Readathing April 10, 2010

This thread is for keeping track of check-ins, check-outs, and the fun that comes along with a ReadaThing event! There is still time to sign up if you want to come join us!

You don't have to post anything in this thread to participate, but where's the fun of a ReadaThing if you don't share? Feel free to post just before you start reading. Come back when you are done and let us know how it went- what you read, where you read, who you read with, what you snacked on while you read it, your favorite quote... anything really!

Please don't post in this thread until 12:01 am LT/US EST tomorrow. This thread is where we are discussing tomorrow's Readathing and is the correct place for leading-up-to discussion.

Checking in hope everyone has a great time reading. I'm sure that I will.

Checking in with Armour of Contempt, though I plan on skipping between books.

Heading off to bed with One Thing Leading to Another. Don't worry, I'll stay awake for at least the full hour, but I won't get out of my warm bed to check in after. :)

77 pages into Armour of Contempt with 340 to go. Amazing what a year away from the Black Library does for my appreciation of Warhammer 40k novels.

I may miss the next hour check in, but only because I'll be AFK reading for the forseeable future. I'll post before crashing in 2-3 hours, though.

Finished my hour. I started with CroMagnon, but after half an hour I was falling asleep, so I switched to Druids by Anne Ross. The latter title is part of my current research project. Anyway, that kept me awake for another half hour - now to bed!

Started reading at midnight, stopped now. My eyelids were getting heavy. :) I was curled up on the couch under a comforter trying to finish my Early Reviewer book Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe. I didn't quite finish it, but I'm almost there.

Most of what was suggested by this book for me to do I already do. I'm a foodie who belongs to a CSA, I cook real food at home, and I plant a vegetable garden in the summer. I was hoping this book would have been more fun to read. Oh, well.

Here's a sad statistic from the book: "In the United States, two acres of agricultural land disappear to development every minute, every single day." :(

Think I'll go read a few pages of another more uplifting book before I head off to bed.

Have fun for the next 23 hours!

--> 6

but after half an hour I was falling asleep

Yeah. Me, too. Next Readathon I'm picking something more fun to read. Especially if I choose the same time of day night. :)

G'night, all!

Started The Traveler's Gift and got 50 pages into it. I'm having troubles putting it down because it reminds me of The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Sorry I'm having a little internet problem. Heres a couple of quotes that I liked.

"If I'm sane enough to recognize insanity, does that mean I'm okay after all?"

and one I think we can all do to remember from time to time.

"David, we are all in situations of our own choosing. Our thinking creates a pathway to success or failure. By disclaiming responsibility, we crush the prospect of an incredible future that might have been ours."

I didn't sign up for this next hour, didn't think I'd be able to read much before falling asleep. But I think I'll take The Darkest Road to bed and see how far I get. See you all around 7am (10am LT time) as I check in for my official hour. Happy reading everyone!

Well, I'm supposed to start my hour in a few minutes. I'm going to start with Talking Tails the ER book that arrived this afternoon. It's only 11 here, so isn't really even the 10th, except by the LibraryThing clock. I'll be listening to a rerun of Vinyl Tap on CBC while I read.

Still reading a Warhammer 40k novel.

Finished my hour and the book. Time for bed. I think I'll read myself to sleep (as if I don't every night!)

I'm assuming I'll be reading for another 30-45 minutes. I'll record final data in 6-7 hours. ^^

13: How's Talking Tails?

OK, I'm off to begin my hour of bliss...

Made a cup of tea and I'm stretching out on the lounge and leaving the curtains open so I can watch the twilight descend... it has been a beautiful day.

I hope to finish The Historian - it is getting really good. I will take care with spoilers but when I return I hope to mark the finished reading date.
If I finish it I have The Girl Who Played with Fire all ready to go...

Happy reading everyone!

