Dewey's End of Hour Wrap ups

This will be the master post for all of my end of hour wrap ups. I am splitting my day between reading and reading other blogs and updating my own. In years past I haven't split it up that way but this year I want to do more blog visiting.

Hour 1: Reading Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry. Read from 21% to 25% on the Kindle and then started doing an update here. I am off to visit blogs until hour 2. Hope everyone is having a great first hour. Happy reading!

Hour 2: Read from 25% to 29% of Patient Zero. Have visited quite a few blogs to leave comments. Seems like everyone is so excited for this round of Dewey's.

Hour 3: Read 29% to 34% of Patient Zero and visited more blogs this hour.

Hour 4: Read 34% to 39% of Patient Zero and visited more blogs. Completed two mini challenges.

Hour 5: a bit of nap to rest my eyes.

Hour 6: No reading. Just visiting blogs.

Hour 7: Read to 52% of Patient Zero. Visited blogs.

Hour 8: I'm up to 69% of Patient Zero and have visited more blogs.

Hour 9: Up to 73% of Patient Zero. Needing to hit a second wind so I might take a nap soon.

Hour 10: forgot to update. Oopsies.

Hour 11: Got up to 90% of my book done. Loving this one. 

Hour 12: Finished Patient Zero. (461 pages) For the next couple of hours I'll be co-hostessing over at the main blog. Come by to say hi!

Hour 13: 39% of How to Win at the Game of Business by Mark Cuban. Co-hostessing over at the main blog and on the main twitter account.

Hour 14: Up to 82% of How to Win and co-hostessed at the main blog and Twitter.

Hour 15: Finished How to Win (67 pages). Read 2% of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.

Hour 16: Read 21% of Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich.

Hour 17: Somehow I missed posting an hour.

Hour 18: Up to 42% of Notorious Nineteen. Think I need a nap.

Hour 19: 62% now. Slept for a few minutes,

Hour 20: 77%. Going to sleep for the next hour.

Hour 21:  napped.

Hour 22: napped,

Hour 23: More reading but I can't read the percent on the Kindle anymore.

Hour 24: Finished Notorious Nineteen at 6:34 am EST, my eyes are pretty much done. Actually, my eyes are very much done. I'll do the wrap up post when I wake up later. Well done, everyone! Hope you all had a most wonderful reading day. 

Dewey's Mid Event Survey

I can't believe that the time has passed so quickly. So true that time flies when you're having fun, huh?

Here are my answers to the Mid Event Survey.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? Still on my first book of the day, Patient Zero. I've been reading and visiting blogs. I have enjoyed splitting up my time this way. So much fun!
2. How many books have you read so far? None, see above.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Not sure. Have forgotten what else I have to read. :-)
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Only ones that I planned. Going to other blogs and taking a nap was scheduled. The rest of the time has been me and my great book.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing so far.

Hope that everyone is booking along (see what I did there?) and that you're having a ton of fun. I'll be co-hostessing over at the main blog for the next two hours, stop by to say hi! Happy reading!

Dewey's Readathon Mini Challenge: Shelfie

The Book Monsters posted a great mini challenge for this hour. A shelfie. Here's the top two shelves from one of my book cases. The rest is blocked right now so this will have to do.

Happy reading, ya'll!

Dewey's Opening Meme

It's here! It's here! Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon is here! We'll officially begin in about 30 minutes. Sorry for blowing up your feeds today but I'll be posting each hour or so for most of the event. To get the party started here are my answers to the opening meme...

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Florida
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Walking Dead graphic novel.3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? chips and dip!4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I am the mom of two of the world's most adorable boys. I enjoy reading (obviously!), watching movies and spending time doing crazy activities with my kids.5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? I've never written reviews right away but this year I'll write a mini review after each book. I'm also splitting my time between blogs/blogging and reading. I've never done that before. 

Dewey's Read a thon Goals Post

Dewey's Read a thon is this weekend and since it's one of my favorite bookish events, I'm excited to be able to participate. The boys are at their dad's so I can spend 24 hours in stress free, guilt free reading and commenting on other blogs. 

I want to split my time between reading and blogging/visiting other blogs and resting my poor old eyes. Instead of a goal to read a certain number of books, I want to read a certain number of pages. I'd like to read 700 pages. 

