Can you believe we’ve made it a whole week into November?!?! It’s true! That means one week into the N.E.W.T.s read-a-thon! This is the second read-a-thon I have participated in, and I am trying new techniques in order to keep me more motivated that will eventually, hopefully, surely, lead to the successful completion of the books on my to read list.

I thought for this read-a-thon I would share my progress in a different manner than I did for the O.W.L.s, and instead of a general overview, I will share a day-by-day breakdown of my reading activities. My plan is that this will make me more self conscious (oops, probably not good to do that…) and be more open about my journey!

I am an obsessive organizer and planner. I love to prepare for things, sometimes even more than I enjoy doing the thing I am planning for! Thursday I spent the day organizing myself and preparing to start reading, since I had the whole weekend ahead of me. On Thursday I was happy to go to the library and get all of the books (and a couple more because I have no self control) that I needed for this month! Behold! My tower of reading!

I was unable to control myself once I got home, and dug right into book one: The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson. I made it about 50 pages in before I fell asleep, which is a normal occurrence for me.

After work on Friday, it was pretty dreary here, so I curled up on my couch with three pillows, a blanket, a cat, and a dog for added warmth and cuddles, and finished up The Emperor’s Soul. This book is counting as my Acceptable for Charms, since it is a book with magic in it.

Saturday I spent the whole day at a writing workshop, learning tips and tricks for how to stay motivated while writing up my dissertation (hopefully I get to put the fancy letters behind my name this coming year!!!!) While it was exhausting, it was super productive and I managed to write many manuscript drafts that I had been working on for a while. Once I got home, I dove right into my next book: Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor. This is a collection of three short stories. I managed to make it through the first one before passing out on the couch (you will probably notice a habit with my reading patterns XD)

I’m trying not to rush my reading too much this month so I don’t burn out like last time, so I focused on just finishing the second short story. Mission: accomplished! Only one story left, and that will be two books down!

Can we just agree to pretend Monday didn’t happen? I got zero reading done 😦

Phew, Tuesday. Election day in the U.S.A. On Tuesday I focused on some ARCs I’ve had sitting around for a while and was able to finish two! As far as N.E.W.T. reading, I began the third, and final story in Lips Touch, but was quickly overrun by my household creatures, making it impossible to read. Observe:

The last day of the first week of the read-a-thon, and I tried to make it count. I managed to finish the final story of Lips Touch, wrapping up my second book! I used this book to count for my “Exceeds Expectations” in Charms, since it met the prompt of “a cover that charmed me”. Next up: Men Without Women by Haruki Murikami, another short story collection. I managed to get part way through the first story.

Week One Progress:
Books read: 2
Pages read: 175 + 266 + 26 = 467
Charms: E