Hour 10

Making good progress in "Royal Blood" so far. I really love this series and once this book is done I will be sad to have to wait another year for the next installment.

Pages read: 86

Total: 479

Time reading: 60 min

Total: 5 hrs 56 min

Books completed: 2

Blogs visited: 1

Total: 5

Mini-challenges completed: 3

I'll be listening to an audiobook soon, while I get ready and head to the grocery store, and then I'll be back on my behind with a book in hand.

Hour 8

So far, so good. I'm still awake, which I'm surprised at, and am looking forward to lots more reading time. Finally finished "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker". It was cute, sometimes funny, and loooooong. That is, unless you enjoy reading picaresque novels of the late 1700's!

Pages read: 149

Total: 393

Time reading: 130 min

Total: 4 hrs 56 min

Books completed: 2

Blogs visited: 0

Total: 4

Mini-challenges completed: 3

Looking forward to reading something slightly less crazed than "Humphry", and trying to plan when I'll run to the grocery store and work in the yard. I don't want to wait until I'm too tired and then I won't go at all. Big decision! Alright, back to reading!

How are you guys doing?

Hour 6

Well, we're one quarter done with the day - let's check up on the progress, shall we?

Pages read: 128

Total: 244

Time reading: 90 min

Total: 2 hrs 46 min

Books completed: 1

Blogs visited: 1

Total: 4

Mini-challenges completed: 3 (including Hour 5 below)

Making some decent progress on my book, "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker", and can't wait to have it all wrapped up! I had a few phone calls, changed the music, ran to the bathroom, got something to drink - but not too bad considering! I think I was planning on reading a book an hour (I know), so I feel a little disappointed at my progress so far, but really it's going pretty well. Speaking of, I had better get back to it!

Hour 5 Mini-Challenge

Crystal, at My Reading Room, challenged us to show a picture of our books! Here's a shot of my main TBR shelves, as of just a few minutes ago.

It should probably be noted that this is by no means all of my TBR heap. I also have other shelves in other rooms, and even a dresser drawer or two, all loaded with fresh books for me to read. Problem much?

Hour 3

Pages read: 116

Total: 116

Time reading: 1 hr 16 min

Total: 1 hr 16 min

Books completed: 1

Blogs visited: 2

Total: 3

Mini-challenges completed: 2 (Hour 1, which is below, and Hour 2, completed on misswisabus.com)

So far so good! I finished my first book (which I was 3/4 through when I picked it up today), made and ate a yummy breakfast, visited a few blogs, had some coffee, and tried to ignore my neighbors screaming child for the last 20 minutes. Seriously, what the hell - who lets their kid scream for that long, outside, on a Saturday morning?

Think I'll close my kitchen windows, grab some water and pick up book #2!

Hour 1

Good Morning Everyone!

I've got my coffee, my windows open (it's 63 degrees at 7 a.m. in Wisconsin - CRAZY!), and my first book ready to go. It looks like we've got lots of great mini-challenges this year, and I've already had one cheerleader stop by. Fantastic! I'll be doing separate posts for each hour/time I blog, so I apologize if your Reader is full of bookish updates from me today. And now, for the Hour 1 Meme!

Where are you reading from today? My couch, my big red chofa and my new recliner. I may even venture outside later on to read on the deck.

3 facts about me I'm an anglophile, I love pottery, and the amount of vitamins I take every day is verging on the ridiculous.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? This time it's only 24 books. I know, it's still a huge amount, but I may pull things in "off-pile" too. We'll see how the day goes!

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Well, if I remember correctly, I've only read 6 books the last 2 times I participated and I had a goal of reading 10, so I'm going to shoot for the middle here and say 8 books. No page goal necessarily. I would like to get 12 hours of reading time in, and visit at least 5 blogs for each time I'm online.

If you're a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? Don't over-caffeinate, save a few kids books or graphic novels for when your brain turns to mush (trust me, this will happen), and just relax and enjoy yourself. There will always be people who are Serious Read-a-thoners and their stats will blow you away. Don't worry about them. Just enjoy an entire day set aside to read books!

Speaking of, I best get moving here and get some reading done myself. I think I'll try to finish up "Hood" first so I can fell like I've accomplished something early on. See you later!

Read a Thon October 2010

It's that time of year again, my dearies! The 24 Hour Read-a-thon is tomorrow! I'll be up bright and early, ready to hit the books at 7 a.m.!

This is my third time joining in the reading fun, and I'm even more excited than I was the last time. I've got some healthy food all set, coffee is ready to go, and my Saturday is free and clear to read to my hearts content. I do plan on running an errand tomorrow just for a little break, and to rake my side-yard for a while (the acorns this year are Out Of Control), but other than that, I'll be reading and eating. I do plan on taking at least one nap, and if I sleep more than that, that's okay too. Now, for my ridiculously large proposed book pile:

From left to top to bottom to right:

