Category: Read-a-thon

Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-Thon: Kick Off!

Published on by Rachelle

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I got up at 6:30 am, to be ready to start reading by 7:00 (which is a bit of a miracle, and only an awesome read-a-thon like Dewey’s can make me do that voluntarily).  I’m having cherry turnovers and coffee for breakfast to get me going.  Once I’m fully animated, I’ll switch to tea and water.  I’m starting off my reading with Chimera: Book Three by Phil Gomm, since it’s a short, fast, and fun read, and I need to have a sense of accomplishment right now.  Also, I’m about halfway through it already.  My first update will be at 10:00 am.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Austin, TX
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? The cherry turnovers I’m about to eat for breakfast, even though I guess that’s not really a snack.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m also geeky about music, so I might share what I’m listening to in my updates.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I will do my best to drink more water.  Supposedly staying hydrated works better than coffee.  We shall see….

Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon: My Goals

Published on by Rachelle

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Tomorrow, Oct. 18th, at 7 am, I will be starting Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-Thon.  Last time, I got a bit punchy around 2 am, so I’m not sure if I’ll be staying up the entire 24 hours, but I will try.  However, I invited some friends over for dinner before I remembered the read-a-thon, so I’ll be taking a break from reading while they’re here.  I’ll be listening to an audio-book while I’m cooking, though.  My updates will consist of what I’ve read, the total number of pages, and which mini-challenges I’ve participated in.

My Goals:

Bout of Books 11 Day 7 – Wrap Up!

Published on by Rachelle

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I’ve finished up this Bout of Books with only 81 pages left of The Wastelands (The Dark Tower III).  I would stay up and finish it, but I hurt my back today and I’m very tired.  As far as the the whole Bout of Books 11 goes though, I met my goals, with the exception of finishing The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.  I’m fine with that, especially since I was able to read over 1,000 pages this week, and I usually only manage about half that.  I only completed one challenge, but, again, that’s fine considering how much reading I accomplished.  Now, that Bout of Books 11 is over, I’ll be making some announcements and posting a review of N.K. Jemisin’s The Killing Moon before the end of the week.

Total books finished: 2

Pages read today: 183

Total  pages: 1289

Bout of Books – 5 Book Challenge

Published on by Rachelle

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This challenge, from Falling Down the Book Hole, asks us to choose the 5 books we’d grab to take with us if the world were to go to Hell in a hand basket:

“Given the short amount of time you are only able to take 5 books with you. What books would you pick to take with you as you escape and prepare for the end of the world. Would you choose books that would help you survive in the post-apocalyptic world, books for pleasure that would make you happy and take you to a fantasy reality or books that you can’t live without?”

My reason for choosing the following 5 books is that these are the books I could read over and over again and never get sick of.  They are my all time favorite books:

1) Matilda by Roald Dahl

2) The Princess Bride by William Goldman

3) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

4) The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

5) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Bout of Books 11 Day 6

Published on by Rachelle

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I don’t have much to say for today.  I crossed off a lot of items from my to-do list in preparation for going back to school on Monday, while also getting over half of The Wastelands (The Dark Tower III) read.  Since it’s been so long since I read the Dark Tower books, there is quite a bit of the story I had forgotten.  I’m enjoying it, and thinking that I’ll have it finished by tomorrow night.  Either that, or I’ll get so close to the end that I won’t be able to get to sleep until it’s done, even if that means not going to bed until well after midnight.  Luckily, it’s the first day of classes, which means most of each class will be spent going over the syllabus.  I also won’t have to get up until 8am, and I always keep a good supply of caffeine, in the form of tea and coffee, in the kitchen.  Chances are, I’ll have a difficult time getting to sleep anyway, like I always do the night before the first day of class.

