Readathon Starting Point--Kind Of

This morning I'm proctoring our last full-length practice AP Literature test at the high school, so I had to get up and get here for that.  While I should be doing a number of other things first, such as grading this massive stack of quizzes, essays, and annotated bibliographies looming beside me, I thought I'd hurry and check in!  As per my usual style, I thought I'd juggle things a bit and try to rotate my work a little so that I can still participate to refuel my batteries.  I'll be a much more efficient teacher--overall--if I can at least do a little "readathoning" today.

Since the school has blocked the "24 Hour Readathon" site (strangely), I looked it up on my smartphone and will just keep it moving so that I can get back to grading, which will then lead to READING.

I'll say that I really wish I would have known Dewey.  I think I came into the blogging scene right after she passed away, but know that her enthusiasm for the book community was what pulled me in back then.  It is THAT community that from time to time I still yearn for and sometimes think I'll come back to.  Obviously, I haven't given up my book blog and do think I'll bring it back at some point, but just haven't had the energy or time to do so.  For now, it's my readathon central, and that's okay.  I can say thank you to Dewey for the legacy of readers and camaraderie she left us with.  For that, I feel like I knew her, for sure.

As for getting started, here we go:

1)  What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
Well, obviously I'm at a high school in Utah--administering an AP practice test.  :)  By noon, I'll be back to SLC doing some reading, both of the bookish kind, as well as the AP essay sort.
2)  Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I actually just picked up Gayle Forman's newest, I Was Here from the library, and I'm really looking forward to mixing it in!  I'm a big rotater with all things in my life, including books, so I know I won't just read it straight through.  I am, however, eager to start it and see how this new book goes.
3)  Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I haven't picked anything up yet!  :(  We're going to stop on our way home, and I'm going to pick up some chips and guacamole, some roasted cashews, and some dark chocolate.  I think that will tide me over, right?
4)  Tell us a little something about yourself!
As you can tell, I'm a high school English teacher, with a bit of a crazy grading and work schedule at times.  I really love my students though, which makes all of the essays and grading worth it!  I grew up in Idaho, out in the boonies, but ended up going to school in Kansas to get my MA in English.  I guess you could say, my entire life has been about books in some way, as that's what I flourished around as a little kid, and that's what I studied as a young adult, and now that's what I teach for my career. 

As for beyond work, I live a pretty quiet, but full life.  This summer I'll be heading to Italy and France on a much-planned for trip.  We've been saving and planning for this trip for over 10 years, in anticipation of my mother's retirement and my best friend getting out of med school as an anesthesiologist.  It's going to be epic!  I can't wait.  :)  And yes, I have a pile of books and e-books that I've been rifling through, deciding what I'll take on the trip.
5)  If you participated in the last readathon, what's one thing you'll do different today?  
I actually don't think I'll do anything different.  I've learned to just go with the flow and do my best.  I know that I can't participate "perfectly," so why stress?  I'll proctor this test, and then head home to do a little grading and read a bit, back and forth.  It's just nice to have a community of readers and friends to join up with for this!  So many of you I don't talk to as often, so I just enjoy meeting back up with through this forum!

End of Readathon Wrap Up

This year I crashed around 4 am, which was pretty good for me.  I still got up at a normal time though, so I'm not sure how happy I'm going to be about this whole thing today.  We'll see!  I did feel, however, that I got back into my reading mojo.  That was SO worth it!  I've been so out of the loop and down and out in my reading, that this was an excellent way to get back to it.   Let's see where I go from here...

