Last month I did a post where a random number generator generated how many hours I read for a week, and on the back of it I was wondering how long I actually read in a read. I know reading weeks vary for everyone, and it definitely varies for me, but I have never really measured how long or how much I read for a week like this.
That is why for this week’s blog post, I decided that I wanted to see how long I read for and the amount that I read for in a normal week. This is taking into consideration that I work a 9 to 5 job Monday to Friday so I am not always able to dedicate as much time to reading as I would normally like.
That being said, this week I felt that I managed to read more than I have been recently, but I think it is purely because I started a new series that I just could not get enough of which motivated me to read even more. (hint hint The Arc of Scythe!).
Thanks to this week I did manage to finish a couple of books, so any of the reviews that I have already put out about the books I will link them throughout the post. Without further ado, let’s have a look at how much I read!
Monday 18th March 2024
| Hours read for: 3 hours 15 minutes | Total Pages: 193 pages |
I started reading Scythe last week and over the weekend I was really getting into it, so it made sense that I woke up early to be able to continue reading it before work. The only issue is that I managed to read up until Part 4 before starting work which ended on a massive cliffhanger…so it meant it was on my mind the whole working day! Distracted? Yes, I truly was.
It was a nice feeling though as recently I have been struggling to get really into the books that I was reading, prime example was Circe by Madeline Miller. So being able to almost eat up and binge a book was a really nice experience as that is the experience I was used to before!
After I finished cooking dinner, it was time to sit down and read Scythe, and I finished it! I sat in my bed and just did not see the time go by as my nose was buried into the book. I am so glad that I decided to pick up this book last week because it was such a good read. The story itself is one that I have honestly not read or heard of, and uniqueness nowadays is almost unheard of as there are so many stories and books out there.
This meant that I had a book review to write, so off I went tapping away whilst I listened to Shantaram. I do have the physical copy with me as it is being lent to me by my colleague, but I just found the writing style so hard to get into, and the book is a BRICK! So heavy. I have been mainly listening to it whilst reading the physical copy to have a bit of immersive reading, but honestly the actual plot and story are not that interesting to me. Sure, what he has been through is out of this world, I do not feel like some random person could really write about it or think it up, but does it need to be 936 pages? No.
Tuesday 19th March 2024
| Hours read for: 3 hours 11 minutes | Total Pages: 180 pages |
I started my morning off by reading about Hercules’ adventures which surely has to put everyone in a good mood! The way that Roger writes the stories is beautiful, I am in love with the book, but I am not getting the urge to pick it up purely because I do not want it to end.
After finishing Scythe yesterday I was debating whether or not to pick up Thunderhead to continue the Arc of Scythe trilogy as I loved the first book so much. Originally I thought that it would be better to finish one of the two books that I have going on at the moment, but then why wait? Mood reading to me is the best way to read as it means that you will want to pick up the book as it reflects your current mood…if that makes sense.
So this is a roundabout way of saying that after listening some more of Shantaram, I picked up Thunderhead and started the second book, and I managed to read up until the end of the first part, which is a frustrating part to end on just because there was a huge twist! But I am so glad I decided to pick it up!
Wednesday 20th March 2024
| Hours read for: 3 hours 11 miunutes | Total Pages: 180 pages |
Today I had to go into the office which meant I was listening to Shantaram as I was getting ready and walking to the office. That is something that I have really enjoyed since discovering audible and audiobooks is just listening to something other than the same old music on a walk to work. It means that I can get some reading done whilst on the move – making reading accessible! I wrote a post in relation to this, click here to check it out!
When listening to Shantaram, I was thinking about what I would rate it when I am finally done with it. To be honest at the moment my rating is flickering between a 2 and a 3 star. It is not a bad book, but it could probably have been written to be a 400 page book rather than a 900+ paged book. I understand that there is a lot to unpack during his life, but some of the stuff being mentioned is just not adding to the plot. It is giving me Circe vibes in the way that there are sub stories that are nice and all, but they are just making the pacing incredibly slow!
