24-Hour Readathon Recap

Well I didn't expect to do a full out readathon but I had hoped to do way better than I did.

I didn't even get a chance to keep track of pages read or time read because I had to keep stopping and starting reading like every few minutes.



It wasn't even the baby most of the time. It was my migraine and my older kids who I had to help get ready for a birthday party.

I didn't get to try any mini-challenges.

I already can't wait till October so I can actually participate more.

24-Hour Readathon Intro

As I stated previously, I have a 11 day old baby (plus my other two children) so I don't know how much reading I'll be doing and I'm not staying up all night but I wanted to get a chance to get more reading done and I love the readathon!

1)Where are you reading from today? Birth Day by Mark Sloan, MD (to start)
2)Three random facts about me…

 - I read mostly nonfiction because I love to learn.
 - I'm recovering from my C-section.
 - I'm on Day Three of a bad migraine (luckily it's toned down today) and I swear day 7 of headaches in general.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? I have a pile of about 6-8 that I will pick from but it's not like I will read them all.
4)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)? Nope. Not this time around anyway. I just want to get as much reading done as I can.
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? 

- Have lots of snacks ready
- Do lots of stretching. Walk and read at the same time sometime
- Read any harder to read books early on, do NOT save them for the middle of the night.
 - If you are trying for 24 hours with NO naps, it's HARD but I've done it. The last 4 hours are the worst. I was mostly holding the book, reading a few words and nodding off then waking up and doing the same thing. Expect to re-read the same passage over and over.

A Read-a-thon with a 2 week old???

I am officially signing up for the Spring 24-hour Read-a-thon but I will have a two week old baby to take care of and will be recovering from a c-section so I'm not setting any goals or anything. You are supposed to take it easy after a cesarean anyways so when the baby is sleeping or nursing, I can read. We'll see how it goes.

Out With A Bang Readathon Update

So I just wanted to let everyone know what I read. I read two books in two days basically as I didn't do any reading yesterday.

Raising Bookworms: Getting Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment by Emma Walton Hamilton

Room by Emma Donoghue

So look for those reviews coming up.

Out With A Bang Readathon

I decided to participate as best as I can to get some reading done before our holiday break is over. I can't only read for three days as I have my daughter's birthday party to prepare for (this weekend), a house to clean and my brother's down for a visit but I will do as much reading as I can.

I am not participating in the Debut Authors challenge and will be reading whatever books I want.

Click on the logo for more info or to sign up.

Halloween Readathon Wrapup

So I did really well with this readathon. I guess having a theme helped or perhaps it was a good change to NOT read a review book.

I completed:

The Myrtles Plantation by Frances Kermeen (True story of haunted house!)
Ruined by Paula Morris

and I started:

Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels by Frances Kermeen (more true stories)

So my theme was ghosts.

I had fun with some mini challenges and had fun at the twitter party. I can't wait till next year!

Halloween Readathon Update (Books and Mini-Challenges)

I'm actually just getting started with the readathon. I was busy all day and have somewhere to go tomorrow too actually. I'll do as much as I can.

The Halloween Read-a-thon is being hosted by Young Adult Books Reviewed.

Here are the books I will pick from: (from old to new)

Witchery Hill by Welwyn Wilton Katz (Children's Fiction 1984)
Tales of the Wicked Witch by Hanna Kraan (Children's Fiction 1995)
Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels by Frances Kermeen (Adult NF 2002)
The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time ed by Leslie Puckell (Adult F 2002)
The Myrtles Plantation by Frances Kermeen (Adult NF 2005)
When the Sun Goes Down: Planning the Funeral of Your Life by Betty Breuhaus (Adult NF 2008)
Ruined: A Novel by Paula Morris (Teen F 2009)

For the mini-challenge at YA Addict, I have to share my spookiest read. As my frequent blog readers know, I don't read much fiction but Black Creek Crossing by John Saul was pretty spooky. However I don't read many spooky books so it may not be spooky to all.  I rated it number four on my top 10 books read that year.

