Author: Rachelle

Dewey’s 24-Hour #Readathon – Final Update

Published on by Rachelle
Dewey's Readathon_Pocketwatch_Bellezza


I’ve survived another Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon… sort of! What happened?! No 2nd update, and this final update is late. Well, one of my cats, Dresden, decided he wanted to sleep on my legs around 11:30 pm. On top of that, We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry was so good, I didn’t want to put it down. Then, sometime close to 2:00 am, Dresden suddenly decided to go off and be a cat somewhere else in the apartment, and then I started having trouble understanding what I was reading. I knew then that I was done. Oh well, it was a blast doing another readathon, and now I’m awake and refreshed (maybe a little hungover from all the snacks and tea), and I plan on finishing the last 100 or so pages of We Ride Upon Sticks today.

  • Total Pages Read: 667

Closing Survey

  1. How would you assess your reading overall? I did really well, up until I went to sleep.
  2. Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it? My strategy was to choose my books by rolling dice.
  3. What was your favorite snack? I never did get around to eating the chocolate peanut butter cups I had bought specifically for the readathon, so I’d have to say the pizza and Cherry Bubly I had for dinner.
  4. Wanna volunteer for our next event? Maybe.

See you next #Readathon! 🙂

Dewey’s 24-Hour #Readathon: Mid-Event Survey!

Published on by Rachelle
Dewey's Readathon_Pocketwatch_Bellezza

Here are my answers to the Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon Mid-Event Survey!

1. What are you reading right now? I’m nearly halfway through We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
2. How many books have you read so far? 2
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Readathon?  I’m choosing to roll a D20 to decide what to read from my Readathon Maybe’s list on Goodreads. Otherwise, it would be too difficult for me to choose one out of so many potentially awesome books.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Only 1 interruption so far, when the Boyfriend asked me to put the pizza in the oven because he’s running a game right now. Not a big deal, since I continued to read while I waited for the oven to preheat and then the pizza to be ready.
5. What surprises you most about the Readathon, so far?  How I haven’t gotten sleepy at all yet, not even a little.

Dewey’s 24-Hour #Readathon – Update 1

Published on by Rachelle
Dewey's Readathon_Pocketwatch_Bellezza


I’ve survived the first 8 hours of Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon and I haven’t fallen asleep even once! Instead, fueled by Tim Horton’s and We Ride Upon Sticks, I walked to a local independent bookstore, Prologue Bookshop, while listening to the audiobook of The Librarians and the Lost Lamp.

  • Pages Read: 382
  • Books Read: We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp by Greg Cox, The Flying Flamingo Sisters by Carrie Seim
  • Time Read: 7 hours and 22 minutes
  • Yummy in my Tummy: I had a few Tim Horton’s Tim Bits, a biscuit, egg, and cheese sandwich, and a Mocha coffee for breakfast.  I sipped a Choc-O-Nutter smoothie from Berry Blendz on my walk home from the bookstore. I had never been to Berry Blendz before, so I counted my smoothie as a “snack or drink that’s new to you” for the #readathonbingo. After I finished The Librarians and the Lost Lamp, I drank a mug of toasted coconut and almond tea and ate some biscotti and cherry pastry bites.

Until my 2nd update, at midnight, I’ll continue reading the remaining books on my Goodreads list.


Whether you’re participating in the readathon or not, what book(s) are you currently reading?

Dewey’s 24-Hour #Readathon

Published on by Rachelle1 Comment
Dewey's Readathon_Pocketwatch_Bellezza


Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon has officially started!  I’ve been up since around 6 am, thanks to one of our cats deciding that the Boyfriend and I needed to be awake to ensure his continued existence. He’s lucky he’s cute. The Boyfriend is enabling my readathoning by going to Tim Horton’s and getting us breakfast <3

I flipped a coin to choose my first book of the readathon, and it’s We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. I’ll be posting my updates every 8 hours, assuming my pile of books keeps me from napping.

  • What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I recently moved to Columbus, OH.
  • Which book in your stack are you looking forward to the most? I have no idea! I put so many great books on my readathon-maybes list, that I’m probably going to have to roll a couple of D20’s so I don’t get stuck trying to decide.
  • Which snack are you looking forward to the most? I went to the only Trader Joe’s in Columbus and bought all.the.snacks. Their peanut butter pretzel bites are my fave, but I also got a bag of their rice cracker mix, a bag of trail mix, a package of fig cookies, and so many other yummy things!
  • Tell us a little something about yourself!  I briefly worked in a bookstore, and though I loved it, it’s still retail, and that meant my days off were when everyone else was working.
  • If you participated in the last readathon, what’s one thing you’ll do differently today? I’m going to choose the books I read at random (probably by rolling some dice).

