Saturday, October 17, 2015

October 2015 Dewey 24 Hour Readathon

11999190_10155934214935618_2131257031_oThis Readathon officially starts for me at 5:00 AM, and it seems highly unlikely that I managed to get myself to wake up at that time, but thanks to the wonders of the internet my blog can start without me!

Once again I'm hoping to trim down my "currently reading" pile, although I wouldn't mind also knocking off some books from my "reading any minute now" stack. I've got an audio book queued up in the car for the few errands I have to run, and I hope I got to bed early last night. Off I go!

5:00 ZZZZZZ

6:30: Go! (I tried to wake up at 5:00, but instead I fell asleep and dreamed I was reading a variety of children's books about cats. I was also reading them by the pool at the house of my BFF back in Texas, which should have been a clue that I wasn't really awake.) I've started reading Breaking Point by C.J. Box, starting at page 351.

7:30. Finished Breaking Point. Woot! Picking up Seven Wild Sisters by Charles de Lint at page 155.
Just checked in at the Dewey web site, so I'll do the introduction meme:

  1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Renton, Washington, USA
  2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Havoc, Ann Aguirre
  3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? Anything brought to me by my kids while I read on the upstairs couch
  4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I will take a break to day to give my son a driving lesson. If this post stops updating, all was lost!
  5. If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I think I'll take the time off to shower. 
8:30 Finished Seven Wild Sisters. Next up is Jack Campbell's Leviathan, from page 209.

10:30. Had to drive kids to their weekend D&D party. Listened to The High Druid's Blade while driving, but we also took a small detour so oldest son could try driving an automatic for the first time. So I dock 30 minutes of non-reading time here.

11:30 Finished Leviathan: The Lost Fleet : Beyond the Frontier. Possible the longest title with the most colons of any fiction written in the past century that I've read. I celebrated by looking at the Dewey Mini-Challenges, and found THE POWER OF LOVE. I fell in love while reading Uprooted by Naomi Novak because of the narrating character with her courage and wavering self-confidence, along with her determination to protect the ones she loves. I like bright, heroic young people (women?) who don't have all the answers but refuse to give up.

I think I'll nibble on Morning Glory next, although I probably won't make it all the way to the end before jumping onto something else.

12:30 Still reading Morning Glory, from page 103. Did another challenge -- Armchair Traveling.

1:30. Cats are sleeping on me, so I guess I'll stick with Morning Glory.  I hope it brings me luck for the scavenger hunt:

                                                     1.  Something hard: Oak tables in the library
                                                     2.  Something fast: Will & Elly's joy in each other once they talk in bed
                                                     3.  Something sweet: The librarian gives Will a key to the library
                                                     4.  Something high: the level of Will's fear during Elly's labor
                                                     5.  Something funny: Will hearing that Elly is in labor


2:30 I went downstairs to reheat some crockpot lasagna that I cleverly made yesterday. Cats pointed out their empty food bowl, which explains their affectionate nature. We'll see if their love dims now that their stomachs are full.

3:30. I am happy to report that the cats still love me. As soon as I settle down with a book, they jump on my legs to encourage me to keep reading. Thanks for the support, kitties!

4:30 (ish). Finally finished Morning Glory. I'm kind of a slow reader. Time to take the mid-event survey:
1. What are you reading right now? Nothing! But I'm about to go get Plague of Doves and continue that. 
2. How many books have you read so far? I finished four (started them ages ago). I look at three more but only a few pages.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Underground Abductor
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Nope. I keep reading during them until people get the hint.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? People visited my blog and commented! (This is not a common occurrence.) Last year I must have signed up wrong because I wasn't expecting this. It feels very friendly!

6:30 I detoured a bit to read a few chapters of a biography of Francis Burnett (author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess) but then went back to my fiction love with Plague of Doves (from page 57). Also annoyed the children by forcing everyone to listen to my audio of The High Druid's Blade while I did all the car pool drop-offs. Hey, Readathon is important!

7:30. I took 30 minutes out to have dinner with my family. We made plans for me to be utterly useless tomorrow. Continued reading Plague of Doves, but if things get rough I'll take a break and read some kidlit.

9:30 Although Plague of Doves is a lovely book, it's the kind of book I want to savor and enjoy and read slowly. Not really readathon material. So I grabbed Lulu Walks the Dogs, by Judith Viorst so I could finish something quickly and now I'm picking out my next read. Maybe a book from my Library Quest (the quest to read a book from each shelf of my library)?

10:30 I've made some progress in Ming Tea Murder by Laura Child (yes, the Library Quest book, I'm on the C's of the Large Print shelves), but now I crave more immediate gratification. So I'm going to pause and read Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon (of Dragonbreath fame).

11:30 Finished (and thoroughly enjoyed) Harriet the Invincible. Fun fact -- this was the first non-library reading I've done. I think I'll pick up my NOOK for a while now. Lindsay Buroker, here I come!

12:30. Actually I got distracted by my computer and wondered all over the challenges but then got confused by my phone and failed to take any pictures, so I guess I'm not actually doing any challenges. So I read some fanfiction on my NOOK but now I'll read Forged in Blood II. In other words, I'm going to FOCUS goshdarnit. Page 106-ish? See next note.

1:30 Read into Forged in Blood II. I had a slight delay when my NOOK ran out of power, refused to connect to my computer, and then apparently threw out my book. Luckily I had noticed it getting flaky and prepared myself with a back-up NOOK with no such personality flaws.

2:30 Still reading!

4:00 - ish Still reading! I think I'm going to make it to Hour 24, or 5:00 AM. I finished Forged in Blood and now have to find something to keep my eyes propped open for another 40 minutes...


5:00! Hour 25! Made it! I finished up reading some more in Ming Tea Murder, which is from the Large Print section of the library. Mostly I find that annoying, but tonight (this morning?) it came in very handy for my blurry eyes.


I managed to finish seven books, although five were already started, and I moved bookmarks along in three others. Now I can finally fall asleep!


10 comments:

Bluebird said...

I hope you enjoy your readathon! My start time was 5:00 AM too, but since I leave for work by 5:30 AM each day so it wasn't too hard for me to get started today. I've also got an audiobook ready so I can continue reading while out and about!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

My start time was 8am, 5 am is rough! #TeamSycamore

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” ― William Styron

Nat said...

Thanks for accepting the challenge! Wish you an amazing read-a-thon experience =D

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, you are rockin' the readathon! LOL on the shower...kind of been thinking that myself. Happy Reading!

Melanie said...

I don't know, I'd say dreaming about reading should definitely count as reading time. :)

You're doing great, and this post definitely made me smile. If I ever write a book, I might try to put as many colons in the title as possible now.

Bluebird said...

How's it going? Good idea to have some kid lit as a pick me up in case the going gets tough.
Glad to know the cats still love you and that you have plans to be useless tomorrow: makes it so much easier to decide to keep on reading. Good luck!

Chris said...

Hour 21 - you own this read-a-thon! No book too long, no print too small. Turn those pages! Burn through those books! Finished one? Start another! Hit those books!

Oh, and treat yourself to something - you've earned it!

Chris - Team Sycamore

Bluebird said...

Still going strong I see! You're nearly done! You can do it!
OMG, so sorry to hear about your NOOK. Thank goodness for the backup. (I too have more than one reader-even when I go on vacation I have a backup with me).

Your reward for the long haul: Your one of the hour 22 prize winners--YAY! Congratulations on your prize for your dedication to reading today!

Bluebird said...

It's Hour 23! Not Hour 22. Oops, guess I'm tired. Less than 2 hours to go!!

Beth said...

Wow, I won? I'm so excited. I forgot to check back to my blog.