2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This Readathon theme is making me realise that almost everything i read is about families!!

Managed to finish one book today & get a decent chunk in my current audiobook. So far, so good - I updated the spreadsheet and my tracking post.

I really enjoyed Jade City, which has some very cool worldbuilding and great characters - I'm definitely going to look into the other books in the series. And Firekeeper's Daughter is great as well, though I'm honestly not very into YA. I do like Daunis and I'm intrigued to see where things will go. I've got about 6hrs left in my audiobook, so I'll see if I can finish it tomorrow. I'm hoping to knock off a couple of books tomorrow to make up for the fact that I'll basically be reading nothing on Sunday (I'll be gone all day at the Ren Fest!).

Hi all! :)

We are off to a pretty good start! We have now marked a total of 6 books as completed! I hope you are having fun!

Meg - I think lots of my books do, too!

Kristina - I am glad you are enjoying the books you are reading! :) Both of those sound good - I was plannig on reading Firekeeper's Daughter soon, too.

I have finished Lady Tan's Circle of Women and Charlotte's Web.
Has anyone read either of them and what did you think?

Have fun with the second day of reading!

Finished reading My Sister's Keeper for the 2nd time and still loved it. Lady Tan's Circle of Women is on my TBR.

I am glad you loved it, Christene! I also really want to reread that book at some point - it has been so long that I barely recall any details.

I would say reading Lady Tan's Circle of Women was definitely worth it! Just as a trigger warning, it goes into pretty detailed description of foot binding and conditions associated with it (and other potential triggers; I bet there is an extensive list online though).
It was definitely worth reading if that is okay with you, though.
If you do read it I would love to know what you think!

Just a quick reminder for everyone: it would be great if you could update your pages read/hours listened for both the individual days and also for each book that you finish / or dnf (those go into columns N and O in the sheet). Either here in your tracking post or in the sheet itself (or both). :)

I finished The Good Son for a triple prompt earlier this morning and updated my tracking post and the spreadsheet.

Now I'm about to finish A Dowry of Blood which can be counted for another triple prompt. Glad to see that everyone is enjoying their books so far!

I'm about halfway through Tom Lake and I'm loving it.

Very glad to hear you are having fun reading! :)

I just checked the spreadsheet and so far we are doing pretty well filling it out. I have marked the places where we are still missing info on the tracking sheet in yellow - please fill them out when you get the chance :) (the pages / hours of the completed books you read/listened to during the readathon) (check colum N and O in the tracking sheet)

Also, please remember to double check the prompt x's on the planning tab when you finish a book! The Triples are starting to fill up a bit and I would love to be able to move things around when it gets even more crowded! :)

Wishing all of you a nice Sunday! Happy reading :)


Progress update:

TEAM:
📚 Books completed: 18 📚
📃 Pages read: 2996 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 39.41 🎧
🏆 Points: 5623 🏆
(approximately, the prompts will still be moved around/ so we will end up with a slightly different point count)

Meg:
📚 Books completed: 4 /6-7 📚
📃 Pages read: 315 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 7.5 🎧

Christene Paula:
📚 Books completed: 2 /5 📚
📃 Pages read: 802 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 🎧

Kristina:
📚 Books completed: 6 /7 📚
📃 Pages read: 1355 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 10 🎧

Bailey:
📚 Books completed: 2 /?📚
📃 Pages read: 20 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 6.58 🎧

Valerie:
📚 Books completed: 1 /2-3 📚
📃 Pages read: 341 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 🎧

Delu:
📚 Books completed: 0 /6 📚
📃 Pages read: 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 1.2 🎧

Lina:
📚 Books completed: 5 /4 📚
📃 Pages read: 163 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 14.13 🎧

Hey everyone - how are you all doing? :)
Having fun reading?

Spreadsheet working okay?
Please remember to fill in the yellow fields in column N and O on the tracking sheet when you get the chance :)
Everything else seems to be looking good.

Thanks for the update Lina. I think we are going great!

Hi Lina, it's going very well thanks! I've reached my predicted number of books in 4 days but I'm motivated to keep going.
Are there any prompts that aren't well covered?

I think so, too, Meg! Ill post another update tomorrow evening :)

Valerie- I am glad you are having fun and staying motivated :)
I have just scanned through the triple prompts and we are doing pretty well on most fronts (I have added colors to the ones we have already filled to make it a bit easier to see - some could be moved around potentially though- to fill other prompts, if we end up with too many of one)- the one we are severly missing 'read' books for though is the 'Family Saga' genre one - so if you feel like reading a book that fits that prompt that would be great!

Else, one of the double prompts would be good as well. For the other triples I think we might have enough once everyone finishes their in progress ones. But hard to say right now, I will try to make a better progress post tomorrow or the day after so we can all see what prompts we are still missing books for!

Lina wrote: "I think so, too, Meg! Ill post another update tomorrow evening :)

Valerie- I am glad you are having fun and staying motivated :)
I have just scanned through the triple prompts and we are doing p..."

Ok I've added a family saga to my list :)

Been busy this past few days will be back on my books now. :)

Christene Paula✨ wrote: "Finished reading My Sister's Keeper for the 2nd time and still loved it. Lady Tan's Circle of Women is on my TBR."

I read 'My Sister's Keeper' while in hospital having a Bone Marrow Transplant. Pretty appropriate ! Many thanks to the gentleman in Scarborough, Ont for giving me his stem cells.
I have just started Lady Tan's Circle of Women on audio.

Phew! I hit my 7 book pledge yesterday, but I figured I would end up going over that, so I obviously plan to continue. My tracking post and section on the spreadsheet should be up to date (I went in and added my missing pages/audiobook hours on completed books, too!).

I did a quick re-read of Along for the Ride which is a very fun YA novel by the incomparable Sarah Dessen (who, imho, is one of the queens of YA - I read a TON of her when I was a teenager). Still as cute as I remember and now I feel like I can watch the Netflix adaption, so win-win!

I also listened to the Audible audiobook for The Mysterious Affair at Styles which is narrated by Richard Armitage (for those of you who aren't familiar, he plays Thorin in the Hobbit franchise and also John Thornton in the beautiful BBC miniseries for North & South... and a ton of other things besides!). Armitage has a lovely speaking voice and did such a great job with the audiobook, I really enjoyed it!

I'm going to try to get through The Fiery Cross and The Poisonwood Bible this week which I can add to family saga... though they're both very family-oriented books, so they can also obviously go elsewhere if we end up getting those prompts filled before I can finish them!

Kristina wrote: "Phew! I hit my 7 book pledge yesterday, but I figured I would end up going over that, so I obviously plan to continue. My tracking post and section on the spreadsheet should be up to date (I went i..."

Heck yeah, Kristina! Sounds like lots of good reading, I’m glad you’re enjoying your books so far 😄

So good to hear from all of you!
My work day was super long today- so the update on our progress will follow tomorrow - not today; sorry about that!

I havent read anything by Sarah Dessen yet - will check her books out tomorrow! (I also hope the fest you went to on Sunday was fun, Kristina)

I have just finished my 8th book and have 2 more in progress- but am also definitely motivated to keep going! :)

Happy reading anymore - I will post a status update for the team tomorrow! I hope you continue to have fun.

Oops i haven't been updating my tracking post but i think I've been keeping the spreadsheet up to date. Because I'm away from home I've been mostly on my phone not my computer so it's sometimes hard to see everything properly or use goodreads (i wish they would make it more phone user friendly already!!)
I finished Wrong Place Wrong Time last night, it was good but not as great as i was hoping.

No problem at all, Meg! As long as the spreadsheet is updated we are fine - best to spend all the time you want reading! :) And I hope so, too!
I am sorry Wrong Place Wrong Time wasnt as good as you had hoped -
I hope the next one will be better!

Regarding the Spreadsheet:

Christene I am missing the page count/audio hours for My Sister's Keeper, Lost and Found and Marlow Murder Club for rows N/O; can you let me know? (Or fill them in :) ) (I marked it yellow) - that is, the time you spent on them during the readathon, not the total amount they have.

Delu, I am missing updates for your readathon days. Are you doing okay? I can update the spreadsheet for you, if you want :) I am also missing the page count for Time Traveller's Wife, did you finish it?

Everyone: I have looked through the in progress books and written them in orange into the tracking spreadsheet- to make it easier for us to see which prompts we are still missing when we start new books. I will continue to do so with new books we start (or you can, if you want, but please only books that you think you will finish). Once you finish the book just switch it to blue and add the number of pages / hours listened.
I hope this helps :)
I can still move some books around in the end; so if you end up with a book where you dont know where to put it, just let me know and I will try to move things around!
Additionally, I have marked the double / triple prompts we have started but where we are still missing books in green, in case you want to check these before starting new books (might make it easier to not end up with many unfinished double / triple prompts); so unfinished/soon-to-do books are green! :)

Have fun reading! :)

---------------------------------

Progress update Day 5:

We are doing pretty well so far! I hope we will all continue to have fun! We have reached the half way point - lets keep on turning those pages / listening to audiobooks!

TEAM:
📚 Books completed: 32 📚
📃 Pages read: 6,369 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 82,03 🎧
🏆 Points: ~ 12,004 🏆
(approximately, the prompts will still be moved around/ so we will end up with a slightly different point count)

Meg:
📚 Books completed: 6 /6-7 📚
📃 Pages read: 913 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 14 🎧

Christene Paula:
📚 Books completed: 3 /5 📚
📃 Pages read: 802 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 9.25 🎧

Kristina:
📚 Books completed: 7 /7 📚
📃 Pages read: 2,751 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 18,36 🎧

Bailey:
📚 Books completed: 5 /?📚
📃 Pages read: 159 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 14.84 🎧

Valerie:
📚 Books completed: 3 /2-3 📚
📃 Pages read: 715 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 0 🎧

Delu:
Will update this once I hear from you! :)
📚 Books completed: 0 /6 📚
📃 Pages read: 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 1.2 🎧

Lina:
📚 Books completed: 8 /4 📚
📃 Pages read: 795 📃
🎧 Hours listened: 24.38 🎧

(Sorry about spelling mistakes and the like, it is very late here and I need to go sleep, so do not have the time to check all of it again!)

Hey everyone :)
I hope you are doing well and having fun reading!
3 more days left now (a little over that for some of you).

Please let me know if you think you can not finish one of your 'in-progress' books on time - if we know early enough we can try to find someone else that wants to complete the prompt :)

Double prompts that we have started, but for which we are missing one book each (in case anyone finds the time to read one more book after your in progress ones):
- dual POVs
- best friends
Maybe let us know here if you are thinking about picking one of them up

I hope you continue to have fun during the final days!

(Also, please check the message above this one, if you havent yet!)

Woo! Go team Bound by Books!!

Thanks for the updates, Lina! I've updated all of my stuff on the spreadsheet, let me know if there's anything I've missed though.

Here's to the final weekend of readathon-ing for 2023 🎉

Thanks for keeping such good track of the team Lina.
I have finished 3 books and updated the spreadsheet. I've also started 3 more. But I'm now on my family holiday so probably won't be reading so much. I don't know if I'll finish any of the current 3. They don't work for many prompts anyway.

Finished a Family Saga today and I've chosen a Dual POV to read next that I'm confident to finish, together with the Family Vacation one.
Happy reading everyone!

You're all very welcome :) Very much looking forward to the last days of reading together with you (already very sad that it is almost over)! Lets go Team Bound By Books! 📚💕

Thanks for updating the spreadsheet everyone! :)
I have again marked the empty spaces I have noticed in yellow (rows N and O); and there is also a two book discrepancy between the completed books in the planning and the ones in the 'completed' sheet - if someone notices that they have forgotten a book, please add it! Else, I will check thoroughly after we finish :)

Everything else seems to be looking okay so far! :)

I hope you have a fun family holiday Meg!

Sounds good Valerie, I hope you will like them! :)

I am also fairly sure that I will be able to finish the books I have started (one for the animal character prompt and one with a poly relationship)- and I have added one for the last started but unfinished prompt we had (best friends).

