Read-a-Thon: Midway Survey!

1. What are you reading right now? I'm reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2. How many books have you read so far? This is book number three.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I'm not sure! I'll be glad to finish this book and then move on to another book.
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Not really. I just told my husband I'm participating in a read-a-thon, so he can't expect my help with much!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Sort of. My need to shift positions frequently is oh, so fun, as are the little legs kicking my book off my convenient book rest (My stomach).Of course, I was without a computer for most of the first half of the read-a-thon, which was a severe inconvenience.
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing, really. This is my third read-a-thon!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope! It's fabulous!
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I'd actually set my alarm... Oops.
9. Are you getting tired yet? I'm nearly 34 weeks pregnant. I'm always tired!
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? Having a variety of comfortable places to sit is really helpful. Sometimes, a change of scenery can help you regain focus.

Good luck with the rest of the Read-a-Thon, everyone!!

Read-a-Thon Update

Hello, fellow Read-a-Thon-ers! This is the first I've had my computer back all day!

Here's what my Read-a-Thon has looked like thus far:

Started reading at 9 a.m. CDT. I was really lazy and didn't wake up until three hours into the day!

Finished Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence. Review will come later this week, but I highly recommend it and now consider myself a Lawrence fan.

Started and finished an ARC of Proust's Overcoat, a great little gem of the true story surrounding Proust's infamous overcoat and what happened to many of his personal belongings after his death. Review will come later this week.

I'm now halfway through Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I'm really liking it thus far. I hope to finish it in the next couple hours here.

This is my third Read-a-Thon and, thus far, my most successful reading-wise!

I haven't yet participated in any mini-challenges (Just getting my computer back from a suddenly projects-oriented husband and all), but I plan to pop a few in while the potatoes for my potato salad are cooling.

Happy reading, everyone!!

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.

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-Thon

Well, I'm getting a horribly late start today, mostly because I COMPLETELY forgot that today was the Read-a-Thon!! I happened to look at Twitter yesterday and saw all sorts of people talking about the Read-a-Thon and thought, "Wait, it's October 9 already?!?!?!"

So, here I am, starting 4 hours into this shindig. And, sadly, I don't have a whole free day to devote to the fun. :(

Instead, I will be reading for 45 minutes, then participating in mini-challenges, then cleaning my house for 45 minutes (Whee!!), then doing some more mini-challenges, and starting the whole process over again. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my house cleaned in just a few of these time blocks so I'll have more time to devote to reading! Of course, I also have to be at work at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning, so I can't stay up too late. Sad...

Anyway, here are a few of the books I plan to/might tackle this read-a-thon:

1. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom
2. Ulysses by James Joyce
3. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
4. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

So far, I've read a bit of the Bloom book. Now, it's onto dishes. When I return, I'll crack open the next section of Ulysses.

See you all around!

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?

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Challenge 3

Hosted by Til We Read Again, this challenge asks you to nominate people in several categories. How fun!

Favorite Female Character in a book: Elizabeth Bennett (Is this too obvious? My brain's not yet working...)
Favorite Male Character in a book: Sam Gamgee in LotR
Favorite Side Kick in a book: Fang in the Maximum Ride series
Favorite Couple in a Book: Ron and Hermione
Favorite Book Series: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia
Favorite Author: Shakespeare
Favorite Book Cover: Tough one, but I LOVE the cover of Fallen by Lauren Kate
Favorite Book of 2009: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Challenge 1

Hosted by Miss Remmers' Review, here's Challenge 1:

In this challenge we would like you to write a post on your blogs about your kick off strategy.  What have you surrounded yourself with for these early hours of the challenge besides your books?  Is there a coffee thermos, lucky book mark, snacks, pillow....  We want to know how you have prepared so you do not have to leave your cozy reading space (by the way - we'd like to know what is too.... (are you still in bed, a chair, the couch.....)

At the moment, I've only got a bottle of water and a granola bar surrounding me. Oh, and I'm sitting in my office chair because I'm at work. Yes, you read that right. The cardinal sin of the Read-a-Thon has been committed, and it's only the beginning of hour three! I'm at work. Bah.

When I get home, however, I'll have plenty of water (I don't drink soda), whatever food I can scrounge from my fridge (I think I have some pasta salad and chicken tacos...), my couch, some pillows and my cat. You must have that reading companion who occasionally tries to pull off your glasses or eat your book. It's an essential accessory.

Wow, I'm a little loopy this morning! Anyway, that's what I've got around me right now. See you all later!

Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon: Hours 1 & 2

Hello, everyone! I'm posting this a little late (Two hours late, to be exact) because I had to spend the first two hours of the Read-a-Thon getting ready for work and getting to work. But, since I'm here now, I can get going on the first two challenges! Yay!

Here's challenge 1, from the Dewey's blog:

Where are you reading from today?
3 facts about me …
How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?

1. I am reading from work (The library) and home in Illinois.

2. Three facts about me... 1) I like to sit outside and read whenever possible, and today looks as if it may cooperate! 2) I like to read more than I like to do pretty much anything else. 3) I haven't told my husband I'm participating in the Read-a-Thon (Don't know why!), but I will tell him if he wants me to help outside!

3. At the moment, I have 7 books in my TBR pile. I am in the midst of four of them and have the other three as backups.

4. I would really like to be able to spend at least half the Read-a-Thon reading. Since I've already wasted two hours, well, that may fly out the window. So, I'm hoping to finish at least three books. I'm easily distracted...

5. This is my first time! I'll take all the advice I can get!!


I'll be checking in every few hours (I hope) and commenting on other blogs. I'll probably be updating my Twitter feed more often than I will this blog, so check there (@michellesherman) for more!

The Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon

 

Kate at The Neverending Shelf is hosting a Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon. 

Thanks to Jennifer at Rundpinne, I found this great, easy read-a-thon that (hopefully!) will help me power through that mounting stack of review books and some of my personal TBR pile.

Kate encourages everyone, blogger or not, to participate in the read-a-thon. You don't even have to commit to a certain number of hours or books or pages. Just hop on in and read, read, read!

Here are some of the details:

The Clear Away the Clutter Read-a-Thon begins at 7 a.m. Monday, April 5, and ends at 11 p.m. Sunday, April 11. There will even be prizes! Seriously, who can say no to prizes?

As for me, I think I will attempt a total of 60 hours (2 1/2 days total) of reading over the course of the challenge. Ambitious? Yes. No one ever called me a slacker!

For more information, visit Kate.