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!

I don’t know what’s wrong with me – I get an idea in my head and I can’t let it go until it comes out as a real, living thing that people can experience. This is exactly what happened with #readingbingo.

What is #readingbingo? It’s a readathon, one that I have invented. It’s going to be low key. I’m saying that more to myself than as part of this announcement.

A little backstory: Probably at least a year ago, I had this idea that it would be fun to pick reading challenges off a bingo board. It gives the participant some agency in deciding what they read, but they’re still within the constraints of picking the challenges that make a bingo together. I also love that there are varying degrees of difficulty, depending on if the participant decides to make one bingo, two bingos, or go for a whole blackout. Bingo boards could also be reused by bringing in other types of bingos as well, like 4 corners or the L shape or whatever.

Essentially I couldn’t get this idea out of my head, so it’s happening. It’s happening the week before Camp NaNo July, which in hindsight wasn’t the best plan, but HERE WE GO ANYWAY!

So there you go! If you’d like to participate in the first ever #readingbingo, it’s happening from June 19-25. The best way to keep up is to follow the channel on Instagram. The bingo board of reading challenges is live now, and there will be daily Instagram challenges and other fun surprises over the course of the week. My intention for this readathon is for it to grow and change over time, so this first one is more of a test, and I’d love your feedback!

My intention for this readathon is for it to grow and evolve over time, so this first one is more of a test, and I’d love your feedback! Happy reading, and thanks for always being down to try out my crazy ideas. Let me know in the comments of this blog post or over on the Instagram account if you have any questions.

I just spent a lot of time writing a long blog post with my thoughts on VidCon, but then when I hit “publish” – rather than, you know, my blog post going live… WordPress decided instead to delete it! Isn’t that cute? Isn’t WordPress so quirky and fun tonight?

I really can’t bring myself to re-gather all of those thoughts, so I guess that’s just gone to the ether, then. Here are the videos I made:

This first one is a video I filmed over the course of the entire trip. Basically any time I was talking to another YouTuber, I asked them what they were reading. I was very pleased with how it came together, and even more pleased to see literally every person I talked to was reading a different book. Can you believe it?

This second video is my more all encompassing “VidCon vlog”, and it contains a bit of footage from the panel I moderated (The Growing Community of Booktube), the Team Hypercube “Ultimate Werewolf” gaming meetup, and of course, the first annual VidCon Book Swap.

Okay. It’s been 2 days since “the great blog post crash” and I think I am finally ready to retype this stuff. I’m going to talk about the Book Swap for a second.

It was incredible.

There were things I would change. I would have a megaphone, for one. Or we’d not be doing it in the middle of a construction zone. I’d love to have music playing to signify when we’re just looking at the books and when we’re actually picking them, a la musical chairs. I’d love for it to be indoors, and potentially even on the VidCon schedule. I’d love to work with a sponsor in the future to donate books for those who might not have known about it beforehand, and I’d love an opportunity for participates to donate an additional book to a charity.

But even without all of these changes/things I learned this year, it was still really incredible. I loved seeing so many people gather in the name of books, get to know new people and share which books they ended up getting. I loved to see books getting new homes, seeing people walking away excited, knowing they could read a book its old owner maybe never read.

I was such a beautiful meetup and I can’t wait to do it again.

Regarding my VidCon video — if nothing else, you should watch it to see Joe and I duke it out in giant inflatable balls. You won’t regret it. VidCon was great. I can’t wait for next year.

I have been excited for this ALL YEAR LONG and now it’s finally here… BOOKTUBEATHON!

Above is my TBR video. This is the video that explains the reading challenges and which books I’ve decided to read for each one. The overarching goal is to read 7 books over the course of the week, and due to my extremist tendencies (coughNaNoWriMocough) I obviously take this one the most seriously.

Here’s a photo of the books I’m reading. Aren’t they pretty? The phone represents the Jenny Han book, since I am audiobookin’ it:

Here’s my progress so far:

The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich: 50% done
I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest: 50% done
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: 15% done

I have successfully started 3 of my books (1 is an audiobook, 1 is a compilation of short stories and 1 is straight fiction, so I’ve been juggling all three pretty easily) and I’m feeling pretty good for my first day. At least on the reading front – as far as video and instagram challenges go, I’m failing miserably. I’ll start doing those tomorrow. Today I was too excited for the actual reading, and also having a day job AND a dentist appointment were not conducive to day one of a readathon the way it is.