If anyone can not finish one of their double/triple prompt books please let us know here, so that we might be able to fill in and finish a different book to fit the prompt!
Also, if someone finished early and wants to start on one more book (or two, or three 😅) you can either start one of the double prompts that havent filled and text us here, so someone else can also read a book that fits that prompt, or start one of the missing single prompts, if you feel like it! (just in case anyone is interested: we have a total of 15/70 prompts that we havent read any books for yet/dont have any in progress for)

Have fun! :)

It’s been a busy weekend for me, Team! I will finish up The Young Elites today for the ‘found family’ triple prompt and that may be my final book for the readathon :( I only have about 15 mins left in the audiobook once I get time to listen to it today so I might be able to finish up another audiobook or at least get us some page points, we’ll see how the day goes!

GO TEAM!! 📚📜🎉🫶

Whoo, go team! Can't believe we're in the final day (in my time zone at least!). Lina, you've done such a great job keeping track of everything!

I had an insanely busy Thursday/Friday (big work conference ate up ALL my free time/reading energy) but this weekend was much freer so I'm sweeping up the last of my books.

I've been listening to the audiobook of Sense and Sensibility during my weekend job (which is very data heavy, so some kind of audio is a must - this is where I do a ton of audiobooks) and it's been huge fun. I haven't listened to Austen on audiobook before and this narrator completely captures the tone for each character.

I'll finish up East of Eden today as well. Depending on my timing, I may be able to throw in last minute books - I've got a couple that are in the 100-200 page range that are on other challenge lists and would fit the one book prompts. We'll see!

Hi everyone!
The Readathon is over for me now - I had a lot of fun with all of you and will send a longer message tomorrow. :)

For everyone that still has time left: I hope you continue to have fun! 📚🎉

Hi everyone. I finished putting all my books on the ss and on my completion post. Thank you! Most books I read was unplanned so yeahh I'm not really good at planning books to read lmao it depends until when my libby books ends and my mood ;)

Hey everyone :)

I have now had a final look through our spreadsheet:

First off, congratulations! We have filled 61 out of 70 prompts, and that is incredible!

Some things I noticed that we still have to work on before I can report our final score:

Delu I am still missing your updates for the last two days of the readathon, it would be great, if you could fill in the pages/hours you read and add the books :)

Everyone: We have a difference of (at the time I am writing this) 493 points between the N/O book counts and the tracking of hours/pages at the top of the tracking sheet. It would be great if you could add up your individual pages / hours listened and fill in the difference! (We are missing 306 pages and 187 audio points in the tracking above - I have added the differences at the bottom of the sheet)

If anyone else read any non-prompt related books at the end of the readathon, those can be added in the dnf/not prompts related section at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Everything else is looking fine!

Once we have fixed these differences, I will post a final team update in this thread and in the official tracking post!

Thanks Team - have a nice day :)

Small Add-on: I have now calculated the differences for each team member at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Christene and Valerie - your numbers match :)

Everyone else - please check the sheet again!
Bailey, you have 2.2 audio hours more in the tracking at the top than in column N - have you forgotten a book, or maybe one that you started but didnt finish?

Kristina, you are missing 158 pages and 4,6 hours on the daily tracking parts (compared to the one in column N/O) - do you remember which day you might have forgotten some?

Meg, you are also missing 148 pages in the daily tracking parts.

Delu, for you its a .4 hours difference (17.6 hours in the daily tracking, but 18 hours for the total of the book).

Would be great if you could each check and correct the numbers :) Afterwards, we are good!

Our final stats:

Date: Sept 15-Sept 19
Pages read: 6,135
Hours listened: 91.13
Books read: 32
Prompts Completed: 9 (4 Singles, 5 Triples)

Date: Sept 20-Sept 24
Pages read: 4,579
Hours listened: 110.21
Books read: 29
Prompts Completed: 20 (4 Singles, 10 Doubles, 6 Triples)

Totals:
Page read: 10,870
Hours listened: 206.14
Books completed: 61
Prompts completed: 29
Points: 29,813

Congratulations again, everyone! We did very well!
I had a lot of fun with you :)

Thanks for all your work Lina, you've done a fantastic job keeping things running smoothly!
Well done everyone on your reading efforts, I'm amazed at how many books others read!
I've really enjoyed this experience, and look forward to another fun readathon.

Thank you Lina for being an amazing leader to our team!! And thank you everyone else for being amazing teammates and pushing me to expand my reading :)

Lina I believe I got my audio hours figured out but please let me know if you need anything else.