This page contains enriched content visible when JavaScript is enabled or by clicking here. FolioFiles
 

Checking in

Written by Kirsten on April 26th, 2014

Going into hour 4, I just hit the first bit of BIG SAD in The Fault in our Stars, so figured it was a good time for a quick break to kill the momentum. Wasn’t really thinking about the whole “book about death and dying” thing when I chose it, but, what are ya gonna do? I’m really enjoying the characters (though Hazel kinda bugs me sometimes), and officially fell in love with Gus at this moment:

photo1 (7)

What literary characters have made you swoon?

Now to crack open a cantaloupe and refill my coffee!

 

Aaaaaaand, here we go!

Written by Kirsten on April 26th, 2014

girlreading

One of the benefits of the Great Library Update of 2014 is that I’ve discovered a few books that needed to move up the TBR stack just in time for Readathon. Combining that knowledge with past Readathon experience and knowledge of my own reading habits, I came up with this book stack:

readathon april 2014

Additionally, I have Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus on my Nook (the latter of which I’ve been more anxious to read since discovering Morgenstern’s beautiful, and unavailable, Tarot deck). I’m also listening to The Maze Runner by James Dashner, narrated by Mark Deakins.

So, I have a pretty large selection, a bit of diversity, but mostly books I think I’ll enjoy and find easy to read, because I really want to get through a ton of pages and donate a good sum to The Jimmy Fund for my Mamau.

ETA this year’s intro meme, since I actually scheduled this post for 8am – first time I’ve ever been THAT on the ball for Readathon!

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? That’s really hard to say, but The Fault in our Stars was my most recent acquisition; I’ve been meaning to pick that one up for over a year.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Ooh, another tough call! Probably the fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil, and assorted Italian deli meats I’ll throw together with a little fresh ground pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I recently became the newest Assistant Librarian for LibraryThing for Libraries, and I could not be more thrilled about it. I adore my team, and love being “at work” (which, as often as not, means being at home with my colleagues on Skype and my cats curled up on either side of me and my laptop).
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 this time around, which is a real motivator! And I’m most looking forward to meeting new people – most of my Tweeps are from Readathon adds :)

Okay, back to reading – remember, every comment here is money toward the grand total, so if you’ve read this far, don’t leave without at least saying HI – help me give my money away for a good cause!

 

Readathon Time!

Written by Kirsten on April 25th, 2014

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon comes around twice a year, in October and April, but something always seems to come up during one or the other to keep me from participating. Last October, Readathon was the weekend before my Mamau passed away, and I spent it watching the Red Sox with her. Wouldn’t change that for anything.

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Inspired by Felicia the Geeky Blogger, my Readathon tomorrow will raise money for The Jimmy Fund, a longtime partner with the Red Sox in support of cancer research. Here’s the math:

$0.05 per page read: this works out to $20 for a 400 page book, but I have two books in progress and want to build my donation even if I start a book and am not really feeling itafter 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 the Ryan Montbleau concert. Which leads me to…

$5.00 per hour missed: I know I’m going to miss at least 3 hours for the concert, but this covers hours slept, too. Any hour in which I do not read or listen to a book, that’s five bucks. And finally…

$1.00 per comment left on my blog posts 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

So, happy reading and cheering, those of you participating, and for those of you who aren’t, please stop by and say hi anytime tomorrow; I’ll post links to the blog throughout the day. 24 hours from now, it starts!

 

Mid-readathon survey

Written by Kirsten on April 27th, 2013

dewey

So, the readathon is halfway over, and I am failing at the reading part, lol… But that’s okay because really? Many a Saturday is much like this one, except I don’t have the excuse!

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?

I’ve had a few moments of sleepiness, but really this is about when I hit my actual reading stride.

2) What have you finished reading?

…a lot of tweets? LoL

3) What is your favorite read so far?

Still working on The Red Pyramid, though I did listen to some of the LA theatre Works audio production of Twelve Angry Men while I cooked and am looking forward to returning to it.

4) What about your favorite snacks?

my kiwi and cantaloupe and bacon breakfast still wins so far, I think.

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!

Back to the book; hope you’re all having a lovely Saturday, whether you’re readathon-ing, or just putting up with those of us who are!

 

 

 

 

 

Book appetit!

Written by Kirsten on April 27th, 2013

For this mini-challenge, Sheila from Continuing Adventures of a True Bookaholic invited us to create a menu based on one of our Readathon books. There’s a baboon named Khufu in The Red Pyramid who only eats foods that end in “O,” so that’s what I decided my menu would look like. I crowdsourced and got a great list of items, and whipped a lil cocktail recipe up for the bonus. Here’s the end result – enjoy!

image

 

Readathon kickoff

Written by Kirsten on April 27th, 2013

dewey

This questionnaire’s familiarity makes me smile now :) And here we go!

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 the first two, the Kane Chronicles books by Rick Riordan, though I’m also pretty psyched about that house for peculiar children business…

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Another tough call; cantaloupe and kiwi? Baked cheese and chili dip? Cap’n crunch oops all berries? It’s gonna be a good food day :)

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I love reading outdoors, at parks and the beach and even in the car with the windows down on a nice day, but for Readathon, I hate to “waste” time getting *to* my favorite reading spots!

