For now, I'm going to get myself sorted, so that I'll be all ready to hunker down and start reading when the clock turns 2pm (the starting time for central Europe)
13:59 - Hour 1 The crockpot has been turned on (
1)Where are you reading from today? Copenhagen, Denmark
2)Three random facts about me… a) I had to go on an unexpected bikeride today, because I'd accidentally bought an empty CD-case. Thankfully the shop believed me, and gave me a new one without problems. b) An anagram of my maiden name comes out to "Damnation, I'm a girl nerd!" It's true too! c) I learned how to read before I started school.
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? 9 I expect to read about half of them.
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)? No, I just want this to be FUN! :-)
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time? Stick to short, light books. You're less inclined to run dry that way.
15:02 - Hour 2 Progress in Lady Knight - 155 pages. That means I'm not even halfway, so I'm off to read on!
16:02 - Hour 3 I'd forgotten how easy it is to procrastinate by following other readers' statuses. Only managed to get another 70 pages read this last hour. The book's as good as always though - Tamora Pierce is a good choice for a readathon :)
17:06 - Hour 4 90 pages read this hour. I have another 90 to go of Lady Knight, so with a bit of luck, I'll finish before I update next. I've participated in my first mini-challenge too, which was a LOT easier said than done, as the challenge was to pick three books - non-fiction or fiction - that give a good description of the atmosphere of the state in which they were set. Not really being too familiar with US states, I had to go with the stereotypes. Hopefully that counts too! :-)
18:15 - Hour 5 I did it! Last 90 pages read, first book finished :-) I've also participated in another mini-challange - Sharing the Love, about the best ways for me to share my love of books with other people. For me, that all boils down to recommending and loaning out books. I view my library as just that - a library. I happily loan out books to friends and family (and fortunately have been very lucky with getting books back - I think I've only had to replace a book once). One of the best things I know is to loan somebody a book that I recommended them (i.e., not a book they asked to loan, but one I suggested that they loan), and have them come back to me and say, "Maria, that is the best book I have EVER read!" Apparently I'm not too bad at picking books for other people? At least I seem to have a good hit-rate with my closest friends. Carina fell in love with "Ender's Game", Nina couldn't put down "Twilight", Stine still raves about "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and eeeeverybody loves "The Yada Yada Prayer group". It gives me a thrill every time I manage to 'match' a book to a reader properly :-)
19:55 - Hour 7 I decided to go with "The Beasts of Clawstone Castle" by Eva Ibbotson. I've been wanting to read this for ages, but it only recently became available in Danish libraries. I've had to break for dinner though, so have only read 43 pages since my last update. That should pick up in the near future though ;-)
21:11 - Hour 8 I'm starting to feel that I've been reading for pretty much 7 hours straight - I'm just a tad tired. Still, it's only just past 9pm, so I've got plenty of hours of reading ahead of me before I'll have to succumb and go to bed (I have church tomorrow, so I can't read the whole night through... as if I would have been able to no matter what! ;-) ). I'm almost done with "The Beasts..." - only another 20 pages to go! It's good, but much more of a children's novel than I had originally thought. Not that that's a bad thing! Oh, and I've participated in my third mini-challenge - the a.k.a. challenge at http://ratb2.blogspot.com/
22:01 - Hour 9 I finished "The Beasts..." and have started "Dragonsinger" by Anne McCaffrey. It's one of my favourite books, and I have read it time beyond number, but I've had the craving to reread it for a couple of months now, so I figured why not? It's excellent read-a-thon material, that's for sure!
I've also entered my 4th mini-challenge: The Book Sentence challenge where you have to make out a sentence from the titles of at least 3 books.
And another thing, Lady Knight. Where do I go?
23:11 - Hour 10 I think I may have to cry uncle soon. For some reason I'm TIRED - even more so than I usually am at this time of day - so reading is a bit of a struggle. Dragonsinger is keeping me well entertained though. I do love that book!
The mini-challenge this hour is at Reading Romances - come up with your own anthology, listing authors and a theme.
I'd like to see an anthology with Neta Jackson, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, Ted Dekker and Frank E. Peretti with the theme "Walk With God, Talk With God".
All the above are among my favourite Christian authors, and especially Neta Jackson has written some of the most inspirational books I've ever had the chance to read. Since their standard writing is so varied, I think an anthology would be absolutely fascinating to read.
00:04 - Hour 11 Alas, I have to get up early to go to church tomorrow, so as much as I would love to stay up - at least to finish "Dragonsinger" - I'm going to have to call it quits now. Fortunately I'll still have some hours for reading after church tomorrow even if the time difference means that most other readers will be asleep, so they might be somewhat lonely hours. At least the cheerleaders and cohosts over at 24hourreadathon.com will still be around :-) So 'see' you tomorrow.
12:01 - Hour 23 Not much longer to go now. I've had a good night's sleep, done a bit of reading, gone off to church (I sing in the choir, so couldn't skip out today) and done a bit more of reading since I came home. I've finished "Dragonsinger" and have now started "The Grounding of Group 6". It's still just getting started, so I don't know quite what I think of it yet.
13:06 - Hour 24 As per usual - the end of event meme:
Which hour was most daunting for you? 11-12. I'd hoped to be able to stay awake past midnight, but I just couldn't do it.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Anne McCaffrey and Tamora Pierce are both excellent Readathon Authors.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not really. Last year I suggested that fewer prizes were from The Book Deposit as they don't ship world-wide, and this year there were more Amazon prizes! Not that I won anything, but that's beside the point ;-)
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Preparing dinner ahead of time - having it simmer in the crockpot all day long, knowing I wouldn't have to take time out to fix it was excellent!
How many books did you read? I'm in the middle of book 4.
What were the names of the books you read? "Lady Knight", "The Beasts of Clawstone Castle", "Dragonsinger" and now "The Grounding of Group 6".
Which book did you enjoy most? "Dragonsinger". A reread, but one of my all-time favourite books.
Which did you enjoy least? "The Beasts..." Not that it wasn't good, it just wasn't AS good as the others.
If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? VERY likely! And as a reader again next time. Possibly I may also host a mini-challenge - haven't decided yet.
14:02 - FINISHED! "The Grounding of Group 6" turned out to be a slower read than I had expected, so I'm only about half way through, making the final stats as follows:
Time Spent Reading: 10 hours, 20 minutes
Currently Reading: The Grounding of Group 6 by Julian F. Thompson
Books Finished: Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce, The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson, Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
Pages Read 987 pages (soooo close to 1000 pages. A shame I didn't make it).