Total books finished: 2

Pages read today: 286

Total  pages: 1106

Bout of Books 11 Day 5

Published on by Rachelle

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Today, I finished The Stranger’s Woes by Max Frei, which I didn’t think I was going to be able to do.  Before I finished, I ended up getting a late night breakfast-for-dinner at my favorite 24-hour diner.  As with the pastries, the book made me do it.  After I finished the book, I realized I just really don’t want to return to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay right now.  As I’ve said before, it’s not that it’s a bad book.  I’m just not in the mood for it’s depth right now.  I’m technically on vacation, the only most of a week of vacation I’ve had all Summer, and I go back to school starting on Monday.  I’m excited about getting back into a more intellectual routine, but I also want to be very lazy and read “easy” but still wonderfully engaging books until then.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, while definitely engaging, is most certainly not easy.  So, I decided to start reading The Wastelands (The Dark Tower III) by Stephen King.  I’ve already read most of the series when I was much younger, and re-read the first 2 within the past year.

Total books finished: 2

Pages read today: 222

Total  pages: 820

Bout of Books 11 Day 4

Published on by Rachelle

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Today, I happily continued with The Stranger’s Woes by Max Frei, but I didn’t read much more than 100 pages because it was Date Night for my boyfriend and I.  We went out to dinner, came home and made chocolate chip cookies, and then ate about half of them while watching Dead Poet’s Society.  I’ve seen it many times; however, he never had, and that needed to be corrected right away.  So, even though I’ll have much more reading time today, it looks like I won’t be finishing The Stranger’s Woes until tomorrow.

Total books finished: 1

Pages read today: 119

Total  pages: 598

Bout of Books 11 Day 3

Published on by Rachelle

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Today, I continued with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Micheal Chabon, but then decided I really needed a break from it.  So, I started The Stranger’s Woes by Max Frei, and I’m only stopping because I’m yawning so much I can’t read more than a sentence or two at a time.  I’m not yawning out of boredom; I’m just ridiculously tired for some reason.  I was almost 100% certain I would enjoy The Stranger’s Woes as much as the first book in the series, and I was right.  I’m happy to find out that there are 2 more in the series left for me to read.

Though I read more today than the previous days, I would’ve liked to have read more than that.  I may not have had to work, but I still had things I needed to get done, including an absolutely necessary stop at the store to get pastries because the characters in The Stranger’s Woes are frequently eating them along with a drink called kamra, which seems to be their world’s version of coffee or tea.  I tried to fight the urge to join them in their gluttony, but I was happily defeated.  Luckily for me, I stopped after just one pastry.  I have 3 more left, and that should get me through the rest of the book, which I should be finishing by Friday at the latest.

Total books finished: 1

Pages read today: 201

Total  pages: 479

Bout of Books 11 Day 2

Published on by Rachelle

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Today, I continued with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Micheal Chabon.  I’m still enjoying it, though a couple times I wondered why exactly a part of the story was there, as it seemed, right up until the end of the chapter when something important would happen, to be unnecessary. Also, it’s still a book I can put down for awhile when I need to, and I just might do that to read another book so I can have a break.  I have no problem with reading longer books, but the pacing in this one is a bit slow, and I find myself getting antsy, even though I’m still engrossed in it.  I guess I need a little more action, which I’m pretty sure I can get from The Stranger’s Woes by Max Frei.

I didn’t do either of the challenges again today, despite leaving work earlier than usual.  I also didn’t get as many pages read as yesterday, but I think that’s because The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay has larger pages with smaller type.  I have the rest of the week off, though, so I’m really hoping that I can keep the distractions to a minimum and do some of the challenges, as well as reach my goal of finishing at least one more book.

Total books finished: 1

Pages read today: 125

Total  pages: 278

Bout of Books 11 Day 1

Published on by Rachelle

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Today, I finished The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin, which I was already close to being done with, and continued with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Micheal Chabon.  The Killing Moon had me going back and forth between interested and slightly uninterested, just as the other Jemisin book I’ve read, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.  I’m really enjoying The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, though.  I really didn’t think I would be, but the story is pulling me along.  So far, it’s a book I can put down for awhile when I need to, for instance, when I need to return to work, but when I’m reading it, I’m fully engrossed.

Since I had to work today, I didn’t do either of the challenges.  I have to work tomorrow as well, but I’ll be leaving early, which means I’ll not only have more reading time, but I’ll hopefully be able to do at least one of the challenges.

Books finished: 1

Total  pages: 153