It's Over!

1. Which hour was the most daunting for you?

       Hour 21, it's when I had the hardest time staying awake. Overall though, I had a difficult time getting into this this time around, which really ticks me off.

2. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

       Nothing I can think of now.

3. What do you think worked really well in this year's 'Thon?

       The organization of all of the mini-challenges and winners. Excellently done!

4. How many books did you read?

       Just 2, which is the least that I've completed. I did read from 3 more books that I didn't finish: "Keeping Up Appearances: Hyacinth Bucket's Book of Etiquette for the Socially Less Fortunate" by Hyacinth Bucket, "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness, and an audio version of "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire

5. What were the names of the books you read?

       "Unfamiliar Fishes" by Sarah Vowell and "Dracula's Heir" by Sam Stall

6. Which book did you enjoy most?

       Definitely "Dracula's Heir" - it was interactive, newspapers to open and read, etc,  and I loved that the last chapter was sealed. Excellent!

7. Which did you enjoy least?  N/A

8. If you were a Cheerleader...  N/A

9. How likely are you to participate in the RAT again? What role would you take next time?

       100%, and I'd be a reader again. If I get brave enough, I'd like to help out in the background in some way. 

Total pages: 478

Total time reading: 13 hrs 35 min (7 ½ hours of audiobooks)

Total books read from: 5

Total books completed: 2

Total blogs visited: 8

Total challenges completed: 5

Thanks so much for everyone who stopped by, it really helped to motivate me!  A special thanks to Sherry Ann, for being my faithful read-a-thon buddy for the last few years! :) 

Hour 21, nearly 22....

Holy crap, I'm wiped out. I keep thinking I'm okay and then my head jerks up again, popping my eyes open. Guess I wasn't wide awake there. "A Discovery of Witches" is really good but it's heavy, so that's set aside for another time, and I made a small stack of short books and a couple with pictures. I'd like to read a couple of the paperbacks I have, but the print is smaller than normal and with my eyes bobbing closed as often as they are I'm better off with something else. 


Pages read: 150

Time reading: 1 hr 30 min

Books read from: 2

Books completed: 0

Blogs visited: 0

Mini-challenges completed: 0

Total pages: 352

Total time reading: 12 hrs 50 min

Total books read from: 5

Total books completed: 2

Total blogs visited: 8

Total challenges completed: 5

It's couch time, which means I'll slowly be sliding down until I'm laying flat. I may or may not sleep.  If I can do one more thing during this 'thon, I'd like to finish one more book. While I might (hah!) make it until the end, if I do I'll most likely head straight to bed and will update later on. 

Hour 19 update

I'm still here, though I am starting to flag. It's just starting, the tiredness, because I'm freezing cold and starting to get a little shaky - soon it'll be so bad that I have to sleep for a bit. I'm going to keep pushing myself until then!

Pages read: 114

Time reading: 2 hrs 20 min

Books read from: 1

Books completed: 0

Blogs visited: 1

Mini-challenges completed: 0

Total pages: 202

Total time reading: 11 hrs 20 min

Total books read from: 4

Total books completed: 2

Total blogs visited: 8

Total challenges completed: 5

I don't know what my problem is, but until a couple of hours ago, I was really having a hard time reading. That's why I was doing laundry, as a way to get myself back into reading in 45 minute chunks - instead, I texted a couple of my friends, called my parents, ate dinner and put away the leftovers, played a couple of games on my phone, put clean sheets on my bed... THEN I was finally ready to pick up a book. (I think part of that is because I didn't have time to do the majority of house-keeping stuff this week, particularly yesterday like I had planned, and it was driving me crazy to have it sit there, waiting to be done.) I'm reading "A Discovery of Witches" now, and after some small bursts of impatience I finally got back into the swing of it. In fact, the only reason I'm updating now is so I can wake myself up a little!  Also, I've had the TV on for the last couple of hours, and I think having the distraction of people talking has helped me to tune that out and focus on the story. 

Hmmm, maybe I should grab a little something sweet to keep myself going.... :)

Halfway Update

I'm still awake and reading away. Dinner is percolating in the crock pot, I've got 2 books under my belt, the third load of laundry is in, and I'm getting ready to settle in again. 

Pages read: 88

Time reading: 4 hrs

Books read from: 3

Books completed: 2

Blogs visited: 0

Mini-challenges completed: 0

Total pages: 88

Total time reading: 9 hrs

Total books read from: 3

Total books completed: 2

Total blogs visited: 7

Total challenges completed: 5

And now, for the Mid-Event Survey...

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?

     I'm doing okay, but I am sleepy and my back hurts for reasons unknown. No tired eyes yet, but it's still early.


2) What have you finished reading?     "Unfamiliar Fishes" by Sarah Vowell, and "Dracula's Heir" by Sam Stall.


