Tag: Victoria Schwab

Bout of Books 9.0 : Personal Goals & Motivations

Posted Monday, 6 January, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Bout of Books

I honestly haven’t planned what I am going to do for Bout of Books, 9.0 because up until literally minutes ago, I wasn’t even considering joining this time around! Laughs with mirth. Life is blessedly unexpected and forever evolving to where you find yourself happily content to jump-dive into a readathon, participating in twittering chats through the official hashtag feed, and curling up with a brilliantly lovely book whilst the whole world winds down from a super-heavy snow storm which has cast my country in a wicked-cold mast of snow & ice! I am in one of the *only!* states w/o ice, but we are having a hard freeze, with our temperatures finally dipping down into the low twenties! Oh, what heavenly bliss, I tell you! I’m a part snowelf you see, and we like it *cold!* yet comfortable! Laughs.

Personal Goals and Motivations:

  • Hours Dedicated to Reading (in total): at least 8 to 12 hours per day!
  • Hours per day slated to Read: in flux
  • Starting Hour: the instant I am able to sit & read! :)
  • Ending Hour: 00:00 OR I will be winking to the hooting owls!
  • Books Projected to Read: 6
  • Potential Blog Posts (in total): ? {7 days to record my reading adventures; 1 declaration of intent to participate; 1 statement of goals and motivations; ? books to opine and review; 1 day after recollection}
  • Post my reactions to each book after I have concluded reading them, because more than anything I want to be wholly enthused about the stories, the characters, and the prose that each writer etches into their books — I want to challenge myself to read as many books as I can but not to the brink where I cannot fully appreciate them. I want to absorb them and allow their worlds to soak through to my mind’s eye.
  • Participate in the Bout of Books community by dropping by fellow participants’ blogs, leaving encouraging commentary, and share in the joy of this intensive week of reading! As well as find challenges to enhance my experience with this wicked sweet group of readers!
  • Dig into the ‘first’ book which alights in my mind to be read RIGHT NOW without waiting for another day to arrive which would be a better day to read it! Part of my reading life is attempting to decide when is the best day or time to read the exact book I am wanting to read the most!
  • Join in on the Twitter chats which I could only read about previously, which are scheduled as follows: Mondays @ 2pm(EST), Wednesdays @ 9pm (EST) <— schedule conflict!, and Saturdays @ 11am(EST).
{*} schedule conflict is the fact I am the unofficial #livetweeting secretary for The Star Chamber podcast, Wednesdays @ 9pm(EST)!! Full information is located in my sidebar! :)

Books to Absorb during Bout of Books 9.0:

  1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
    {sync read via BBCom!} w/ Ruby @Rubysbooks
  2. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
    {sync read via BBCom!} w/ Ruby & Anya @OnStarshipsBlog
  3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    {sync read w/ Maggie!} @Magsteronni
  4. The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein
  5. The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron
  6. ? to be decided! ?

{It is my fervent hope to know my onions about these books inasfar as to have the ability to blog about them whilst maintaining a grip on the read-a-thon as the hours tick off the clock! If I am successful the titles of the novels will serve as a link to the post about them! I am hoping that as the stories settle into my creative vortex, I can bring to life my reflections by which touched my heart at the very same moment I am meant to pick up the next book in line to carry on with Bout of Books 9.0!}

Each book has a different state of origin into my life, as they either came to me via a blog book tour or my local library! I will be quite eager to settle into the heart of each of the narratives that I select to read over the score of the week, as I not only am reading on a deadline for postings for my blog, but I am reading for pleasure at the very same time, which is one major difference between Bout 8.0 & Bout 9.0! I was a newly minted blogger back in August 2013, whereas I have had five months under my belt as a book blogger who has been a guest on a weekly bookish podcast twice! Each experience I gain uplifts my heart in joy! I am thankful that I can be a part of such a wonderful community of bookish souls!

Seven days,
168 hours,
with the prospect of devouring itching to read books and savouring the joy of discovering the ones which I am reading for a blog book tour!
Ooh, let the readathon be underway!

{Updates as they Post}

{*NOTE: Regular blog posts un-related to the Bout are threaded underneath the Bout!! Be sure to check out what I am posting alongside the Bout! This will constantly change as the week progresses forward!}

{SOURCE: Bout of Books Badge created by Jorie in Canva to give readers & visitors who come to her blog a way to know of its existence and therefore increasing the mystery & lore surrounding it!!}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Monday, 6 January, 2014 by jorielov in Bout of Books, RALs | Thons via Blogs

*SFN* | Bingo Reading Challenge with a Sci-Fi Bent!

