You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘readathon’ tag.
Okay, so I’m not doing too well in the Out With A Bang! read-a-thon. It’s not a thing you can fit in easily when it’s not planned ;)
I’ve only read in Caos Calmo for 40 minutes on the first day (shame on me!) and we’re expecting company in just a short while so I don’t really expect to read anymore today. Not much of a BANG! there. Well, there’s always tomorrow!
I just came by the best idea of how to end 2010 so far: curled up with a book! The ‘Out With A Bang’ read-a-thon is hosted by The Bookish Type & Book-Savvy and takes place from today till the 31st. I won’t be able to commit fully (there’s other stuff to do too, like going to the vet’s -again-, order oliebollen, work on my blog etc.) but it might just be the thing to get ahead in my online book group’s December chunker: Caos Calmo (Kalme chaos) by Sandro Veronesi.
Fifteen minutes is not enough to start a new book in the 24 hour Readathon. So I’m taking a sneak preview on the End of the Event Meme questions by copying those of last April! The weather is unusually great here so as soon as the readathon finishes at 1400 hrs, I want to go outside and enjoy it! Exercise!
- Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 15 (5am in the morning here). I threw in the towel and went to sleep for a few hours. I could have read on but decided not to make myself go grumpy ;) - Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Haven’t read it this readathon, but I’d like to recommend Trespass by Valerie Martin. - Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Nope. - What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Everything went particularly well, didn’t it? For me, I’m glad I made it easy for myself this time by picking books in my native language. - How many books did you read?
Four. Or actually 3 and my complete backlog of entries in the Pillow Book read-along. - What were the names of the books you read?
The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom (buddy-read), The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, Adèle and the Beast & Monsters All! from the series Les Avontures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Tardi. - Which book did you enjoy most?
The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom. I hadn’t expected to like this much! And I feel really accomplished by having caught up in the Pillow Book, since we’re only a few weeks from the end of the read-along. But most of all, I’m *so* happy that the readathon helped me out of my reading slump of the last weeks! Yay! - Which did you enjoy least?
Nothing really; I really enjoyed everything I’ve read! - If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn’t a cheerleader but I’m very grateful to those who were! Kudos to all, not just the cheerleaders but everyone behind the scenes! - How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
This was my 3rd 24 hour read-a-thon, can’t you tell I’m addicted? ;) So yes, I would like to participate again in April, although I’ve noticed the spring RaT is harder than the one in fall! Even though the days are longer then…
I’ve spent 8 hours and 40 minutes actually reading (counting really strictly). Double that for the time I could be found in the bloggosphere and on twitter — all readathon related!
So, have you all enjoyed it as much as I did? What did you like best?
Have a nice Sunday!
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
We’re in the last hour of the readathon (already? ;) and I’ve finished 2 graphic novels since my hour 20 status update: Adèle and the Beast (Isabelle en het beest) & Monsters All! (Allemaal monsters!) from the series Les Avontures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec (De avonturen van Isabelle Avondrood) by Jacques Tardi. They were re-reads but it was at least 20 years ago that I first had my eyes on them, so I had mostly forgotten what the stories were about. In this post you’ll find a preview of the drawings and our IRL (in real life) reproductions.
The Museum of Natural History plays an important role in the first volume I mentioned, Adèle and the Beast, and I’ve been wanting to visit the museum ever since I was studying Museology (almost 20 years ago). The weird thing is: every time I’m in Paris something prevents me from going there! Last month it was closed on the day we had picked (bad planning, I know) and postponing it to another day didn’t fit with our schedule. Sigh.
Status report
Time period: 10.00 – 13.15
Currently reading: time to choose the last book of my readathon stack!
Total of time read: 8 hrs 40 mins
Total amount of pages read: 250 pages (nice round figure!)
Books finished: 4 books (The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom, caught up with Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book read-along, Adèle and the Beast (Adèle et le bête) & Monsters All! (Tous des monstres!) from the series Les Avontures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Tardi)
Mini-challenges participated in: 11 (Since last update: mini-challenge about character pictures)
Oops, forgot to take a picture of my French breakfast: café au lait and butter croissants with strawberry jam and Brie made of goat’s cheese. Never mind, there’s one (unbaked) croissant left, so I’ll use that for At Home With Books’ mini-challenge about character pictures! I told you, I am (or should be) reading the Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec in Paris, France.
Noooo, I haven’t travelled to France while napping (dream on grrl!).
I went to sleep at 5am and set my alarm clock for 8:30, but wasn’t able to get my lazy bum out of bed to make breakfast until half an hour ago. And now I’m having coffee & croissants while I’m picking up the Adèle graphic novels. As I mentioned before in my ‘pile post‘, Mr Gnoe and I photographed several locations from the comic books in real life when we were in Paris a month back, to make a Google Map out of. But first I’m going check out how everybody else is doing!