End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  First, at 9pm, which is a normal bedtime for me.  Once I got past that, 4 am--when I noted that I kept blanking out on what I was reading and realized that I kept falling asleep in the middle of my reading.  I would literally have to shake myself back awake and re-read what I had just read.  That got a bit too annoying and I finally just tossed in the towel!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?  I've thought about this from year to year and can now say that you should pick whatever you feel you can finish.  There really is something to be said for feeling like you can finish something (at least it is for me).  I left a couple of books for the readathon that I was within 100-150 pages of finishing.  That helped me feel a bit more successful and left the high point of the novel for the readathon.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  Nope.  I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into it.  I always feel guilty for not taking more of a role in helping out in some way!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  I really liked the Goodreads page.  That was a nice addition this year.  :)
5. How many books did you read?  4, although I only read one from cover to cover.  The rest were books that I finished up from various stages in reading them. 
6. What were the names of the books you read? 
   Love Life by Rob Lowe, Always Emily by Michaela MacColl, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz, and I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe was really amazing.  I knew it was an award winner and so I had high expectations for it, but I was really surprised by the story's direction and the sensitive way it handled the main character's personal growth.
8. Which did you enjoy least?  None of them.  I passed up a book if it didn't interest me.  The readathon is too short to stick with something for too long!  :)
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?  N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?  Very likely!  I really enjoy and appreciate the focused time the readathon gives me.  It's a great time to get back into the reading groove.  In the future, I need to get more involved and try out some mini-challenges maybe or even host.

Readathon: Hour 19 Update

This just might be my last update for the night, as I know myself too well!  I took about a five hour break to finish laundry, make my bed, go get dinner, and do a bunch of grading.  Once I felt I had done my duty, I picked up something really short that was one the children's Beehive Award nomination list, I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis.  I've been trying to make my way through some of the children's and YA nominees this year, so it was a nice little walk back into the readathon.  Talk about a gripping little tale.  I really hope grade school children and middle schoolers are getting the chance to read this one and others in the series.

To be honest, I hit my "fatigue" point about 9pm, which is when I generally get ready for bed during the week.  I had some caffeine and a huge glass of water, so I'm feeling pretty back to my normal speed.  We'll see how long that lasts.  I doubt I'll be finishing anymore books, but I'd like to make a good dent in a couple more before I call it a wrap for the night.

Here's where things are at for the moment:

Hours Read:  
 Once again, this is tough.  I haven't really kept track very well.  My guess is that I'm somewhere around 8?  It's still not very good though.  I've had a lot of little interruptions all day.

Books Read:
4--Love Life by Rob Lowe, Always Emily by Michaela MacColl, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz, and I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005 by Lauren Tarshis.

Essays Graded:
5--Which isn't so hot.  I would have liked to have done more than that, but I'll take what I can get.  :(

Drinks & Snacks:  Surprisingly, no more snacks, just Wendys for dinner (bad, but so good) and then water, water, water all evening.  I'm honestly going to float away at some point, right?

Number of Readathons I've Participated In:  Just for record keeping sake, I went back to see how many of these I've participated in.  This will make my 10th readathon.  I started participating back in April of 2009, which is amazing and awesome to me.  There were two that I couldn't join in on over the years, but otherwise, I've always been here. 

Well, enough nostalgia.  I don't want my sleepiness to catch up to me.  I have a little energy left and would like to keep it as long as possible.  For now, it will be book rotating time.  Best wishes to everyone who might still be hanging in there!

Readathon: Hour 11 & Mid-Event Survey

What an awesome day so far!  This has been my most productive readathon, no question.  Sometimes I feel like being a social butterfly and zooming around the net to see how everyone is doing, but this time I really wanted to just escape everything and just read!  It's been a bad 6 months for reading, so this has been a great time to dive back in--and boy have I.

Here's what I've been up to!

Books Read:  3--Granted, I was 1/2 way through all of them before the readathon began, so it would be more like 1 1/2.  Still, I'm saying 3.  :)
Pages Read:  390
Hours Read:  This is always hard to calculate, but I've been reading pretty steady today.  I've taken a few breaks here or there to do laundry, get a drink, go outside to read, etc.  I'd say at least 4?  Not great, but still good for the various interruptions, right?
Challenges or Cheering:  Zip.  I know!  It's really bad this time, but I HAD to get myself out of this reading slump.  :(  I keep saying I'll host another challenge down the road.  Maybe I'll join something later tonight???  I did go stop in on some blogs to say hi and see how they were doing, so that might count?!?
Drinks:  1 Diet Pepsi, 1 16 oz lemonade, and 1 huge glass of water.
Snacks:  Well, since I've skipped eating normal meals today, in place of reading (yes, I should go eat something), 1/2 of that bag of Doterra chips & 1/2 an apple.