Posted Sunday, 3 November, 2013 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments

By now, anyone who spends a bit of time rooting around my blog (JLAS) will discover that I have a quirky ability to find new reading challenges at the drop of a hat! And, I always attempt to make good on my promise to complete them during their event’s time-frame but alas! My reading life has endeared a few unexpected obstacles these past months, and so, most of the challenges I have undertaken are “in-progress”. Therefore, what bliss to find one that is free-form and can be completed without a specific end-date! I am in the process of completing all my reading challenges that I thus far entered, but what made me become engaged with this one in particular is because I have a *stacked full* reading list to devour in November for SFN!! All the scheduled and proposed books will be listed! Let’s see where they take me on the Bingo card!?

SFN Bingo Reading Challenge - hosted by Literary Excursion

This lovely card was created by Leanne @ Oh! the Books!

Let the Reading Challenge Commence!

B1: A book with alternate realities {The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead}
B2: A sci-fi book mixed with horror
B3: A debut sci-fi novel
B4: A book with awesome technology
B5: A book set on another planet

I1: A book that’s a space western
I2: A book with robots/AI {The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron}*automation
I3: A book with mind-based super powers
I4: A book with clones
I5: A book with aliens

N1: A book involving a war
N2: A book involving dreams {Becoming Beauty by Sarah E. Boucher}
N3: FREE!
N4: A book with mutations
N5: A book with time travel

G1: A book set underneath the earth
G2: A book set in the future
G3: A book with a dystopian setting
G4: A book with cyborgs
G5: A book set in an alternate past

O1: A book with a non-human MC
O2: A book with spaceships
O3: A book with laser weapons
O4: A book set in post-apocalypse
O5: A book with genetic engineering

SFN Reading List: [combination of scheduled & alternates]

  1. The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead {5/6 Nov ’13}
  2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
  3. Breaking the Time Barrier Jenny Randles
  4. WorldSoul by Liz Williams
  5. Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe by Richard J. Gott
  6. Time: A Traveler’s Guide by Clifford A. Pickover
  7. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
  8. The Little Book by Selden Edwards
  9. The Lost Prince by Selden Edwards
  10. The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
  11. The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Fleming
  12. Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski
  13. City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
  14. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
  15. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
  16. Across the Universe by Beth Revis
  17. Divergent by Veronica Roth
  18. The Postman by David Brin
  19. Prized by Caragh M. O’Brien
  20. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  21. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
  22. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
  23. The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
  24. Steamed: A Steampunk Romance by Kate MacAlister
  25. Not Less Than Gods by Kage Baker
  26. Steampunk: An Anthology by Ann Vandermeer
  27. The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron {started ’13 | finished ’14}
  28. The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick
  29. Mainspring by Jay Lake
  30. Airborn by Kenneth Opel
  31. Becoming Beauty by Sarah E. Boucher {9 Nov ’14}

It will be a wondrous mystery to me to see which elements of these books will enter into the formation of the Bingo card’s taken spaces! I am certain that if I can read the # of books I scheduled to read this month, it will be quite the feat in of itself! Therefore, if reading the alternates takes time into December and the Bingo card is not yet completed for a win – I shall continue!

Stay tuned!

I am tweaking my Book Showcase on Steampunk Literature

& will reveal my first Steampunk choice!

Rock on, dear hearts!

This post is brought to you by:

Sci-Fi November | Hosted by Rinn Reads

And, continuing during:

SFN 2014 Participant badge created by Jorie in Canva

{SOURCES: Leanne at Literary Excursion Oh! the Books made the SFN Bingo Card for SFN participants to take part in the joy of an undisciplined reading challenge! The Bingo card is used with permission. Sci-Fi November Badge provided by Rinn Reads for participants to advert the month long event and to encourage people to follow along with those of us who are contributing.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.

Tweets via SFN Bingo Card 2013:

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Posted Sunday, 3 November, 2013 by jorielov in Dystopian, Reading Challenge Addict, Reading Challenges, Sci-Fi November, Science Fiction, SFN Bingo, Steampunk, Time Travel