I thought that I would be unable to participate in this because my day was so crowded but a chest infection has confined me to bed and I spent the past hour reading Mark Twain's The Stolen White Elephant. The copy that I was reading belonged to my maternal grandfather, who died more than a quarter of a century before my birth. His bold blue-black signature fills the top half of the title page. When I hold this book, which was published in 1884 and bound in November 1886, I feel a connection with this lost grandparent whose early death still affects me through its traumatic consequences for my mother. Twain's light humour and delicious absurdity echoes what I have been told of my grandfather's character. I like to think that this very volume fed his sense of fun just as it feeds mine. So, for my hour, I forgot my illness and shared laughter with my grandfather over a distance of a century.

Morning! Signing in to say I'm awake, filling the house with the aroma of coffee and reading David Baldacci's The Simple Truth. With only 100 pages to go I hope to finish it within the hour. Good luck everybody.

Finished my hour (and a bit extra) and made excellent progress through The Case of the Gilded Fly.

Finished my hour too, but since the rest of the family is still asleep I'll continue reading to finish this book.

I am checking in early for my first hour of reading. I am still reading The Soloist by Steve Lopez. I hope to finish this book today if possible. I then plan to start my new ER book which arrived yesterday. Broken Blue Line by Connie Dial. I read a little yesterday and I wanted to continue but I decided it would be a great choice for the ReadaThing!!

Happy Reading All!! Of to listen to my Ipod and to curl up on the sofa with my snuggie and my book.

Copying this from the other thread, cause I posted in the wrong thread:

I started reading at 7:01 & just finished because I lost track of the time.....

and I will admit to reading Highland Angel by Hannah Howell It is a bit of light historical reading..... fiction & fun, which I needed.

I recently got a reissue of the book & I liked the new cover... but the cover shows a very blonde woman & the female character is nicknamed 'Shadow' because she can disappear into a shadow and has BLACK HAIR!!! Why they put a gorgeous blonde on the cover of a book with a black-haired heroine is beyond me!! Maybe they need to read the book!!! (what a concept: Read the book before deciding what to put on the cover!!)

But it was a nice enjoyable hour & 20 minutes..... waking up & disappearing into a nice light read.

Now I need some coffee & breakfast!!

Happy Reading to All!!!

I waited until morning to post. I read a little over because I got involved in Changless by Gail Carriger. I'm also off for breakfast but more importantly to feed the cat (who is complaining loudly).

Good morning to all you state-side.

Completely forgot about this, but luckily I'm up early this Saturday morning in time to check in and relax before I need to start reading.

Reading Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I work today, but come back later tonight to continue with Huss' adventure!!!

checking in a little early for my 11am slot. still reading the travelers gift. I've been reading since 8am on here in my own thread for the dewey read-a-thon. But I've been a very slow reader this morning and very distracted. I'm not a morning person or morning reader. Good luck everyone. Happy reading.

I signed up for an early (for me) slot and woke up every couple of hours over the night to check the time, worried I'd sleep in (it's the weekend, no way I'm setting the alarm clock!). I ended up waking up with just enough time to brush my teeth and make a pot of tea before settling under a blanket on the couch to read. The sun was just rising and it is now a wonderfully sunny day.

I decided to read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. It's very interesting. Dawkins is refuting the belief by some that science has taken the poetry and joy out of life. I agree with Dawkins in that science has actually added to it. It's awe inspiring how complex nature is yet its components fit together so well that we are mostly unaware of it. I admire those people who are trying to untangle the complexities to understand better how they work.

'Insect ears, by contrast (with mammal ears), are not little barometers, they are little weathervanes.'

The bit in () added by me.

I think I'll finish up my chapter before getting on with my day.

Well I read for my first 45 minute time frame and loved the book I was reading. I read about 4 chapters of The Soloist by Steve Lopez. Steve Lopez has befriended a homeless, bum, musician. This is after Nathanial decides to try and stay in the apartment and make the room his own, and here are some quotes that I found very entertaining:

'Nathanial is already in the room when we arrive, taping things to the wall. He's making it his own, with a map of the United States going up, along with a newspaper story about "The Color Purple" on Broadway. He also has an ad for Baby Magic lotion and is laminating it with half a roll of Scotch tape.

"There's magic in the baby's eyes,' he says. "It's Carolin, isn't it?"
Sharing the same wall is a photo of Neil Diamond.

"What's with Neil Diamond?" I ask, wondering if his song "Sweet Caroline" is the association Nathaniel has made.

