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 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th 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 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I’ve become a big fan of readathons, especially low-pressure ones; it’s a great way for me to devote more time to my TBR and get inspired by all of the wonderful bookish things on social media. This will be my third time doing Bout of Books (here are links to my first  and second times doing the challenge) and I’m excited for a reading-focused week. Work has been super stressful lately, so I think focusing on bookishness will be a perfect antidote.

Goals for this Bout of Books:

• Read at least 4  books
• Finish 1 audiobook
• Track my audiobook time and number of pages read

Here’s what I’m planning on reading during Bout of Books:

I’m in the middle of two books right now; one of them (Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey) I don’t think I’ll read during Bout of Books; I’ve been using it as a right-before-bed book and prefer to keep it that way. I might read some of The Story of the Lost Child, my other current read, during the readathon, but I also feel like it might work better to save it for afterwards; I tend to prefer shorter, quicker reads during challenges.

For that reason, I picked out a good variety of books that I’d like to get to this week: a short collection of poetry (Love Poems by Pablo Neruda), a graphic memoir focusing on sharks (Everything is Teeth by Evie Wyld), a fantasy ebook short story (The Bone Knife by Intisar Khanani), a YA fantasy with a love triangle and alleged references to Greek mythology (Everneath by Brodi Ashton), a short dystopian science fiction novel (Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World by Donald Antrim), a collection of slipstream short stories (Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link), and a long-awaited fantasy sequel novel (The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin).

I also like to have an audiobook option for readathons, and right now I’m in the middle of The Underground Girls of Kabul (so far it’s so interesting and very well-written). I’m anticipating finishing it this week, in which case I’ll pick up Luckiest Girl Alive, which just became available from my library. I own a physical copy of this book too, but I feel like the fast-paced plot would be good on audio.

Who else is participating in Bout of Books?? Feel free to link me to your sign-up posts!