October 2014 Read-A-Thon is here :)

Dewey's October 2014 Read-a-Thon is almost here! Sign-ups opened yesterday, so here I am :)

The read-a-thon is Saturday, October 18th this year. When I first heard the date I originally figured that I wouldn't be able to join in, as it's Mum's birthday on the 19th, so chances were she'd plan something for the 18th. However, she had also mentioned wanting to join me for a read-a-thon, so I figured I'd ask her and see what happened.

Turned out, the more she thought about it, the more the thought of being part of a read-a-thon really appealed to her, so not only did she decided not to have any kind of celebration that day, she also decided to accept my invitation and come join me for the read-a-thon! My sister is coming along too, so we'll all disappear into my library for the read-a-thon, and only come back out for snacks and dinner! :)

It's going to be totally awesome! I can't wait :)

This will be either my fourth or fifth seventh!!! read-a-thon... I'm loosing track. It's been a terrific experience each and every time. When we come a bit closer I'll write my usual "Dos and Don'ts" for the read-a-thon, but right now I just wanted to sign up and wave my flag.

Bring on October 18th! :-)

Read-a-Thon Mini-Challenge: Real Rebus

Good morning fellow readers, how are you holding up? Since I'm in Denmark, it's currently just coming up to 10am, and I must admit - I did not make it the whole night through. I had to get a bit of sleep. But now I'm back and going strong again. I've made it to 4 books and 1054 pages! How about you?

This mini-challenge is the Real Rebus challenge!

Find objects around your house that put together make out the title of a book. It may be one of the books you've read for your challenge, but it doesn't have to be.

For instance:

Light by Michael Grantor

The Twelve by Justin Cronin
Post the photos on your blog and leave a link in Mr. Linky below.

For a second chance at the prize, guess these real rebuses I've prepared for you! :)




Leave your answers in a comment below. I'll turn on comment moderation so as not to spoil others ;)

Prizes
For the first part of the mini-challenge a winner will be chosen randomly about the links in Mr. Linky.

For the second part of the mini-challenge, the winner will be the person who gets most of my real rebuses right! (1pt for title, 1pt for author, so a maximum of 18 points).

Both winners will receive an ebook copy of either A Modern Witch by Debora Geary or The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.
If the same person wins both parts of the challenge they get both! :)

Have fun :)

The challenge is closed!
Iben won the random choice.
Nadia won the rebus challenge - she got 5 out of the 9 books correct.

Congratulations both of you!

Best Choice Awards

Best Book of Your Reading Year A Modern Witch by Debora Geary. It's so rare that I read the same book twice in one year, but here I just had to!

Best YA Book of Your Reading Year Feed by Mira Grant. Never knew that the zombie apocalypse could be so interesting!

Best New Adult Book of Your Reading Year ... Not sure what the difference between this and YA is, so I'll just skip this :)

Best Mystery Book of Your Reading Year Guilt by Association by Gilbert Morris. Not sure if it's really mystery, but I love it, so I'm going to let it count!

Best Non-Fiction Book of Your Reading Year Changing Gears by Nancy Sathre-Vogel

Best Sci-Fi Book of Your Reading Year Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Best Fantasy Book of Your Reading Year A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (only because I've already used A Modern Witch

Best Children’s Book of Your Reading Year Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Best Main Character of Your Reading Year Lizard of Debora Geary's "Witchlight Trilogy"

Best Author of Your Reading Year Debora Geary (sensing a trend here? ;) )

Best Supporting Character of Your Reading Year Arwyn... sorry, too tired to look up the correct spelling. Still from A Modern Witch

Best Cover of Your Reading Year Once a Witch... unfortunately the cover was a lot better than the book.

Read-a-thon Progress Report

It is now just coming on 1:30pm here in Denmark, and the read-a-thon starts in just 30 minutes! Yes, I'm ever so slightly kinda excited :) I've spent the morning preparing... picking out books and snacks, turning on the crock-pot (even if I DID forget to take the meat out of the freezer until this morning. Hope it'll still be aright) and even doing 20 minutes on the treadmill to get my blood flowing before I go sit still for 24 hours!

As per usual I will make one long progress report, rather than spam you with hourly updates, so come back to this post and see how I manage to read my way through the next 24 hours.

... or ignore this post completely if you don't care. See, I'm making it easy for you to skip my updates as well. I'm nothing if not considerate ;)
I've picked out a bunch of books in advance. I know there's no WAY I'm going to read them all, but actually that's not the idea anyway. I just want a lot of books easily available so I can go wherever the mood takes me. The books are split into 3 piles: rereads, new reads and ebooks. That should cater nicely to my every whim ;)

Hour 1 (14:00) 2pm will find me sitting in my couch in my library (where better to be for a read-a-thon) picking up Lise Bidstrup's Preppers - a dystopian teen novel that I was sent to review so I figured I'd better read it while my brain was still fresh ;) Usually I like to start a read-a-thon off with a reread, so I know I'm off to a good start, but I've read other books by this author and usually like her work, and besides, I LOVE dystopian YA, so this should be fine :) I've just had lunch, so no snacks on the table yet.


