'Tis the Season-A-Thon 2019 Wrap Up 📚 | Blogmas Day 10

Last week I participated in my first readathon in a long time, the 'Tis the Season-A-Thon! (For those curious, you can find my TBR for this readathon here.) Usually I like to vlog my readathons to capture my reading progress, but because I'm on a little bit of a YouTube hiatus, I thought that I could blog each day what I read and my thoughts on what I'm reading. It's a little bit of a different approach to a reading wrap up, but hopefully you all enjoy it! 🤗

Day 1 - December 2, 2019

It snowed overnight so things are feeling extra festive! Started the day off by making pancakes and listening to Seven Days of Us. I was torn between North and What If It's Us to read for my physical book, so I took to Twitter to help me decide and they opted for North! Because I was working from home, I was able to read loads between answering emails and taking calls. I managed to read 151 pages of North (a little over half way) and get about 20% of the way through Seven Days of Us!

Page count for Day 1: 221

Total pages read: 221

Total books completed: 0

Total challenges completed: 0

Day 2 - December 3, 2019

My favorite kind of email to receive 💖

Work was closed today (SNOW DAY!!! ❆) so I was able to sleep in AGAIN and enjoy the day off. I decided to make my holiday treat while listening to Seven Days of Us - Egg Nog French Toast! Sounds delicious, but it ended up being a bit underwhelming. 😂 Oh well, at least that challenge is done!

I did quite a bit of reading of North in the morning (before finally dragging myself outside to shovel 😭) and I don't know about you guys, but I really love reading with ambient noise in the background. ASMR Rooms (one of my fave creators on YouTube) has a ton of Harry Potter themed ambient noise videos and I've been listening to this Christmas at Hogwarts video while reading for the last few days. It's so lovely and getting me into such a festive mood!

Before bed I finally finished up reading North and I ended up really enjoying it! I ended up giving the book 4 stars. It's so interesting reading about folks who take on such epic physical feats like accomplishing the Fastest Known Time on the Appalachain Trail. I love books like that! With that, I've completed the "read a book that was a gift" challenge.

Page count for Day 2: 187

Total pages read: 408

Total books completed: 1

Total challenges completed: 2
-Holiday treat
-Book that was a gift

Day 3 - December 4, 2019 I spent a lot of time in the morning listening to Seven Days of Us, thanks to my commute to work in the morning! Also got started on What if It's Us, my second physical book. I always think it's so funny when you're reading and a scene in your book takes place in the same physical environment that you're currently reading in. This happened when I was reading What If It's Us tonight. I had some time to kill before my volleyball match so I opted to grab something to eat at Panera and hang out for a bit. Lo and behold, there was a scene where one of the main characters went to a Panera for lunch with his co-workers. So weird when that happens!

Page count for Day 3: 320

Total pages read: 728

Total books completed: 1

Total challenges completed: 2
-Eat a holiday treat while reading
-Book that was a gift

Day 4 - December 5, 2019 I've been sick all day and unfortunately not really up for reading, but I did feel up to at least listening to the last little bit of Seven Days of Us. This was a familial drama where everyone has a secret and slowly, over time, the secrets start coming out while the family spends a week together over Christmas. This book was just okay for me. I do love a good familial drama, but this is a story that doesn't have anything super unique to it and doesn't have a character that I feel any kind of attachment to, even though there's a solid 5 character perspectives. I feel like I've read a dozen stories just like this before, so I ended up only giving it a 3 star rating. Even so, it helped me finish another challenge - read a holiday themed book!

Page count for Day 4: 45

Total pages read: 773

Total books completed: 2

Total challenges completed: 3
-Eat a holiday treat while reading
-Book that was a gift
-A holiday themed book

Day 5 - December 6, 2019

Feeling even worse than I did yesterday, so no reading was accomplished today 😓

Day 6 - December 7, 2019

While I'm still not feeling 100%, I actually felt up to reading a decent amount of What If It's Us today! I'm really enjoying this cute YA romance, and I feel like it's just the kind of feel-good novel that I needed when I've been feeling so crappy. Not sure if I'm going to be able to finish the book by the end of the readathon. I still have half of the book to read, but I'm flying through it so hopefully I feel up to reading more tomorrow between getting ready for the work week!

Page count for Day 6: 109

Total pages read: 882

Total books completed: 2

Total challenges completed: 3

Day 7 - December 8, 2019

I am feeling closer to being a human today, which is great news! The downside of feeling more like a human was that I really needed to use most of the day using what energy I had throughout the day to get caught up on chores and errands to get ready for the week, so downtime was very minimal between laundry, grocery shopping, and the like. I did manage to squeeze in about 100 more pages of What If It's Us before drifting off to sleep, though, and I'm still really enjoying it! 

While it's not my favorite from Adam Silvera or Becky Albertalli, it's shaping up to be a solid 4-star read for me. The only drawback for me with this book is that one of the main characters can really come off as super whiny and annoying at times, which is frustrating to read. However, it's a YA novel and the characters are teenagers who can sometimes be really whiny and annoying, so I guess it's not too far off the mark 😂 Either way, it's been a really great feel-good novel to read through and I'm looking forward to finishing it sometime in the coming week.

Page count for Day 7: 103

OVERALL TOTALS

Total pages read: 985

Total books completed: 2

Total challenges completed: 3
-Eat a holiday treat while reading
-Book that was a gift
-A holiday themed book

Overall I'm really happy with how my 'Tis the Season-A-Thon went! It's been a really long time since I've participated in a readathon and having one this time of year has just been perfect timing. I feel like I'm finding my grove with reading again and I'm so happy about that. I've been struggling for so long to find a solid balance in my day to day life between all of my responsibilities and also incorporating my love of reading, and I feel like this readathon helped me move in the direction that I want to move! Here's to much more reading in my future! 🥂