Nathaniel gives me a quizzical expression and then reexamines the rhinestone cowboy.
"I thought that was you," he says.

Okay. I have no response to that.'

After my time I went to get a pedicure and manicure and read for another 30 min. during my pedicure. Now I am hoping to finish this book before my next time slot so that I can start my new book. Broken Blue Line

I'm going to try to read The Snow Warrior, but work keeps trying to interrupt on my day off =(

During my reading slot I was able to reade 33 pages whichi unfortuanatly is almost as much as I have read since 7am.

"Do not run from power. Gather it as you would the finest fruit. Power in the hands of a good person is like a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. It refreshes everyone with whome it comes in contact."

"As children, we were afraid of the dark. Now as adults, we are afraid of the light. We are afraid to step out. We are afraid to become more."

I was reading from The Rational Imagination: How People Create Alternatives to Reality by Ruth M.J. Byrne. Its a book that explores the literature and research on how people think, and describes how imagination is ultimately grounded in principles of rational thought. I think its interesting because it shows a possible route for consilience between some principles of cognitive science and one of the more fantastical elements of human cognition.

Was only able to read a short chunk here. I'd read a bit, stop and think, read a bit, stop and think. Finished a chapter and got a good start on the next.

Well I am getting ready for my next chunk of time. Off to read my books and maybe finish one of them..

The Soloist by Steve Lopez
The Broken Blue Line by Connie Dial

I'm almost to my fourth hour, and haven't broken 200 pages on Armour of Contempt. I'm moving on, to 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done. I know I'll fly through the anecdotes on teaching!

Well, I manged to get 92 pages into The Snow Warrior during my hour. It's definitely a book that I enjoy reading and re-reading. A fictional account of the life of one of Genghis Khan's generals.

"Having looked upon you Lord Subotai, I am ready for death. You are come from the Tao."

If anybody needs me I'll be reading on the porch with my dog (just like kirbyowns).

I've been reading and napping since 7am (6+ hours). Details at Lucidia, my blog. So far parts of a cookbook, poems/psalms, and victorian-era fiction ( Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens ). 18 hours of reading and napping to go!

I forgot to post before my hour (11 a.m. CST), but it was great! It's a lovely spring day here: the sun is shining, the temperature is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and I have my living room windows open for the first time since last November.

I am re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Breath of Snow and Ashes, in preparation for getting the paperback of the next book An Echo in the Bone when it is released in June. It is a relaxing departure from the nonfiction books I have been reading lately.

Best of luck to all the rest today!

I'm gathering my supplies and heading out for the deck swing as we speak.

Sounds like people are having fun. I'd be reading, too, but it's also sunny and 65 F and the garden needs tilling! :-)

I'm preparing to start! I will be reading De logica van het moorden by Aifric Campbell. It is almost dark here in Amsterdam, I can still hear a few birds though. I will sit on the bed with sparkling water.

I tried to take a break for lunch. But I had to finish my book.

I'll probably start LJ Smith's The Secret Circle: The Initiation and the Captive while my pizza bakes.

I read 46 pages of V in my hour, and I also saw 2 quail!

Well I finished my hour and continued for a few extra minutes. I finished my one book The Soloist by Steve Lopez. I really enjoyed the book now I can't wait to see the movie. I then started reading The Broken Blue Line by Connie Dial. Enjoying that book so far. I hope to read more during the day. It is just too cold to be sitting outside for me right now.

I finished. I read 45 pages of de logica van het moorden, more than I expected. Interesting book, though written more flowery and detailed than I usually like.
Fun to do. Maybe I should asign myself to one hour of required reading every week.

I'm finished with my hour (with a little extra time). I read 39 Clues, and didn't quite get finished. Sitting out in the sun made me sleepy. Now I'm going to go take a short nap.

Finished the garden work sooner than expected, so I've signed up for another hour (6-7 pm LT time).

Starting my hour very late because I fell asleep. Will be reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, here in my comfy leather rocker/recliner. Off I go!

I read all of The Graduate by Charles Webb - admittedly a short book, but I'm a slow reader! I'm also hoping to finish Les femmes et l'amour du vin, a lovely little compendium of women's role in the history of wine.