UPDATE:  I should have realized the Mid-Point Survey was going up right around when I posted this.  I just came back in and attached it below.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?  I'm going to grade some essays and then I'll dive into a few chapters of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison until I rotate on to something else.
2. How many books have you read so far?  3
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?  I'm still waiting to get back to Landline by Rainbow Rowell.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?  Well, just household interruptions and the pressure to get my grading finished.  That will always be there, so I've been going back and forth between the two.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?  How much better I do if I stay away from the internet.  Sometimes I really like to feel connected to everyone, so I stay online a lot more, but I feel bad about how little reading time I get in.  This time, I swore to myself that I would spend as much time as possible reading.  I really needed it, so it has been great.

All right.  I think I'm off to go scrounge for some food, get my bed remade after cleaning my sheets, and grading some papers before I can sit back down and read in earnest.  I'll be back a bit later though!  Good luck to everyone!

Readathon: Opening Post & Hour 6

I've been up for a bit, but as I promised myself, I would spend some time reading as soon as I got up.  This has been such a bad year for reading and such, that I didn't want to give myself ANY excuses to wander off from the reading--so that's what I did.   I also set myself up for success and left two books that I was nearly finished with, so that I could get up and dive back into them.  It's psychologically satisfying to start the day off with a book already finished off, even if it's not a "start to finish" read.  :)


Anyway, here is my opening meme AND my report for hour 6 all wrapped into one!  I don't think I'll be back again until later this evening, unless I go a bit stir crazy (although I have a "book walk" planned in to take care of that), so here we go...

Opening Meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?  Salt Lake City
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?  Landline by Rainbow Rowell
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  My Doterra chips.  :)  They are these awesome mixed variety of potato chips that include different sweet potatoes as well.  Yum!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  I turned 40, 10 days ago today, and it was kind of awesome!  (What's with all the 40 angst? It's really pretty cool.)
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?  I started with a couple of books that I was within 100 pages of finishing.  That way, as soon as I woke up, I grabbed one of them and just finished it as I was waking up.  It started my readathon off with a successful book finish!

Here's what I've finished so far:

I really thought that the last 75 pages of this book was a great choice for me to start my day off today.  I've read his previous autobiography, which was interesting and filled with insider information about Hollywood.  More important, I appreciate the details he includes about what he has learned about living his life and maintaining strong ties to his family and friends.  Those stories were interesting to hear and touching.

Well, there's my update and starting point!  I hope to be back in the next 5-6 hours.  Good luck to everyone and happy reading!

 

I'm Back!

Yes, I'm back.  Another readathon pulled me from the dark abyss of my own absence.  It's not that I haven't been reading, but I will admit to a bit of a reading slump and to needing a major time out from everything.  Regardless of the major silence going on here, I have read a few great things and have still been excited about this upcoming readathon!  I was especially excited to see that it fell over Fall Break this year, which meant I could actually push things aside and join in (once I knew I was going to be in town). 

Anyway, enough of the boring talk.  Yes, I'll be joining in the readathon again and will be posting.  I can't wait!  I'm a major book rotater though, so I don't anticipate finishing many books.  That's kind of okay by me.  I might be squirreling myself away this time and not jumping online very often.  In the past, that has taken my attention away from my reading, so I might stay away for large chunks of time.  We'll see though, who knows.  I miss people and I might get really overcome with a need for conversation and jump on!

Here are the books I have on rotation, with a few more on my iPad that I'll be "e-reading" along the way as well.  I'll also be breaking in to grade an essay every couple of hours or so (since that is just the norm around here).

Okay.  I have about six more essays to grade before I can head to bed, so I need to get to it.  I look forward to getting to my reading in the morning, so I'll see everyone bright and early!

