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! :)

What's in a Name 5 Challenge1

I'm back for another year of Beth Fish Reads' challenge, What's in a Name 5! To sign up for yourself, please click here. Before the year is over with, read a book with the following in the title:

1. A topographical feature:

"Impressionists By The Sea" by John House

2. Something you'd see in the sky:

"Hurricane Story" by Jennifer Shaw

3. Creepy crawly:

"Frog and Toad Together" by Arnold Lobel

4. Type of house:

"Schloss Schoenbrunn" guidebook

5. Something you'd carry in your purse/backpack/pocket:

"The Three Golden Keys" by Peter Sis

6. Something you'd find in a calendar:

Reading Challenges for 2012

I'm finally here, almost a quarter into the year. Work has been alternately crazy-busy or stone-cold-dead, after next month Job #2 is going away (the department is closing) so there've been a lot of hours spent sorting paperwork in preparation, my organizing kick is still going (mostly) strong, and sadly my new iPhone has eaten up hours of my life. Seriously, it's ridiculous.

At any rate, I've still been reading away like usual. While my total number of books read might sound impressive (it's at 45 right now), over a quarter of them are children's books by Peter Sis. He's an outstanding storyteller and illustrator and I can't recommend his books highly enough. When January 1 was getting closer on the calendar I started to think about my reading goals for this year. I wanted to keep them a little more realistic than I normally do, and I didn't want to sign up for 5 or more challenges, so I purposely avoided the book blogosphere in the first weeks of January to save myself any temptation. So, in no particular order, here are my reading goals and challenges for 2012.

Goals:

1. Read books that I already own

Once again, trying to cut down on the physical stacks around here.

2. Try to even out the percentage of books read and unread

To do this I need to read (or get rid of unread - the horror!) around 150 books to even things out. Crap. If I get even half of this done, I'll be surprised, but it's something to shoot for.

3. Buy fewer books than last year

While I lost track of the number from last year, so far I'm doing well with this one. Of course, books gotten through PaperbackSwap don't count since they're "free", but anything that I pay for counts against me.

Challenges:

1. The 75 Books challenge on LibraryThing

Read 75 books in 2012 - no sweat!

2. The 12 in 12 challenge on LibraryThing

While the full challenge (to read 12 books in each of 12 categories) comes to 144 total, that might be stretching my yearly total quite a bit. I changed it up and did a stepped challenge (1 in 1 category, 2 in the next, etc) for a total of 78. I am counting all of the books that I read, but so far only 24 of the 45 that I've finished so far count for this one.

3. The What's in a Name 5 challenge on BethFishReads

I said I wasn't going to join this one again, but then I just read the categories and decided to do it. Look for the post for this one soon.

That's it! Nothing that seems too out of reach, but still a challenge overall.

The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764-5

Title: "The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764-5"

Author: Cleone Knox

Published: 1926

Source: Downtown Books, Milwaukee

Pages: 249

A charming, funny, and interesting diary, Ms. Knox is a Mid-18th Century Bridget Jones.

Born on May 12th, 1744 at Castle Kearney, County Down, Ireland, Cleone was an heiress, and a probably typical member of her society. This journal covers her early twenties while she is at a crucial point in her love affair with a Mr. Ancaster. To distract her from this gentleman, her father takes her and her brother, Ned, on the Grand Tour, and along the way she meets the King and Queen of England, King and Queen of France, and Voltaire, along with lots of various and sundry characters.

With entries like "July 15th. To church. A sermon so lengthy that I near died. Dozed behind my fan.", and "May 19th. Lord be praised! in a few moments our Coach will have conveyed us away from this monstrously dull place. Mr. and Mrs. Talbot, to whom brother Tom gave us letters of recommendation, are as excellent a couple as one could hope to see but hardly enlivening as Host and Hostess, while as for their mansion house with its Greek porticos and its monstrously cold rooms, 'tis more fit to be a Sepulchre than a human habitation.", it makes me chuckle quite a lot.

Only edited to correct spelling and to remove "a good many entries that are of no general interest, mostly referring to purchases and personal expenditure" by her ancestor, Alexander Black Kerr, in the 1920's, this is a wonderful window into society life. If you are lucky enough to find a copy, pick it up and treat yourself to a fantastically entertaining read. 4.5 stars

Merry Christmas!

I hope Santa brought you everything you asked for!