For the mini-challenge at Oh My Books!, we are asked about our Halloween costume. I am dressing up as I and a Girl Guide leader and we have a party. I'm torn between a few possibilities: (from Homemade Halloween Costumes)

Soda pop can: Use a round barrel, cut a hole in the bottom.  You cut holes for  arms and your head.  Paint it the colors of a pop can.  Presto!  You have a pop can!!!  - from Ann

Static Cling
Wear anything a solid color is good all white or all black.  With safety 
pins pin anything to yourself i:e: socks, underwear, bounce sheets, etc. You can also spray your hair straight up in the air. From: Maria

Mother Nature (assemble as you want)

• Silk flowers and silk plant leaves in a variety of shapes and colours an old skirt and vest 
• a face mask
• € twigs (collected from your nearby park or in your own backyard) to make a nest
• € a foam bird that you can find at any craft store
• € glue gun and wire 

 Okay so I will start with The Myrtles Plantation by Frances Kermeen

Halloween Readathon

I got some reading done at the 24 Hour Readathon but I'd like to get some more in so I'm signing up for the Halloween Readathon hosted by Young Adult Book Reviews next weekend. I do have one thing to do that weekend but other than that I'll get as much reading done as I can.
I'd put up the logo but I still can't upload photos for some reason. Blogger doesn't like me.

Readathon End of Event Meme

Well the readathon is over. I'm not going to do the whole end of event meme since I didn't do much of the readathon. The answer to my book puzzle is below too.

Total Time Spent Reading: 2 hours 30 minutes (pretty good considering how much I had to do yesterday.)
Books I Read From: Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter and Our Days Are Numbered by Jason I. Brown.
Books Finished: NONE
Pages Read: 156

Here are the three questions I'll answer:


3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? 
Not really. It was great this year from what I can see.


4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
The mini challenges were shorter which is what I said we needed last year. I also liked that there were different ones and that many of them would work with nonfiction books which is what I usually read.

 10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Definitely participating. Still want to ship kids away, premake food and get myself set to do as much reading as possible. I'd still love to do a mini challenge too if I can ever think of a good one.

Here's the book puzzle I made:



The Answer?
How The Girl Guides Won the War (by Janie Hampton)

Readathon Update Hour 16

So I've only read 20 minutes since my last update because after that I made dinner, ate it and then went out role-playing. I just got home and I'm tired. I don't know if I'll get any more reading done. If I do it won't be much and my final total will be at the end meme.

If you're still reading, good for you! Have fun and do the best you can. Here are some tips for staying up late as I have stayed up 21-24 hours all the other times I did the readathon:

• Drink or Eat Caffeine
• Read While Walking
• Get fresh air, cool air wakes you up
• Change what you are reading. Easy reading now. Children's fiction is the best. Now is NOT the time for nonfiction
• Take more breaks. After hour 22, I take a break every 5 minutes. Just for a minute or two. Just to wake myself up a bit.
• Do NOT lay down!!!!!
• Keep the lights on. Darkness makes you more sleepy.

Readathon: Cheerleading Challenge

For this mini challenge, hosted by Fizzy Thoughts, we create a cheer for our fellow readathoners.

Here's mine:

Reading's Fun
But Takes Some Time
So That's Why
I Made This Rhyme

Don't Give Up
Says a Book Sage
Keep On Reading
And Turn the Page

Okay so it's silly but it's completely mine!

Readathon Book Puzzle

This is for an Hour 7 Mini Challenge hosted by One Librarian's Book Reviews.

It's the title of a book I have for review. Fill in the blanks.

Readathon Hour 6 Update

I've been participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.

Total Time Reading: 2 hours
Book: Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron
Total Pages: 86

I haven't done any mini challenges and may not do any. I mostly just want to read.

The Readathon Starts! Hour 1

So I plan to read as much as possible but will be lucky to get 5 hours of reading done. I have a household of people and places to go and sleep to get.


Where are you reading from today? Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter. It contains short stories of other cats and their special human bonds. I thought it a fitting book since Dewey the Cat and Dewey, the creator of the Readathon both share the same name, even if not for the same reason. I also have been reading SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I might add in another book, it all depends on my mood.

3 facts about me … I'm pregnant (15 weeks, or 3 months & 3 weeks), I'm going role-playing tonight (not the bedroom kind LOL, but the in a group of people with made up characters kind,) and I've been in a reading/blogging slump lately I'm hoping this readathon will help with.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? As I said before, I have two books especially in mind but for once I didn't create a readathon pile like I usually do. It will probably be some of my newly received review books though.

