Saturday, April 25, 2020

24 Hour Readathon 2020!

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Hooray -- it's time for the Dewey 24 Hour Readathon! A great excuse for a lot of reading, and this year no worries about having to go someplace in the middle. Sadly two days later I must drive for a whole day, so I'm not going to try for the full 24 but we'll see what I can do.

I got a bingo card, I've got a roomful of books, I've declared myself exempt from all chores, and I'm ready to go! My mail goal is to finish some book that have been lurking half-read on my bedside table, and then read some more.

Start is in the wee hours my time, but I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule. We'll see what happens.

5:00 Start:

Zżzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

7:30. Wake up, reach for some books.

8:00 Check the blog.

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Memories of past Readathons:

* I remember the 5:00 AM start time from both directions; a few years I woke up in time to start, reading in the dark in my pyjamas for hours before venturing downstairs for breakfast, reading late into the night as my concentrates wanes and I start looking for simplers stories or maybe graphic novels (digital ones let me enlarge the print for my weary eyes).

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10:00

I forgot to do the opening survey!

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? Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Popcorn! 

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I was just getting used to my empty nest when my sons returned from college for the pandemic. But they are lovely people so I'm delighted to have them here.

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 done them before; I'm going to avoid getting sleep deprived because I'm doing a ten hour drive on Monday and I'm old. But I miss the days of trying for  all 24 hours (I didn't often make it, but it's fun to try).

11:00

Hey, I should keep track of what I'm reading:

Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)Last Day on Mars (Chronicle of the Dark Star, #1)The Great AloneGideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

13:00

I did the noon sprint, so a skipped a round of cheering and updating. I've finished two books (that I started earlier this week):

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)Last Day on Mars (Chronicle of the Dark Star, #1)

and I've read farther in:

Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)The Great AloneAll Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

17:00

Got my reading muscles stretched out now. Added one more book to the rotation:

Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)The Great AloneAll Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellRediscover Catholicism


19:00

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)I finished the first Murderbot book and really want to go straight into the next. Hmm... It's also time for the middle survey:

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? Mostly Winter Sisters
2. How many books have you read so far? I've touched seven different books.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?Wolfsbane by Patricia Briggs.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Sometimes people come to talk to me. I put my book down and listen. They know I am in a readathon, so if they show up I assume they need to talk to me. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How much I enjoy being a cat pillow.


23:30

Still reading, but not for much longer. My eyes are heavy and my bedtime approaches. I have moved from the heavy themed books (two books with abuse! Ack!) to more gentle reads.

Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)The Great AloneRediscover CatholicismFunny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the SpectrumShockwave (Star Kingdom #1)Wolfsbane (Sianim, #4; Aralorn, #2)

Final Page Count:


Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)Last Day on Mars (Chronicle of the Dark Star, #1)All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)Winter Sisters (Mary Sutter, #2)The Great AloneJonathan Strange & Mr NorrellRediscover CatholicismFunny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the SpectrumShockwave (Star Kingdom #1)Wolfsbane (Sianim, #4; Aralorn, #2)

Gideon the Ninth: 422->448 = 26 pages (finished)
Last Day on Mars: 72%->99% : 27% of 336 = 91 pages (finished)
All Systems Red: 0-> 144= 144 pages (finished)
Winter Sisters: 11-208 = 197
The Great Alone: 325 - 506 = 181
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: 681-722: 41
Rediscover Catholicism:  154 - 193 = 39
Funny You Don't Look Autistic: 0->29% = 29% of 166 = 49 pages
Shockwave: 30 pages
Wolfsbane: 73-84: 11 pages

26+91+144+49+30+41+197+181+39+11 = 809

That's a low page count for me, but I was reading several books that encouraged slow savoring -- the Catholic book I'm trying to consider so I tend to pause a lot to think about if the text means something in my life. And two books involved a lot of abuse and pain both emotional and physical, as well as a character being dumb as a rock. Those make me stop a lot as well. Most years as soon as I switched to the lighter books I'd make up some pages; if I had stayed up past midnight I would have finished the Funny book and probably the Briggs and Buroker and then moved on to some graphic novels. But I was responsible and went to sleep for the last five hours instead so that I would be alert in the daylight hours on Monday.

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