Introduction 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? Probably "Preppers" actually, but I don't have a set list, so it's pretty open.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Haven't planned any specific snacks. I have some chips, some M&Ms and some of my favourite white wine, so it's all good :)
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! Let's see... I'm 34 years old, from Denmark, and IT geek by trade and have always been a huge bookworm. This is my 6th or 7th time doing the read-a-thon and I've been looking forward to it for ages :)
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? The only thing I'm doing different from last year is that I've made sure that I don't have Sunday School tomorrow morning, so I can take the day off church. That'll be the first time EVER I haven't had Sunday School on the Sunday of the read-a-thon, so it will be nice not to feel like I have to be sensible and go to bed early :)

Hour 2 (15:00) Finally my video has finished uploading to youtube! I recorded it before the readathon started, but it took over an hour to upload! It's something new I've decided to try (not just for the readathon but in general), so go to Reading Bliss if you want to check it out :)

I was quite right in assuming Prepper would be a good book to start off with. I've finished it already! Yay! Plot-wise it was okay. Not the best dystopian YA ever, but I liked it well enough. I would have preferred if it had been just a couple of pages longer though - I felt the ending was quite abrupt.

I haven't quite decided what to read next, so I think I may take an essay or two while I make up my mind :)

Mini-Challenge - Book Tunes
Find a song that goes with the book you're currently reading.

Since I've just finished "Prepper" by Lise Bidstrup which is a dystopian novel about a solar flare that will end life as we know it on earth, I guess a suitable soundtrack for that would be "We Will All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer: http://youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs :)

Hour 3 (16:00) Decided to go with Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith which I have had very highly recommended by a friend of mine. It's an ebook though, and somehow doesn't seem to be as quick a read as I had expected it to be. I'm only at 25%.

Hour 4 (17:00) Still reading Crown Duel. It's surprisingly slow reading. It's okay, but not an instant favourite like I'd hoped. And at this speed it'll take me a couple of hours yet to read it. Weird, I'm usually a faster reader than this... at least with physical books. Ebooks do tend to be slower reading for some weird reason. Dinner's still a couple of hours away, but the crockpot is making the entire house smell delicious :)

Book Spine Poetry
The mini-challenge of this hour is an old favourite - book spine poetry! For some reason mine turned out really dark, but this is what jumped out at me when I picked out my books.
Blue Smoke
Light Gone
Angles Close My Eyes

Hour 5 (18:00) Paused briefly to put the potatoes for dinner in the oven. Fortunately Lars is fine with me reading while we eat dinner ;) Still reading Crown Duel. It's only 224 pages - how is it taking me so long to read???


Hour 6 (19:00) Finally finished Crown Duel. Still just okay unfortunately. Doubt I'll read the sequel. I knew that I needed to get my reading mojo back with a fast-paced book that I KNEW I'd love, so I've picked up Guilt by Association by Gilbert Morris. An old favourite that I for some reason haven't read in ages, but I've been meaning to reread it for quite awhile. Now's as good a time as any :) 20 minutes later, and I'm already 45 pages into it. That's more like it!

Hour 7 (20:00) Picked up my Kindle while eating dinner, as it's a lot easier to hold using just one hand. I've been wanting to read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight for ages anyway. Have only read about 16% - then I finished dinner and switched back to Morris' book - but I really like what I've read so far :)


Hour 8 (21:00) Guilt By Association is the PERFECT book for a read-a-thon. I can't put it down and disappear into it completely. Just like a read-a-thon read should be :) Highly recommendable :) It feels like a much quicker read than Crown Duel even though it's longer page-wise.


Books on Books
This mini-challenge is all about books with books! So here is a photo of some of my books that feature books on their cover :)
... I had more than I thought - this isn't even all of them :)


Hour 9 (22:00) Only another 60 pages to go - I should finish before the next hourly update. It's still just as good as I remembered it. Time-wise I'm still going strong. Not even remotely tired yet :)

THANK YOU to everybody for the comments! I'd forgotten that they don't get emailed to me when I turn on moderation, so now I know to remember to check on a regular basis. Loved hearing from you all - a special call-out to Team Fox :)


Hour 10 (23:00) Finished Guilt by Association as expected, and decided to read one of Anne Fadiman's literary essays before I moved on to Laced With Magic by Barbara Bretton. I'm only on page 13 of that though, so obviously too soon to say anything about it. I'm slowly starting to feel that I've been sitting still for many hours, but I'm holding out yet. May switch between books rather than reading each one to the end though - if I get tired enough, and old favourite might be preferable.

Book Trailer Mini-Challenge
Jehara's mini-challenge is to share our favourite book trailer. I know this isn't an official book trailer, but it really ought to be! It's definitely the best book trailer I've seen and portrayed my feelings about the final Harry Potter movie to a T.

Hour 11 (00:00) This is what I mean by reading where my mood takes me during the read-a-thon. After 13 pages I realized I really wasn't in the mood for Laced With Magic. It's probably brilliant - 13 pages is really too early to say either way - but I just wasn't in the mood. So instead I went with one of my newest comfort books, Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Aaaahhh yes. MUCH better. I could feel myself relaxing into it. Perfect :) 60 pages into it and loving it :)

Self-Portrait Mini-Challenge
Really? A self-portrait challenge at hour 11? Okay.... don't say I didn't warn you...


Hour 12 (1:00) It's at this hour every year that I realize that I am just NOT a night owl. No matter how good the book (and it really is excellent!) I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. Lars reminded me that I can either go to bed early and get up early to read on or stay reading until late and wake up late as well. He doesn't seem to realize that my main goal is to go to bed late and wake up early anyway... not that I'm altogether convinced that'll actually work... ;)

However, it's a matter of personal pride to me always to make it to the midway meme, and this year is no different.

