We're nearing the halfway point, so I thought it was time for another check-in. After the last time I was here I took a shower and dressed, and then took a walk with my audiobook (Murder on the Orient Express) while the sun was warm enough to counteract the cold breeze. After talking to my Mom and ordering lunch/dinner, I watched a few Parks & Rec episodes, ate, and randomly picked up a book, finishing it cover to cover! It's weird how little I've planned, and how much reading I'm getting done while still goofing off a bit.
Mid-Event Survey
1.What are you reading right now? I'm getting ready to get back into "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children".
2. How many books have you read so far? I've finished three and am partway through two others.
3. What book are you most looking forward to in the second half? I still haven't picked up any Kaoru Mori, but my big "Shakespeare: His Life and Times" book is starting to call my name.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Well, except for the phone call, the only interruptions have been of my own doing. I'm just rolling with it!
5. What surprises you most about the Readathon so far? How much I'm actually reading!
Midnight - hour 18
I've already had to break out the eyedrops and glasses, and I participated in the Diversity Selfie challenge for hour 17.
"Whitefly" is a Moroccan crime thriller, and "Kaoru Mori: Anything & Something" is a sort of short story manga collection.
Sleepiness is getting stronger all the time. My new deal with myself is that I can sleep for a few hours when I finish "Miss Peregrine..." and at the rate I'm reading, that should be in a little over an hour. Here's hoping I can make it! Maybe a little snack would help? I'd make some tea, but I'm afraid I'd make too much noise or break something in the process.
Finish
I ended up making it until after 3AM, which was kind of amazing. After I dropped my hardcover book on my face three times, I went to bed and promptly woke up, so I read for a bit before forcing myself to try and sleep. My alarm went off at 5:30, and I ignored it, opting to just stay there, all nice and cozy.
End of Event Survey
1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Weirdly, it was the afternoon. After lunch, I went for a walk and then got sucked into TV for awhile.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next time? The only one I read this time would be the William Shakespeare biography for kids. It's oversized, and there were a lot of envelopes with letters to open and read, mini books to flip through, a family tree to unfold - it was fun to have things to do!
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the readathon next time? Nope, you guys did a GREAT job this time around, especially seeing how big this has gotten, and how easily it could have been awkward and ungainly.
4. What do you think worked really well this time? I can't put my finger on it, but things seemed to be very well scheduled and they seemed to run like a well-oiled machine. Maybe that's just a weird perception I have, but you ladies seem to have figured out the best way to run this show. Kudos!
5. How many books did you read? I finished 7, and listened to part of another one. I read 1,192 pages and listened to 45 minutes in about 9 hours. It seems like there should be more there for both, but that's still not bad!
6. What were the names of the books you read? I listened to "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie, and read "Wayward, Volume 1: String Theory" by Jim Zub, "William Shakespeare: His Life and Times" by Kristen McDermitt, "I'm Over All That" by Shirley MacLaine, "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs, "Dirty Rowdy Thing" by Christina Lauren, "Vivian Apple at the End of the World" by Katie Coyle, and "Kaoru Mori: Anything & Something" by Kaoru Mori.
7. Which book did you enjoy the most? I liked them all, but I think "Vivian Apple..." was the best. It's such fast reading, and the characters and storyline pulled me in.
8. Which did you enjoy the least? Eh, I'll say the Shirley MacLaine. I still liked it, but it was little essay-lettes, so it was easy to skim the parts I wasn't crazy about.
9. How likely are you to participate again, and in which role? I'll for sure be back, and I'll be a reader again. I keep saying I'll maybe cheer the next time, but I really prefer to focus on books and stopping in occasionally to cheer people.
I missed my readathon buddy, Sherry Ann, but I know I'll see her in October. And this was the first time I used instagram, and it was a lot of fun! Loved seeing everyone and their updates, I'm excited to use it again. Plus, it was much easier to update on instagram versus coming here every time. I think it helped me to read in a more focused way, though it was easier to get lost looking at #readathon things.