I've loaded up my Kindle and have a stack of possibilities too. In year's past I've tried to finish as many books as possible but with the change to pages read instead, I'm not concerned with that. Hoping that will take a bit of stress out of the day too. I feel like a loser when I don't finish a big stack. Especially when I see how many others read. 

I'm posting my List of Possibilities tomorrow and think I've got some good ones on there.

The one where I failed...

My plan to update my blog and move to a new URL was an epic failure. I have the new blog URL but I have done NOTHING over there. With Dewey's Read a thon coming up this weekend, I'm staying put for the time being. You'll see update posts from me throughout the day. The boys are at their dad's and I'm taking the entire 24 hours (plus a few after to sleep) for stress free, guilt free, reading and cheering time. I'll be posting my goals tomorrow. 

Blogging Break

Taking a bit of a blogging break while I take care of a few things. I plan to be back and bigger than ever on October 1, 2014. New URL, new blog name, new look!

Bout of Books - Update Post

8/20 pages read:

books read:

impressions:

8/19 pages read: audio of Focus on the Good Stuff by Mike Robbins

books read: none completed

impressions: Eyes gave out today so I am listening to an audio book.

8/18 pages read: read on Kindle so unsure. Reading Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins and 1 hour of an audio book.

books read: none yet

impressions: today was back to school for my kids and my younger son started kindergarten. It as a busy day so I'm glad I got anything read (or listened to).

Bout of Books 11.0 is almost here! It starts the same day the boys go back to school. This is both good (they are at school) and bad (1st weeks are always crazy) but my basic goal is always the same - to read more than I normally do in any given week. Since my reading is way down, reading ANY book will be a win. 

I'm taking a page from Andi's book and shooting for a certain number of pages rather than a certain number of books. I want to average 100 pages a day so 700 pages total. If my eyes will cooperate, I will hit that fairly easy.

I want to participate in 2 challenges.This depends a lot on the challenges because I find some of them to be so labor intensive, I pass but my goal is to participate in any 2 during the week.

I want to attend 1 of the 2 Twitter chats. In years past I have so enjoyed reading along during the Twitter chats. 

Visit 5 blogs each day and leave a comment. Blogger interaction and comments really makes this event even more fun so this time around, leaving comments will be a priority. 

I am so looking forward to this event. If you're participating too, please leave a comment so I can follow you!

Bout of Books 11 - The Goals Post

Bout of Books 11.0 is almost here! It starts the same day the boys go back to school. This is both good (they are at school) and bad (1st weeks are always crazy) but my basic goal is always the same - to read more than I normally do in any given week. Since my reading is way down, reading ANY book will be a win. 

I'm taking a page from Andi's book and shooting for a certain number of pages rather than a certain number of books. I want to average 100 pages a day so 700 pages total. If my eyes will cooperate, I will hit that fairly easy.

I want to participate in 2 challenges.This depends a lot on the challenges because I find some of them to be so labor intensive, I pass but my goal is to participate in any 2 during the week.

I want to attend 1 of the 2 Twitter chats. In years past I have so enjoyed reading along during the Twitter chats. 

Visit 5 blogs each day and leave a comment. Blogger interaction and comments really makes this event even more fun so this time around, leaving comments will be a priority. 

I am so looking forward to this event. If you're participating too, please leave a comment so I can follow you!

Over the Top by Zig Ziglar {thoughts on}

Title: Over the Top
Author: Zig Ziglar
Source: library loan
Rating: 5/5

As someone who loves both Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, I find it a weird thing that I am so interested in only reading positive books that make me think and grow. It seems as if I wouldn't enjoy shows that are so quite so dark but I do. I think that is is super important to fill our minds with what we want to come out of our mouths and Ziglar is always encouraging.

Although this is only my second book written by Ziglar, I have literally listened to and/or watched many hours of his seminars and talks. No matter how many times I listen to one, I always learn something new. I love the combination of humor, faith and practical life tips.

This book is a continuation of See You at the Top (which I've read but not yet reviewed) and it goes into more depth of the general ideas he teaches. There are many, many Ziglar catch phrases and I've heard some of the stories before but the subject matter is excellent.

Being a more positive person helps in all areas of life and he teaches some basics as well as more "advanced" techniques. One thing that I really liked in this book was his example of his planner page where he lists his top 4 goals and what he's done each day to work towards them.

These types of books are ones that I want to own so I can refer to them again and again.