Mid-Event Survey
1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? Very sleepy! It's waaaaay past my bedtime.
2) What have you finished reading? I've finished three books so far - Prepper, Crown Duel and Guilt by Association.
3) What is your favorite read so far? Definitely GbA! It's been one of my favourite books since I first read it as a teen.
4) What about your favorite snacks? Actually probably the glass of plain water that I'm drinking right now. It's helping me stay awake!
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love! I've found two really cool blogs - Paperback Castles and Twenty Years From Now. Both are in Danish though.

... I'm missing 80 pages of my current book... should I set myself the goal of actually finishing it before I head off to bed? Not sure, but I can at least try!

Hour 13 (2:00) Still here! And now I'm only missing 30 pages of my book, so I definitely WILL stay up until I've finished it. I would have finished within this past hour, but I somehow got side-tracked exchanging "stay awaaaaake" tweets with a friend... we Danes have to stick together! Also, I have the idea that getting side-tracked is easier when you're tired... But 30 pages left, and I love this book... even if the essay "One Little Sock" breaks my heart every time.

The mini-challenge of this hour deserves a blogpost all of its own - it's the "Best Of" awards!!! ... even though completing that will probably mean I may not read the last 30 pages after all...


Hour 20 (9:00) Hi again! I did stay up to finish the last 30 pages, but then I crashed. Not as hard as I had expected though, and now I'm back! Oooh, I'm going to pay for that tomorrow! Nothing read other than those 30 pages, but I figured I'd complete a couple of mini-challenges before I jump into the frey again.

Book Jenga
I could have made this higher, but my husband is still sleeping, and I didn't want to wake him up!

Show it Off
Take a picture of a book from your library that you're particularly proud of. Well, I have many books I'm proud of - signed copies, rare copies, books I've been part of writing, but the type of book that I'm most proud of is the one where I know the author personally. Fortunately I have quite a number of those (even if the majority is as ebooks) but here are a few that I've managed to get hold of a physical copy of...

Six Word Challenge
Remember those six word memoirs? This is a six word celebration of the readathon! Easy. My contribution is
Readathon: Making a Solitary Act Social
... Because that still is what draws me most strongly to the read-a-thon :)

Next hour it's time for MY mini-challenge! :D

Hour 21 (10:00) Back at reading. I started easy with T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats which at 64 pages was a very quick finish. I've always loved those poems, and the musical Cats is still one of my favourites. I've seen it twice and would LOVE to see it again!
Anyway, I've now turned to Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan and am 60 pages into that one. So far I really like it, even if it does remind me an awful lot of Across the Universe. That's not a bad thing though - it's a brilliant series.

And this hour is my mini-challenge! The Real Rebus! Go check it out! :)


Hour 22 (11:00) I won?!?!?! I won, I won, I won!!! I've never won anything in a read-a-thon, but it's just been announced that I was chosen as the Door Prize winner for this hour. Squeeee!!!!!

Only 3 hours left!!! We can do it! :) I'm about halfway through Glow, so should be able to finish it before the end of the readathon... that is, if I don't get too sidetracked with all that's going on on twitter! :)

Turn the Page
For this challenge, you must turn to page 32 of the book you are currently reading (or the nearest page with text on it) and find the most entertaining phrase to complete the following sentence:

"I would rather read than ________ any day!"

Mine ended up being "I would rather read than cut the wires any day!" It was an action-filled page, so not much that would fit.


Hour 23 (12:00) I still have just over 100 pages to go. Should be able to finish before the end of the readathon, but it all depends on when we have to leave to go to my parents' place. I'll keep trying though! So no time for the challenge this hour. Gotta keep on reading!


Hour 24 (13:00) Leaving in 15 minutes. I have another 30 pages to go, so I'll bring the book along to read on the bus. Should be able to finish in time :) I'll be back tonight with my final wrap-up :)


End of Event survey
Which hour was most daunting for you? 13, definitely. I'm not a night owl!
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? "Guilt by Association" by Gilbert Morris. "Glow" by Amy Kathleen Ryan.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope - I think you're doing great! :)
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The cheerleaders - great for when you're about to give up and go to sleep.
How many books did you read? Will hopefully have time to finish my 6th.
What were the names of the books you read? See below.
Which book did you enjoy most? Guilt By Association
Which did you enjoy least? Crown Duel
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely! Again as a reader, and probably doing a mini-challenge.

Wrap-up Finished Glow with 30 minutes to spare - all good :) It's been a brilliant read-a-thon and I broke my own records, but I am TIRED now! Will definitely be back next time though :)


Books Finished: 6 (Prepper (186p), Crown Duel (224p), Guilt by Association (296p), Yarn Harlot (219), Old Possum's Book... (64), Glow (385))
Pages Read: 1443 (+ 52 in books put aside)
Total Time Spent Reading: 12h
Currently Reading: All done :)

... I've turned on comment moderation in preparation for my mini-challenge in hour 21 (yeah, I know that's ages away, but I know myself well enough to know that I'll forget otherwise!). Capthas should still be turned off though - if not, please let me know and I'll do so immediately. I know how annoying they get at read-a-thons.

Read-a-Thon - Dos and Don'ts

This is the... what... 6th? 7th? something like that... time I'll be participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, and truth be told, I'm ridiculously excited about it. It's always been a fun experience, and I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately (due to not being able to read and knit at the same time...) so actually carving time into my schedule for reading is much necessary and appreciated.

If you're considering signing up for the first time (doooo eeeet!!!) I have a few recommendations, or Dos and Don'ts if you will, based on my experiences from previous years.

