Bout of Books was this past week, and it did wonders for my reading. My library books are due this Wednesday. Before Bout of Books, I had four books to finish, and I didn't know how I could possibly get them done. But I'm now on the last one, and there's hope that I may get it read before Wednesday. Readathons are awesome!

The Kings and Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace (Not quite as light-hearted fun as I expected, but still an enjoyable book.)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Took me awhile to get through this 18-hour audiobook, but I'm glad I made it!)
Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd (Part writing memoir and part writing advice. This book was awesome.)
White Collar Girl by Renee Rosen (I have a thing about books about journalists. This one was about a woman journalist in 1950s Chicago. I devoured it!)
​Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (Still trying to check all the Newberys off.)

Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court by Sandra Day O'Connor (I'm tired of hearing about the upcoming election. Time to focus on a different branch of government.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (This is fabulous as an audiobook!)

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas (Our book club book for September.)

It's Bout of Books time! I'm hoping to get a lot of reading done this week. Usually, I'm frantically trying to get my classroom ready for the school year - but I'm staying at home with my little guy, so I don't have to do that this summer! I've got four library books to finish before they're due next week. This readathon came at the perfect time!

This readathon was way more successful than I thought it would be. I finished four physical books and one audiobook. There's hope that I may actually get my library stack done before the due date on Wednesday! As always, I had a amazingly fun time participating in Bout of Books, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

It's Monday, and the Olympics are over. :-( I'm typing up this post during the Closing Ceremonies (which means it's taking me a lot longer than it normally would to do. . .). I love watching the Olympics, whether it's having it on in the background during the day or watching at night after my little guy is in bed. I love the way the Olympics pulls the whole world together into these common events. I'm ready for the next Winter Olympics to start!

The Steps Across the Water by Adam Gopnik (A really good middle-grade fantasy novel.)
Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (I've been a little scared to pick up another Mary Roach book. As amazing as she is, her subject matter is often a bit intimidating. I thought I might be safe with Grunt, but it was a little more graphic than I would have liked. Still a fascinating read, though.)

The Kings and Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace (I absolutely love this cover!)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (Still making progress through this audiobook.)

Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder (This was one of the very first books I put on my Goodreads to-read list when I joined three years ago. I've finally tracked down a copy!)

Think of your favorite book. It may be one from your childhood, or one you just picked up last week. Either way, you've read it by now. You know the ending. You've seen how all the parts connect. You can only reread it next time, rather than experience that first reading full of "aha!" moments.

The fact that you can only read a book for the first time once was brought home to me a couple of weeks ago when Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came out. It had been nine years since I had last held a new Harry Potter book in my hands. I've read the original series so many times that the details have become second nature to me. What would it be like to have a fresh, new Harry Potter experience? New plot, new characters, new piece of that world.

And the most important question - do I rush through or savor the experience? (I aimed for the second one, but ended up doing the first. It was such a fast read that it was over before I knew it!)

This got me thinking about other books I wish I could experience for the first time again. I'd love to read Pride & Prejudice without knowing the happy ending and how they got there. Can you imagine being on the edge of your seat for Elizabeth and Darcy, rather than knowing exactly how they're going to get to walk down the aisle? The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is another book I'd love to read with fresh eyes. My mom read it to me as a child, and I've read it so many times since. But I wish I could read it again for the first time, not knowing what was going to happen to Aslan.

It's been busy for me recently, so not a whole lot of reading has gone on. Our town had their summer festival this week. Then we helped my brother move into a new apartment on Saturday, and went to a family reunion on Sunday. Busy weekend, but a lot of fun!

How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis (Fun book, but a little too feminist for me.)
The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen (I enjoyed the magical realism elements, but not a lot happened. And what a pretty cover!)

The Steps Across the Water by Adam Gopnik (Random library find.)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (I haven't been able to listen to very much of this one recently, but routine returns this week, so I should be able to get more done.)

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (I really enjoyed Packing for Mars, so I thought it was about time to enjoy another Mary Roach book.)

I am typically a fairly voracious reader. I read at least 100 books a year, and I always take great pleasure in setting my Goodreads goal to challenge myself. But this past January, I only set my Goodreads goal for 50. You see, I was having a baby in April. And I didn't know exactly how that would change my reading, but I knew it would.

But since my little boy has arrived, I've had to increase my Goodreads goal to 75. And then 100. As of right now, I'm actually 25 books ahead of schedule. It turns out that having a baby can actually increase your reading time.

How did that happen? Well, I'm still not entirely sure how I'm getting through the amount of books that I am. But here's what I think is working:

It's almost time for another Bout of Books! Have I mentioned recently that readathons are one of my absolute favorite parts of the blogging world? Well, they are! This will be the fifth Bout of Books that I've participated in. Typically, this one falls while I'm frantically trying to get ready for a new school year. But now I'm staying home with my little guy, so I have different things taking up my time. Even so, I'm hoping to carve out some time every day to read!

Well, it's been a busy and bookish week. The new Harry Potter arrived on Monday. Wednesday was Library Day, with all the glories of bringing home a much larger stack than I intended to. And then Friday was book club. With all that wonderful bookishness, I just didn't have a chance to post last week. And it's not looking real good for this week coming up either, since it's our town's summer festival. I'm really looking forward to experiencing our festival for the first time with our little boy!

The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett (This is a book to give you the travel bug!)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling & Jack Thorne (I have thoughts, but I don't want to spoil anything. Has anyone else read this yet?)
Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger (Just as fun as the first book in this series!)

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (The farther I go in this series, the more I'm enjoying it!)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (This is my current audiobook. I haven't actually tried it in print, so I can't say for sure, but I think it's easier as an audiobook.)

How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis (Books about books are the best.)

Happy August, everybody! July went by extremely fast, capped off by a lazy weekend full of thunderstorms that my little guy surprisingly slept through (I don't know how he did that). Now it's on to busy August. Book club this week - at a campground! I can't wait for s'mores over a campfire!

The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting by Philip Hensher (Anything you ever wanted to know about handwriting styles, history, and quirky facts.)
Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington (Our August selection for the Reading Together book club. Look! I'm ahead!)

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett (A book about something I've always dreamed of doing.)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling (This should be coming in the mail sometime today. And let's be honest - I'll probably drop my current read for this as soon as it arrives!)