I’m loving this week already. Stay tuned to my blog/twitter/youtube channel/instagram/basically everywhere for my reading updates. Also, don’t know what #BookTubeAThon is? Check out the YouTube channel!

I was a little late on this, but here’s the video I put together about my trip to NYC for Book Expo America! I had a fantastic time, got to spend time with friends new and old, and came home with a sizable stack of ARCs I can’t wait to read. I absolutely adored this event and I can’t wait to go again next year!

This month I managed to read *9* books over the course of the month, including a number of brand new releases (like Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen, The Heir by Kiera Cass and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir).

Watch this video to find out what I thought, and to see what I’m hoping to read in June!

I’ve been so busy with BEA and BookCon I completely forgot to post some of my new videos over here on my blog! I promise not to neglect you again. I can change.

This is my May Book haul. It’s a little deceiving, since I filmed this BEFORE I went to NYC and packed a suitcase full of ARCs, but that will be its own video in a couple of days. I had such a wonderful time in New York, but that’s a story for another day. For now, I give you the books (and new vlogging camera!) I acquired in May. Enjoy!

Here’s my review of ‘The Heir’ by Kiera Cass. It’s a big long… but I had a lot to say. Thanks to my good friend Jenn for both buddy-reading ‘The Heir’ with me, and for agreeing to be in this video!

And trust me, we didn’t hold back. This is less of a review and more of a rant, but what can I say? The Selection was a lot of fun, and I think this book had a lot to live up to. I don’t really think it succeeded.

What did you think of ‘The Heir’? Will you be reading the next book in the series?

Whew! I could not have picked a crazier week to attempt a readathon – I’ve had to squeeze reading into the nooks and crannies of my schedule, but I’ve still managed to find a bit of time each day, which is important to me. I even managed to read on my lunch break twice, which I’m sure made me look anti-social but luckily I could not care less about coming across as the weird book-reading girl. Literally everyone who works at Microsoft is a nerd in some way. I’m in good company.

I’ve also shifted up my TBR a little bit. I’ve read way too many amazing reviews of An Ember in the Ashes in the past week or so to ignore it any longer, so it’s earned a spot in the stack of books I am trying to finish for this readathon. In fact, it’s almost replaced everything else, since it’s so long.

My goal is to read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (TGWCFIASOHOM, if you will) first and then to power through An Ember in the Ashes this weekend. If I can do all of that, I will be 100% satisfied with myself. If I can’t, well… that’s okay too.

I haven’t actually read anything yet today, but I didn’t get home from work until almost 8pm and then I decided to go running because I had pent-up ‘i just sat through a five hour meeting’ energy. I needed to relax a bit by writing this blog post (because working relaxes me, yes, I’m strange) and then I’ll start reading.

Current progress overall:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: Done! (323 pages)
The 100 by Kass Morgan: Done! (323 pages – weird, they’re the exact same length)
Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins: Put on hold.
The Utterly Unintersting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant: Listened to 2 hours of the audio book
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland: Just started.

Why are all of my book titles so long? These are abnormally long.

I decided to participate in my own challenge, even though I obviously can’t win. Today I had the honor of hosting the Bout of Books challenge, and I have a fantastic time reading all the book haikus people sent in over the course of the day. It was a lot of fun, and now I want to do it too. I literally just finished reading Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and I’m a big goopy mess on account of how great it was – but there is no time for book hangovers in a readathon. So I am affording myself enough time to write this blog update before diving into Rebel Belle before bed.

My haiku about Attachments by Rainbow Rowell:

Beth and Jennifer
write extremely long emails.
So, when do they work?

I’m a little bummed it took me 3 days to finish this book, but I can’t even really be annoyed because I loved it so much. If I don’t read all five of the books on my TBR, well, life goes on. I’ll replace them with a few graphic novels on Sunday so I still hit the number. Yolo!

Here’s my day 3 update:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: Done! (323 pages)
The 100 by Kass Morgan: Listened to 6 hours out of 7
Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins: Just started.

Hope everyone else is doing well with their readathons – please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know how you’re doing, or send in more book haikus! Go nuts! I love them.