Bout of Books: Saturday (#boutofbooks)

I'm aiming to post an update each day throughout the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon because I find them fun to look back over once it's all finished. I'll be including an update on my day (sometimes just about reading, other times about why I've not been reading), along with my thoughts on the books I've been reading and any challenge entries.

My Day

I didn't do an update yesterday as I strained my eyes and ended up not being able to read or really use my computer all day :( More annoyingly this happened 54 pages into Last Sacrifice so it was more than a little frustrating to know what the start was and then have to stop right in the middle of the action!

I felt a bit better today so I was able to get some reading done but I'm still trying to take things easy so as not to make my eyes worse. I loved taking part in the twitter chat and really enjoyed chatting with everyone. I also indulged in a massive mug of chai while reading this morning.

The Books

Yay!!! I finally managed to finish Last Sacrifice! Okay, so three days is not that to class as finally but I really didn't want to stop reading so to me it felt like forever. I really enjoyed this and it does manage to tie-up the series really well, although there are some storylines left unfinished which I'm hoping will be concluded in the Bloodlines series. As much as I loved this, I can't wait to get started on that as soon as I can (especially as The Indigo Spell is out in a few weeks).

 
Now I'm looking forward to starting Under the Never Sky. I've heard awesome things about it, especially from my fellow Bout of Book-sers so I'm really excited to get started. The only reason I put off getting a copy before now is that the original UK cover is horrendous (you can see it here). The new covers are much better and I can't wait to get reading :)



Total books read: Most of one
Total pages read: 530

The Challenges

The Name Your Book Crack challenge is hosted by Amy @ Bookgoonie and you can still enter by clicking here. Amy's challenge is to and identify your deepest, darkest addictions. What is your Book Crack? What can you NOT SAY NO to? What bookish things make you blissful?

My book crack has to be multi-buy offers! I totally suck at being able to walk away from an offer, especially when it comes to books. Sadly most seem to be 3 for 2 lately which aren't as great a saving (especially as one store always used to do Buy One Get One Free every February). However in the UK there is a store called The Works who always have books at really reduced prices. Their standard offer is 3 for £5 (which is awesome when books generally retail between £6 and £8 each) and occasionally they even have 2 for £3! It is very difficult for me to go in and not buy anything lol :)


The Bookish Dress Up challenge is hosted by Celine @ Nyx Book Reviews and you can still enter by clicking here. Celine's challenge is "You know when in a book an author painstakingly describes what a character is wearing? Not only is this usually quite annoying, it gets even worse if the character’s fashion sense makes you want to smack your head against your wall. What if you could dictate what the character was wearing? What would you put on them – something ridiculous, or something that would make them look wonderful?"

I really struggled with this challenge, but there is one thing that stands out to me from the Vampire Academy series - Dimitri's duster! At first it didn't bother me, although it seriously reminded me of Spike but by book 6 I'd had enough. There is a line in Last Sacrifice that says:

"There was a look of woe on his face that was almost comical. Raids, bullets, criminals...no problem. A missing duster? Crisis."

I mean really, your a bad-ass guardian and you wear a duster? How impractical is that? All I want to do is take his duster and replace it with a nice leather jacket, kind of like these ones modelled by the Salvatore brothers:

Is it too much to ask that the hunky Russian isn't basing his look on a 90s vampire? (That said, Spike = *swoon*).