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Final Survey

Well, I lasted about fifteen minutes after I posted that final blog post.  I put the laptop away, grabbed my book, and literally faded into sleep.  Talk about a quick transition!  I still think it was successful day all-round, for all that I was able to read and get accomplished.  Besides, it's nice touching base with so many other great bloggers and readers.

Here's my final survey, before I head off to catch up on our Great Gastby ReadAlong post for this last week and I can maybe even get a couple of reviews written for this week!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  1:30 am, after Prom.  I just couldn't do it!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?  I always recommend you break things up with a great graphic novel.  For me, it gets me going.  Outside of that, I just started Cinders and Sapphires by Leila Rasheed and absolutely love it.  I literally think I'll be up this evening finishing this one up, and I just started it!
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  Nope.  I think they are so well run.  Thanks to everyone who puts so much time and effort into these!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  Everything. It's like a well-oiled machine by this point, to those of us on the outside.  Nice job!
5. How many books did you read?  1 1/2--but I only was able to read for about 5 1/2 hours or so?
6. What were the names of the books you read?  Relish by Lucy Knisley, and about another 200 pages in three other novels.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?  So far, Cinders and Sapphires.
8. Which did you enjoy least?  None of them.  I would have tossed them aside if so!  :)
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?  N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?  I love participating in these.  They do tend to be tricky for me, as they are always during the school year, so I do the best I can.  I'd love to host another challenge again though.  That was really fun a year ago.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Hour 21--Dying on the Vine

I just got back from chaperoning the prom and am feeling like I want to take a stab at an hour or two of reading.  I might just end up with the lights on and a book on my face, fast asleep, but I'm going to try for a bit. 

I have to say that the prom was fun!  I'm kicking myself that I didn't climb the steps in the capitol building to take a picture of the crowd.  It was pretty impressive.  We had over 900 kids attend, and it was a mad house of sequins, tuxedos, and sweat.  After standing all evening on marble floors, my poor feet probably hurt worse than the ladies with the six inch heels I saw tonight.  It was fun though, and I loved seeing so many of my students there.  I'm hoping they can focus better now that prom and midterms are behind them!  We have five weeks of school left and a big AP test looming in less than two weeks.  Crazy!

Anyway, I'll get back to reading for a bit.  I can't say how long I'll last, but I'll give it a try...

Thanks for all the great cheers from our cheerleaders, and also the fun comments from my fellow book blogging friends.  Thanks guys!  You really are keeping me in it.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Off to Prom!

I know it's a little odd to have someone say they're headed to the prom, but that's what I've got to gear up for now!  I'm helping out as a chaperone, with a group of other ladies I work with at school.  It's actually really fun, so I'm looking forward to it.  That does mean, however, that I have to take a time out from the readathon.  Here are my stats...

Books Read:  1 Graphic Novel, and rotated 30-40 pages through 3 other books
Hours Spent:  5 hours
Unintentional Naps:  One teeny 30 minute nap that side-swiped me.
Snacks:  Strawberries all gone!  Yes, that was healthy, but the two Diet Dr. Peppers, not so much.  :)
Challenges:  None yet, but I'd like to when I get back.  I really wanted to do a chunk of reading before I left.

All right.  I'm off to get ready!  Hopefully I'll be back for part of the final stretch.  Good luck to everyone!

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: And So It Begins

Yes, I'm finally off and running now.  I was up at 6 am to get started, but will admit that I fell back to sleep for another hour.  That will probably ensure I can stay awake later, right?  Anyway, I'm a bit of a Saturday flutter-bug, so I had to clean the kitchen and eat my breakfast first thing.  Now that it's all taken care of and I have a load of laundry in, I'm ready to roll!

