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October, 2014

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Readathon Wrap

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

Another readathon has come and gone, and I’m excited to tally up the totals. I know it’s going to be lower than April, mostly because I posted less frequently and so had fewer opportunities out there for folks to comment or respond. But, let’s see how we did:

Pages read:

The Blood of Olympus: 502

Maddy Kettle Book 1: The Adventures of the Thimblewitch: 90

Coraline: 162

The Paying Guests: 173 (partial)

Total pages: 927 x $0.05 = $46.35

Hours Listened: rounding up to 1; didn’t get to much of The Vacationers: $5.00

Hours not reading: 4 x$5 = $20

Comments received:

Twitter: 14

Facebook: 25

Instagram: 5

Blog: 2

Total comments: $46

GRAND TOTAL: $117.35

So, not too far shy of April’s total, which was about $123. Thanks to everyone who commented and cheered me on; it was a great readathon, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Off to — you guessed it — finish two of the books I didn’t complete yesterday/this morning. Thanks again, and the kids from The Jimmy Fund thank you, and my Mamau thanks you, for helping me do this.

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Mid-readathon survey

Saturday, October 18th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

We passed the halfway point a bit ago, and here’s the mid-readathon survey for hour 12!

1. What are you reading right now? Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and The Vacationers by Emma Straub on audio
2. How many books have you read so far? 2 – The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, and Maddy Kettle, book 1: The Adventures of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Either finishing The Paying Guests, or the two Gail Carriger novels
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Nope!
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I always forget how quickly the day goes by, and then how slowly the wee hours seem to go… Trying to keep a pace and not burn out

Hope you’re all enjoying reading, cheering, or both; back to it for me :)

Readathon Intro Meme

Saturday, October 18th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

Good morning! Managed the 8am wakeup; let’s see how long before I crash. Here’s the Opening Meme we’ve all come to know and love (sneakily written last night). Happy reading!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Portland, Maine
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Probably Rick Riordan’s The Blood of Olympus, because those books are just such brain candy that it’ll be both a fun read, and an easy one to chalk up as completed during the event. I’m also both longing for, and dreading, the rest of The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I love her prose and her plots, and coming to the end of her newest book means no more new Sarah Waters for several years. This is TRAGIC.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I wasn’t sure I was going to Readathon this time around, so I didn’t plan very well re: food. I’m excited that I prepped the coffee pot, though.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I work for LibraryThing for Libraries, so books aren’t just a hobby, they’re my life, and I could not be more thrilled about that. I live with my 16 year old brother and two (spoiled as shit) cats, all of whom are aware of their roles during readathon: supply, snuggle, and save anything non-urgent for Sunday.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? I’m reading to raise funds for charity for the second time – April’s fundraising Readathon was a real success, so I’m excited to add to my net Jimmy Fund contribution. I know my Mamau would be proud, and support my choice of recipient of the donation. I don’t plan to do anything differently, though given the time, I will probably buy more sleep hours than I did last time :)

Readathon Reading List

Saturday, October 18th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

It’s stupid late and I should really be asleep but instead I’m wrangling a Book Display Widget full of readathon TBRs because I CAN, DANGIT.
 


My short list includes:
THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS, Rick Riordan
THE PAYING GUESTS, Sarah Waters (the second half of)
THE VACATIONERS, Emma Stroub (audiobook)
BAD FEMINIST, Roxane Gay
YOU, Caroline Kepnes
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Zora Neale Hurston (the rest of)
MISSED HER, Ivan Coyote
ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE
and
CURTSIES & CONSPIRACIES, Gail Carriger (of Parasol Protectorate fame)

I have a couple of ARCs in progress that I can’t seem to lay my hands on, not the least of which is Ian McEwan’s most recent, THE CHILDREN ACT. Meanwhile, I should go to bed. See you in a few hours…

Fall Readathon, 2014.

Friday, October 17th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

So, I’ve been wishy-washy about this readathon. I haven’t done any of the usual prep, haven’t been excited about it, but have also had a sort of determination to use it to manage my grief around the one year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. When I first realized the date of the readathon, I thought, “This is great, what better way to spend what would otherwise be an absolute SHIT day than to have an excuse to do nothing but read?” Then someone who cares about me a lot and who means a lot to me offered to take some time that day to spend with me, maybe go to the ocean, be still with my feelings, and that sounded really good. Then I thought, I don’t know that I really want to see anyone that day, or rather, I don’t want anyone to see me, because as it is, I’m crying typing this stupid blog post. So, I haven’t ruled out taking some time to be with another human being who will let me ugly-cry on her shoulder and punch her instead of the rocks and generally take care of me during the meltdown that is almost guaranteed, but the time will be well spent, and will also contribute to this readathon’s fundraiser. I’m going to follow a similar model to the one I used in April:

$0.05 per page read: this works out to $20 for a 400 page book, but I have SEVERAL books in progress and want to build my donation even if I start a book and am not really feeling it after 20 pages.

$5.00 per hour listened: I have an audiobook in progress, and this will make it easier to continue to participate while cooking/preparing snacks, and getting to and from anywhere I may go.

$5.00 per hour missed: If I leave for a while, this will go into effect, but this covers hours slept, too. Any hour in which I do not read or listen to a book, that’s five bucks. (I may decide at 8am that oversleeping is worth the $$…) And finally…

$1.00 per comment left on my blog posts, Facebook comments, and @ tweets during the readathon. Official Readathon Cheerleaders will be assigned to stop by and root for me as a reader, but this is an easy way for family and friends to contribute to the grand total.

On Sunday, whenever I wake up from my epic post-readathon sleep, I will do a roundup and calculate the total, which will be donated to the Jimmy Fund in memory of the Reverend Lucille Richard, my favorite reader and fellow nerd.

Mamau the Nerd

Mamau the Nerd