Isabella arrived last night, so she could spend the night with me and help prepare for the readathon. We've had a lovely time knitting, talking and picking out books, and this morning we went for a loooong walk in the rain (my legs are feeling that now!), so we can play couch potatoes with a clear conscience for the rest of the day.
All that's left now is to get some lunch and get the crockpot started. Mum and Mixi will arrive around 1pm, so we have an hour to get the last things ready before it all kicks off at 2pm DK time :-)
Hour 1 (14:00): We're all here, and the table is groaning just as much as usual. I should really take a photo, but we've been too busy talking - I'll get right on that ;)
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?
Mixi: That would require me knowing which books I'm going to read! I never make up my mind ahead of time.
Isabella: The one I'm going to start with - "Urchin and the Heartstone".
Mum: "Across the Universe" by Beth Revis - Maria received it for her birthday and I've been wanting to read it ever since.
Maria: I'm like Mixi - no clue yet which books I'm going to read. I'm going to start with "Britt-Marie was here" though.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?:
Isabella: The chocolate with liquorice that Maria has.
Mixi: The marzipan Mum brought.
Mum: The cookies Isabella and I made
Maria: Yeah, same here - although the nuts are good too.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! The last several years we've been doing readathon together as a family - three generations. This is Isabella's second, Mixi's third (and a half), Mum's fifth and Maria's.... I can't even count any longer. 14th, I think? I (Maria) had a blast doing it by myself, but it's even more fun with family... even if it is a bit less reading and more talking. It's heaps cozier this way :-)
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?
Isabella: Read more than I did last time.
Mum: Try to eat less snacks, perhaps?
Mixi: Try not to fall asleep.
Maria: Nothing, I think - I've pretty much got it sorted by now.
6) Which book are you going to start with?
Isabella: The same book I mentioned before.
Mixi: "Everything Everything" which Maria recommended.
Mum: "Poison Study" - I need to reread the series to get to "Shadow Study".
Maria: "Britt Marie was Here" - a good friend of mine loaned it to me just earlier this week :)
Hour 2 (15:00): As always the first hour flew. I've read the first 98 pages of "Britt-Marie Was Here", and have laughed out loud on several occasions. So far it's a LOT better than "A Man Called Ove" - I'm really enjoying it. A bit of a slow read, so I probably won't finish this side of dinner, but that's fine... it's not like it's a race anyway :)
Hour 3 (16:00): Still hugely enjoying "Britt-Marie Was Here". It's funny and sweet and all the things everybody told me that "A Man Called Ove" was, but I just didn't see. I'm loving every minute of it :-)
Mixi has switched to an audiobook in order not to fall asleep, but Mum and Isabella are still going strong on their books.
Hour 4 (17:00): 266 pages down, another 110 to go. I love starting the readathon with a really brilliant book! As expected, I probably won't finish before dinner, but I don't care - it's awesome!
Hour 5 (18:00): 30 pages left to go. It suddenly took a change for the... neither better nor worse, just more serious. I think I might HAVE to finish it before dinner. I highly recommend "Britt-Marie Was Here" - it's blowing my mind.
Hour 7 (20:00): Finished two books since my last update. I loved, loved, LOVED "Britt-Marie Was Here". It was everything I'd hoped "A Man Called Ove" would be, but wasn't - this one delivered. SO good. Funny and poignant - a 5 star read.
The second book was different - at just 58 pages "Wool" was very quickly read, but I really don't know what I thought of it. Not at all what I had expected, and a very weird reading experience indeed. I can't figure out where Hugh Howey will go from here, and am still making up my mind if I want to continue with the next one in the series or move on to something else entirely.
Hour 8 (21:00): Finally decided to pick up "Magic Steps" by Tamora Pierce. A reread, but between saying goodbye to Mixi, being distracted by social media and two false starts (turns out I have very little patience for straight-forward chick-lit any longer), I got very little reading done this past hour, and needed something to kickstart my reading again. Ah well, 31 pages is still better than nothing! :)
This hour's Mini-challenge is a fun one:
This challenge seems simple: if money and time were no object (you’ve won the biggest lottery jackpot ever, and your boss is totally fine with you taking all of the time off work you need), where would you go to experience your favorite book(s) or series? Fictional places count too, of course.
Isabella: I would want to visit Mistmantle - the universe of "Urchin".
