Bout of Books 10

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, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th 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 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team.

Bout of Books is one of these book blogosphere events that I always see happening, and think "I should do that next time," and then subsequently miss the next event.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  This time, with the next week not looking as terribly busy as most weeks tend to be, and next weekend still being fairly open to book-reading activities, I'm not going to miss it.

I didn't sign up as a reader for this spring's Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, but I, without a doubt, sorely need to get more reading done.  I've arrived at one of those moments, while I'm trudging toward the finish line of Five Days at Memorial, where I feel like there are just too many good books - in my house, in the world, coming out this summer, this fall, next year - and how will I ever read them?  Rather than causing me to focus and, you know, read more books, this kind of just makes me flutter around in a low-grade state of overwhelmed panic.

Enter Bout of Books, from what I gather, a more relaxed week-long Readathon that will (ideally) help me to put more priority on reading in the day to day when I am most prone to distraction.  The reality of the thing is, even if I read more than usual, I'm probably not going to put away more than one or two books this week, because I am, indeed, the world's slowest reader, but I will be satisfied with moving in the right direction in terms of getting a little more reading into every day.   As such, I don't have a specific number of books or pages I'm planning to read - these types of goals always lead me into disappointment.  Rather, I have a collection of reading time management goals that I hope will serve me this week and into the indeterminate future beyond this lovely event.

• I will turn the time that I usually spend distracted by the more pointless diversions of all my electronic gadgetry and the wonders of the internet into reading time.  Here's a fond "See ya later!" to Facebook (which I don't even like but *still* sucks up my time), Words With Friends, and the Microsoft Solitaire collection.
• I will curtail unnecessary naps in favor of reading.  I am a great lover of naps both needed and not.  A good nap is a great thing when taken sparingly.  The napping has been less sparing lately.  And yes, I realize how pathetic this sounds.  I'm admitting I have a problem, people.  I'm told that's the first step. 
• I will redirect the freakish amount of energy I put into acquiring books into reading them.
• If I'm stuck in a waiting room, it will be with the written word, not my iPhone.
• I will take back some of my lunch time at work for reading.  Sorry, fitness and working when I don't really need to be - this is not your week!
• I will start early.  Like today.  Sure, that's kind of cheating, but I'm a slow reader, I need every advantage I can get.  Plus, what's better than an excuse to read more for one week than an excuse to read more for one week plus one weekend?  ;-)

Will you be participating in the Bout of Books?  And, even if you aren't, do you have any tried and true suggestions for cramming more reading into the nooks and crannies of your week that I should know about? 

Tweet