Hour 16 - I'm Done!

Can't make it anymore. Headed to bed. Nighters!

Current Book: Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson

Number of books read since you started: 4

Pages read since last update: 34

Running total of pages read since you started: 1,060

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 34 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 558 minutes

Hour 15

Current Book: Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson

Number of books read since you started: 4

Pages read since last update: 113

Running total of pages read since you started: 1,026

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 43 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 524 minutes

Hour 14

Current Book: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Number of books read since you started: 3

Pages read since last update: 86

Running total of pages read since you started: 913

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 40 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 481 minutes

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

2. How many books have you read so far? Three

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? No particular book. I haven't decided what to read.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? No, just let my hubby know I would be distracted.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? None.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How much reading nonfiction slows me down.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Last readathon I recommended more mini-challenges that didn't take up as much time. I'm glad to see they did that and recommend that they continue for the next one.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? No nonfiction. Too slow!

9. Are you getting tired yet? Yes, not sure how much longer I can read unless I get a second wind.

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? Nothing new. Just how important it is to start off with something easy. And keep nonfiction off your pile!

Hour 13

Current Book: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Number of books read since you started: 3

Pages read since last update: 71

Running total of pages read since you started: 827

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 47 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 441 minutes

Hour 12

STILL not done with the Fadiman. Not that I'm not enjoying it, because I am, but...

Current Book: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

Number of books read since you started: 2

Pages read since last update: 42

Running total of pages read since you started: 756

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 41 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 394 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Books That Bite

Hour 11

I have a bunch of kids' books lined up to read when I'm done with the Fadiman. I need to get caught up on my page count! Note for the next readathon. No nonfiction. I read it TOO SLOWLY.

* * * * *

Current Book: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

Number of books read since you started: 2

Pages read since last update: 44

Running total of pages read since you started: 714

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 37 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 353 minutes

Hour 10

Feeling like a dumb butt because I've been complaining all over about not getting cheerleading comments when they've all been sitting in Comment Moderation. I'm supposed to get email notification of them, dangit!

Meanwhile, I took a shower and did some life necessary tasks this hour and got NO reading done. Bad readathoner! Bad! No cookie for you. *eats her Zingers*

Oh, I did one thing.

Mini-challenges completed: Re-Reading

Feed Me Challenge

At Large and At Small
by Anne Fadiman

Now, under the watchful eye of a husband so virtuous that he actually prefers low-fat frozen yogurt, I go through the motions of scooping a modest hemisphere of ice cream into a small bowl, but we both know that during the course of the evening I will simply shuttle to and from the freezer until the entirety of the pint has been transferred from carton to bowl to me. A major incentive for writing this essay was that during its composition this process was not called greed; it was called research.

Hour 9

I'm slow, slow, slow. I won't beat last readathon's pages at this rate. My next two books will be children's so I maybe catch up!

Current Book: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

Number of books read since you started: 2

Pages read since last update: 35

Running total of pages read since you started: 670

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 34 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 316 minutes

My Readathon Company

Tawnie & Maia

Hour 8

Current Book: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

Number of books read since you started: 2

Pages read since last update: 54 (It's nonfiction. I read it slower, dang.)

Running total of pages read since you started: 635

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 42 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 282 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Who Keeps You Company?

Hour 7

Current Book: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

Number of books read since you started: 2

Pages read since last update: 122

Running total of pages read since you started: 581

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 42 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 237 minutes

Hour 6

I'm not happy with the quantity of reading so far. I'm spending too much time doing challenges. And I'm feeling bummed I've had no cheerleading. Last time I had comments on almost every post.

Current Book: 1st to Die by James Patterson

Number of books read since you started: 1

Pages read since last update: 65

Running total of pages read since you started: 459

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 27 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 195 minutes

Prizes you’ve won: Two books of my choice from the prize list for readers of the hour

Hour 5

Current Book: 1st to Die by James Patterson

Number of books read since you started: 1

Pages read since last update: 99

Running total of pages read since you started: 394

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 36 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 168 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Excerpt Expert

Best Sentence Challenge

A girl named Zippy, in the company of the courtesan, kidnapped my family and other animals.

(All the books are from my to be read pile.)

Hour 4

Current Book: 1st to Die by James Patterson

Number of books read since you started: 1

Pages read since last update: 92

Running total of pages read since you started: 295

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 43 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 132 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Best Sentence

Hour 3

Current Book: 1st to Die by James Patterson

Number of books read since you started: 1

Pages read since last update: 83

Running total of pages read since you started: 203

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 38 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 89 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Intro, Trending on Twitter, Where in the World, Readers of the Hour

Participants Visited: Good Books & Wine, True Harbour, Aphazia, Karen

Readathon Trending

For the Trending on Twitter Challenge

Hour 2

Current Book: 1st to Die by James Patterson

Title of book(s) read since last update: Anita Blake, The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton (graphic novel)

Number of books read since you started: 1

Pages read since last update: 120

Running total of pages read since you started: 120

Amount of time spent reading since last update: 51 minutes

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 51 minutes

Hour 1

I learned my lesson with the April Read-a-Thon and I'm starting easy with a graphic novel, Anita Blake, The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Where are you reading from today? Home, on the couch

3 facts about me … I'm crocheting an afghan for the UU church auction. I've lost 50 pounds. I just started watching Glee and I love it.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? 36 books from the library

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)? I'd like to read at least 14 hours and beat my pages from the April Read-a-thon (1,736).

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? Start with an easy read. Get a good night's rest the night before.

Final Pile

Here are the last books picked up from the library.

The list is at the bottom of the previous post.

Reading List

I read just eight books for the last read-a-thon in April; however, I need to be totally prepared for any mood. Don't I? So I have 2 paranormal romance, 3 mysteries, 1 thriller, 1 urban fantasy, 1 travel, 2 historical fiction, 6 general fiction, 1 essays, 2 memoir, 2 children's, 1 science fiction and 2 graphic novels.

There are more books coming from the library, but I wanted to get my book stack picture up today.

First stack:
Dark Lover by J. R. Ward
The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald
Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris
1st to Die by James Patterson
One Silent Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

Second stack:
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
Kidnapped by Robert Lois Stevenson

Third stack:
Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson
The Honk & Holler Opening Soon by Billie Letts
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Powers That Be by Anne McCaffrey
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
Anita Blake: Laughing Corpse, Animator by Laurell K. Hamilton
Anita Blake: First Death by Laurell K. Hamilton

Still to be picked up at library:
God is an Iron and Other Stories by Spider Robinson
Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
Off the Wall at Callahan's by Spider Robinson
Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson
Very Hard Choices by Spider Robinson
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare