Friday, June 7, 2013

Time To Start My Eyeballs!

I'm at the starting line, and already running a bit late. Also, I have no idea what I'm going to feed the family tonight. But too late for worries  -- here begins the 48 Hour Book Challenge! I've got my books, I've got library books, and I've got e-books. I've got romance, science fiction, contemporary fiction, YA, middle grade, and nonfiction ready to go. I can finish books I started last summer, attack my Reading-My-Library quest picks, polish off some Cybils books or anything else languishing on my TBR lists. Or I can just read some of the latest books from authors I'm falling behind on, such as Scalzi, Robb, Cherryh, or Aguirre. Or I can attack some of the books I've been moving with me for years. Whatever, it will involve words and pages and books!


Update (Friday, 6:30)
  • Finished The Eye of the Warlock, pp 165 -- 241, 30 minutes
  • Finished Redshirts, 317 pp, 2 hours 40 minutes
Update (Friday, 9:30)
  • Although my son highly recommended The Eye of the Warlock, I never really got into it, which is why it languished half-read on my shelves for almost a year. I did like what P.W. Catanese did with mixing various fairy tales, and how he moved Hansel and Gretel down a generation.
  • Redshirts had been on my TBR list for several years, so I was delighted to find it on the hot-picks shelves of the library. Many of the twists had been spoiled for me, but I still liked Scalzi's trademark dialogue and willingness to think through his premise. The three final codas brought up the tone of the book a few notches; I think it's the first time I've ever enjoyed a story written in second person.
  • Read Redskin and Cowboy, starting at page 67. 3 hours.
  • I'm trying to spend some blogging time visiting pages, but my internet thinks I should go back to reading. So I'll leave my laptop up until this page updates and then close it and read faster.
Update (Friday, 10:30)
  • Finished Redskin and Cowboy (384 pp).  I spent a summer vacation devouring a long pile of G.A. Henty stories back about thirty-odd years ago, so I knew what to expect when I found this copy. Daring young man who grows up to be especially big and strong (and handsome) -- check. Rotten no-good Comanches and Mexicans, complete with a variety of ethnic slurs for each -- check. Experienced guy who tags along to show our hero the ropes -- check. Strange coincidences that tie all the pieces together at the end -- check. I enjoyed it and might offer it to my aunt to help complete her collection.
  • Started Ender's World, a collection of essays about Ender's Game as a change of pace.
Update (Saturday, 12:15) 8 hours 30 minutes
  • Still reading Ender's World, but going to sleep now.
Update (Saturday, 9:00) 9 Hours 30 minutes
  • Woke up at 8 or so to continue reading (only an hours or so later than planned)
  • Finished Ender's World (284 pp), which was a collection of essays about Ender's Game from writers, teachers, military officers, and other interested parties. Nothing earth shattering, but a fun collection, and it reminded me of the other aspects of the book -- last time I read it I focused as a parent on the treatment of the kids.
  • Started And All the Stars, a YA Cybils pick.
Update (Saturday, 4:00 PM) 15 hours
  • Reading And All the Stars -- small font means this is a long book
  • Listened to Three Bedrooms, One Corpse for 60 minutes
  • Also took a break for a friend's birthday party (and, before that, for a shower)
Update (Saturday, 9:45, 19 hours, 30 minutes)
  • Finished And All the Stars, 198 pp, which I enjoyed a lot and will pass along to my 8th grader. I liked the Australian setting and the team work of the kids fighting the alien invasion. The final twists were well done.
  • Read Delusions in Death, 355pp,  in about four hours. I keep meaning to use the lap function on my iphone's stopwatch to track each book but I also keep forgetting to push the button so it's not very accurate. Anyway, this one was a standard if gruesome in Death book, with two mass murders rather than a long string of icky single deaths, but not much character development. All the side characters are in stable places -- maybe she needs McNab to lose a leg or something.
  • I think I'll do Big Bad Ironclad while figuring out what I want to read next.
Update (Saturday, 10:45, 20 hours, 30 minutes)
  • Finished Big Bad Iron Clad, 127pp,  a fun and hopefully informative comic book about Civil War history, told as a Schezerharzie-style story from spy Nathan Hale postponing his hanging. I enjoyed it, and my eighth grader liked it enough to immediately request the other book in the series.
  • Poked around on the Internet and left a few comments on blogs, but connection problems make that a bit less fun.
  • I think I'll read some more in Shadow's Claim (starting on page 26) but won't commit to finishing it. I'll just go where my fancy takes me until I get sleepy.
Update (Sunday, 5:00, 22 hours)
  • Well, I fell asleep around midnight but just woke up thanks to the sprinkler system
  • I got tired of Shadow's Claim so I started Throne of the Crescent Moon as well; I'll alternate those unless I also pick up a third book
Update (Sunday, 11:30, 25 Hours)
  • Dang, I fell asleep again, and then I kept dreaming I was reading. Now the plot of Throne of the Crescent Moon is all confused. I'll go back to Shadow's Claim which doesn't really try to be consistent anyway. And now I won't make my 30 hour goal. Humph.
Update (Sunday, 3:30, 29 hours) Finish Line
  • I finished Shadow's Claim, 481 pp, which was silly but entertaining. There was a happy ending! And lots of sex! With orgasms, even.
  • I came really close to finishing Throne of the Crescent Moon but ended up 34 pages short. Only 333 pages done. 
  • Total books read: 8, 7 finished.
  • Total pages: 2462
This year I did something very unusual for me -- I read a single book at a time, with only a few exceptions. I think that helped keep up my page count. I managed to visit a few other blogs, but my internet has been troublesome lately so that discouraged much socializing. I also listened to about an hour of an audio book, but I don't think that counts towards my page count. Thanks again to Ms Yingling for hosting this year! I'll go sign up on the Finish Line.

6 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

Hey, we do what we can. Don't stress about it; that takes all the fun away! Just enjoy doing whatever reading you can with the excuse that you HAVE to do it. I start to worry that I need to perhaps get out a bit more rather than read!

Abby said...

Sounds like you have a great variety of books to choose from this weekend (I love a variety, too!). Good luck!

Whitney said...

I'm just starting my 48 hours and seeing what others have accomplished in such a short amount of time seriously motivates me. Happy reading!

Tammy said...

Ender's Game! Great book! So excited to see movie in November! Keep up the hard work!

Anonymous said...

Whoa! You are rocking the reading challenge. Just reading this has given me the push to see if I can go just a wee bit longer. Thanks!

Tallulah A. Scribbles said...

Enjoyed your updates. Dropping by to see what you are reading. Looks like you got a lot of good reading in, even if you won't meet your 30-hour goal.

Happy reading!

Tallulah A. @ MAD Hoydenish

http://madhoydenish.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-8th-annual-motherreader-48-hour.html