Non-fiction & Memoir/True Stories Mini-challenges
The hour 19 & 20 mini-challenges came just at the right time. Just before I went to bed I finished catching up on The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. It’s some kind of journal written by a court lady of Heian Japan, around 990. She wrote down her thoughts, observations and tells about the habits of her time and class. To answer the questions on Rainy Day Reviews’ Memoir/True Stories challenge:
- Have you ever read a memoir/true story (Or book ‘based on true events’?)
I do so every once in a while. Like last night ;) - If so, what was the title/author?
The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, or the Marlene Dietrich biograhy by her daughte Maria Riva or Butterfly in the Wind by Rei Kimura… can go on forever! - What what it about?
I’ve told you about The Pillow Book above and the Dietrich bio is obvious as well ;) In Cold Blood is the re-telling of a horrible murder and its court case. It’s actually faction: fiction based on facts. Butterfly in the Wind is the Okichi Saito, concubine of Townsend Harris, the first American Consul to Japan in 1856. - Did you like it? Would you recommend it?
I’m struggling a little with The Pillow Book (I prefer a plot), I erm… liked In Cold Blood and would recommend it as a classic, but I don’t think you need to read it before you die ;) The life of Marlene Dietrich bored me to death. I really tried for 880 pages (!) and finally gave up. Butterfly in the Wind… was just plain horrible. But I read it all. - How many have you read?
Counting would take too much time — although it seems fun! - Why or what made you want to read it?
Different reasons: it might be a classic, I’ve come across the book by chance, it peaked my interest. - What was the saddest/scariest one you read?
The Diary of Anne Frank? (Hey, I’m Dutch — of course I’ve read it! Several times ;) Slaughterhouse-Five? Maus? From the ones I mentioned above Butterfly in the Wind would be saddest, In Cold Blood scariest. - Did it have a ‘happy ending’?
No, no and no ;) - When choosing a memoir/true story, do you look for a certain kind? ( i.e. historical diary, inspirational like The Freedom Writer’s Diary, Christian, non Christian)
No, I don’t pick memoirs/true stories because of the genre but because of the topic. - Bonus question(s-it’s in parts:) for my giveaway: Have you read 3 or more memoirs/true stories? Title/Author, would you recommend them? If you were to win the giveaway prize, would you want the book, (Sizzling 16 by Janet Evanovich) and would you prefer the coffee or tea? or both?
Can I refer you back to my answer to the second & fourth questions? :) And I’d prefer tea, if you ship to Europe ;)
Status report
Time period: 4.50 – 10:00
Currently reading: Adèle and the Beast (Adèle et le bête) & Monsters All! (Tous des monstres!) from the series Les Avontures Extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec by Tardi
Total of time read: 7 hrs 15 mins
Total amount of pages read: 154 pages
Books finished: 2 books (The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom & finally caught up with Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book read-along)
Mini-challenges participated in: 10 (since last update: Wordle, Non-fiction, Memoirs)
I couldn’t resist participating in the 15th hour mini-challenge of the readathon before going to sleep… A wordle made out of the words on Graasland!
Yawn. It’s 4am and I just finished reading my entries for The Pillow Book Friday. I’m all caught up — I’m feeling *so* accomplished! :) The end of the read-along is near (not to be confused with the readathon), and it will be great to finish together with the rest of the readers. The book is also part of my personal challenge for 2007… which turned into a 2007-2010 challenge ;) The bookmark I’m using is that of a Japanese servant; a reproduction of an old print from around 1795. Not as old as the book though, which was written circa 990.
Appropriate quote from the book:
THINGS THAT MAKE ONE HAPPY
Getting hold of a lot of stories none of which one has read before.
Or finding Vol.2 of a story one is in a great state of excitement about, but was previously only able to secure the first volume.
I’m really tired now and of my fellow Dutch readathonners only Iris from Irisonbooks is still awake — right, Iris??? *twitterspace keeping really quiet* Sigh. I guess I might go take a nap then too. But I won’t guarantee that I’ll be able to get up again after a few hours! Also, I hate to bother Mr Gnoe by setting an alarm clock… Hm. How am I going to tackle this? The most obvious answer is of course NOT to go to sleep. LOL
But first things first: let’s check what upcoming mini-challenges I need to be around for!
Status report
Time period: 1.20 – 4.30
Currently reading: can pick a new one of the pile!
