Read-a-thon, October 2009: The Begining

Remember my original read-a-thon pile? It seems I don't because I was sure about a million other things that I've already read were on it. It must be that my brain is tired from work, but I'm sure a weekend of reading for Dewey's Read-a-thon will rejuvenate it.

My aim for this year’s event is to set a personal read-a-thon record and read for 12 hours (I’d never be able to stay up for the whole 24 unless I booked Monday off work). With a three hour break in the evening for food, blog commenting and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ that probably means reading until 2pm and then getting up the next morning at about 10ish to squeeze in the last couple of hours.

All I really have planned for this read-a-thon is that I’ll be reading some of ‘The Woman in White’ by Wilkie Collins. I know I won’t finish it but I thought I could use the daylight hours, when I can concentrate best, to make some progress. Hopefully I’ll get in four solid hours of this book, which means I could read about a hundred pages.

I started making a whole big other read-a-thon plan, but I kind of felt like it was taking the fun out of participating so I’ve decided to just go with whatever random books take my fancy in the later hours. I have had a genius idea about what I could read in the very early hours of 25th to keep my attention from wandering, I could read the complete Moomin comic collection!
Good luck fellow a-thoners. Look out for my copies of ‘Wolf Brother’ and ‘Chameleon’ being offered up by the organisers as prizes. I’ll be back to cheer everyone on in four hours if everything goes to plan.

Readathon - Hour 6

This is the hour where I start a 3 hour break to eat a proper meal and watch a couple of hour of 'Strictly Come Dancing'. I also hope to be able to visit a few people blogs to give them a cheer, I think hour six is where the headaches start kicking in so you need some support :)

What have I been doing since you last saw me? Well I've read about 130 pages of 'The Woman in White' and I'm now 226 pages from the end. That's mega good progress as this is my last book for the RIP challenge and it has to be finished by the end of next week. I can't say too much aout this one as I'm reviewing it as part of the Wilkie Collins blog tour in November, so I'll just say some really sinister goings on are taking place and it doesn't look good for the two sisters Marianne and Laura. Everyone seems so dense about Count Fosco and the true extent of his evil influence, but perhaps I am being mislead by the author and he will come good in the end (I doubt it though, he is one creepy character).

I've also eaten quite a few Mars Planets, two rich tea biscuits (small rectangular ones) which I dipped in my first cup of tea of the day, a sandwich and some spicy M&S hand cut crisps (actually I went back for some more of those this afternoon). I'm keeping myself hydrated with juice and plenty of water (the more water you drink the more alert your brain is apparently).





I just quickly want to get in on Bart's mini-challenge. You have to construct a sentence out of book titles, take a picture and link it to Bart's challenge. Man is this addictive, could have played with it all night but in the end I got:

The Pirates: looking for Alaska, sleeping with fishes; funny how things change. (Punctuation added and quite probably wrong).

Again good luck readathoners!

Readathon: Hour Nine

Now during my break I had a couple of glasses of wine as is customary on a Saturday night and I seem to have decided to extend my break by an hour - things may be getting a little off track. Oh well I can always make up for it when the clocks go back an hour tonight.

Just dropping by with a quick entry into Nicole's mini challenge for the hour. Nicole is hungry for passages about food right now and we have to find one to feed to her before she snaps and goes all Venus flytrap on us :) So here's one from 'Garden Spells' by Sarah Addison Allen:

'The menu tonight was salad, yucca soup, pork tenderloins stuffed with nasturiums and chives and goat cheese, lemon-verbena sorbet between dishes, and the violet white cake for desert. Claire was kept busy, monitoring the food on the plates, serving and then deftly and quietly taking plates away when guests had finished a course.'

Phew got away with all my fingers intact there. I'm off to visit a few more blogs now then it's back to reading at 22:00. Go readers, go.

Readathon: Hour Thirteen

It's time for the mid-event survey, as Nymeth begins her watch:

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now?

I've just been reading comics from 'The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip', because it's after 1am here and I'm begining to get tired. The Moomins started getting a sense of duty, but gave it up to drink fermented jam and watch fireworks.

2. How many books have you read so far?

Nothing completed, but a bit read. I've read over 170 pages of 'The Woman in White' (now on page 450) and three Moomin comic stories (they invented a time machine and went to the Wild West, journeyed back to the Age of Reason and met up with Snuffkin).

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I don't know how much longer I'm going to be up, but I think I might try the first book in the 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' series next, not sure my brain will hold up to much more Wilkie Collins.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

No, I am shockingly without responsibilities. I think ages ago I declined a spa day that clashed with it, but I couldn't really afford it so it's not a big loss.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Nope, a bit of chatting and a voluntary interruption to watch 'Strictly' (sigh I know Craig can't dance but I still remember him fondly from 'his 'Queer as Folk' days).

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I don't know why because I've seen it before, but the diversity of the mini challenges is cool.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope, I think the cheerleader organising is cool. Maybe attach a twitter feed search to the main site?

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I plan to cheerlead next time, I think it's only fair to spend one thon reading and one cheering if there are two in a year.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Yes I'm flagging a bit now. Clocks go back in half an hour and I'd like to stay up though our extra hour if possible, but then I think I'll sleep for a while.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

One cup of tea and a ton of water has done me wonders this year, did not drink enough last year.

Readathon: Hour Fourteen - Kind of...

The clocks have gone back here, so it's officially 1:35 am again. I've read about 10 more pages, but I'm flagging so I think I'll be of to bed now. So far I've managed almost 8 hours of reading and I'm hoping to get up at 10 am to get in my last couple of hours. Didn't make it to 12 hours, but 10 out of 24 is not too shabby, especially as I've made such good progress with my classic read.

See everyone tomorrow!