Be Prepared - But Not Too Prepared For a read-a-thon you'll want to read where the mood takes you - nothing breaks the reading mojo like a list of books you HAVE to get through - so I'd discourage setting a fixed goal for your reading. On the other hand, you don't want to be running around the house looking for the next book, when that time could be spent reading instead, so use a bit of time in advance to pick out possible reads, and load your e-Reader in advance... nothing worse than figuring out which book you want to read, and then having to down-/upload it first!

I have about 5-10 physical books I've picked out, and have just uploaded about 20 books to my Kindle into a special "Dewey" collection made just for a time as this :)

The Crockpot is your friend Living in Denmark my read-a-thon runs from 2pm Saturday - 2pm Sunday. Bad timing church-wise, but from a cooking POV it fits perfectly. I have plenty of time during the morning to set up my crock-pot, so by the time dinner rolls around I only have to take time out of my schedule to join Lars for the meal - not to actually cook it first!
(Of course if you have a husband/child/parent who'll cook for you - even better!!! Guess I could ask Lars to go get take-outs if I really wanted to, but crockpot meals are often nicer ;) )

If you don't have a crock-pot - leftovers are the way to go :) I might actually go that route this year, because I'm home alone Friday, so I might just make a big portion of lasagna which I'd then just have to reheat Saturday :)

Choose Wisely Not all books are read-a-thon material. This is not the time to attempt War and Peace (unless you've already read it 10 times and consider it one of your favourites - if so, more power to you! :) ). For read-a-thons you'll want short and light books. The feeling of accomplishment that follows finishing a book really spurs me on, so I, personally, am much more likely to read 4 books of 250 pages than 1 book of 1000 pages. Of course YMMV.

Rereads and comfort books are perfect for the read-a-thon. My favourite read-a-thon authors are Tamora Pierce, Anne McCaffrey, Laura Ingalls Wilder and C.S. Lewis.

Empty Your Calendar Of course, this all depends on how you want to prioritize, but add it to your calendar like any other appointment and give yourself permission to turn down other events for it. I mentioned earlier that the read-a-thon is bad timing church-wise in this time zone - somehow I have managed to be in charge of the Sunday School on the Sunday of the read-a-thon Every. Single. Year so far. This year I penciled in the date for the read-a-thon as soon as it was made public, and told the others that I wouldn't be able to come to church that day.

Just because it's an informal event performed at home doesn't mean that it's not a "real" event.

(This may not be an issue for you at all. I had a friend ask me if we could hang out on Saturday... I felt SO guilty about saying no, because it wasn't like I was doing anything important or had made a commitment to anybody other than myself. But I shouldn't feel that way - I've been planning for this read-a-thon for months! Of course, if this was a friend I only saw very rarely instead of one I see every week or so I'd probably have prioritized differently.)

Cheer on Other Readers The best thing about the read-a-thon is that it is a communal event. Like NaNoWriMo it takes a solitary event and makes it social. So go be social! Cheer on other readers and join mini-challenges. It means a LOT to me to get comments on my progress posts, so I try to post comments on other people's posts as well.

Hold Your Reviews If you like to review books (and I do), don't worry about reviewing them as you go along. That's what Sunday is for. Take notes if necessary, but otherwise just leave them for later.

Don't Get Overwhelmed Want to join but 24 hours sounds too daunting? Don't worry, just join in for as long as you can - whether that be 10 hours, 5 hours or even just 1 hour. No pressure at all.

Have Fun! After all, that's what it's all about :)

Dewey's Read-a-Thon - Autumn 2013

Of course I'm signing up again! This year it's October 12th, and by an amazing stroke of luck my husband will be away with work that day AND I don't have church/Sunday school the following morning, so for the first time EVER I don't have to "be sensible" and go to bed at a reasonable hour ;)

Can't wait :) It's still far enough away that I have no clue what I'll be reading, but I thought I'd use this post to list ideas as I think of them. I know from earlier years that short'ish books are preferable as the thrill of finishing a book spurs me on, so I'd be more likely to make it through 5 books of 200 pages than 1 book of 1000 pages (I usually make it just over 1000 pages for a read-a-thon). Also physical books are better than ebooks - probably for much the same reason, I need to be able to FEEL the amount of pages left to read getting smaller.

Suggestions and recommendations are ALWAYS welcome :)

* The End of Summer - Rosamunde Pilcher
* The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings
* Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
* Joy for Beginners - Erica Bauermeister
* A Dip in the Ocean - Sarah Outen (slightly longer, but has lots of photos, so it might still work=

Slightly longer books that might still work as they seem like light reads.
* Magic or Madness - Justine Larbalestier
* Laced with Magic - Barbara Bretton
* Glow - Amy Kathleen Ryan

Possible e-books
* Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith
* Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce
* Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn
* Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
* Real Mermaids Don't Hold Their Breath - Helene Boudreau
* Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris (a book of essays could be both a good or a bad thing... we'll see...)

Mini-Challenge - Winner!

Congratulations to Agnes, you won the Best and Worst Cover mini-challenge!

Please leave me a comment with the email address you want me to send the book to.

Thank you all for playing along :) Feel free to keep leaving comments if you feel like it :)

Read-a-thon Mini-Challenge: Best and Worst Covers

After having participated and enjoyed several read-a-thons, I decided to sign up and volunteer for a Mini-Challenge this year - fully expecting that hosting one will be just as much fun as participating in one :D

I've written about covers before. How we all make judgments based on looks even though we know we shouldn't, and how fortunately sometimes we give a book a shot despite the cover, and discover it was ALL worth it [link].