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 going to spend less time stressing over formatting my blog posts when my phone browser won’t play nicely – starting this minute :)

Happy reading, all!

 

 

It’s that time again.

Written by Kirsten on April 26th, 2013

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, but here I am, having just submitted my Mr. Linky for tomorrow’s 24-hour readathon. I seem to manage one of the two each year, and more often in April than October. This weekend looks to be lovely, weather-wise, but I don’t want to spend too much time traveling to outdoor reading destinations, so, we shall see how far I drift from home and the Western Prom.

I’ve finally unpacked ALL THE BOOKS, after nearly three years in my apartment. I also treated myself to the first two books in Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles, The Red Pyramid and The Throne of Fire, when I picked up my Flood Certificate at Longfellow Books last weekend. So, in response to family crises and to celebrate quitting smoking and to welcome Spring, Dewey’s Readathon, here I come!

dewey

 

Wild.

Written by Kirsten on May 8th, 2012

I never read, or was read, Where the Wild Things Are as a child. I know this probably seems truly bizarre, given that I was reading on my own at such a young age, but I missed a lot of great picture books because of that very fact.

I still have not read this book, and I’m not sure if the time will come. I hope it does. But in the meantime, I saw the movie last year and loved the story very much, and am grateful to Mr Sendak for giving me the wonder of the wild things in my adulthood. I’m especially glad he was involved in the production of the film, and that he stuck with the director whose vision he favored even when it led to changing production studios.

I’m also incredibly grateful that Sendak trusted children to experience this film – both its visual effects and its raw emotion – without fear. He knew that it’s we adults who fear children feeling – and moreover, embracing – big anger, because we don’t know how to handle it ourselves. We don’t allow ourselves to just be pissed off at a situation that feels unfair and awful and gross; we have to behave like grownups and compose ourselves, and have forgotten how healthy a good wild rumpus can be. Thank you for the reminder, Mr Sendak, and for the permission.

 

Book shopping

Written by Kirsten on May 6th, 2012

Just a quickie post with a list of titles I picked up during my hour-long perusal of the shelves at Goodwill today, as promised, and why I picked up each:

Roald Dahl, Boy – I adore Dahl, and have never read this one.

Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak – I’ve heard fantastic things about this and have wanted to read it for some time.

Pia Mellody, Facing Love Addiction – my therapist has done intensive work with this author and the title was close to that of another book that was recently recommended and which I’ve not yet found. A brief perusal made it seem worth a go.

David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – another book blogger favorite that has been on my list for a while.

Jerry Spinelli, Wringer – I will read everything he writes, ever. Hadn’t heard of this, didn’t even bother to read the blurb, just went with it.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. I thought I got this through Bookmooch at one point, but it was actually a biography, not her diary. I’ve not read this since I was a girl, and am curious to see if it strikes the same chord now as it did then.

Hope Larson, Mercury – this is the only real wild card in the bunch. Never heard of the book or author, but I’m broadening my graphic novel collection and this seemed a possible winning addition.

Yay, new books, especially when all this plus a Young Players Edition subsidiary Trivial Pursuit card set only cost me $12.52!

 

Readathon Wrap.

Written by Kirsten on April 22nd, 2012

So, I woke up an hour late, started reading an hour later due to tech issues, and crashed an hour and a half before the end, but the Readathon was still a huge success in that I did not let anything (besides Joshua, and only a couple of times, briefly) take me away from my Readathon experience. Here are a few stats:

Books started: 6

Bo0ks finished: 3, and they are as follows –

A Summer to Die, Lois Lowry – YA fiction

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) – Memoir

Th1rteen R3asons Why, Jay Asher – YA fiction

Books abandoned cuz I couldn’t get into them: 2. Which were –

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President

Girl Parts

I may or may not get back to each of them. The former felt too juvenile and I quit 10 pages in, and the latter was just bizarrely written, with a strange premise that was a combination of “Weird Science” and Siri. Got 57 pages in, and granted, this was in the last few hours, so I really needed something engaging and that just wasn’t doin’ it for me.

Which leaves the 6th book, Michael Scott’s The Sorceress, on my “to be completed” list.

Pages read: 686. This is a little disappointing, but I also went into the day knowing that I would spend probably a quarter to half of each hour reading tweets, checking out other book blogs, completing mini-challenges, checking in with Joshua, and grabbing snacks and drinks. So, it is what it is.

Mini-challenges participated in: 10. I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure that’s way more than I’ve done before; I didn’t do a blog entry for each one, which made it quicker and easier. Of course, I didn’t win any, but they were all fun :)

So in the aftermath of Readathon, I’m about a third of the way into the book I was reading before it started (Rick Riordan’s The Last Olympian) and have gone back to that for now, and about a quarter of the way into The Sorceress, and will head there next. I’m glad that I have given myself permission to abandon books I don’t love in order to give others a chance, and am wholly glad to have read each book I did during Readathon.

I hope you other Readathoners had a great time, and while I won’t make any promises, I’ve missed this ol’ blog and would like to spend more time here, so let’s see what I can do about that, shall we? Back to the Underworld I go….