"First to Die", James Patterson

"Enthusiasm", Polly Shulman

"Carrie", Stephen King

"The Vampire Diaries, The Awakening", L.J. Smith

"Suddenly You", Lisa Kleypas

"The Shape of Water", Andrea Camilleri

"The Frozen Deep", Wilkie Collins

"My Trip Down the Pink Carpet", Leslie Jordan

"Finn Family Moomintroll", Tove Jansson

"The Girl Who Could Fly", Victoria Forester

"Hex Hall", Rachel Hawkins

"Still Life", Louise Penney

"Royal Blood", Rhys Bowen

"Whose Body?", Dorothy Sayers

"The Happiness Project", Gretchen Rubin

"The Memoirs of Cleopatra", Margaret George

"Maus" and "Maus II", Art Spiegelman

"Gothic Classics", Ann Radcliffe

"Hood", Stephen Lawhead

"The Expedition of Humphry Clinker", Tobias Smollett

Once again, I have an absolutely enormous stack to pick from, but I have no illusions of getting through all of them. I'd like to at least finish the 2 I've already started (the last 2 on the list), read a small chunk of the Cleopatra book, and maybe read 2 more from front to back. Other than that, I'm just happy to be reading for most of the day. Well, it's early to bed for me so I can face tomorrow with a full nights sleep!

See you all tomorrow morning!

I'm alive! I'm alive, I swear! Don't ask me what has happened in the past month, I couldn't really tell you. Mostly because I don't really remember it, and I promise it's not because I was drinking. Well, except for that one time, but that wasn't really fun. I've just been working at both jobs and grating my teeth while doing it (that's what she said), getting hardly any useful work done, came close to heart attacks several times, and have only read maybe 3 books. For a frame of reference, I read 22 books in March. Seriously. So, instead of talking about books, I'll just ramble for a bit.

Do any of you read The Bloggess? I love her stuff - she's crazy, but in a delightful, humorous, sarcastic way. Perfect! Her latest weekly wrap-up (normally titled "Shit-I-Did-While-I-Wasn't-Here") included a link to a youtube video of a lecture done by Daniel Pink (author of "A Whole New Mind") about desire in the workplace. No, not that kind of desire. The regular non-pervy kind. Or was it about drive in the workplace? I don't remember. At any rate, I always click on the links that The Bloggess has, she's never steered me wrong, and this link was really interesting. I think. I couldn't really follow what he was saying because I was watching the hand drawing and writing what he was saying. It's amazingly fascinating. How can people do this?!? I know I joke about this, but I really can't draw or cut a straight line. Being talented enough to draw a picture, no matter how rudimentary, where anyone can identify a story or objects in it is totally amazing to me - this is beyond amazing. You should totally watch it just for the sake of watching it - I have no idea what he says.

Hang on, I have to run some tomato paste over to my neighbors' house, I'll be right back.

OK, I'm back. I was over there for over an hour - sheesh! She took a mental health day from work and we yapped while she made dinner and chopped veggies. All I kept thinking was "why don't I effing do this stuff for myself?!?" and staring at the clock. Not in a bad way, but you know, cuz I've got stuff at home that I need to avoid doing.

Speaking of, I should probably turn my cell/work phone on for the day, I've been avoiding it. Here goes... whew! Only one message, and it's from a friend. A nice change.

You know, after being at my neighbors' house (they have a totally new, revamped kitchen that I'm endlessly jealous of) I realized part of why I like their kitchen so much. Aside from the fact that it's beautiful, shiny, useful and has things in it that work like they're supposed to, that is. I like it because it's not filled with useless crap, and it's not treated like a giant storage area - it feels like it has life in it. Does that make sense? Mine feels dull, dead, old, used-up, and cluttered like crazy. So does most of my house, to be honest, but doesn't that really say something about my life and how I live it? Now I feel like dropping whatever I had planned on doing, pulling my big garbage can up from the alley and just start pitching shit in there. (I'd also like to do that to my office/dining room, but I need to know what I'm tossing before I toss it.) Maybe I'm entering a "pitch it" phase. Hm.

Having had more "time off" this last week (read that as working from home and not at job #1, instead of actual time spent not working) has been so eye-opening and refreshing in so many ways it's scary. I spend so little time here at home during daylight hours, no matter what day of the week it is. I do so little actual work for job #2 (instead mostly obsessively thinking about it and panicking about working is what I do). I do even littler work for this house - and even littler work for myself. I have NO IDEA how I expect myself to remember anything at all because all I do is mentally jump around like a caffeinated little dog all the time, and all of the work that I'm doing is for someone elses' benefit. I need to re-train myself in how to have one constant thought process - constant interruptions are the norm, no matter what I'm doing. Bad. Very bad.

Also, I've been thinking about that Asian saying/thought/truth/whatever about how they don't eat leftovers because it's dead food, how do you expect to feel alive if all you eat are dead things? All I eat are "dead" things. Couldn't tell you the last time I actually cooked a meal - maybe January? Let's say January for the sake of argument, it feels about right. Not cooking a meal (no matter how small and easy, I've barely scrambled an egg) in 5 months? Fuck. Not good. Really not good. Not good at all. Oh, pardon me while I eat leftover pizza and type this. See? What the hell has happened to me? How did I lose my way? I've stopped being a regular person and am now some kind of Scattered Crazy Work Robot that masquerades as a responsible adult. Damn.

Hey, this is good pizza.

Alright, I need to step away from the computer for 10 seconds altogether, so I'm going to go. And I won't watch TV, I promise. I'll maybe even do something semi-productive like laundry or sorting through a stack of paper. Or return the work phone call I just ignored. Or take a nap. Gee, which one sounds most appealing? What a toughie....

Hope you're all doing well, and I'll try and stop back again soon.