However, quite often different editions of the same book will have different covers, and sometimes one of those covers is as gorgeous as the other is hideous.

Just check out Under the Dome by Stephen King as an example. I love the hardcover edition
But am really, really unimpressed by the paperback edition.

Or Outlander by Diana Gabaldon where the original cover was vibrant and colourful
and later editions were just... dull!

And don't even get me started on this hideous cover of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery which any Kindred Spirit hated to see on their beloved book.

SO! Your challenge - should you choose to accept it (which I hope you will!) - is to look up one of the books you're reading for the read-a-thon on Goodreads or Amazon, pick out two or three covers and describe which one you like the best, which one you like the least and why.

The challenge will run until 10pm Central European Summer Time (or 2 hours in other words) at which time the winner will be selected randomly from all entries.

Prize:
Your choice of any one of the following:
Gone by Michael Grant (PDF)
The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce (EPUB, LIT)
More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson (EPUB)
Under the Dome by Stephen King (EPUB, MOBI)
Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson (MOBI)

(NB: If you'd like a certain book, but can't read the format, download Calibre. It'll convert books from pretty much any format to pretty much any other format - and it's completely free too! I highly recommend it :) )

Leave a comment with either your answer or a link to your blog post with the answer and which book you would like if you win :)

Happy Reading! :-)

Dewey's ReadAThon - Progress Report

Dewey's Readathon is almost upon us! Just 15 more minutes :) I'm all set - books have been found, snacks put out, dinner's in the crockpot and all that's left for me to do is to wait for the clock to turn to 2pm CEST.


Of COURSE I'll be reading in the library ;) Is there a more appropriate spot to pick? Besides, that leaves DH the free use of the TV without disturbing me ;) Love that the sun is streaming in - that makes this room the brightest and nicest room in the house :)

Hour 1 (2pm): I know from experience that it's best to start with a book that I know is/will be a pageturner, and since I've been wanting to reread Catching Fire for quite awhile in preparation for the movie release later this year, I figured that now was the perfect opportunity :)

Introductory 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? Actually probably "Catching Fire". I've been wanting to reread that for ages.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Chili Chips and Peanut M&Ms
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm a 33-year-old bookworm who loves knitting and watching The Big Bang Theory... although not all at the same time.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? This is my fourth read-a-thon. I'm not doing anything different from the last years - it seems to work just fine :D

Hour 2 (3pm): 111 pages read. Katniss and Peeta have just returned from the Victory Tour. Just as good as I remembered it :)
The first challenge is an oldie but goodie - Book Spine Poetry, hosted by Ballet Bookworm. Using at least 3 books, make a short book poem from the titles. This has been a reoccurring challenge all 4 years now :) So with no further ado, here's my contribution:

Hour 3 (4pm): Another 116 pages read bringing me to a total of 227 and just under halfway through the book. I keep telling newcomers to start with short books, yet I pick a long one for myself.... go figure ;) I was right in assuming it'd be a page turner even as a reread - I'm having no problems at all keeping my attention focused on it.

This hour's challenge is from Book Journey and is the familiar "Book Appetite" challenge:
Come up a menu to go along with your current read or one of the books in your reading pile for today. Now... imagine that you have friends coming over to discuss the book with you. You have prepared food and beverage items to go with your meeting...

Book title and author Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It seems almost obscene because of the many starving people in it, but so much food is mentioned as well!

The menu... well, we'll start off with Mockingjay cookies as people arrive. Dinner will be served once everybody is here.
For appetizers we'll have the pumpkin soup that Katniss fell in love with at the Victory Tour dinner.
Main course is roasted turkey - just as if Gale had gotten it for us.
And for dessert I'll make some sugar buns like the ones Peeta made for Katniss.

Of course the background music will be specially chosen from the soundtrack from the Hunger Games movie - especially Rue's theme.

As an after-dinner drink I'll be serving a special variety of white russian nicknamed "Russian Haymitch" in rememberance of the white liquor he drank.

Hour 4 (5pm): Mmmmm... the crockpot meal is really starting to smell fantastic now! I'm making Sun Dried Tomatoes and Chicken Pilaf and can smell the tomato-basil-garlic mixture - yum! It'll be ready in about 2 hours, so that should give me plenty of time to finish my current book. I've managed another 90 pages these past 40 minutes. From the sounds coming from the living room I can hear that DH has turned on the TV to watch his weekly football (=soccer since we're in Denmark), so I'm guessing he isn't missing me too much ;)

As for the challenge, Geeky Blogger asks us to re-title our current read. I guess mine would be "Katniss Gives the Finger to the Capitol and Once Again Saves Peeta's Life".... mostly because, like Geeky Blogger herself said, I don't have to worry about the number of words taking up all the room on the cover ;)

Hour 5 (6pm): I seem to average 2 pages a minute pretty consistently, which means that I should be able to finish Catching Fire in another 20 minutes or so :) Weirdly enough I don't love it quite as much as on my first read-through, but it's still definitely a captivating read. I haven't quite decided what's next, but probably either "Knitting" by Anne Bartlett, "Joy for Beginners" by Erica Bauermeister or "Debt of Bones" by Terry Goodkind. Have any of you read any of those and can make recommendations?

