It’s one of my favorite times of year again! And this time, despite a precarious schedule and some potential work travel, I am very set on winning.

The Reading Rush (July 22-28) is the shiny new evolution of BookTubeAThon, the reading challenge I hold near and dear to my heart. BookTubeAThon, way back in 2014, was the catalyst that threw me headfirst into BookTube.

And that year was a dream.

After that, I’m pretty sure I failed year after year after year, but I had fun doing it. And truly, nothing will ever compare to that first year, when I read the entirety of The Selection by Kiera Cass in three days. What a time to be alive.

Anyway, there’s not much different for me this year, save for the massive rebrand the readathon hosts have undergone — that and my dogged determination to get back to my former seven-books-in-seven-days glory.

So here’s to the first year of The Reading Rush! Get yourself to the fancy new website where you can track your progress and earn shiny badges and whatnot. Exciting stuff, man. As a note, I’ll be hosting the Twitter sprints Thursday the 25th from 7-8pm. For those of you who’ve been around for previous BookTubeAThons, you know what that means…. *devious face*

Here’s my TBR and the challenges [two audiobooks not pictured]! May your days be filled with wonderful words and comfortable reading spots.

1. In The Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce (purple on the cover)
2. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (Book to Movie Adaptation)
3. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (meant to read last year)
4. My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn (over 5 words in title)
5. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab (an author’s first book)
6. The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson (Same Spot the Whole Time)
7. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Non-Human Main Character)

Are you doing The Reading Rush? What are you reading?

Listen, if there was gonna be even one good thing about my role being eliminated at work and needing to find a new job — it was going to be that I would actually have time to do Booktubeathon for serious this year. Because as I’m sure you’re all aware — it’s my second favorite book-related challenge on the Internet. The first of which, of course, being NaNoWriMo.

But get this. While I don’t technically have a day job I need to go to, Booktubeathon falls on the perfect storm of days I still will be quite crunched to actually read books at all, let alone seven.

Monday: Job interview that will take at least half the day
Tuesday: Doctor appointment in the morning, going into the office for something midday, then a hair appointment afternoon/evening
Wednesday: Nothing, thank goodness. I’ll be reading pretty much all day, when I’m not packing
Thursday: Why was I packing? Oh right, because I am spending the rest of the week in NYC. Which will be amazing, just – you know – ill timed. At least I have a long flight to read on.
Friday-Sunday: Doing NYC things, and trying to fit some reading in amongst it all

Basically, I’m doomed. Here’s my TBR:

I opted for a bunch of short books, thankfully, with a ratio of 3 actual novels to 4 graphic novels. The bottom two graphic novels I’ll be doing a coin flip over, as per the challenges. To find out about the rest of the challenges, watch the official challenge video. I also need to consider doing one of these as an audiobook, since I now have two days of commutes I didn’t account for. Plus I need to find time to watch the movie version of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas… yikes. This is going to be something.

But this is par for the course, with me. Nobody is surprised. If you want to watch me flail along during this challenge, be sure to follow my Instagram account!

As a fun little bonus, this week I have also created a series of lists with recommendations for things I like and use, like board games and cute stuff and even products I use to maintain pink hair. I’m an Amazon affiliate, so I do get a small commission if you end up buying anything, but I get asked so often for recommendations that this seemed like a good solution. I recently made one for writing, and while it’s not exactly made for readathons, there’s still a lot of stuff in there that applies. Like fuzzy socks. Man, I love fuzzy socks.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. This was initially going to be a video, since I had this small inkling of a desire to make a video, but that was a fleeting idea. Then it took me another week to actually write this, because apparently, all content on the Internet is difficult for me these days.

Who else is doing Booktubeathon? Do we think Kristina will actually win this year?

I haven’t successfully won since the very first time I tried it, back in 2014. Coincidentally, that was the last time I didn’t have a full-time job taking up all my time.

If you want – leave a comment telling me what you’re most excited to read, or give me NYC recommendations!

Okay, I wasn’t going to do this reading challenge, but hearing other people talk about things is the biggest catalyst in making me want to do those things. So here I am. Doing the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge. I’ll be updating this list all year long as I tackle the challenges, so check back if you want to see how I am doing.

Challenges Completed: (46/50)

A book with more than 500 pages: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A classic romance (Persuasion)
A book that became a movie: Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
A book published this year: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book with a number in the title: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
A book written by someone under 30: The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich
A book with nonhuman characters: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
A funny book: Sex Criminals Vol. 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky 
A book by a female author: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
A mystery or thriller: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
A book with a one word title: Hazed by Mark Sable
A book with short stories: The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
A book set in a different country: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
A non-fiction book: The Opposite of Loneliness 
A popular author’s first book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
A book a friend recommended: Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A Pulitzer Prize winning novel: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A book based on a true story: Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
A book at the bottom of your TBR list: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
A book your mom loves: Old North Dakota German Cookbook
A book that scares you: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
A book more than a 100 years old: Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
A book based entirely on its cover: In Real Life by Corey Doctorow and Jen Wang
A book you were supposed to read in school and didn’t: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A memoir: Bossypants by Tina Fey
A book with antonyms in the title: Glory O’brien’s History of the Future by AS King
A book you can finish in a day: The Woods: Vol 1 by James Tynion IV
A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to go: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book published the year you were born (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)
A book with bad reviews: Doll Bones by Holly Black
A Trilogy (Magic 2.0)
A book from your childhood: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
A book with a love triangle: The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson
A book set in the future: Cress by Marissa Meyer
A book set in high school: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
A book with a color in the title: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
A book that made you cry: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski
A book with magic: Spell or High Water by Scott Meyer
A graphic novel: A Wrinkle in Time the Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle/Hope Larson
A book by an author you’ve never read before: This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
A book you own but never read: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
A book that takes place in your hometown: Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer
A book that was originally written in another language: Magical Girl Apocalypse
A book set during Christmas: PS. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
A book by an author who has your same initials: The Kite Runner Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini
A play (from joe!)
A banned book: On The Bright Side I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison
A book based on or turned into a tv show: The 100 by Kass Morgan
A book you started but never finished: Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley