Bout of Books Reading Log

So Bout of Books 15 has kicked off and we are both very excited to get stuck in! We had such a great time doing the last one and ended up reading something like 20-22 books in one week which is insane! And given the size of our TBR's at the moment - desperately needed! 

Reading:

Monday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 143

Books Finished: 

Pre-twentieth Century Short Stories: I only really read this book for school as homework but some of the stories were good.

Clare:

Pages Read: 418

Books Finished:

How to Survive a Sharknado by Andrew Shaffer: We were actually out taking advantage of the January Sales today so I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted to, however I did manage to read this which I absolutely loved. I am a huge fan of Sharknado and this was such a fun, entertaining read that I definitely recommend!

Tuesday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 0

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: I didn't manage to get any reading done today at all unfortunately. 

Clare:

Pages Read: 284

Number of Books Read: 1

Books Finished: 

I seem to have the wrong week for a bout of books read-a-thon since yesterday my brother went back to Uni which meant I was out of the house again! Hopefully I will get some more reading done later in the week but I did manage to finish off Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes and got a little way through the second book!

Wednesday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 21

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: I only managed to read a few pages of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens in school today.

Clare:

Pages Read: 109

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: I read another few pages of Rebel Spring today and plan to finish this tomorrow. I am really enjoying this series.

Thursday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 73

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: I read 73 pages of Crown of Midnight today which I am enjoying although it is quite slow so far.

Clare:

Pages Read: 244

Number of Books Read: 1

Books Finished: 

I just finished one book on Thursday which was Rebel Spring, book 2 in the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes. This series is getting more intense and much better as it goes. I am loving it so far! 

Friday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 31

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: 

Clare:

Pages Read: 407

Number of Books Read: 1

Books Finished:

I read the whole of Gathering Darkness in one sitting it was just that amazing! This series is definitely becoming a favourite.

Saturday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 0

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished:

Clare:

Pages Read: 413

Number of Books Read: 1

Books Finished:

Not quite one sitting but Frozen Tides was amazing. I am loving were this series is going.

Sunday:

Ann:

Pages Read: 519

Number of Books Read: 2

Books Finished: 

Clare:

Pages Read: 0

Number of Books Read: 0

Books Finished: I took a break today because apparently I am in a bit of a hangover from the Falling Kingdoms series!

Weekly Wrap Up:

Ann:

Total Pages Read: 787

Total Number of Books Read: 3

Favourite Book:

I love this series, the main character gets better and better with each book!

Clare:

Total Pages Read: 1875

Total Number of Books Read: 5

Favourite Book:

This is a tie for me because I love them both for such different reasons! How to Survive a Sharknado was hilarious and fits into one of my favourite genres and Frozen Tides was just epic and wonderful and I really, really wish the next book was out already!

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare) to keep up with what we are reading

Academy Award Book Tag

I have a Top Ten Books of 2015 list here and Ann has a Top 5 list here but we thought it would be fun to do this tag as it also includes categories where a book may deserve a mention but didn't make it on to our top lists. We've tried to avoid choosing the same book more than once each.

Best Actor: (Best Male Protagonist)

Ann: Noah from Girl Online. I like Noah but there was a moment in Girl Online On Tour where I thought that he was being such a terrible person. However I changed my mind about him by the end of the book.

Clare: Elliot from The Heartless City/Kaz from Six of Crows. I had to cheat and choose two for this one because they are just such very different characters. I mentioned in my review of The Heartless City how much I loved Elliot - he is a sweet, wonderful character and I just wish I could be friends with him in real life. On the other hand Kaz was so complex and interesting (and he kind of reminded me of my brother) so I had to include them both!

Best Actress: (Best Female Protagonist)

Ann: Celaena from Throne of Glass. I love Celaena so much she is so amazing,I also feel like I can relate to her a bit.

Clare: Rachelle from Crimson Bound. This was a hard category because there are so, so many amazing female protagonists (and I could easily have gone back to Six of Crows) but I really loved Rachelle's strength and vulnerability and her ability to make hard decisions. She wasn't perfect and I appreciated that.

Best Cinematography: (Best Plot Twist)

Ann: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This has to be one of the best books I read this year I loved it so so much.

Clare: The Uninvited by Cat Winters. I never saw this plot twist coming. I loved this book as a whole and all her other books as well.

Best Costume Design: (Best Book Cover)

Ann: Username Evie by Joe Sugg. I really like the cover of Username: Evie it is so well designed and detailed. Overall it is a really nice and I love it.

Clare: Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J.K. Rowling. There were a lot of beautiful covers this year but I am in love with my illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the cover just makes me so happy.

Best Supporting Actress and Actor: (Best Male and Female Sidekick)

Ann: Elliot from Girl Online/Isabelle from CoHF. I love both of these characters for different reasons so couldn't really decide which one to go for, so I went for them both.