Reading isn't the most flattering activity ever, but Andi and Heather asked us to post self-portraits for our hour 5 challenge so... here goes :)

Hour 6 (7pm): "Catching Fire" is done :D And I immediately picked up "Debt of Bones". It's a really quick read, so I'm already almost half way through. I'll have to break for dinner now, and a single episode of BBT. I'll be back at 8pm with my very own challenge for hour 7 :-D

But first this hour's challenge - the ever-popular Book Puzzle... This one should be fairly easy ;)


No prices for guessing ;)

Hour 7 (8pm): Note to self - 5 hours on HIGH is too much for something with rice. They'd pretty much disintegrated. Ah well, it still tasted just fine :) No reading done this past hour, but I thought I'd give a small shout out to the mini challenge I'm hosting: Best and Worst Covers.

Hour 8 (9pm): Finished "Debt of Bones" at around the half-hour mark, and after a bit of hemming and hawing (and checking out some of the answers to my mini-challenge :) ) picked up "Running out of Time" by Margaret Petersen Haddix. I'm only 27 pages into it, but so far it seems good. Very "The Village"'ish.

This challenge is yet another Book Sentence challange - cohosted by Midnight Book Girl and The Fake Steph. I searched my bookshelves (how I love not having them double stacked any longer!) and came up with the following:
(Not sure how well it shows, it says: "The Novice Missing. Fear Kidnapped!"... and yes, that is a Sweet Valley High book you spotted at the bottom there... what can I say? I'm a child of the 90s.)

Hour 9 (10pm): Just over half-way through "Running Out of Time". I like it, but am wondering how it'll end. It's fascinating in a creepy kind of way... but captivating so perfect for a read-a-thon :)

The mini-challenge for this hour is a yoga challenge. That's not really my thing, so I think I'll skip this one.

Hour 10(11pm): This is where the spring read-a-thon starts getting tricky. The autumn one tends to start an hour earlier (due to summer time) so I don't tend to run into "I want to go to bed" problems quite as early. Usually I manage to stay awake until the mid-way challenge... not sure I'll manage that this time. Especially as I have to leave for church at 9am at the very latest. One of these days I'll manage to plan well enough ahead that I don't have Sunday School during a readathon! ;)

Aaaanyway, I'm going to keep reading for at least an hour longer - we'll see how long I hold out after that. In the past hour I've finished "Running Out of Time" and really enjoyed it. It had a couple of twists I had NOT seen coming. But great book! Now I've turned to an ARC of "School Spirits" by Rachel Hawkins that I'm reading for Netgalley. I'm only 5% into it so far (~15 pages), so much too early to say anything about it, but I enjoyed her Hex Hall trilogy, so I'm optimistic :)

This mini-challenge was a Book Cover Quiz which I sucked at majorly. I could only recognize 5 out of 17. I'm not impressed.

Hour 11 (Midnight): Heading off to bed shortly. Thought about sticking around for the mid-way challenge, but DH will be going to bed soon and as he's getting up at 5am tomorrow I thought I might as well get my few hours of sleep together with him :) If I feel REALLY motivated I might even get up at the same time and start reading before church... but I'm not sure I even believe that myself! However, I don't have any plans after the read-a-thon ends tomorrow, so a nap in the afternoon would be a real possibility. Anyway, we'll see. I'm currently at 37% of "School Spirits" and too tired to figure out what that is in actual page numbers - guess that'll come sometime tomorrow.

The challenge is fun and easy though - take a photo of the book and place I'm reading. Well the "place" is still my library, so that's the top photo, and here's a nice shot of my Kindle and the other books I've gotten out during the course of the read-a-thon. Thanks, Book Monsters for this challenge :)

Hour 12 (1am): Turned out DH wasn't quite as ready to go to bed as I'd thought he was, so here I am anyway :) Now at 50% of "School Spirit" - that kind of maths I CAN do - even when tired ;)

Mid-Event Survey
1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
Very sleepy. It's waaay past my bedtime, so this will be my last hurrah for today.
2) What have you finished reading?
3.5 books so far :)
3) What is your favorite read so far?
Probably "Running Out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Well written and engaging.
4) What about your favorite snacks?
Gotta love peanut M&Ms ;)
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!
Can't say it's a new discovery, but Borough of Books is always worth a visit :)

Hour 19 (8am) Hello again! Did you miss me? I certainly didn't get enough sleep, but what does that matter when I have the chance to READ! ;) ... Well, until I'll be leaving for church in about an hour anyway ;)

The Bookish Diaries asked to see:
*The Books you have Read
*The Books you still have to Read
*The Food that you have eaten and maybe even the snacks you started with.
*Take a picture of that spot you have called home these last few hours.

... I'm going to change the last one to "that spot I have called home during the readathon" though, as I don't particularly feel like posting a photo of my bed ;)

Anyway, here goes - in one easy photograph:
I sat in that corner all day yesterday - cuddled up under blanket once the sun moved away from the couch. Three books read (one on the Kindle), one book currently reading (Kindle) and probably no books "still to be read"... I think I'll manage to finish the one I'm currently reading, but that'll probably be it. The peas in the pod and chips are all gone, but there's still more juice and peanut M&Ms :)

Hour 24 (1pm): Almost done - both with the readathon and my current book. Just 1 hour and 40 pages left. I'll be able to finish that with time to spare and might even be able to cram another book in there :) It's been a good readathon - I've managed to spend a good percentage of the time reading, and I've enjoyed all the books I've read!