Introductory Questionnaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?  Salt Lake City
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?  Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella 3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  Strawberries!  I bought a beautiful pack of strawberries, and I'm going to enjoy to my heart's content.  When they're gone, I have some yummy real fruit juice pops.  Yum!  (Yes, do you sense I'm on a fruit kick right now?  I think I'm ready for summer or something.) 4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  Hmm.  I think I'm a bit of an open book on my blog, but will say that I'm a bit of a book rotater, so readathons tend to stress me out when it comes to numbers.  Because I rotate, I sometimes don't finish a book from cover to finish.  Oh, something kind of fun is that for retirement, I told my financial planner that we have to save/plan so that I can spend my summers on a Greek island when I retire.  Serious.  It's one of my favorite places on the planet, so I see myself sitting in the sun outside a beautiful blue and white stone home, looking out over the Mediterranean.  Ah!  I destress just thinking about it!  :) 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?  I always seem to be traveling or have something big happening on the day of the readathons.  I now try to just enjoy whatever part of it I can join in on!  Tonight I have to chaperone our school's prom, so I'll be taking a huge chunk out of the readathon to join up with a bunch of ladies I work with. I'm going to take my iPad along with me and just jump on when/if I can and then use it as a nice unwind later tonight.

Well, I better get to reading.  I have the books stacked and ready, so off I go!

Dewey's Readathon: Last Minute Decision

I know it's Friday night, and the bi-annual Dewey's Readathon starts in less than 12 hours, but I've decided to throw my hat into the ring and join up.  Besides the fact that it was midterm this week, I'm chaperoning the Prom Saturday evening, so I didn't think I should join.  Who am I kidding though?  The readathon will give me a good excuse to sit down and read my morning away and maybe sneak a read after the ticket sales fade away at the door.  I'll just read before I go and when I get home.  I might only get a handful of hours in, but I think that would still be really nice.

Well, let's see if I can get up to start reading in the morning!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all!  It's been awhile and I have to start making a reappearance online soon.  What better time than on Christmas Eve?  I have nothing big to report this year, nor a real reason for disappearing on here for about a month.  Honestly, I'm in the midst of the biggest burn out of my entire career and just trying to refuel the batteries to make it another five months.  Christmas comes at a wonderful time so I can start to do just that.

I've actually been reading quite a bit, so I'll be back with reviews aplenty, as long as I can stave off the weary-drearies I've been having!  Here's hoping all of you have a wonderful holiday season and I'll be back soon!

 

*By the way, if you're interested, Jenn, Tasha, and I are going to be doing another New Year's readathon to ring in 2013.  It was fun to read, tweet, and socialize a bit, all while working our way through some great reads.  Join us for the fun! 

"12 to 2012" Readathon: My Starting Point!

I'm excited to see a bunch of readers joining us today for an end of year celebration.  I'm still two books shy of making my Goodreads reading goal for 2011 and have many books on the way to being finished, so I'm thinking I should easily be able to wrap that up in the next twelve hours, right?

My mother is begging to go catch a matinee of something today, and since she is leaving to go home tomorrow, I don't want to feel like a big meanie and say no.  I think we'll have to take a little time out so we can hit a matinee.  I'd love to get her in on the reading action, but that's not her game at all, so I better not completely exclude my family today!

Anyway, I'm eager to get started.  Here are some of the books on my reading list today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not heading in any particular order, although I'll probably be finishing off a couple of these that I've started.  Let's be honest here--I'm trying to meet my Goodreads' goal, so I'm not so much going for "reading for reading's sake" as I am for finishing things up.  

Well, I'm off to go finish some books!  If you can, join us today for some great reading!  I noticed that Twitter is down right now, so I'm going to head off to get some reading in and I'll check back in a bit.  Best wishes!

Ring in the New Year with a "12 to 2012" Read-a-Thon

Are you tired of ringing in the New Year at a big party or get-together?  Are you like I am and inevitably end up in a fight with someone (verbal--not fisty-cuffs) or end up pondering on all you failed to accomplish that year?  Whether you love or hate New Year's Eve, you could always give a good 1/2 marathon, ahem, I mean READ-a-thon a try. 