3) What is your favorite read so far?     "Dracula's Heir" - it's an interactive book, with photos to take out of envelopes, letters and newspapers to unfold and read, and a sealed ending that reveals all. It was a lot of fun!


4) What about your favorite snacks?     No snacks yet per se, but I had a yummy turkey sandwich with some jalapeno potato chips for breakfast (at noon), and my leftover chicken fajita wrap and some spicy veggie sushi rolls a few hours ago. Dinner won't be ready until around 9pm, so I've got a ways to go yet. I did buy a pack of Starburst candy for the wee hours of the morning, and I'm looking forward to that!


5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!

     Yes, more than I did the last time! I didn't write down the full details for all of them, but in no particular order, they are:
Jane Harfeld
Wall-to-Wall Books
Reading Through Life
The Thinker
Nea Barabea
     Blogs that I've been to before today and that deserve some love: Sherry Ann's Blog and 1 Librarian Reads

Hour 7 Update

Whew!  Still chugging along. I missed an hour of reading (boo!) at my financial advisor's office, signing paperwork and chatting.  After that I stopped at Walgreens and picked up a sandwich for lunch, but I had my audiobook playing the whole time, so no more missed reading minutes!  I'm almost done with my first book, and have spent a lot of time doing mini-challenges, but it's been a lot of fun. Now that it's early afternoon, it's time for me to pick up a hardcover book and settle in.

Pages read: 0

Time reading: 3 hrs – all listening to “Unfamiliar Fishes” by Sarah Vowell

Books completed: 0

Blogs visited: 3

Mini-challenges completed: 3 (Turn to Page…, Book Appetite!, and Book title sentence)

Total pages: 0

Total time reading: 5 hrs

Total books completed: 0

Total blogs visited: 7

Total challenges completed: 5

Thanks so much to all who visit and comment - it's very much appreciated!

Book sentence mini-challenge

The two of us, ruined by reading one Sunday morning.

Hour 5 read-a-thon mini-challenge, hosted by On the Wings of Books.

Reading Through Translation Mini-Challenge

Hosted by Reading Through Life for Hour 2 of the RAT.

If you could read any book that's been translated into English in its ORIGINAL language, what would it be?


This is a toughie, but I'm going to go with "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Andre Dumas, in French. I know it's an excellent book no matter what language it's read in, but it'd be great to read the original. (Plus, if I could read French, I could borrow my Frenchie friends books!)

This isn't the original cover, but it is a 1909 copy, so at least it's old.

Here's the title page from an 1850 version, and below, the first sentence in French.

Dans cette maison de la rue de Helder, ou Albert de Morcerf avait donne rendez-vous, a Rome, au comte de Monte-Cristo, tout se preparait dans lat matinee due 21 mai pour faire honneur a la parole du jeune homme.

Hour 3

Pages read: 0

Time reading: 2 hrs – all listening to “Unfamiliar Fishes” by Sarah Vowell

Books completed: 0

Blogs visited: 4

Mini-challenges completed: 2 (Intro and Reading In Translation – coming up next!)

I'm sadly still really tired, despite getting about 5 hours of sleep and having 2 giant cups of coffee. At 10:00 I have to meet with my financial advisor and sign some paperwork, so I'll be hopping in the shower soon and then running to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things before coming home for the rest of the weekend. At least I'll have some audiobook company while I'm running around! 

R.A.T. Intro

Good morning!  I've got coffee brewing and am starting out easy today by listening to "Unfamiliar Fishes" by Sarah Vowell.


1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
     just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
     I don't have anything really planned out this time around, but I'd like to finish "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde. 


3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
     It's not a snack, but I'm making a crock pot beef stew for dinner, and I'm looking forward to that!


4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
     I'm a life-long Reader, parent to two cats (who are very excited about all of the sitting around that I'll be doing today), and have just started to work on my geneaological roots. I just found out this week that my Great-great-great Grandfather was Dutch!


5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
     I've certainly participated before, and the only thing that's different so far is that I've got nothing lined up either to read or eat, my house is still a semi-disaster from the work week, and I have to call/text clients today so there is still work to be done, despite my having blocked off this weekend last fall. 


Okay, it's time for me to get some of that coffee and pick up a little bit before I sit down and read a physical book.  See you soon!

Dewey's Read-a-Thon is here!

It's that time of year once again -- starting tomorrow morning at 7:00, I'll be reading for 24 hours straight! I didn't have any time to really plan my reading, or take pictures, or prep... anything, so this will be a seat-of-my-pants affair. As for any goals, the only thing I'd like to do is finish at least 1 book that I'm currently reading (I have 7 to choose from), and hopefully it's either "The Night Circus" or "A Discovery of Witches" since they're probably the ones I've been reading the longest. (I really like both of them, though, I don't know why I haven't gobbled them up already.) I'm sure you'll be sick of me posting stats about a dozen times in the next day, so I'll keep this short and head to bead.  See you all soon! :)