Today is the readathon! I've gotten everything out of the way that I could (except for laundry), and I am ready to read! Bring on the books!

And for the first time, I'll be tweeting! I just created a Twitter account on Thursday, so I'm definitely new at this. You can follow me at @SmilingShelves.

Time spent reading: Five hours and 43 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 338
Number of books finished: Two (Around the World on Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin & The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland)
Book I'm just starting:​ The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (I'm listening to an audio production of it while reading along. Should be fun!)

Time spent reading: Seven hours and 3 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 385
Book I'm reading/listening to: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Although it turns out the book I have is the original version, and the recording I'm listening to is the revised version. That makes this really confusing occasionally!)

Time spent reading: Nine hours and 24 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 473
Number of books finished: Three (Finally got through the confusing-ness of The Importance of Being Earnest.)
​Best snack so far:​ Cinnamon-sugar cider donut!

Time spent reading: Eleven hours and 7 minutes
Number of pages read: 561
Book most recently read from:​ Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
Number of books finished: Three (Around the World on Two Wheels by Peter Zheutlin; The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland; The Importance of Beiing Earnest by Oscar Wilde)
Number of times my eyes have closed involuntarily in the last hour:​ Too many to count

Sadly, I think I'm going to have to call it a night. I'm loving the book I'm reading, but I just can't keep my eyes open anymore. It's crazy how fast this day always goes. But as always, I had a marvelous time, and I can't wait for this next round in April!

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!

It's Bloggiesta time! Here is my official to-do list. I'll check stuff off as I get it accomplished. Let the bloggy-ness begin!

- Catch up with posting reviews on Goodreads (Didn't do this at all. Whoops.)
- Clean up my email inbox (Complete!)
- Add my list of Newbery winners I've read (In process. There are a lot of Newbery winners to type into a list!)
- Catch up on writing reviews (thus far, I have three to write) (Four written - Complete!)
- Prepare my blog posts for next week (Complete!)
- Update my 2015 reading challenge page (Complete!)

I was more productive than I thought I would be, considering that my weekend was pretty busy. I had fun as always, and that's what matters!

It's Saturday night, and I'm just now getting started on this whole Bloggiesta thing. I finally got everything else done that I needed to do this weekend. Now the fun begins!

My to-do list (it's actually gotten slightly longer since my sign-up post. That's not supposed to be how it works, I know.):

• Catch up on writing reviews (Complete!)
• Update reading challenge page with my progress (Complete!)
• Update reading challenge page with links to posted reviews (Complete!)
• Add two more quotes to the banner at the top of my home page (Complete!)
• Try a couple mini-challenges (I joined Riffle, and I created a book map. Lots of fun! - Complete!)
• Start cross-posting reviews on Goodreads (I got 10 posted. That's enough to count as Complete!)
• Figure out how to become a Better World Books affiliate (Complete!)
• Clean up email inbox (Complete!)

I finished my list! I can't believe I got through everything, since I only started Saturday evening. I guess a Sunday afternoon dedicated to book blogging will do that. I think I need a Bloggiesta every weekend! And I'll most definitely be participating in the next one that comes around!

I have never yet participated in a Bloggiesta weekend, but I always need a chance to update my blog and reading-type things. And what better way to do that than with a whole bunch of other bloggers? Isn't that the best part of any reading event?

Bloggiesta starts today, but I honestly won't do anything blog-like until tomorrow, most likely. (It's that whole teaching-and-grading-papers thing getting in the way again.) Here's my to-do list, in hopes that I can get much accomplished this weekend!

I'm finally starting to cross things off! You can find my update post here.

Hosted by My Little Pocketbooks

Hosted by Book Reviews from a Christian Gal

This was harder than I thought it would be! Here's my sentence:

These are the books I used (I just pulled some off my giant stack of library books):
- Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye by Zac Unger
- Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell
- Jerusalem Vigil by Bodie & Brock Thoene
- One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Hosted by Christian Bookshelf Reviews

This challenge was also harder than I expected! I came up with a lot of matching pairs and a few groups of three, but it was hard to find four in a row. And then I just had to keep scouring my shelves to see if I could possibly find a fifth to add to the list!

Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg
The Code Book by Simon Singh
The Book of Lost Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads

I've spelled out my name before for a previous read-a-thon's challenge, so I decided to do my blog name. This was actually easier than I thought. I guess when you own as many books as I do, you can find just about any letter you need. . .

The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
Italian Days by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Symphony by Jude Morgan
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
A Splendor of Letters by Nicholas Basbanes

I'll be updating this post daily as the week goes on, so check back to see my Bout of Books progress! You can see my goals here.

Time spent reading: Two hours and 17 minutes
Number of pages read: 168
Book I read from: A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell
Blogs commented on: Five
Challenges completed: Zero

Time spent reading: Two hours and 6 minutes
Total time spent reading: Four hours and 23 minutes
Number of pages read: 145
Total number of pages read: 313
Books completed: One
First book finished at: 6:22 p.m.
Books I read from: A Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell ; The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall
Blogs commented on: Seven
Challenges completed: One (Book Spine Poetry)

Time spent reading: Two hours and 9 minutes
Total time spent reading: Six hours and 32 minutes
Number of pages read: 170
Total number of pages read: 483
Total number of books completed: One
Book I read from: The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall
Blogs commented on: Eight
Challenges completed: One (Create a Sentence)

Time spent reading: Two hours and 37 minutes
Total time spent reading: Nine hours and 9 minutes
Number of pages read: 161
Total number of pages read: 595
Number of books completed: One
Total number of books completed: Two (I may have to cheat a bit and read a really short one in order to meet my goal of completing four books. . .)
Books I read from: The Case of the Love Commandos by Tarquin Hall ; Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye by Zac Unger
Blogs commented on: Seven
Challenges completed: Zero (Two total - see them here)

The work week is just about done! I've been spending about six hours a day in my classroom, getting it ready for the upcoming school year. That really cuts into my reading time! But today is Friday, so I'm only planning to spend about half that amount of time at school. Hopefully, this afternoon I'll be sitting on my front porch with a glass of lemonade, reading about polar bears in the Arctic!