Just checking in. I'm starting in 5 minutes and I'll report back tomorrow.

Checking in for my hour - I have Major Pettigrew's Last Stand here, and just in case I finish it (I don't really think I will, there are over 100 pages left) I have The Haunted Hotel read as backup.

And now I am getting comfortably settled in my room with a book, a chocolate chip cookie, and a cup of tea. I have the Red Sox on for background noise, but expect I'll only look up periodically when I hear the crack of a bat...it's actually on pretty quietly.

Happy reading!

Read 64 pp. of Snow Crash and think it likely that I'll finish it tonight when I go to bed. It was one of the books most recommended by the Sci Fi group in the thread on recommending books to new readers of the genre.

I found it a bit hard to get into initially, but have been rewarded by sticking with it, as it's an extremely well-imagined future world (not too far in the future), in which centralized governments have disappeared and been replaced by associations geographically scattered around the world, including the Mafia, introduced as the management behind Uncle Enzo's pizza delivery service, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, and a somewhat sinister quasi-religious organization.

The two main characters, Hiro Protagonist and Y.T., are each self-sufficient, resourceful, and adept with advanced technology. Hiro works for the pizza delivery service but is almost immediately fired after taking a wrong turn into an empty swimming pool, and Y.T. is a Kourier, who delivers packages on a very advanced skateboard. Hiro's also a hacker who collects information for the Central Intelligence Corporation, the re-imagined CIA.

I can't explain this story--and haven't finished it yet--but I'm having that "wow" reaction to the imagination on display here. Mixed in with the technology and a fair amount of action (Hiro carries a katana around with him) are musings about Sumerian mythology. And it all makes a kind of sense.

I made some headway into my ER book, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott (about 40 pages). I have to say that I'm not particularly thrilled with this one. It's too much of an adolescent romance, and I don't care much for the character of Louisa as depicted--cranky, critical, and self-important. It's going to be an effort to finish it. But it is definitely better than the freshman essays I am now off to read!

I spent my second hour reading the first two chapters of The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory - an interesting discussion.

Note to self: Must re-read Snow Crash!

Read a little over 60 pages of Major Pettigrew - only 50 some-odd left, so I'm going to finish it tonight.

I spent my hour reading the first few chapters of Peter Collingwood's Techniques of Tablet Weaving as I'm going to get to talk about it at a living history thingumie next weekend. I've delved into that book for reference fairly often, but hadn't actually sat down and read through it for 20-some years. Enjoyed it.

I *almost* spent the hour reading a book I got at a yard sale this morning - an 1899 edition of Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads, inscribed in faded brown ink, "Christmas '99".

What a temptation! And what a find! Kudos, Rowntree!

#50 > Snow Crash is a pretty good book. Especially when you consider it was written in 1993 before the Web and Internet really took off.

55> Both of those sound wonderful! I have Barrack Room Ballads, and I _want_ Collingwood...

Checking in - starting right nowish (as soon as my tea-water boils) and reading Basin and Range by John McPhee. (one of) My SantaThing gift was the Second John McPhee Reader, and it got me interested in his geology books...

Backup is the book I've been reading a while, Drawing the Line by Mark Monmonier, about maps and how they can and do lie. Interesting concepts, but I find his writing a little hard to slog through.

Back to Inspector Huss - it's fun to be in a community read-a-thon!

I just finished my hour, which I spent reading a good-sized chunk of Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots. It's a fun read so far -- young adult fiction about a girl from the suburbs who is enthusiastic about saving the environment, and what happens when she spends a summer in rural British Columbia -- some of her cherished ideals are tested by the experience. And, of course, there's the usual teen drama of secret romances and trouble with friends and so forth. I've been enjoying it, and will probably finish it off this evening before I go to bed. It's been fun being part of the readathon with you all!