After a great conversation via Twitter, @heidenkind, @picky_girl, and myself (@mjmbecky) decided to switch up our New Year's Eve with a good read-a-thon that would run from 12 pm to midnight.  We're in the central and mountain time zones, but we're going to start at noon wherever we're at. No worries.  Just let me know if you'd like to join in, or you can stop by here on New Year's Eve or check into Twitter.  We'll be reading and tweeting all evening!  However you celebrate, have a great New Year!

24 Hour Readathon: Finish Line & Giveaway Reminder

Last night I ended up staying up until close to 2am.  By that point though, I can't say that it was that productive!  Here are my wrap-up stats.

Number of books read since you started:  2 (but they were manga) & a bunch of pages in a bunch of other books.
Running total of pages read since you started:  About 520? 
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 6
Mini-challenges completed:  Still just the 1 that didn't get posted during the insanity yesterday.
Other participants you’ve visited:  Not sure?  I bounced around a little.


After some sleep, I'm feeling better about all the interruptions to my Read-a-thon this time around.  Life happens!  :)  I actually think I'll be doing a bit of reading today, mixed with a giant stack of papers to grade as we head toward our end of term at the end of October.  Today, I'll be taking it easy though and enjoying my Sunday!

Just as a quick reminder though, don't forget to sign up to win one of two free copies of Sharon Lathan's newest novel, In the Arms of Mr. Darcy, which came out at the beginning of the month!   The giveaway closes tonight at midnight so there is still time to join in the giveaway!

24 Hour Readathon: Post Freak Out Reading Update

Well, I am back to close down shop in a sense.  I probably will be too out of it later to stop back to post.  My reading stats aren't stellar, but I tried, given my circumstances today. 

Number of books read since you started:  2 (but they were manga) & a bunch of pages in a bunch of other books.
Running total of pages read since you started:  400+??? 
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 4 1/2--I'm not judging it though.
Mini-challenges completed:  1 that I couldn't post because it expired, thanks to supposed carbon monoxide that was going to kill me.  :)
Other participants you’ve visited:  10+???  I bounced around a little.


I won't lie.  I feel pretty deflated about  my participation this time around.  Yes, I struggled to get going earlier, but was really thrown off track by the whole fire department bit.  It's a funny story though.  My apologies to everyone and a big thank you to so many great people who have been cheering for me and everyone else!  Also, the organizers have been fantastic, as always.  Thanks for giving us this chance! 


Well, I'm off to read until my eyes shut for the night.  I think a little Harry Potter just might help ease my sadness at the fail that was my readathon this time around! 

24 Hour Readathon: Update #1 & a HUGE Interruption

Title of book(s) read since last update:  None...yet.  Can you believe that?
Pages read since last update:  100+ ??? 
Amount of time spent reading since last update:  2 1/2 hours
Mini-challenges completed: 1--"Love to Hate"
Other participants you’ve visited:  None...yet.  Sad, I know!
Prize you’ve won:  0

I know I sound pretty pathetic so far!  I actually had a really slow start, as I seemed to not be able to really settle in right at the beginning.  Since I got a late start, and was struggling to get into my reading, I packed up my library stack and headed off to the library where I had a couple of books waiting for me.  That took me FOREVER thanks to a slew of construction we have between my house and the library.  Literally every street between my house and the library is down to one lane, filled with orange barrels, lights were blinking, and heavy trucks were dodging in and out of the construction.  To be honest, I have whittled down my trips to the library to Saturdays only, since getting around is much worse during the work week.  Anyway, I did THANKFULLY get into my audio book, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.  I grabbed a salad on my way home, and am back to really focus!

Since getting home, I popped in the audio book because I can't quite give it up.  I've cleaned my house from top to bottom as I've listened and am now ready to settle into a nice chair in my room and read for the next three hours!  At least my house is clean now and I've exhausted myself into the ability to settle down and read.  :)

UPDATE:  So, in the middle of this post, my fire/CO2 alarm started going off.  To make a long story short,  I had to call the fire department.  Big red truck with flashing lights pulled up.  No carbon monoxide, just change the battery.  Yes, I thought I was stupid.  Changed battery.  Still kept going off.  I looked it up online, tried everything known to mankind.  Nothing. Called builder.  He said call electrician, who said, "Pull it off the wall.  Sounds like you have a defective alarm."  Does it sound like I'm having a good Read-a-thon?  A stalled start, fire department visit, tears over a squealing alarm that was bothering me and my neighbors, and half a post that was written that I had to bag because the meme was over.  *sigh*  I'm calming down.