Mum: I want to go to Narnia - and stay long enough to explore the country - meeting walking trees and talking animals.
Maria: For once, I didn't even have to think about it. I want to go to Narnia. It's always been the "country" that fascinated me the most. I want to meet the fauns and the dryads, see the wonders of Cair Paravel and even - if I'm lucky enough - talk to Aslan, and ask to touch his mane.
Hour 9 (22:00): Mum just finished her first book ("Poison Study" by Maria V. Snyder) and she and Isabella left shortly after, as it's getting quite far past Isa's bedtime ;) So now I'm back to reading on my own again. As always, it has been a delight to have company :). I'm enjoying "Magic Steps"... Tamora Pierce has always been a good author for a readathon. Don't know if I'll continue through the entire quartet, but I still have 150'ish pages to go of this one, so there's still plenty of time (okay, an hour or two) before I have to decide.
Hour 10 (23:00): I woke up at 6:45 this morning, and am starting to feel that now. I probably won't last much longer, but at least want to finish the book I'm currently reading. That's another 70 pages, so a little under an hour at my current speed. We'll see.
Hour 11 (00:15): I got kinda distracted over the last hour as I discovered I'd won a door prize! How awesome! :-) Any book up to $15 from bookdepository.com - don't mind if I do ;-) But I've finished "Magic Steps" now, and actually got my second wind as well, so I may stay up a bit longer after all. Just need to figure out what to read next... I'm thinking it might be time to pick up "French Milk" by Lucy Knisley. The witching hour seems a suitable time for a graphic memoir.
Hour 21 (10:00): I slept in much later than I had expected to this morning - must be getting old! But since my last update I finished "French Milk" and started "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry". I've had the latter recommended to me several times, but just never got around to reading it before now. I'm only 57 pages into it, but so far it seems like a pleasant read. At 357 pages, it might be the last one for this readathon though... we'll see - all depends on how quick a read it turns out to be... and how sidetracked I get by shiny things on the internet, now that my partners in crime are no longer here ;)
Hour 22 (11:00): Can't quite make up my mind what I think of "The Unlike Pilgrimage..." It's slow-moving and charming and very British. I'm on page 127 now, so managed 70 pages within the past hour (not counting the time I messed around online ;) ), meaning I shouldn't have any problems finishing before the end of the readathon. Three more hours to go!
Hour 23 (12:00): Another 80 pages since my last update, so I'm moving at a good pace. The book is very different from what I had expected though. I'd heard it compared to "The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared", but I don't see that at all. That's not to say I don't like it - it's just not what I had thought.
Hour 24 (13:00): The last hour! As always, the readathon has sped past in no time at all! I have another 70 pages to go, so should finish my final book with time to spare :) I've spent most of the last hour snuggled up in bed next to Lars, which is always a cozy place to read :)
Hour 25 (14:00): THE END! Finished my last book with 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately I must conclude that I really didn't care for it. It was well-written, but kinda depressing. Oh well...
But as always, I've had an awesome time with the readathon. I love sharing it with my family, and I love the way it takes a solitary event and makes it social.
'Till next time :)
End of Event Survey
Which hour was most daunting for you? 11/12 - I'm not a night-owl and usually have to give up around that time. Even more so this year, as I woke up annoyingly early Saturday morning, and was already pretty tired.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Anything by Tamora Pierce, the graphic memoirs by Lucy Knisley.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Easiest to answer these two together. I liked that all the participants were listed on the website, with where to find them - however, I would have liked for them to be listed alphabetically, and possibly in a way that didn't require quite so much scrolling (looks like the lists were imbedded in iFrames that were slightly too small for the page). Both minor details though.
How many books did you read? 5
What were the names of the books you read? See below.
Which book did you enjoy most? "Britt-Marie Was here" - SO good!
Which did you enjoy least? "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" - can't really explain why, but I didn't care for it much.
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? About 110% likely! I plan to enter the date into my diary as soon as it's made public. I love participating in the readathon and would need a VERY good reason to miss it. I'll participate as a reader, and perhaps volunteer for writing a warm-up post, if they'll have me :)
Books read: "Britt-Marie Was Here" - Fredrik Backman (377), "Wool" - Hugh Howey (58), "Magic Steps" - Tamora Pierce (263), "French Milk" - Lucy Knisley (194), "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" - Rachel Joyce
Pages read: 1249
Currently reading: -
