A lot of these books are suggestions for Mum and Rebekka. I've made a vidcast about the books I'll be reading here.
As always, I'll keep my updates in just one post, so you can skip at will. Leave me a comment if you're reading along too, and a link if you have a progress post. I'd love to come cheer you on :)
Hour 0: Mum and Bekka arrived half an hour ago and we've been busy getting snacks ready and talking about all the books we want to read :) As always, we have faar to many books and far too many snacks - it's all good :)
Opening Meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Copenhagen, Denmark.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Maria: Probably "An Age of License" by Lucy Knisley I think, as I've wanted to read this for quite awhile.
Rebekka: None of those in my stack, but I have found a BUNCH of Maria's books that I need to borrow.
Mum: "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Mum: Rebekka's homemade raspberry cookies!
Maria: YES!
Rebekka: Yes, me too :)
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
This is the second time the three of us will be reading together - it's an awesome way to take a solitary event and make it social.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?
Maria: Nothing - this is my 9th read-a-thon, I've pretty much got it sorted.
Rebekka: Shorter books! I'm a slow reader and want to finish more books.
Mum: Nothing.
Hour 2: Rebekka finished a book after 40 minutes! Granted, it was "The Strange Library" by Murakami which is only 77 pages long, but still :)
I'm reading "A Dip in the Ocean" and am 132 pages into. It is really, really, REALLY good so far, so I'm pleased I chose that as my first book.
Mum is reading an old favourite childrens book, and looks to be about halfway
Hour 4: Not much new has happened, which is why I didn't update at hour 3. I'm still reading "A Dip in the Ocean" and really enjoy it! Have another 50 pages to go now, so should finish soon.
Rebekka's reading "Singularity" by William Sleator and Mum's reading "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray - both my recommendations, so I hope they like them. But Mum's giggled a couple of times already, so I take that as a good sign.
Hour 5: I finished my book right as the clock struck 6pm! It was really, really good so I'm glad to chose that as my first book. However, it also took almost 4 hours to read, so I'm ready for something fast now. Possibly the graphic novel of "Coraline" that I loaded onto my iPad yesterday :)
We've also sent DH off to pick up my youngest sister, so further company will be arriving shortly :)
Hour 7: Mixi arrived about 6:30pm with my 4-month-old niece, so obviously that proved a bit of a happy distraction ;) We've also had a break for dinner, but I've still managed to finish "Coraline" since my last update. It doesn't take long when it's a graphic novel :) I've now started "The Strange Library" as Rebekka's main comment was "That's really, really weird!" -- and I got curious! Besides, it's only 77 pages - will be a quick read.
Hour 8: Really, really weird indeed! And not in a good way - mostly just as if it was weird for the sake of being weird. I didn't care much for it at all. At least it was short.
So now I've started an old teenhood favourite, "The Shadow of a Cloud". It's been 15-20 years since I read it last, so I remember next to nothing of it but I loved it back then, so I'm hoping it'll stand the test of time.
Hour 10: Everybody's left within the last hour, so I'm all alone with my books now. I've always enjoyed participating in the read-a-thons, but I absolutely LOVE it now that Mum and Bekka are part of it too (and Mixi for the last few hours :) ). I'm glad they want to and love sharing it with them. I do tend to be less active with the mini-challenges when they're here though... perhaps because I no longer feel the same need for online interaction during the read-a-thon, because I have the interaction IRL instead?
Anyway, I've just finished book #4. It wasn't quite as good as I seemed to remember, but good enough. It had an interesting development that I'd mostly forgotten, but which slowly came back to me as I got further through the book.
Now to decide what to read next. I'm not sure how much longer I'll last, so it should probably either be a reread or a read by an author I know can keep me captivated... or I may just decide to head off to bed soon, as I know Lars will wake me early tomorrow morning, so I can continue reading then instead.
Hour 11: Picked up "The Book of You" which I bought in London. It's about a woman being stalked and is utterly horrifying and unputdownable. Bed will have to wait awhile yet. Not entirely sure it's a good thing to be reading this while home alone...