And now, as per usual, I'll spend the rest of the day taking naps and reading. Yay for busting out of my months-long book funk! See you all in October, if not before! :)
Good afternoon, Readers! It's 2 PM here in my part of the world, and I'm deep into reading for the day. Why not here earlier, you ask? Because my computer decided to be difficult so I shut it down after 2 hours of trying to fix it and just concentrated on books instead. It seems to be working just fine now, though, so...*shrug* who knows?!?
I'll get started on official stuff right below here, but wanted to say that so far I'm having a good day, and really enjoying all of the #readathon stuff on instagram. I'm looking forward to seeing what I missed at the homepage, but first, a walk is in order while it's still sunny and nice outside!
What started off as an already late start got even more screwy with computer stuff, but as it is, I'd planned less reading for this go-'round than usual. Recently I moved a bookshelf and rearranged all of my graphic novels/comics/manga/illustrated titles on it, so there's that that I'd like to pull from.
And then there's my barely touched and nearly complete run of the Art of the Novella series published by Melville House that I'd like to read from.
And, of course, I'd like to finish up more of some of the books that I've been currently reading for months. Because yes, it has been multiple weeks of reading for about a dozen books. #bookfunk But no matter, because I seem to have busted through it, and I'm reading away!
Opening Meme
1. What part of the world are you reading from today? My book-filled house outside of Milwaukee, WI.
2. What book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Probably one of my Kaoru Mori books.
3. What snack are you most looking forward to? I planned snacks poorly this time around. But I think I'll order a pizza soon, so that's something! I've got a salad, a beef burrito, scalloped potatoes, and some leftover sausage, broccoli, and pasta thing I made on Thursday. Plus, Girl Scout cookies! :)
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! This is something in the late-teens for me, for Dewey's, so I've done this quite a few times! I'm a massage therapist, have two cats who are my kids, and I've recently gotten glasses! They seem to be needed mostly when my eyes get tired, though, so they'll for sure be used later.
5. If you participated last time (yes) what's one thing different you'll do today? The biggest thing I'm doing differently, aside from not really planning my TBR pile, is that I'm planning on sleeping. A nap or two, for sure, but sleep will be done! It screws me up for the next few days if I don't sleep at all (or enough), and there's no point in fighting it.
Hour 2 Mini-Challenge
Hosted by Allison at Readage: Snapshots from a Reading Life, and she wants us to list our top 5 reading moments from our childhood. While this may not be exactly my top 5, they're ones that stand out in my memory.
1. The first book I remember reading on my own, where reading "clicked" for me, was in the early days of kindergarten. I can feel myself sitting on that tiny chair, going through the motions, when it dawned on me that I could understand it. In a prescient, and typical me, fashion, I put that unknown book down, and picked up "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle, knowing that that was a book I'd remember forever. And I do!
2. My friend, Jessica, and I passed around V.C. Andrews books like crazy in late grade school and middle school, at first sneakily, and then just out in the open. I remember that she read the "Flowers in the Attic" series and I didn't, but we both read the "Heaven/Casteel" series, "My Sweet Audrina", the "Dawn/Cutler" series, and the "Ruby/Landry" series. I wish I'd saved them all, but I only have a few that I held onto.
3. When I was growing up, Disney didn't really have any animated films out (just the Sword and the Stone, Return to Oz, and this next one). So I spent a good chunk of time with book and record sets, and the one I could never get through more than once, was "The Fox and the Hound". The bear on side two really scared me, and the ending of that story so scarred me that first time, that even just thinking about it now, my eyes are pricking with tears. Still can't watch the movie at all!
4. Amelia Bedelia and her hijinks stand out as special moments for me. I remember laughing in the school library and checking them out over and over again.
5. One of our neighbors was British, and when she'd come home from visiting her parents, she always (very kindly) remembered to bring me a present. So she introduced me to
"Paddington Bear", the Noddy books, especially "Noddy at the Seaside", the works of Jill Barklem, and one of my all-time favorite books, "Peterkin Pollensnuff" by Jenny Partridge.
Hour 9 Mini-Challenge
This time, Nea at my life is a fairytale that will never end, wants us to share a quote from the book we're currently reading.
The murderer is with us -- on the train now...
It's from "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie.
And now that I've spent a whole bunch of time catching up with Dewey's and taking a walk, I think I'll hit the books again and start a new post next time I'm back. Hope everyone is plowing through their TBRs!