Read 86 pages of Basin and Range. The first chapter, pretty much, was what was in the Reader, then it went on. The most fun was the many references to places I've been and rocks I've seen - sometimes I recognized the description (the red rocks of Wyoming and Arizona, the abrupt shelf at the foot of the mountains where Auburn, CA is (that used to be the edge of the continental shelf)), sometimes it inspired me to want to go back and take a closer look at those folds or that rock that I'd just accepted as the way rock looked there. Very interesting, and an excellent writing style. Not going to keep reading, though - it's only 7:20 pm but I'm going to bed. Hot tea with honey and pistachios for a snack helped hold off this cold, but I need sleep to defeat it.

Just put the kettle on to brew a cuppa for my hour! Gettiing ready to settle in with Buffalo Bill's British Wild West, which is being both interesting and amusing.

JJ, hope you feel better in the morning!

Just got my 5 minute warning. I have Jane Haddam's Living Witness to finish off, then Guy Kay's Under Heaven up next.

Here I go!

And I'm done. The house was quiet and, except for my reading light and some candles, dark. The cat snored beside me for a while, then took himself off to his basket. I think I spent about half the time finishing off the first book and then savoured 27 pages of the second, but I deliberately did not check the time during my reading.

I ran over by at least half an hour (luxury!), and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Comfy recliner, down lap rug, hot cup of rooibos tea! Heaven!

Is anyone else still burning the midnight oil reading? I'm trying for a full 24 hours minus the 20 minute nap i took around 4:30

What time did the Dewey 24 hour readathon start?

It's after hours for the LT readathon but I'm going to read some more before bed. Maybe another hour, maybe not.
Night everyone. This was fun :o)

For me the Dewey readathon started at 7am and I'm an hour behind LT. I had a blast today reading. I'm hoping to stay awake until 7.

Did my hour, but haven't had a chance to post about it until now.

I read John Clarke's The Catastrophe Continues, which was as painfully funny as I expected. For those of you who haven't come across John Clarke and Bryan Dawe before, they specialise in their own unique brand of (usually) political satire. Bruce plays the straight guy, and interviews John. John plays any one of a number of politicians (usually Australian) – John Howard, Paul Keating, Bronwyn Bishop, Tim Fisher … They're usually broadcast on TV, and the book gathers together scripts from the last 21 years worth of those interviews. The best part is that John makes absolutely no attempt to copy their voices, or make himself look like them. It's all in the speech patterns – the little verbal tics we all have, and which he homes in on with uncanny accuracy. He is savagely funny.

(If you think the names sound familiar, John and Bryan also co-wrote and starred in the spoof tv show about preparations for the 2000 Olympics (oddly enough called “The Games”), and John started out his comic career playing a black singlet wearing New Zealand sheep farmer, Fred Dagg.

An excerpt to leave you with from “Interview with The Hon. Robert Hill, Minister for Defense” (interviewer's remarks in bold):

____

You've had a bit of a problem with the accounts in the defense department.

Lets be clear about this. The accounts are quite good. A model of their kind.

What kind are they?

Accounts with eight billion dollars worth of assets missing. …
… Have you seen the budget?

Yes, I've got a copy of it.

If you go to the capital expenditure, you'll find the ordnance is all listed there.

This is the equipment.

Yes. It's all listed under specific headings.

‘Things that go “whoosh” ’?

Yes. Good example.

‘Things that go “kerblam” ’?

Yes, different class of weaponry.

‘Things that go AWOL’?

They're in a separate schedule.

(edited for spelling)

Total Books Read: 5
The Armour of Contempt by Dan Abnett
32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done
The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I by LJ Smith
The Secret Circle: The Captive Part II and The Power by LJ Smith
Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden

Time Read: 12 hours, 15 minutes

So how often does this event happen a year?

I was able to read 2 chapters of The Age of Innocence in my half-hour. I read in bed so eventually I fell asleep...

My favorite quote from those chapters:
"Yet he never saw her, or exchanged a word with her, without feeling that, after all, May's ingenousness almoust amounted to a gift of divination. Ellen Olenska was lonely and she was unhappy."

#58 > I've wanted to read How to Lie with Maps for a while now. Have you read it yet?

I caught up on my reading of Fiona Robyn's Thaw for the 2:00 P.M. EST hour. It was nice to set aside some time for reading and not feel guilty that I should be doing something more productive.