With the end of the readathon comes the traditional end-of-event meme - so here goes :)
Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 12+. I don't think I've stayed up past hour 12 yet. By that time it's between 1-2am and I need to get my sleep... especially if I'm getting up at 8am to go to church.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? "Running Out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix, definitely. And come to think of it, probably also her "Among the Hidden" series.
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not improve as such, but it could be fun to have a readathon that ran during a different time period.
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The cheer-leaders were really active - it was great to get comments from them all the time :)
How many books did you read?. 4. If I can find one that takes 20 minutes to read I might make it to 5 ;)
What were the names of the books you read? See below.
Which book did you enjoy most? "Running Out of Time" - great read!
Which did you enjoy least? "Debt of Bones". Not that it was bad, just not 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! If I'm at all able to, I'm in :) I'll participate as a reader, and might do a mini-challenge again. That was fun! :)

THE END

Books read: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (472), Debt of Bones - Terry Goodkind (116), Running Out of Time - Margaret Peterson Haddix (192), School Spirits - Rachel Hawkins (304)
Pages read: 1133 + 40 minutes of an audiobook
Time spent reading: 11h0m
Currently reading: "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop" by Fannie Flagg & "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher (audiobook)

Dewey's 24-hour-read-a-thon, 2011 - Progress Report

Rather than spam you all with constant updates, I'm just going to have one post to serve as a progress report for my reading. That's what I've done the previous years as well, and it has always served me well. I'm not going to take time to write reviews during the Read-a-Thon, but they'll all be up at afterwards.

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 (, I'm trying your stew, and so far it smells divine!) so I don't have to worry about dinner, and I'm all ready to get started on Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce. Happy reading, everybody!

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).

Dewey's Read-a-Thon, Reading Selection

Tomorrow's the day! In case you hadn't guessed, I'm very excited about Dewey's Read-a-Thon. So far it's been great fun every time I've participated in it :) This will be my third time - the last two times I managed around 4-5 books and 1000'ish pages, so I'm going to aim for that this time too, but not setting myself any specific goals - after all, the point is to have fun! :-)

I've learned the hard way that light, short books are best, and that I need a larger selection than I'm actually going to have time for, in order not to limit myself. Not that there are any rules that you have to have picked out the books ahead of time, but I find that it motivates me to have a stack of books in front of me, and see it shrink as the day goes on :)

My selection this year will include, but not be limited to, some of the following


Let me know if you're going to participate too, so I can come cheer you on :)

Dewey's Read-a-Thon, April 2011 edition

Dewey's April version of the 24 hour Read-a-Thon falls on April 9th this year. Since this is the weekend before I leave for my 3-week trip to New Zealand, I'll be doing a Read-a-Thon-lite this time - if DH's at work anyway, then great! but if not, I don't think he'd take too kindly to me devoting a full day to reading rather than spending time with him. I'm not sure I would take too kindly to me doing that either!

However, I'm still bound to get some reading done, but I'll just aim for a smaller goal. The last two years I've read for 12+ hours and a total of 1000+ pages, so I think 6 hours of reading and a total of 500 pages should be completely doable.

It'll be fun!

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now?
Squire by Tamora Pierce. It's a reread, but perfect for this time of night (it's currently 1am here), as it's engaging, well-written and - probably most importantly for this stage - an easy read.

2. How many books have you read so far?
I've completed 3 and am half-way in a fourth.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I haven't completely decided on which books to read for the rest of the challenge, so I don't quite now. Perhaps more Tamora Pierce, in which case it'd be In the Hand of the Goddess. Perhaps I'll need a break from her after finishing Squire and pick up something else entirely, in which case I have no idea what that'll be.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
No, because I didn't free up my whole day ;) The read-a-thon started at 2pm DK time, and I was out until 4pm, so I missed out on two hours of reading time there. I have no other plans though, so should still get quite a bit read :D

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
After returning home I've pretty much only been interrupted to make and eat dinner and to update my LJ and read other people's progress reports.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Nothing yet. It's my second read-a-thon, and I'm having just as much fun as the first time around! Oh, perhaps that it's quite a bit harder to stay awake, but that may just be because I hit the wall (and fortunately now also my second wind) earlier than last time.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
I wish more mini-challenges offered prizes from other places than The Book Depository. Not only do they not offer free shipping to Denmark, they don't offer any shipping to Denmark, so there are SO many contests where I'm ineligible. I wish those had the alternative of a gift certificate to an Amazon of your choice instead.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
I'd really, really try to free up my entire day. Sometimes it just won't be possible - like this year, I really couldn't/wouldn't use a read-a-thon as a reason not to have our birthday brunch today - but it could be fun to actually be available for all of it :)

9. Are you getting tired yet?
At 1:11am? You'd better believe it! Usually I've been in bed and asleep for 1-2 hours by now!

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?
I don't think so, no. I'd tell people to stick to light literature (YA and childrens' lit is great for that!) and well-known/trusted authors, so you're pretty certain to pick books that catch your attention, but most people seem to have figured that on their own ;)

Dewey's 24-hour-read-a-thon, 2010

Yes, I'm joining Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon

The timing isn't optimal for me - it runs from 2pm Saturday - 2pm Sunday, meaning that I'm going to miss out on quite a number of hours because of sleeping and a family birthday. Still, it's a read-a-thon, so I'm sure I'm going to have a blast no matter what!

The idea is that I pick a list of books to read, and then spend the day alternatively reading and updating here on my progress. I'll probably just have the one post and then update as I go along. Cheering would be lovely - or join in the fun yourself!

