Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge: Armchair Traveling

Marg over at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader asks us to write a post sharing some of the sites and places from the books we're reading. These can be books read for the read-a-thon, or they can be books we've read in the past.

Here's my answer:

My favorite books to read are books set in the United Kingdom. England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, I'll take it all. I'm such an Anglophile that I just love imagining the rolling hills and misty mornings right along with the characters' experiences.

My all-time favorite place to read about, though, is Oxford. I think this stems from my living there for a semester in college. It's such a beautiful city with so much amazing history that you could study the buildings and places until you're blue in the face and still not know everything about it!

My favorite Oxford books (And I've got more on my bookshelves to read!) that you should read, also, are:

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - This book tells the story of two friends who meet at Oxford and, let me tell you, there are some pretty accurate depictions of the residential Oxford colleges (although fictionalized) and the Isis.

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman - In this series, we get both a realistic and an alternate version of Oxford that is at once true-to-life and engaging. Pullman does a great job making the real Oxford recognizable in the alternate Oxford, and I can't tell you how much I wanted to run along the city walls right alongside Lyra.

Read-a-Thon Mini Challenge: Early Favorites

Hello, everyone! Welcome to hour 1,000,000 of the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon (Doesn't it seem like that long?)!

In this mini-challenge, I'm asking you to tell me about the first book you remember loving. I'm talking, soul-searing, blood-boiling, can't-get-enough-of-it love. This book doesn't have to be from your childhood but it can be.

Just write up a quick post telling me what the first book you absolutely loved was and why you loved it. If you want to include some stories about your history with this book, please do!

When you're done, link back here and I'll choose one winner to receive a signed copy of The Riddle of Berlin by fellow book blogger Cym Lowell. Since I'm feeling all nice and generous, this contest is open to everyone, regardless of where you live (Although, I don't think I could afford shipping to the moon, so if you reside there, you're out of this one).







Here's the first book I loved:

The House That Had Enough by P.E. King - This one came into my home when the Little Golden Books were incredibly popular. I had a ton of the LGBs -- The Poky Little Puppy, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, etc. -- and this was my absolute favorite.

I would make my parents and babysitters read this to me all the time. I just loved the story of a house that got so annoyed with the little girl who lived there treating it badly -- sticking thumbtacks into its walls, leaving her wet towels all over the floor -- that it just picked up and walked away. I know I still read this book from time to time when I was old enough to be reading chapter books.

So, tell me: What was the first book you loved??

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Mid-Event Mini-Survey

I am getting so much less reading than I had hoped I would. I'm also getting much less mini-challenge participating and blog visiting done than I wanted to. Oh, well. I'll learn from this first Read-a-Thon experience and make some changes for next time!

Here's the mid-event survey:

 

1. What are you reading right now? The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

2. How many books have you read so far? Uh, one... Eek! And it was a book I was half finished with when the day started!

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I'm looking forward to getting farther into Sugar Queen and getting some more done on Gone With the Wind.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? I cleaned the house this week so I wouldn't have to today, but I've still not been getting as much reading done as I'd like.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Some, but not a lot. In other words, I have no excuses not to read!

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How much other people are reading! Wow, I feel like a slacker!

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None at this moment!

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

9. Are you getting tired yet? I was tired when I woke up this morning...

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? Uh, don't be like me?