Thoughts On Bout of Books Round 12

First things first - I really enjoyed it.  From the (late) moment I tagged along, I had such a fun time.  I kept the expectations bar looow, and just tried to read more.  When I woke up, instead of mindlessly scrolling through whatever, I read.  When I felt the urge to go on Facebook (again), I read or looked for tweets with the #boutofbooks hashtag.  Before I went to bed, instead of watching Netflix, I read.  I think the last two had a lot to do with the fact that I'm also watching how I spend my time online and trying to be more thoughtful about it.

And it actually made me feel, overall, more connected with people.  Here are some deets:

Total pages read: 415+
Total goals met: 3 out of 3

Pros/Things I really enjoyed:

• Participating on Twitter (chats!, seeing other people's progress, looking at the #boutofbooks hashtag)
• Doing something positive, fun, and involved
• Feeling more outgoing on Twitter
• Going more regularly to post on my blog, or schedule posts
• Getting through things/books I'd wanted to for ages
• Feeling in control of my schedule and more organized
• Rethinking what it means to read (re-reading counts!)

Cons: A little bit of pressure, having to check my goals against others (uh, like people who read 4,000 pages?!), sometimes feeling like I was being anti-social, when really I was just connecting in a different way.

Wish I'd done more: Twitter chats, getting my butt in the chair and reading

Notable things:

Monday: I spent the day traveling, and surprisingly this was not when I did most of my reading! That was mostly because I had work to do and emails to catch up on after being away, but I felt sort of silly for not reading more.

Thursday: The day I finished two out of three goals! I definitely felt the freedom to read whatever I wanted, which was daunting and so exciting.  

Friday: This day was the day that I read the least - I had friends coming over for dinner and had to get things prepared, cooked, cleaned, etc. and I thought I was coming down with something.

  

Saturday: All I wanted to do was read, and only read, all day long.  Alas, real life intervened, but I did get some good "me" time to veg out and indulge (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, you will always be my favorite).

Sunday: Pushed through my last goal (blerg, nonfiction).

What were your experiences like? Have you participated in Bout of Books before?