The minichallenge this hour is a fun one, so I have to do it :) It's from The Girl Who Loved To Read where "the girl" asks which 3 books, published since 1990, will be considered classics in 2100 and why.
My three choices:
The Book Thief by Mark Zusak. Full disclosure - I didn't care much for this book myself, but I am so very obviously in the minority here. Everybody else seems to adore it, and find it very well written. Besides, it focuses on a different aspect of World War 2 than most books (and approaches it from a different angle) which will keep it relevant.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This book - or series in fact - already reminds me a lot in style of the old classics like "The Count of Monte Cristo". I think it will stand the test of time well, and continue to fascinate readers.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer. Again it reminds me of a book that is a classic already - "84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff - which just strengthens my view that this will become a classic too. An epistolary novel about World War 2? It's a shoe-in.
Hour 12: Uhm... not entirely sure "The Book of You" was a good choice for this time of night. It's keeping me awake to be sure - but the problem is that it's so scary that it's keeping me TOO awake! However, I'm still only 1/3 of the way through, and as I stand a very good chance of being woken up at 7am I'd better start seeing about getting some shut-eye.
So the Mid-Event Survey... and then to bed!
Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? "The Book of You" by Claire Kendal. A total nail-biter.
2. How many books have you read so far? 4 where one was a graphic novel
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? One of Lucy Knisley's graphic memoirs.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? We had an unexpected visit from my youngest sister and her 4-month-old daughter. A very welcome distraction :)
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How much MORE fun it is when I have people over to read with me :)
Hour 20: Fortunately sleep wasn't a problem :) And fortunately, I'd misremembered when Lars was coming home, so he didn't wake me up until 7:40! Woohoo :) Of course I got right back into reading, and am now half-way with "The Book of You". BTW, Claire Kendal responded to my tweet about her book last night!!! Woooo :D She was happy I liked her book, and sorry to scare me ;) Worth it!
Hour 21: A book is less scary when read at 10am instead of at 1pm, that's for sure! Still, "The Book of You" is a hard read, especially as I don't even think it's all that exaggerated an account of a stalker. I still have another 150 pages to go, so a lot can happen yet.
The mini-challenge this hour is to tell of that moment when you fall in love with a book.
It's happened twice to me this year that I read a book that just blew me away, and that I wanted everybody to know about.
The first time was "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I'd expected pretty run-of-the-mill sci-fi, and instead discovered a book I just couldn't put down and that left me speechless. I'd read it as an e-book and immediately went out to buy a physical copy, as I knew I wanted this standing on my shelves. Sure, it has its weaknesses, but as a whole, it is an amazing book.
The second time it happened was just earlier this month, when I fell over a random Netgalley. The cover intrigued me, so I sent in a request and was happy to have it approved. This was "Every Last Word" by Tamara Ireland Stone. I started it the following day, and pretty much didn't come up for air until I'd finished it. One of the best YA books I've read - very true and poignant, and the end had tears - good tears - running down my cheeks. It hasn't been published yet, but I can't wait for everybody to read it once it is. I'll absolutely be purchasing a physical copy of this as well!
Hour 23: Just two hours left to go now! And I just finished "The Book of You" a couple of minutes ago. I don't know... I loved it up until the last 30 pages, and now I don't know any longer. What I DO know is that I definitely have to find a happier book for my next read! Probably my last one, unless I find a really short one.
Hour 25: And done! My final book was "An Age of License" by Lucy Knisley which I finished with time to spare, putting my total at 6 books and 1327 pages! Slightly less impressive when you know that two of those were graphic works ;) I had an awesome time as always - made even better by having company yesterday! I'm going to be totally book-hungover for the rest of the day though!
Progress:
Currently Reading: None
Pages read: 1327
Books read: "A Dip in the Ocean" - Sarah Outen (310), "Coraline" - Neil Gaiman (186), "The Strange Library" - Haruki Murakami (77), "Skyggen af en Sky" - Taru Väyrynen (207), "The Book of You" - Claire Kendal, "An Age of License" by Lucy Knisley (186)