Clare: Jared from The Rest of Us Just Live Here/Alexis from Truly, Madly Famously. Jared was such a huge part of why I loved The Rest of Us Just Live Here and as for Alexis - I desperately want her to have her own spin off series!

Best Original Screenplay: (Most Unique Plot/World)

Ann: Hollow Boy by Jonathon Stroud. I feel like the plot of The Hollow Boy is unique and also I really like the whole series and all the characters who are so different.

Clare: I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore. This was such an interesting and compelling read. I wasn't sure about it at first but by the end I was gripped. It also has potentially the best (or worst) villain of my reading year.

Best Adapted Screenplay:(Best Book-to-Movie Adaptation)

Paper Towns. Me and Clare got to watch Paper Towns 2 weeks early cause I have the best sister. I really enjoyed the film but Clare's pick is also a good one.

Clare: Mockingjay Part 2. This was just a great ending to the series. Although I am now incredibly sad that we have no more films to look forward to!

Best Animated Feature: (A book that would work well in animated format)

Ann: The Hollow Boy by Jonathon Stroud. I feel like this book would make a very good animation. I don't know why I just feel it would be a good animation.

Clare: Otto Von Trapezoid and the Empress of Thieves by Jesse Baruffi. I struggled with this category at first but then I remembered this brilliantly weird book. It would make a perfect animation!

Best Director:(A writer you discovered for the first time)

Ann: Sarah J. Maas. One of my friends at school and Clare both really liked the Throne of Glass series so I thought I would read them and I really enjoyed the first book.

Clare: Patrick Ness. I've held off on reading Patrick Ness for a long, long time and I can't for the life of me remember why. I loved all of his books that I read in 2015 and I am definitely planning on reading more!

Best Visual Effects:(Best Action in a Book)

Ann: Timebound by Rysa Walker. Although I didn't really enjoy this book. I really liked the action in it and it was done well.

Clare: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I wasn't sure how exciting a book told in document form would be but I needn't have worried. There was never a dull moment in this and I loved the format.

Best Musical Score: (Best Music in a book-to-movie adaptation)

Ann: Mockingjay. Like Clare said these two films are the only Book- to -move- adaptations that we have seen so, they are the only ones that we could pick.

Clare: Paper Towns. Pretty sure these are the only two book-to-movie adaptations we've seen this year. 

Best Short Film:(Best Novella or Short Book)

Ann: The Bane Chronicles. I loved The Bane Chronicles so much, all the stories in it were so well thought out.

Clare: Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Outside of The Bane Chronicles I can't really remember any novellas I read this year so instead I have gone for the somewhat short Simon. I loved this book. It was so cute and left me feeling so happy.

Best Picture: (Best Stand-Alone)

Ann: The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenburg. I read this at the beginning of the year and I really enjoyed it.

Clare: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. This book. I just love this book. I could honestly re-read it multiple times and never get bored. 

Best Documentary: (Best Historical Fiction or Non-Fiction - we did both!)

Ann: Anne of Green Gables and Selp Helf. Both of theses I loved so much, especially Anne of Green Gables which was so well written and done amazingly.

Clare: Historical: The Haunting of Maddy Clare. I have loved all her books this year and I can't wait for more in 2016. This is such a great, atmospheric read!

Fact: How to Survive a Sharknado. Shh, it totally is fact. Or at least written as fact. And I adore this book. I got it for Christmas and I have been slowly working my way through and loving every second.

Friday Reads 1st January

Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice, the idea is to grab a book, turn to page 56 (or 56% in an e-book) and find any sentence (no spoilers!) and then post it. Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence and impressions about the book.

Ann:

I have been planning on reading The Testing but I am just not in the right mood for it so I think after finishing Crown of Midnight I may move on to reading The Hunt. I have also started my Classic for the month which is A Tale of Two Cities. 

Book Beginnings:

" It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like to present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." - A Tale of Two Cities

Page 56:

" 'I entreat you to tell me more, sir.''I will. I am going to. You can bear it?'" - A Tale of Two Cities

Clare:

I am currently reading Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho which I am liking, it is a little slow but I hear it does pick up and I like the characters so far. I am also still reading How to Survive a Sharknado which I am still loving. I am also planning to start The Count of Monte Cristo today which is a somewhat daunting read but I am mostly excited for it!

Book Beginning & Friday 56:

"The meeting of the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers was well under way, and the entrance hall was almost empty. Only the occasional tardy magician passed through, scarcely sparing a glance for the child waiting there." - Sorcerer to the Crown

"Mrs. Daubeney was not at all what Zacharias had expected. Knowing what he did of feminine magic, he had envisioned a grey-haired, discreet sort of woman, wise in the ways of girls - horsey, perhaps - but certainly not magical." - Page 56, Sorcerer to the Crown 

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare) to keep up with what we are reading