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

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

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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.

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 28 Wrap Up!

Congratulations!
You have survived Bout of Books 28!

In this post, we invite you to link up to your overall progress for Bout of Books. You don't have to create a wrap-up post--it can be an update post with day 7's progress.

Whatever works for you, works for us.

We'd like to thank everybody who signed up and participated in the read-a-thon. We're always striving to make this event the best it can be and we couldn't do that without your enthusiastic participation.

Here are important informational nuggets you probably want to know:

Bout of Books 29 will be from August 17th to August 23rd.

Following this blog is the BEST way to stay up to date on EVERYTHING.

Since we can't reach out to everyone personally to remind them about upcoming events (though wouldn't that be awesome?), we do our best to keep this blog updated with the most current information. That means you're responsible for following us if you want to receive the latest news. You can also follow our the Bout of Books Instagram account where we countdown the weeks until the next Bout of Books or join the #boutofbooks-ers Facebook group to talk books between read-a-thons.

For those that are interested in helping out for the next Bout of Books, we post a call for help roughly a month prior to the start of the read-a-thon - which will be around July 20th for Bout of Books 29.

Once again, thank you to everyone who helped make Bout of Books 28 a success! We appreciate that you love books and how vocal you are about sharing it!

-Kelly and Amanda

Bout of Books 28 Day 7

The end is in sight.
Keep reading!

Here is the schedule of events for today:

TZC = Time Zone Conversion

10:30am CT (TZC) Morning Announcements with @boutofbooks
7:30pm CT (TZC) Evening Announcements with @boutofbooks

Challenges

Stretch Goal

It's the last day of the readathon, so today's challenge is to take a look at the goals you set for the week (if you have them) and decide a) how you can stretch yourself to complete them or b) how you can revise them so you can meet them. Because yes, you can revise your goals! If you didn't set goals for the week, set a small one for yourself today!

Instagram Photo a Day

For those of you who use Instagram, don't forget to post your daily Bout of Books photo. Find out more on our Bout of Books Instagram page!

Bout of Books 28 Day 6

Here is the schedule of events for today:

TZC = Time Zone Conversion

9:30am CT (TZC) Morning Announcements with @boutofbooks
10am CT (TZC) Twitter Chat with @boutofbooks
7:30pm CT (TZC) Evening Announcements with @boutofbooks

Challenges

Leave a Review

Did you know? Book reviews help other readers discover new books. For today's challenge, we encourage you to write a review of a book you've read during the readathon (or recently) and publish it where other readers make their purchasing decisions (e.g., Amazon, Goodreads, etc.). Be sure to share it with us.

Instagram Photo a Day

For those of you who use Instagram, don't forget to post your daily Bout of Books photo. Find out more on our Bout of Books Instagram page!

Bout of Books 28 Day 5

Here is the schedule of events for today:

TZC = Time Zone Conversion

10:30am CT (TZC) Morning Announcements with @boutofbooks
7:30pm CT (TZC) Evening Announcements with @boutofbooks

Challenges

Share Your Favorites

You've got 'em, right? Share your favorite books, series, author, narrator . . . whatever. If you love it, now's the time to share them. Shout them loud and proud wherever the #boutofbooks crowd hangs out.

Instagram Photo a Day

For those of you who use Instagram, don't forget to post your daily Bout of Books photo. Find out more on our Bout of Books Instagram page!

Bout of Books 28 Day 4

Here is the schedule of events for today:

TZC = Time Zone Conversion

10:30am CT (TZC) Morning Announcements with @boutofbooks
7:30pm CT (TZC) Evening Announcements with @boutofbooks

Challenges

Bookish Matchmaking

One of the great things about having so many book lovers in one place is being able to crowdsource recommendations. That's what today's challenge is all about. Have you been looking for a specific type of book? Add your "I'm looking for . . . " in the comments below or on Twitter (use the #boutofbooks hashtag!). Comment on threads with your own recommendations. Let your TBR stack grow larger!

Instagram Photo a Day

For those of you who use Instagram, don't forget to post your daily Bout of Books photo. Find out more on our Bout of Books Instagram page!