Boutofbooks read-a-thon wrap up

This is my wrap up for the read-a-thon hosted by Bout of books.

Numbers
I like to quantify things, so here come some numbers

Total number of books read: 5
Total number of pages read: 1278
Average number of pages read per day: 183
Average page count in books: 360
Highest page count in a day: 425
Lowest page count in a day: 63

Books finished:
We by Yevgeny Zamaytin
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Saga volume #2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Saga volume #3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Notes/Thoughts:
I had a pretty good week reading wise. I didn’t really have a page goal, but I think my result was pretty good anyway. On the other hand I only finished the graphic novels, and one of the books I planned on reading, because I hadn’t finished the books I was reading up to the read-a-thon. So that kind of sucked. I did get halfway through one of the other books though, so I’ll be done soon. Which is good, because it’s not blowing me away currently. It’s fine. Stop whining.

Speaking of not blowing me away, The Alchemyst. I feel like I’ve said this 500 times now but the writing really put me off. I loved the story, I like mythology, and I like the Flamel legend, also there’s a Harry Potter-ness to the book, which I love. It’s fast-paced and there is action all the time, which is great. The writing is just not good enough. I love books where the perspective shifts. I think it’s interesting to get different views, but if you’re doing that you need to give your characters distinct voices, so you can tell them apart. You also need to commit, so when you start with one perspective you stick with it until you make some sort of actual break in the text. Scott doesn’t do that, sometimes the perspective changes from one sentence to the next. It’s frustrating, and it is confusing, and oh God it’s annoying. I might read on, because it’s exciting, but I’ll use my sister, and have her lend me the books so I don’t need to buy them.

I did have some favorites though, the Saga graphic novels were amazing. The story is really great, the art is amazing. It’s incredibly weird, and there is so much oddness everywhere. Alana and Marko have some interesting character growth, I love Gwendolyn, who is Marko’s ex, which is just great. Also I read them on my iPad, which worked surprisingly well, the publisher of Saga has an app where you can buy the comics, and I used that, worked well. Whoo.

I also really liked We, which was really cool, and really weird. Weird is the buzzword of today.

Final thoughts
I read some good books, I had fun. I finished books, I read great comics, and I sort of combined it with going to the movies twice, working out three times, and going to work, like a normal person, so I’m pretty pleased with myself.