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)? Every time after the readathon I say that next time I'm going to ship out the kids, premake or buy food, clear my schedule and do nothing but read and a few challenges. But then the next readathon comes up and my plans don't work out that way. So I'm just going to have fun and not worry about numbers too much. I am hoping though that I will be able to show people that I'm back to blogging again as I lost visitors this past month.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I've done every readathon except one since it started so I'm definitely a veteran. It's a little too late for most advice but here's one: stay off the computer if you really want to get a high amount of time reading. I spend so much time posting updates , doing mini challenges, reading tweets and visiting other bloggers that I usually get about 6 hours of actual reading done in 24 hours. If you aren't concerned with how much reading you get done but about making new friends and socializing, then go for it. Just decide what's more important to you.

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon

Wow has it been over a month? Sorry to my regular readers but thanks to those who stuck by me and still have me in Google Reader.

A good way to get back in the swing of things is to participate in the 24 Hour Readathon. I have a commitment Saturday Evening and a Thanksgiving Dinner I have to be awake for on Sunday but I will get as much reading done as I can with 2 kids, 3 adults, 2 dogs and a cat around.

Seems a lot has changed in Blogger in one month too. I see we have stats now and I can't get the image feature to even work, which is why there is no logo for the readathon.

However you can find out all about it and sign up here: http://24hourreadathon.com/

So I'll be participating 8am EST Saturday October 9 - 8am Sunday October 10.

The Book of Knowledge by David Michael Slater

Stars: ****

CBAY Books (2009)
Teen Fiction/ YA Fiction
10 and Up (the ages given but labelled as YA)

Summary: The second book in the Sacred Books Series. It continues right where the first book left off. Between the various attempts on their lives, the assault on their father, and a shocking discovery about their deceased mother, Dex and Daphna have endured enough for a lifetime. They barely have enough energy to stand, let alone save the world. Unfortunately, they don't have a choice. If they work together, the twins might stand a chance of discovering the truth about The Book of Nonsense. But are they really working together?

First I must caution that this book is controversial. I don't want to give the story away at all but the story gives an unusual explanation for a major bible story that certain people might find offensive. It's not bad in any way but if you are very devout in your Christian beliefs and believe every word of the bible to be exact truth, you may not like this book. You can read a bit more about that at Beaverton Valley Times.

Personally I found it interesting and thought-provoking. It truly has me thinking about my beliefs, even though that was not the intention of the book at all. I don't participate in book clubs because I generally have no interest in discussing books after I read them (other than to provide a review.) However this is one of the few where I'd like to exchange emails with another adult who has read this book.

Although I think the Book of Knowledge (and The Book of Nonsense,) could perhaps use a bit of work, in general I really enjoyed the book and am looking forward to Book Three which says a lot as I don't normally read series. It keeps you thinking and wondering what's going to happen next and I can never guess correctly what's going to happen which I like.

If you're interested, I read this book during the Clean Away the Clutter Readathon but as part of an activity for Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon I talked about seeing the Sacred Books Series made into movies.

Links of Interest: My review of The Book of Nonsense (Book 1), David Michael Slater,

Other Reviews: NONE YET

Buy The Book of Knowledge at amazon.com and support SMS Book Reviews

Clean Away the Clutter: Wrap-Up Post

Well today's the last day of the Clean Away the Clutter Read-A-Thon held by The Neverending Shelf.

I had TONS of fun and it really helped me get back into reading as I was in a bit of a lag. I got lots of reading done and the activities were fun.  I would definitely participate again if it's hosted again.

Final Stats

Total Books Finished:7
Books Started But Not Finished: 1
Total Pages: 1921

This total is hard to compare to others though because 270 of those pages was from a book with barely any words on each page, 150 pages were from children's nonfiction book and 400 pages were from a very small book.

Books:

The Book of Knowledge by David Michael Slater
Finding Anyone, Anywhere, Anywhen by Noel Montgomery Elliot
Without Sin by J. Tomas
Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti
Nibbling on Einstein's Brain by Diane Swanson
Wow: A Handbook for Living by Zen Ohashi and Zono Kurazono
Nasty, Brutish and Short by Pat Senson (the book I'm not done with yet)

24-Hour Readathon - End Survey

Well I decided to go to sleep at 6:15 this morning. I could have stayed up ( I normally do) but I just really wanted to go to sleep and I'd done a fair amount of reading.

