The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 8th and runs through Sunday, January 14th 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 21 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

It’s time for one of my favorite readathons–Bout of Books! I love Bout of Books because it’s low-pressure but usually does motivate me to read a lot more than I normally would in a single week. My TBR is a mixture of books I’m already in the middle of but don’t see myself finishing before the readathon starts, and some new, shorter books that I think will make for good readathon reads.

So here’s my TBR:

I’m currently reading these two books:

I always like having a short story collection going during a readathon to help break things up, so The Dark and Other Love Stories by Deborah Willis should work well. I’ve read the first two stories so far and really enjoyed them; they’re stories focused on difficult relationships by a Canadian author. And I thought I’d still be reading If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio during this readathon since I’ve been reading it for the past week, but was able to finish yesterday. So instead I’m going to get started with An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon so that I can have a science fiction book to dip in and out of during the readathon; I’ve been craving some good SciFi for awhile.

And I’d like to pick these up:

In terms of books I have yet to start reading, I’ve got a few really good options in mind. I pre-ordered Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire, which comes out on Tuesday the 9th, and I’m really hoping I’ll get it in time to read it for the readathon. Usually books from B&N don’t ship until the release date, so fingers crossed that it comes in by Friday or so. I have another Tor novella, Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell, on deck in case it doesn’t, or in case I’m in a very fantasy novella-ish mood. I’m also very interested in starting The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, which follows three teenagers, one of whom I believe has the urge to kill? Possibly? And deals with issues of feminism as well. Lastly, for an audiobook option, I checked We Are Okay by Nina LaCour out of my library; it’s only five hours or so long and deals with a friendship/romance while one of the main characters is coming to terms with her grief.

Is anyone else participating in Bout of Books? Let me know!