out fairytale retellings on purpose, but when I happen to read one, I usually enjoy it a lot. Maybe I should be reading more of these books. . . I'm sure I'll find a few suggestions on your Top Ten Tuesday posts!

The first five books listed here are fairytale retellings that I have read and enjoyed. The second half of the list is retellings that I would like to read sometime.

The Rumplestiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley
A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Sunlight and Shadow by Cameron Dokey
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

It's August now. How did that happen? I welcomed August with a visit to Toronto with my mom. We visited lots of bookstores (this will be a future post) and saw the Newsies musical. I love the Newsies movie, but it is even so much more amazingly better as a live show. I highly recommend it! It's on tour - see if it's coming to a city near you! :)

Top Ten Tuesday - Books Set in a Library or Bookstore (I tweaked the theme a little bit.)
Why The Royal We is More Than Will & Kate the Remix
Read One Million Pages - How Are You Doing?

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (I wish I could teach myself things as well as William did!)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (I really enjoyed getting to know Bud - and I learned a lot about life during the Depression, too!)
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett (I devoured this book.)
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (Even though mysteries are not usually my thing, I am quickly getting hooked on this series.)
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris (Cross between a memoir and a grammar guide, with a bit of snarky humor thrown in.)

The Priest by Francine Rivers (The story of Aaron, Moses' brother)
Emma by Jane Austen (It's hard not to read ahead when you're reading for a readalong!)

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff (This is the last book off my library stack. Now I just need to finish it by Tuesday, so I can turn it in. . .)

Hello, all! Not quite two years ago, I challenged myself to read one million pages in my lifetime. That's a rather large number. And then I decided to open the craziness up to all of you to see if anyone else wanted to join in the fun. Quite a few people did!

I recently passed a pretty big milestone in my challenge - my first 100,000 pages. I thought this was a good opportunity to check in with everyone else and see how you are doing.

If you haven't joined yet and you want to, just click here to get to the sign-up page. It's a perpetual challenge, so you can jump in anytime. Welcome aboard!