readathon: update #3

-

The Read-a-thon is half-way over, and I'm having a great time so far!

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?

  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (on page 60)

2. How many books have you read so far?

  • The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney & Rescuing Seneca Crane by Susan Runholt

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

  • I am absolutely loving The Hunger Games, but I'm looking forward to my next book too. Perhaps I'm most looking forward to reading two more books after The Hunger Games (it's a long shot given my usual reading pace!)

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

  • Nope. Saturdays are my day off, but I won't be able to read until 8 a.m. because I work Sundays.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

  • I've given myself several interrutpions: cooking meals and watching football!

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

  • How much the comments have meant to me. It's always nice to get comments, but I'm especially touched by the number of cheerleaders visiting and supporting me today. Thanks!

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

  • Perhaps it's my my mood, but many of mini-challenges haven't appealed to me. Perhaps more variety and keeping more about books rather than sharing personal stories?

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

  • What I realized half way through the day: step away from the computer. I'm checking in at the top of the hour (or the end of the first chapter after the top of the hour), doing a mini-challenge, checking Twitter, then setting an alarm for the next hour.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

  • Nope, but I overslept this morning, so I'm not even to 12 hours yet.

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

  • Relax, and enjoy yourself!

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 24, 2009 at 9:17 PM

    Congrats on making it to the halfway point!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AartiOctober 24, 2009 at 9:39 PM

    You are doing really well- I think it must help to give yourself well-timed breaks. Good luck with the second half!

    ReplyDelete
  3. KailanaOctober 24, 2009 at 11:16 PM

    Glad you are having fun! Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  4. MelanieOctober 25, 2009 at 12:16 AM

    The Hunger Games has been on my TBR list for a while. Hope you enjoy it! =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. BelleOctober 25, 2009 at 12:21 AM

    Sounds like you're doing a great job! Happy reading and good luck with the second half!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the fir
Read more