I think I'll keep going with the Read-a-thon casually, but I'm a bit flustered right now, as well as feeling pretty defeated.  All is well though.  I will try to come back and be supportive.  Sorry, but my parade was rained on today.  At least it didn't happen in the middle of the night! 

I couldn't help but think of that hilarious scene from Friends where Phoebe's fire alarm kept going off no matter what she did.  I tried to embed it here from YouTube but they are all disarmed.  Here is the link if you want a good laugh.  At least it's a universal frustration we can laugh about!

24 Hour Readathon: The Start

Yay!  Today I get started on Dewey's bi-annual Read-a-thon!  Yes, I'm off to a late start, but after a LONG work week I knew there was no way I'd be able to pull my eyes open and succeed in keeping them open if I didn't get some sleep first.  I'm here though and ready to start.  Just a few stats and thoughts before I head off to read.

1.  I rechecked the sign up sheet, and I was #40 on the original list.
2.  Last year I read for 11 hours, which doesn't sound stellar even to me, so I'm going to at least try to reach 12!
3.  Last year I read 3 books.  This year I'd like to read 4. 

See, nothing big, but I am going to push myself a little.  Now for the starting meme hosted by Dewey's Read-a-thon:

Where are you reading from today?  I'll be reading from home.  I know I'll be switching locations though, and at one point I have to run to the library, so I'll be listening to a book in the car!  :)
3 facts about me …  1)  Yesterday was my b-day and I, admittedly, planned my participation as a "day after" present to myself!  2)  I teach high school English in Utah, but my mom lives in Hawaii, where I spend my time off.  AND   3)  I'm a HUGE Kansas Jayhawk basketball fan.  In fact, I worry about annoying people during March Madness.
How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?  Over 30.  Yep, I tried to narrow it down, but gave up.  I decided to just draw from my shelves for today, which is a combination of library books, Advanced Review Copies, books I've won, and books I've purchased and been waiting to read.
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)?  I try to keep my goals modest, as I'm sure sleep will rule out at some point, so I'm just going to try to best my last Read-a-thon goals and read 4 books and 800+ pages today!  I'm kind of excited!  :)
If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?  Don't get overwhelmed with how much others are reading.  Enough said.  I stay up as long as I can, but I don't kill myself off trying to stay up the entire 24 hours.  Since I want this to be a fun experience, I just put into it what I can and enjoy all the company I know I have out there who are reading with me! 

 All right.  I'm off to go grab my book and start reading.  I'm also going to simultaneously be fixing my breakfast!

Just a quick note.  I won't be posting every hour, but planned on posting every three so that I could keep on a roll with my reading.  I might be back in from time to time though for a challenge!  If you're reading today as well, then happy reading.

Coming Soon: 48 Hour Readathon

This coming weekend, June 4-6, 2010, will be the 5th Annual 48 Hour Readathon. Since both of the other readathons occur during the school year, I can't always participate, so I really look forward to a couple of days I can dedicate (without any guilt) to reading! Yes, you live your life in the midst of this 48 hours, but get to plan in LOTS of reading time to boot! Last year I participated and really had a great time. (Here is my initial post from last year.) I actually spent a good portion of the time reading some pretty heavy-duty books, so I didn't get through much, but had a great time in the process. This year I think I'll aim for lighter fare.

The timing of the marathon is a bit flexible, so I'm still not sure what time I'd like to start. You can start Friday night or Saturday morning (obviously), which will be a great kick off to my summer in Hawaii. I'm always in such desperate need for R&R, so this will be an excellent opportunity to lay low and get some valuable reading done. Here's what I think I'll be reading!:

To find out more about this great event, see MotherReader's blog for more information.