I usually put my TBR here, but the link to my pile is up above and currently stands at 60 books tall.


My first update will be at 4 pm.  I’ll be tracking how many pages I read and any books I finish.  I’ll also include snacks I’ve nommed, and any musical earworms that have gotten into my head.


Whether you’re participating in the readathon or not, what book(s) are you currently reading? 

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for April 16th – 22nd.
  • My Doctor got me set up with a weight management program before discovering my heart condition, but I went ahead with the first appointment and discussed my concerns with my “coach.”  I can go for walks and I can certainly work on my eating habits, so I don’t see this as a waste of time.
  • One of the things I’m working on is getting more vegetables.  I’m only tracking how many times I eat a veggie right now (along with how many times and for how long I go for a walk), but just the tracking is making me decide to choose veggies over other foods.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 2/5
  • Steps: 32,441
  • Miles: 13.25
  • Total Miles: 195.25/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 137/150

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson
  • Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen
  • What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine

DNF:

  • F*cked at 40 by Tova Leigh

Finished:

  • All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
  • Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 12 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 1033

Total books for the year: 19 of 90.

I did a lot of reading this week; the kind of reading I usually do during a readathon, but there weren’t any readathons. Reading has become my escape again, thanks to some health problems, and I’ve been lucky that, so far, most of the books I’ve been picking up off my shelf, listening to, or checking out from the library have been great at letting me put the real world away for a bit.

Down the TBR Hole #82

Published on by Rachelle
Image: hjl

How it works:

  • Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
My TBR pile went up again to 1064 books thanks to some really great books that I added to my wishlist.

This week’s books:

Lemprière’s Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk – KEEP.  Years ago, I read and fell in love with John Saturnall’s Feast.  This is Norfolk’s debut novel, so while I’m not expecting it to be as great as John Saturnall’s Feast, I’m hoping it’s at least close. The Weight of Sound by Peter McDade – GO.  This is not quite what I thought it was when I added it to my wishlist back in 2017.  I’m also skeptical of a book that has nearly all 5-star reviews, but only 40 of them; it looks a little too much like the author got all of his friends and family to talk up his book. The Moral Animal by Robert Wright – KEEP.  A book about the science of morality (or the lack thereof) sounds fascinating, and I’ve read another book by Wright, The Evolution of God, that was excellent. Nonzero by Robin Wright – KEEP. Another book by Wright about Evolution and Humanity that sounds extremely interesting. Sorry Please Thank You by Charles Yu – KEEP.  This one is a collection of Science Fiction short stories all by one author, which I usually prefer to short story anthologies.  The three stories mentioned in the synopsis sound like the whole book is probably good.
My TBR pile is down one to 1063 books. Next week, most of the books are Horror ebooks I bought and haven’t looked at since adding them to my Kindle.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for April 9th – 15th.
  • Last week, I didn’t say why I was having more doctor’s appointments and tests done. It’s my heart, and it’s not something that can be fixed with diet and exercise, though I am taking steps to reduce any strain on my heart at least until I know what needs to be done.
  • I also quit my job so that I can deal with the appointments without having to worry about requesting the time off, and also so I can spend more time with my family.  The job I had required me to work pretty much every weekend and some evenings, and my days off never matched up with my boyfriend’s.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 2/5
  • Steps: 31,333
  • Miles: 12.81
  • Total Miles: 182/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 46/150

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson
  • All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
  • F*cked at 40 by Tova Leigh

Finished:

  • Codex Born by Jim C. Hines
  • Shelved Under Murder by Victoria Gilbert
  • Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford
  • How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 12 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 685

Total books for the year: 17 of 90.

Both Follow Me to Ground and How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps were fairly short, so I got a couple of quick “wins” to add towards the #ShelfLove challenge and my annual reading goal. I’m still 7 books behind schedule, but now that I’m working, it will probably take me a lot longer to catch up, if I’m able to at all.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for April 2nd – 8th.
  • What was supposed to be one of the last Doctor’s appointments I had resulted in a need for more tests.  I also started a new job this week, and now have to spend the majority of my time off at those appointments, assuming my scheduling requests get accepted.  I’m grateful for the medical care, but I am so tired of there being something wrong with me and not knowing exactly what it is.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 2/5
  • Steps: 29,775
  • Miles: 12.18
  • Total Miles: 169.19/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 136/150