Total of time read: 7 hrs 15 mins & lots of time blogging, tweeting, cheering etc. ;)
Total amount of pages read: 154 pages
Books finished: 2 books (The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom & finally caught up with Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book read-along)
Mini-challenges participated in: 7 (none since last progress report)
Pet Pics, Prized Pages and Pachyderm Prose
So, it’s Sunday morning here, 20 minutes past 1 AM. Yes, I’m hanging in there! Doing well with the support of da kittehs — remember I didn’t even think Juno was going to make it until today? This afternoon she came to sit with me on the balcony! My cutie :)
But she’s not the only one keeping me company: our Shy Guy Ringo also spent some time on my lap. As you might deduce from his nickname, that is quite unusual. So I’m having a ball!
I’ve decided to use the readathon to give Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book one more try. And it’s working! I’ve almost caught up with the Pillow Book Friday read-along at In Spring it is the Dawn (I do not own any shares of that great site, really I don’t ;) Since last status update I’ve read entries 109-142 and now I have only 7 more to go and I’m done for the week. Yay! That’ll count as 1 book for the readathon, don’t you think? :)
To answer the question of Pet Pics, Prized Pages and Pachyderm Prose, one of my favourite animal books is The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy. The main character is Mud, an elephant. So here’s my ‘emmy’ sentence: Mad Mud makes millions marvel. In contrast I’d like to share a picture of our third and last critter, who is minding her own business, Yoshitoshi. The smallest pet in the house has the grandest name ;)
Mid-event Meme
- What are you reading right now?
Wrote about that just above! - How many books have you read so far?
Erm.. 1! - What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Probably The China Lover by Ian Buruma. - Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
Yep, had to prepare Mr Gnoe and make sure I had my snacks ready and house sort-a cleaned up, which I would have done on Saturday otherwise. - Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Ha, most interruptions come from the web (twitter, cheering, blogging, mini-challenges etc.), cuddling the cats and eating. Oh and then there’s the trouble with our kitchen plumbing… But I’m just hitting the ‘ignore’ button on that ;) - What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Although it’s LATE and I’m tired, I’m not really getting depressed yet! - Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Nope, it’s a ball! - What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
Nothing. - Are you getting tired yet?
Yep! Had to change my contacts for glasses and I’m looking kind of grey ;) - Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?
No. If I think of something later on I’ll add it!
Status report
Time period: 21:45 – 1.20
Currently reading: The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon
Total of time read: 6 hrs 20 mins
Total amount of pages read: 130 pages
Books finished: 1 books (The Follwing Story by Cees Nooteboom)
Mini-challenges participated in: 7 (Since last update: Pet Pics, Prized Pages and Pachyderm Prose, Mid-event Meme)
Yay, I finished reading my first book! And although I really didn’t expect it (and got a little annoyed by the obviously erudite blah blah of the author at first), I absolutely loved it!
I’m talking about The Following Story by the Dutch author Cees Nooteboom, which I (dôh) read in my native language: Het volgende verhaal. I probably would have never read it if it hadn’t been recommended by my all-time favourite author David Mitchell. The story goes that while he was in Holland researching The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet on a writer’s fellowship, he picked up Nooteboom’s novella while he took cover in Waterstones’ bookstore during an awful downpour — and he couldn’t stop reading. Nooteboom is being acknowledged in ‘Jacob de Zoet’, so I guess they met afterwards.
I almost bought myself a second hand copy of The Following Story, but discovered — just in time! — that I already owned it! That’s what happens sometimes with the free publications of National Book Week… So I might have never picked up this book if it hadn’t been for Mitchell. Worse: it could have ended up in a Boekgrrls book swap unread! But just now I recommended it for the new Boekgrrls reading schedule… Let’s hope it’ll be picked!
I plan to write a short review after the readathon has ended. But one thing I can tell you already: this book has made me want to visit Lisbon! How appropriate, since the hour 8 mini-challenge on The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader is about Arm Chair Travelling!
Now I’m really curious to hear what tanabata of In Spring it is the Dawn thinks of The Following Story!
Also, I finally got around to making a donation so that those generous people providing prizes for the readathon are able to send it to the lucky winners. Let’s return some love to all those book bloggers behind the scenes of the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon!
Shake Your Pom-Pom Cheer: “Flip that cover, turn your page, we’re reading for the read-a-thon!“
Status report
Time period: 16.30 – 21.45
Currently reading: Gotta decide!
Total of time read: 4 hrs 27 mins & I lost track of blogging / cheering / tweeting time ;)
Total amount of pages read: 93 pages
Books finished: 1 book (The Following Story in Dutch = Het volgende verhaal, by Cees Nooteboom)
Mini-challenges participated in: 5 (Since last update: Show me the books, Arm Chair Travelling, Shake Your Pom-Pom!)
My BX bookshelf