Time spent reading: Three hours and 7 minutes
Total time spent reading: Twelve hours and 16 minutes
Number of pages read: 183
Total number of pages read: 778
Number of books completed: One
Total number of books completed: Three
Book I read from: Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye by Zac Unger
Blogs commented on: 6
Challenges completed: One (Book Chain - which means I have 3 total, and this goal is complete! Yay!)

I didn't quite as much reading time in yesterday as I hoped, mostly because I spent way too much time searching my bookshelves for the Book Chain challenge. That was a really fun one! I've got a lot I want to get done today (really fun stuff, like cleaning the bathroom - please note the sarcasm), but I'll do my best to get some reading in!

Time spent reading: Two hours and 14 minutes
Total time spent reading: Fourteen hours and 30 minutes
Number of pages read: 193
Total number of pages read: 971
Number of books completed: One (It was a short one. I knew I'd never hit my goal of four otherwise. :)
Total number of books completed: Four
Books I read from: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron; Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
Blogs commented on: 7
Challenges completed: One (Spell It Out)

Time spent reading: Two hours and 25 minutes
Number of pages read: 130
Number of books completed: Zero
Book I read from: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
Blogs commented on: 10
Challenges completed: Zero

Time spent reading: Sixteen hours and 55 minutes
Number of pages read: 1,101
Number of books completed: Four
Blogs commented on: 50
Challenges completed: Four

And those totals mean that I met all of my goals (two hours a day, 4 books completed, 5 blog comments a day, three challenges). I dub this read-a-thon a success! Can't wait until the next one!

This is the second time I'm participating in a Bout of Books read-a-thon, and I'm really excited! I'll be reading in and amongst all of the many, many, many things I still need to do before school starts in September. My classroom is not the least bit ready. But I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze some reading time in despite my long to-do list!

• Read at least two hours every day (preferably more!)
• Read four books
• Comment on at least 5 blogs every day
• Participate in at least 3 challenges

Well, yesterday was my last Library Day of the summer, and I may have gone a bit overboard. . .

I'll have plenty to keep me reading next week! I'll probably start at the top and work my way down, so The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto will be up first. We'll see what I'm in the mood for next!

Things are happening in the blogosphere, and I fully intend to participate!

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 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th 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 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

This always seems to fall into the crazy weeks of August when I'm trying to get ready for school to start. Last year, I hesitated about participating because I didn't think I would have time. Well, I made time and ended up reading more than I expected. So I plan to do the same this year. Bout of Books, here I come!

I'm not doing quite as well at keeping up with my Classics Club List as I had hoped. I began last year on August 28 (the day before my birthday), so I figured I could just read 10 books by that date each year. Well, it's August 7, and I've only read six so far. I'll have some catching up to do in this next year! And these spin lists are incredibly helpful for chipping away at my list.

1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
2. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
3. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
4. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
5. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
7. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
8. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
9. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
10. Autobiography of Anthony Trollope by Anthony Trollope
11. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
12. Erewhon by Samuel Butler
13. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
14. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
16. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
17. Waverly by Sir Walter Scott
18. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
19. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
20. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

So last week, I read through the entire Harry Potter series. It took a lot longer than I was expecting. I knew they were fast reads, so I thought it would take a day and a half, maybe two. Nope. Four days. Forty-five hours of reading. By the end of it, I was tired of Harry Potter, tired of doing nothing but sitting and reading all day. The seventh book took me longer than it should have because I just didn't feel like reading about Harry Potter anymore.

When I finished Friday night, I was overjoyed to be done for about five minutes. And then I started missing it. I missed Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I missed Hogwarts. I missed the magical world. And now it's Tuesday morning, and I'm still missing it all. I still wish I could return to Hogwarts, and I'm almost willing to start this whole crazy marathon over again just to reenter that world.

I also noticed just how well the characters age throughout the series. Harry starts out as an eleven-year-old who is unsure of himself and his place in this newly discovered world. By the end of the series, he is a supremely confident seventeen-year-old, yet he's still figuring out this whole romance thing. And despite the fact that Harry goes through things we will never experience, we still see ourselves in him and his friendships and his struggles. Even if we came to this series as an adult instead of a child, there are still characters and experiences to relate to.

Rowling is a master of comic relief. These books are funny. Serious, too, and occasionally terrifying. But there is always something funny to break the tension (Ron and Hermione's kiss in the middle of the battle of Hogwarts is a perfect example of this!). I found myself chuckling more than I expected to. The series as a whole is profound, but it's the comical moments and chapters that make it so enjoyable. 

I could go on for a very long time about all the things that make Harry Potter amazing. (I haven't even touched on the immense amount of imagination it must have taken to build such a complex world!) But I want to hear your thoughts too - because I'm sure you have some. :)