While the readathon is technically a 7-day-commitment, I'm not planning to read much of anything at all today (day seven), so I'm just going to wrap-up my readathon results for the first six days. First, we'll start with what I read on day six.

Day 6 Progress

Finished The Exiled Queen - read 147 pages (of 586)

Started and finished The Giver by Lois Lowry - 179 pages

Day 6 Total: 326 pages

Books Read During This Readathon

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Contributed 308 pages to my total

I started The Demon King the day before the readathon, and regretted it slightly because of its size. 500+ page novels are probably not the prime choices for a readathon, but I managed to finish this on day two. I awarded this book 5 stars and will have a review (a written version for my blog and a video version for my channel) up tomorrow. This was the first book on my TBR list for the readathon, and was my favorite of all the books I read.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

Contributed 296 pages to my total

I started V for Vendetta at the same time I started The Exiled Queen, because I couldn't choose between the two for which book to start next. I ended up finishing V for Vendetta first, which isn't surprising because it's almost half the size of The Exiled Queen. I awarded this book 4 stars, and was really intrigued with the differences from the movie (which I had seen prior to reading the graphic novel). This was the second book on my TBR, so success on following through with my plans!

The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Contributed 586 pages to my total

I couldn't resist reading this after finishing The Demon King. The end of The Demon King was a pretty mellow cliffhanger, but I wanted more of the characters. I finished this on day five and awarded it 4 stars because I had a few issues with it, especially in comparison to The Demon King. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it and the next book I'll be picking up after the readathon will likely be the third book, The Gray Wolf Throne. This was the only book I read that wasn't on my TBR list.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Contributed 179 pages to my total

One of my overall goals for 2014 is to read a few classics, so I decided before the Bout of Books readathon that I would pick a small classic novel to put onto my TBR. The Giver was that novel. This served as a good book to ease the pressures of reading the 500+ page books I'd been reading. Unfortunately, my brother puked while I was about 80% done with The Giver... which definitely affected my ability to enjoy the novel. You know, cleaning up vomit when you were just about to reach the climax of a book is not favorable. I ended up awarding it 4 stars, because while I think it could perhaps be improved, I felt emotionally connected to the story.

The Totals for the Bout of Books 9.0 Readathon Are..

4 books finished

1,369 pages read!

This was a great way to start of my reading for 2014! Hope you all had a productive readathon, if you participated.

xx Paige

Day 4 Progress

Progress on V for Vendetta - Finished the book, read 88 pages (out of 296)

Progress on The Exiled Queen - read 65 pages (out of 586)

My book choices for the readathon must be good ones, because I've finished one 5-star book (The Demon King) and one 4-star book (V for Vendetta)!

Day 5 Progress

Progress on The Exiled Queen - read 312 pages (out of 586)

Total for the Readathon so far: 1,118 pages!

I didn't do any of the challenges for day four or five. xx

My reading efforts were divided today as I was torn between following my TBR and reading V for Vendetta, or following my gut (and Regan from PeruseProject's insistence) and reading The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima. I did both, though my efforts were certainly more focused on V for Vendetta. I'm hoping to finish V for Vendetta early tomorrow so that I can really dedicate myself to The Exiled Queen!

Total Before Today:  380 pages

Progress on V for Vendetta today: 208 pages read (out of 296)

Progress on The Exiled Queen today: 65 pages read (out of 586)

Today's Total: 273 pages

Total for the Readathon so far: 653 pages!

Today's Challenge is...

to introduce books from your favorite genre that you would recommend to readers who want to try it out! This challenge is hosted by doingdeweydecimal and includes a giveaway for those who participate.

The genre I'm choosing is, naturally, fantasy. I've also decided to narrow it down to high fantasy. I'm going to recommend the book I read during day one and two of the readathon, and that is The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima. The cast of characters is neither underwhelming nor overwhelming, the plot isn't too predictable or convoluted, and the fantasy elements are pretty mellow but still intriguing. For a fantasy novel, this isn't too "heavy" for newcomers of the genre. There's no massive exposition dumping or character-confusion, as there can often be in high fantasy novels. This was a book that was highly recommended to me (and rightfully so) and I simply must pass on the recommendation!

Day One - January 6th

I ended up being really busy during day one of the Bout of Books readathon, so I ended up reading 177 pages (35%) of The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima.

Day Two - January 7th

I finished The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima in the afternoon of day two, and didn't get to read in the evening because it was my dad's birthday! The ending of The Demon King has me questioning whether or not I want to continue with my TBR list, because I would much rather read the next book in the Seven Realms series than pick up a dystopian read...

My page total for the day thus far (it's 10pm) is 203 pages. 

(I don't know if I'll read more tonight, but I doubt it will be much if I will.)

My total for the readathon so far is 380 pages! 

Will Paige continue with her TBR plan and read V for Vendetta?

Or will she succumb to the allure of The Exiled Queen? 

Stay tuned to find out...

Today is day one of the Bout of Books 9.0 Readathon! For the next week, I'll be posting my updates here. Tomorrow I'll wrap up how much I managed to read today, but for now, let's look at the books I'm planning on reading this week and some of the daily challenges.

TBR List

1. The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

2. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Challenges

There are two challenges for the readathon today, click read more to see my responses to them!