> 69 joannasephine
I love John Clarke and Bryan Dawe!

jj and Theo - I hope you feel better soon!

add: It has been fun reading about what you all have been reading. And where you read it! :)

i didn't make my reading hour. i'm very upset about it as i was so looking forward to the ReadaThing! instead, i spent the entire afternoon and well into the night in bed with a mind-obliterating migraine. i woke up around 2 am to remember that i was supposed to have been reading at some point. drat!

i guess i'll make up for it next time.

>70 AmyLynn:

this is only the second one we've had so we haven't really decided on a schedule. i think we're aiming for at least 4 a year, but more is always fun! if we stick to 4 a year and continue on the same schedule we've stumbled onto so far, the next ReadaThing would be in July. maybe someone should start a new thread and we can hash it out? ;)

Well besides the planning and the work that sonya puts in, which is hugely appriciated, we could try one for every month. That is if people are just signing up for chunks of time instead of staying up for the whole 24 hrs.

71> No, but Drawing the Line seems to cover a lot of the same ground. It's the same principles applied to actual cases - he goes over the Peters projection (Gall-Peters) again, talks about the Vinland map as a forgery, talks about the Maryland-Pennsylvania border as mis-surveyed or surveyed from misunderstood markers...

I ended up not finishing Les femmes & l'amour du vin but I did start Ce que le jour doit à la nuit, by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra - enjoyed well into Sunday!

I was away for the weekend and didn't have the opportunity to check in. I read for an hour but as I was with other folks I didn't feel like I could anti-social & shut myself away for longer than that. I was reading The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre which I have yet to finish.

I spent my brief 15 minutes reading New York Times articles in bed on my phone, having been awoken by the same device a few minutes before.

Then I got up and ... moved. The movers showed up at 9, and had everything out, trucked across the city, and in to the new place by 2:30. Magical.

I'll probably work more than usual this week, since ALL OF MY BOOKS ARE IN BOXES. Oh, wait. I moved in across from a library :)

I'm impressed that you got 15 minutes of reading in on moving day, Sonya! I don't think I could (or would) have done that. :)

Congrats on a smooth move!

Does anyone want to do another Readathing on April 10th, the 1 year anniversary of our first?

I don't know how to make a wiki page though. I could start a new thread instead.

I'd be game but Saturday might work better than Sunday if we're going to do 24 hours . . .

Anyone else?

We tried ejj1955!

How about next weekend? Would more people be willing to do it then?

To be honest, I think this is the kind of thing that needs more lead time to organize. Have to get a grid up (I have no idea how that is done) for people to sign up for times and have enough time to get the word out. But I continue to be game for it.

I'd be up for one next weekend.

Me too. I've been missing them...there are readathons in the challenge groups, but I never find out about them in time.

Yeah, it's been a long time!

Totally missed this, though I did just spend the past hour sitting on my porch reading jazz poetry (in honor of it being National Poetry Month AND National Jazz Appreciation Month). I started both Jazz Poems and the Jazz Poetry Anthology.

Whoops! Now I see this is the thread from last year . . . no wonder I "missed" this year's :)

The last few messages are about setting one up - for next weekend, is the plan now. So you can catch that one!

Do you guys think next weekend is enough notice or should we plan it further out?

Maybe see if Jeremy could blog it, the way Sonya did? We might get more people if we waited a while, but just waiting won't get many - we need to publicize it somehow.

I'm always busy on weekends, but I can find an hour to read just about any weekend. So for me, next weekend is as good as any other. It's just how many more we can rope in...

Perhaps if you start a new thread with this year in it, you may get more hits and make more people aware / catch a few more, if they know it is upcoming...
And asking for a blog comment would also be good.

I think a couple of weeks is probably enough time so we know what we are doing then, and have time to fill up the slots - too far into the future and it may be hard for some to plan. Not enough notice is the same...
Just my thoughts...

I would, of course be interested in participating.

OK, new thread here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/113946&newpost=1#lastmsg

The next two Sundays are out for me (Palm Sunday and Easter), but I'll try to keep a better eye on this group . . . seems I'm always missing the announcements.