My final stats are 10hr 4 min of reading. I read 688 pages + 30 minutes of Audio (Audio's not for me)

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Usually the daytime hours fly by and hours 21-23 are the slowest.
 
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti (MG fiction) was a great read as was Nibbling on Einstein's Brain by Diane Swanson (Children's Nonfiction)
 
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
I've thought long and hard about this. I didn't enjoy myself as much this year. I'd like for all or most all of the mini-challenges to be open for the entire period. It's neat to look for winners each hour but I'd get so much more reading done if I knew I could check in and do mini-challenges whenever I wanted. I tried to check in less this year but I basically have to check in every hour still to make sure there aren't any challenges that are only on hour long. Or even if they were all 4 hours long. I could check in every 3 hours and still have time to do the challenges before the fourth hour is up. Except the one in the middle of the night that asks if you're still up, that should be one hour only like it is.

Also I'd like to see more shorter mini-challenges. Ones where we comment on the post are much better than writing up our own post. Of course if you are posting book covers or videos you need to make your own post but otherwise, I'd rather just comment. I'm already filling my feed and blog with readathon posts. The less the better. Most of the challenges I did took me over 30 minutes to do which is 30 minutes I could have been reading. A few should be longer, most should be shorter and easier.

The Reader of the Hours should be up more than one hour too so I have a chance to visit them. I guess they wouldn't be Readers of the Hour then. 





4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I know my above answer may make you think I didn't like any of the read-a-thon and that wouldn't be true. I love the read-a-thon and  I am SO grateful for those who help run it.  As I mentioned before, the tweeting aspect is fun. I made myself not do it so much this year but it's a fun option. I love the mini-challenges in general, they are so needed to break up the reading. I LOVED the you tube videos that were shared in the later update posts. I love the prizes for the most part, even though I didn't win any (yet.). I also LOVED the cheerleaders poems and cheers. So cute!
 
5. How many books did you read?
I finished 4 books but two were already started before this readathon. Also I'm 1/4 into another one.
 
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti, Without Sin by J. Tomas, In Ecstasy by Kate McCaffrey, Nibbling on Einstein's Brain by Diane Swanson and I started Nasty, Brutish and Short by Pat Senson.
 
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
Nibbling on Einstein's Brain by Diane Swanson. It's children's fiction but REALLY interesting. It's all about telling good science from bad science and how to tell if research and reported research is as accurate as it may sound. Very important information for everyone!
 
8. Which did you enjoy least?
They were all good. Nasty, Brutish and Short by Pat Senson however should have been read earlier on. It's a bit too scientific for the wee hours of the morning. But there's nothing wrong with the book, just when I read it.
 
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A
 
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will definitely be participating in October. I've only missed one read-a-thon since it started. I think however I'd like to run a mini-challenge in October. I'll have to start thinking.

Readathon - Last Update - I'm going to bed

I could stay up but I don't want to. I'm exhausted and I want to sleep. I'll do the end of readathon survey when I wake up tomorrow.

Title of book(s) read since last update: WOW: A Handbook for Living

Pages read since last update: 74
Running total of pages read since you started: 688 + 30 minutes audio
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 25 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 604 minutes (10 hr 4 min)


How did I read 74 pages in 25 minutes? WOW has barely any words on each page!

24-Hour Readathon - The Hungry Readers Mini-Challenge

This mini challenge is hosted by The Hungry Readers.

We are to post about what we've been eating.

I was just realizing how much junk food I've eaten today. I'm going to have to eat really healthy after this and do lots of exercising to make up for it.

Today I've had: Fruit Loops Cereal, Pizza and Iced Tea, More Pizza and Rootbeer, Easter Candy and Chocolate and I'm about to have more Pizza and root beer.

I usually eat chocolate and drink pop to help keep me awake because I don't drink coffee but I was thinking that really, caffeine wakes you up a for a bit but then makes you more tired. We should really be eating healthy to get proper energy.

My camera doesn't take good photos so here's some photos through Flickr (but these are what I've been eating)

 From meddygarnet on Flickr

From pbeens on Flickr

From Bakersanon on Flickr

From jetalone on Flickr