All About YA discussion

Hey everyone! Since it's the season of getting back to work and school in a lot of places, I thought it would be fun to do a casual, fun read-a-thon to help relieve us all of the stress that can come with this! It will run for a week, Monday 11th September to Sunday 17th, starting at midnight of the 10th and ending at midnight of the 17th in whatever time zone you're in.

There is no obligation to join in this read-a-thon or to participate in any of the challenges - it's all just for fun, and you can approach it in any way you like. It'd be awesome to hear what you're planning and how you're doing in this discussion though, so if you think you'd like to take part, please do say hi below!

Here are the optional challenges which might give you some inspiration for what books to read:

✎ 1 ~ A book set in a school

✎ 2 ~ A book with a colourful cover (whatever you consider as colourful - it's up to you!)

✎ 3 ~ A book from a series you've been meaning to get to

✎ 4 ~ A book set in a different world to ours

✎ 5 ~ A book that is not in physical format (e.g. an ebook or audiobook)

✎ 6 ~ A book from an author you love

✎ 7 ~ A book which involves breaking rules

You can choose to group multiple challenges together for one book, or use one book for each challenge, or just come up with your own, completely different challenges! It's all very relaxed remember. The point of this read-a-thon is to have fun and hopefully get as much reading done as we can! Good luck everyone! :)

I love the challenges for this read-a-thon Daisy, definitely joining in. :)

Thanks, Janessa. That's awesome, looking forward to seeing which books you pick!

This is so cool, I've been in the mood for a read-a-thon recently! I will definitely be joining.

I'm currently re-reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson which is 1000 pages long. I'm on page 230 right now so I'll still be reading that next week. I might try and finish it during the read-a-thon and that can count for challenges 4 (a book set in a different world to ours) and 6 (a book from an author you love). I will fill out the rest with some fun young adult books I've been meaning to get to. I'm looking forward to it!

Sounds great, Sophie! ...And also a little impossible. 1000 pages?! :O Best of luck if you do decide to try and finish it, I am preparing myself to be amazed by your long-book-reading skills.

Hmm, turns out I didn't really think about what books I could choose for this while coming up with the challenges, so I've had a harder time picking out my TBR than I thought I would! I've ended up bending the definitions a little to fit with what I want to read, but oh well. :D I am trying to read one book for each challenge, so I'm not sure I'll even get all of them finished anyway, but I'm definitely going to try my best! My TBR:

1 ~ ~ I've flipped through this and seen the word 'school' a couple of times, so hopefully at least some of the story will be set there. I've heard a lot of people say they read this in one sitting, and it certainly looks short, so hopefully I'll get through it quick.

2 ~ ~ This is a re-read from one of my favourite series of all time. These books are really short and fun so I know I'll be able to get through this one fast. Plus I'd say the bright purple cover counts as colourful.

3 ~ ~ This series is another re-read, and one I wanted to start for ages before I did, so I'd say it counts for this challenge.

4 ~ ~ This challenge was really hard - I never read books set in different worlds to ours! Our world in the future or past, yes, but a whole different world is definitely a challenge for me. As this one does start on Earth, it might not really count, but I'm hoping they visit another planet or something, then it would work I think.

5 ~ ~ I've been wanting to read this for sooo long, and the audiobook is only about seven hours, so I should be able to get it listened to within the week.

6 ~ ~ Shakespeare is definitely an author I love, and I often read his plays across five days, one act a day, so that's the plan for this one.

7 ~ ~ I'm already a good way through this one, about 150 pages of 180, so hopefully I can finish it on the first day of the read-a-thon. There's been a couple of sort of rule breakages... so that counts?!

I was hoping to read mostly YA in this read-a-thon... but I guess that failed. Still, excited for all the books I'm planning to read and I'm gonna try really hard to get them all finished within the week. I didn't realise how hard these challenges are so if anyone else is planning to stick to them, I wish you luck!

These are the books I'm going to read for the read-a-thon.

1. : It fits challenges 4, 5, and 6. I didn't realize that this was part of a series, if I can I'll read/listen to the rest of the series during the read-a-thon. I could do a challenge to read an author that is new to me with this book

2. : This books fits challenges 1 and 7. If I tweak challenge 3 I can do it as a book I've been meaning to read. That would work right? I could also do a challenge to read an author that is new to me.

3. : This books fits challenges 1, 4, 7. Again it could also fit challenge 3 a book I've been meaning to read. Not sure if it does fit challenge 1? This book would also work for an author that is new to me.

4. : This books fits challenge 7 as Daltrey and The Who definitely broke some rules, along with their guitars!

5. : This books also fits challenge 7 because Holmes and Watson have to solve a crime, committing a crime I see as breaking the rules. Plus this Sherlock Holmes seems to bend the rules slightly to solve the case.

6. : This or play fits challenge 6, and maybe challenge 4.

Hoping to add in a few more books, but will have to see.

My plan for the week is to focus on two books and then possibly read some short fiction...

: I was on page 564 of 1007 at the start of this week. If I finish it this will count for challenges 4, 6 and 7 (a book set in a different world to ours, a book from an author I love and a book which involves breaking rules).

: I have bought the ebook of this and started it yesterday. It will count for challenges 3, 5 and 6 (a book from a series I've been meaning to get to, a book that is not in physical format and a book from an author I love).

With those two picks I haven't crossed off 'a book set in a school' or 'a book with a colourful cover' (challenges 1 & 2). Stephanie Burgis (one of my other favourite authors - I am smashing challenge 6!) has a couple of Young Adult short stories that I would like to read eventually, I may get to one this week. I don't know if they will count for any challenges though.

Hope the read-a-thon's going well for you guys so far! Thought I'd do a little update on my progress:

On Monday I finished , really really loved it, but I'm still undecided whether it's my favourite Austen (so far) or not. I've only read this and Pride and Prejudice, but both were awesome!

On Tuesday I read the whole of , and it wasn't even that hard! Really glad I picked this for this read-a-thon. Looove this series to my grave. :D

Today I've started and am about a quarter-ish of the way through. My plan is to reach halfway today, then finish it tomorrow, so another hour and a bit later should mean I achieve that. There's been some really funny moments but I'm not very involved in the story yet. We'll see...

I've also started and , the two books I'm spreading throughout the week. Enjoying both of them so far. So yeah, basically it's all going according to plan right now, and I'm having fun with it! Here's to the rest of the week being just as good!

I'm planning on finishing and , if I don't finish that one then I'll finish and move on to the next book in the series today, but will have to see with having school and homework today.

Finished , going to finish , and

You two are doing great! I finished yesterday (loved it!) and am 125 pages into .

Finished , and I started today.

I read 443 pages of and 411 (67%) of during last week for a grand total of 854 pages in 7 days. I only finished one book and that was one I started before the read-a-thon. Not very impressive but hey, I had a blast reading some fantastic books and that's all I care about. Hope you two had fun! :)

Well, I'm ridiculously late but this is how I did in the read-a-thon:

I finished five of my books and liked all of them. The two I didn't finish were Henry IV Part 2 - forgot to read it one day then just fell out of the habit - and A Monster Calls - which I didn't even start as it took me four days to finish Hitchhiker's Guide, and on the last day I read Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Happy with how I did overall, glad I could get to some books that have been on my tbr for ages!

Well done to both of you! Glad one of us got our Shakespeare read, Janessa. And that's awesome, Sophie - that's exactly what I wanted the spirit of this read-a-thon to be. :)