After I finished work I continued to read Thunderhead and I am enjoying it so much. I have begun to tab some sections and phrases that I want to talk about in my review to make sure that I do not forget to mention anything, so that it is essentially more organised in comparison to the review I wrote from Scythe!
Thursday 21st March 2024
| Hours read for: 3 hours 55 minutes | Total Pages: 236 pages |
The day after being in the office I always find that I am more tired than usual, probably because I have to get up earlier to actually head in. Because of this, I decided to have a mini lie in, but sadly meant that there was no reading before work.
That just meant that I was really excited to start reading after work. When 5 o’clock hit I picked up Thunderhead to find out more about what would happen next. My aim was to get through a good chunk of the book so that I could start the third book by the beginning of next week (meaning this week!).
In the end, I did read a lot of Thunderhead and listened to a big chunk of Shantaram, but it meant that I did not go to bed until 1 am! I have a feeling that I will not be reading before work tomorrow morning…
Friday 22nd March 2024
| Hours read for: 1 hour 7 minutes | Total Pages: 70 pages |
Just like I hypothesized, I did not manage to read before work again, purely because I stayed up way too late reading. Just your casual reader problems!
For some reason, even though I was really excited to get back into the world of Thunderhead, I just did not want to pick up the book to read it. Instead I had a chilled Friday evening and caught up on a series that I had missed a couple of episodes of. I did manage to fit in a quick hour to listen to some more of Shantaram and to read a few chapters of Thunderhead.
Saturday 23rd March 2024
| Hours read for: 48 minutes | Total Pages: 42 pages |
Today I had plans so it I knew that I would not be able to read as much as I probably would have liked to. I went to the theatre – something that I had not done before out of choice – and went to see an adaptation of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It is my favourite Agatha Christie novel so when I saw that there was a play adaptation I was slightly intrigued!
I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed how the set was portrayed as well as the acting. The only thing I was not too happy about was the alteration to the ending of the novel. I feel like it would have been more impactful if it had followed the actual ending and less ‘over the top’.
In the end, I was only able to listen to some of Shantaram on my walk to and from the outing. When I came back home I did want to try and read some more of Thunderhead, but I was just too tired!
Sunday 24th March 2024
| Hours read for: 2 hours 57 minutes | Total Pages: 154 pages |
The last day of my realistic reading week log! To be honest I have really enjoyed logging and tracking my reading week – it has been a lot of fun and interesting just to see how much I read in a week with no additional pressures. And the fact that it has also been a good reading week has just been an additional bonus!
Today I went to see my grandma, which meant that I would be taking the train! – or so I thought. Sadly there were bus replacement services as they were doing work on the tracks, so because of being prone to motion sickness I had to leave my book at home. Instead, I took the opportunity to listen to Shantaram as I only had 4 hours left on the audiobook so it seemed to be feasible.
And I did it. I finished it. I completed the BRICK that is Shantaram.
I cannot believe that I spent so long trudging through this book.
Sadly when I came home I was too tired to continue reading Thunderhead, so it just has to be a book that I finish next week!
Statistics!
Time for one of my favourite things to do after gathering data…presenting said data in the form of statistics of the week!
There are many ways that you can present the data, but I wanted to show a progress graph of the week, showing day by day how many hours and pages I read so that it can be a visual representation!
I will not lie…I love this graph a bit too much. It is so satisfying to visually see the progress of my reading through the week was! Especially when it was a rather positive reading week.
So over the course of this week I managed to:
- Read for 17 hours and 24 minutes, an average of 2 hours and 29 minutes per day
- Read 1045 pages, an average of 149 pages per day
- Resulting in 2 books being finished: Scythe by Neal Shusterman and Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
- And progressing in 2 books: Heroes of Greece and Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green and Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
- The best book that I read and finished this week has to be Scythe, but I am so interested to see how Thunderhead progresses!
Overall I am really happy with how this reading week has gone! It has been one of my best reading weeks so far this year, between the amount that I read and what I read.
How much do you normally read in a week? Let me know what your current read is in the comments section below!
The Little Sunflower Library 