Finish Line!

We made it!   Our final numbers for the Finish Line:

me: 32 hours!  (80 minutes online included)

X: 6.5 hours

P:  4 hours 15 minutes

I only tracked time, not pages this year, and didn't even match up time to books.  Many of my books were lying around half-read when I started, so claiming that I finished ten books doesn't say that much.  I felt I was reading slowly.  I really enjoyed the book I read on my NOOK; next year I plan to get a lot more ready there.  This year I concentrated on catching up on my library catastrophe and also lowering the pile of currently-reading books on my table.  Of course, I started a few books that I now have to finish, but no one's perfect.

Both boys participated, but they treated it more as a 24 hour challenge -- Saturday was our first really nice spring day and P enjoyed it to the limit at the pool.  X checked out the Lord of the Rings for the challenge, but read them all during the week and spent Saturday watching the movies, knowing that with me reading he'd get away with so much screen time.  But Sunday both boys lounged on comfy couches with me for companionable hours.  I asked them for quick summaries of all the books they read;  I provided quick opinions about the books I didn't review because I haven't finished them yet.

Books Touched (Me) (a * means I finished it):

1. The Commoner *
2. The Interior Life *
3. A Kiss in Time *
4. Feng Shui Roleplaying I'm actually getting a bit inspired to play a bit, but first I want to watch some movies.
5. Curse of the Wolf Girl I used this as a refresher between books; the tiny chapters and sharp comments are fun in small doses.
6. Baking Cakes in Kigali *
7. The Hob's Bargain *
8. Peter and the Starcatchers *
9. The Whistling Season I think I'm going to like this book, but I wasn't in the mood for it last night.
10. Life At the Edge *
11. Hammered *
12. Dark Angel *
13. Treachery in Death *
14. Ender's Shadow.  This is a reread for our family book club; I like Bean's genius but get cranky when he gets credit for stuff Ender did in the first book.
15. The Whale Rider (audio).  I only had to drive for 20 minutes or so, meaning we didn't get far. I'm enjoying the accents.

Books Touched (X):

1. Omnivore's Dilemna.  It was interesting but sometimes boring; it was hard to read it all at once.
2. Fray * This was futuristically weird.
3. Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary book They are great; the comments make it better.
4. Shadow Puppets Still too early to make an opinion.

Books Touched (P):

1. Ender's Shadow *  This was a good book because I could see someone thinking as Bean thought in the book and I like that.
2. Ender's Game.  I haven't read much but so far I think it is interesting to see how the teachers at the Battle School think and how Ender thinks.
3. Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sundays. They are great.
4. The Whale Rider (twenty minutes of audio).  I think I have to hear more to have an opinion.

Totals for charity: 10 + 32 (me) + 1+ 6.5 (X) + 4.25 + 1 (P) + 5 (comments) = $60.  I'll throw in an extra $5 for the ten books we read but didn't finish, and send the school library a check for $65.  I was planning on giving it all to the elementary school because I know the librarian, but I might split it with the middle school since the older boy does cause a lot more wear and tear on the library books.