Last year I discovered that shortish and light books are necessary in order not to get bogged down - especially in the later hours - so I was actually considering rereading a number of Tamora Pierce books. I'm not as much in the mood for her books any longer, so I'm reconsidering that, and trying to come up with other ideas. Funnily enough, there are very few YA books on my to-read shelf... didn't really plan that part too well, but like I said, I was planning on Tamora Pierce ;) On the other hand, I do have a LOT of YA on my e-reader, but I have a feeling that an e-reader won't do as well for a read-a-thon - I need the variety of physical books. Anyway, as I've always known, I'm an erratic reader at the best of times, and like to choose from book to book, so the following list is just a brain storm and me shouting to make a noise.

The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce
Page by Tamora Pierce
Tunnelmanden by Dennis Jürgensen
Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede
Lake News by Barbara Delinsky

Last year I managed to read around 1000 pages. I'm not expecting to be able to do the same this year, as the family birthday will last longer, and Lars is home (he had a night shift last year). I'm going to give it my very best shot though! :D My reviews will be up at bogormen sometime after the Read-A-Thon has finished.

T-6 (8:00) This will be my progress post for the Read-a-Thon Challenge. I'll be updating it throughout the day, so those interested can bookmark it, and those not can just skip this post and forget all about it ;-) Right now I'm about to head out to the birthday brunch my cousins and I are having, so I won't be back until the read-a-thon is well under way. I'll see you then!

Hour 2 (16:00): Back from a lovely brunch with my family (19 people!!!!) and ready to start my first book. I'm going to deviate from the list already and start out with a very quick and easy read, to get myself motivated for a lot of reading. Claudia and the Perfect Boy by Ann M. Martin.

Hour 3 (17:01): BSC books always have been quick reads for me, so it was definitely a good book to start with. Wasn't the best BSC book ever though, but it seems to be that the later into the series we get, the weaker the books get. Ah well, it was a good way to spend 45 minutes ;) I've now started Tunnelmanden by Dennis Jürgensen - a quite famous Danish author. So far it seems good :)

Hour 4 (17:52): Tunnelmanden isn't half bad! Typically Dennis Jürgensen (thriller/horror for kids/YA), but a quick read and I'm actually really enjoying it. Progress: 235 pages. I'll need to take a break in about 30 minutes to make dinner, but hopefully I can finish it before then - I'm only missing 80 pages, so it should be do-able.

Hour 5 (18:29): Finished with one minute to spare! It was surprisingly good (although I don't know why I'm surprised - Dennis Jürgensen usually is good. Now on to some Tamora Pierce I think. But first - a break for dinner.

Hour 7 (20:55): Dinner made and eaten and I'm back at reading :) I picked up Page by Tamora Pierce, and just as expected, as soon as I started reading her books, I got into the mood for her writing again - she really is excellent! We'll see how many of her books I get through, or if I decide on something different again once I've finished this one ;) Progess - 103 pages.

Hour 9 (22:54): Finished Page and have picked up Squire. Yeah, yeah, I know. I take back everything I said about not being in the mood for Tamora Pierce. It wouldn't even surprise me if I end up picking up some of the Lioness series as well at some stage! But they really are perfect reading material for a read-a-thon, and as far as I can see, there are no rules against rereads ;) Progress on Squire - 26 pages.

Hour 10 (00:04): I'm paying for my lack of sleep right now. Last year I lasted until around 2am before having to give up and go to bed, but I only had 6 hours of sleep last night, and I can definitely feel that now. Staying up after midnight gets increasingly more difficult the older I get. So even though it's definitely more fun to be up when other participants of the read-a-thon are (and most of those are in the US), I think I'm going to have to give up and head off to bed now. See you in the morning. Oh, and progress on Squire - 100 pages.

ETA: Oh, I forgot the Mid-Event Meme occurs in one hour. I'll have to stay up for that! I don't mind doing some things out of order, but doing the Mid-Event meme 8 hours late just seems wrong. You're stuck with me for another hour then ;)

Hour 11 (01:01) Honestly I think I may have gotten my second wind, it's easier to stay awake now. I obviously don't read quite as fast when I'm tired though. Only another 62 pages read since last.

Hour 21 (10:54) I'm back! Not that I actually slept for all 10 hours, I just haven't had my computer on to update. I only have another 60 pages to go of Squire, so as you can see, I've been keeping busy! Oh, and happy 10-10-10! Thankfully a date USians and Europeans agree on ;)

Hour 22 (12:05) Only two hours left! I wonder if I'll have time to finish another book before the read-a-thon ends. I finished Squire about a half-hour ago, and have decided to take a bit of a break from Tamora Pierce and read Sorcery and Cecelia instead. I'm only 40 pages into it though, so haven't formed too much of an opinion about it yet.

Hour 24 (14:00) Alas, the last book I picked was too long for me to finish by the end of the read-a-thon. I'm only 239 pages into it, so still have another 80 to go -- meaning another 40 or so minutes to finish it. So that brings my grand total to 4.75 books read, 1388 pages read and 12h25m spent reading! I feel a bit bad for only spending a little over half the time reading, but at least I more than met my desired goal of reading more than 1000 pages :D

It was a LOT of fun! I'll definitely be doing it again next year, if time allows.

Books Read: Claudia and the Perfect Boy (150p), Tunnelmanden (314p), Page (245p), Squire (380p), Sorcery and Cecelia (239p, WIP)
Time Spent Reading: 12h25m