Monday, July 27, 2020

Bout of Books 29 - We're shaking things up!

Bout of Books 29 is August 17th through August 23rd

Like us on Facebook
and follow us on Twitter & Instagram
to join the social media fun.
 Bout of Books 29 is coming!


Ready for the shakeup? During the last Bout of Books, we may have let it slip that changes were coming. And then we had the nerve to tell you we weren’t going to say anything yet.

Well, the wait is over. And here it is...

We will not have any daily challenges.

Okay? Deep breaths. The reading? Still happening. Still the focal point of the readathon! Our Instagram-only photo challenges? Yup. Those are staying. And Twitter chats? You know we can’t get rid of those! But the challenges hosted on this blog? They had to go.

The simple explanation is, we weren’t getting a lot of community-submitted ideas*, and rather than having the two of us continue to fill in the holes, we’re going to try something new.

Reading-in-place times. Or, you know, reading sprints.

Y’all have asked for these before and we said no. But removing daily challenges from our readathon workload means that we can devote that time to other activities. Also note that, similar to our daily challenges, you are never required to participate in the new reading-in-place times if you can’t or don’t want to.

You’ll have to let us know what you think. No, seriously. Love it or hate it or want the more in-depth answer for why we’re getting rid of challenges and starting reading-in-place times, we want to know what you think. Send us an email at boutofbooks[at]gmail[dot]com or if you’d like to remain anonymous, use this Google form to submit your comments.

For the reading-in-place times, we’ll post the schedule one week before the readathon starts. Our Bout of Books experts may host additional reading sprints throughout the readathon.

And one more change, just to see if you’ve read this far:

Sign-up will no longer close two days into the readathon. Join us anytime throughout the readathon. Have your friends join us!

*For the people who routinely and consistently submitted ideas (because a few of you did!), we see you and recognize your contributions. Thank you. Seriously, thank you for jumping in and sharing your ideas with us. We appreciate you.

Monday, July 20, 2020

Bout of Books 29 Call for Experts

We need YOU.


The #boutofbooks-ers community is mighty. But your hosts are not always able to jump in, answer questions, and cheer everyone on. Also, why limit the fun to Kelly and Amanda?

That's where Bout of Books experts come in.

What makes a person a Bout of Books expert, you ask?
  • You've participated in AT LEAST four Bout of Books prior to Bout of Books 29
  • You love Bout of Books and want to make sure everyone knows how awesome it is
  • You're willing to commit some of your free time to helping us
  • You love connecting with fellow book lovers and cheering them on
If you're chosen as an expert, you get to visit #boutofbooks-ers' blogs and comment on their posts--tell them how awesome they are and how well they're doing. WHO DOESN'T LOVE SPREADING LOVE?!?!?

We will be closing this form on August 3rd. If you're interested in helping us, make sure you get on our list before then!


Want to help spread the Bout of Books love?
 Bout of Books 29 is coming!