Almost time for the readathon!

Saturday is the Dewey Readathon! For one day in April and October each year, if other obligations don’t get in the way, I spend one whole day reading. It’s always so much fun and I get a ton of reading done. Heather and Andi are the incredible ladies who help organize the whole thing and you can get more details at the official site. 

This will be my 10^th time participating in the event. TEN TIMES!!! You can see little Ollie pup above during my very first Dewey readathon in 2011 and then Ollie during my last readathon in October. He's been my cuddle buddy during each one. So for fun I tallied up the number of books and pages I read in previous Dewey Readathons. In the nine I've participated in, I read a total of 10,113 pages and 43 books! 
 

Saturday I will be reading from 8 am until whenever I fall asleep. I have my stack of books ready to go. It will be interesting to see how my first readathon with an infant goes. Sydney is three months old now and I have a feeling she's going to make reading a little trickier. 

If you're thinking about joining the fun I'd highly recommend it!

Here's a few tips that have worked for me: 

1) Pull together a stack of books in advance. I like having a wide variety of young adult novels, plays, graphic novels, mysteries, etc. I don't like diving into heavy classics during a readathon.

2) Have good snacks ready to go and plan your meals in advance. I usually go to Trader Joes and pick out a few treats (chocolate covered pretzels, guacamole, etc). Then I get a slow cooker meal ready to go the night before. Or sometimes just get something out of the freezer to thaw for dinner. I snack throughout the readathon, but not just on junk food.

3) Don't make other plans. It's way more fun to read all day and not worry about how long you have left before you have to get dressed and leave the house.

4) Set a few social media rules for yourself. The readathon community is 2/3 of the fun, but if you're on the computer all day then you definitely aren't reading. I give myself at least the first 10 minutes of each hour to cheer at other blogs, tweet, update my post, and check the new challenges, etc. After that I move away from the screen and back to the books. Figure out what works for you, maybe it's only checking in every third hour or something.

5) Possibly my weirdest tip... don't just pick out your big stack of books in advance, tally the pages and type up the authors and titles too! Instead of wasting time during the readathon, I like to make a list of the books I think I might read in advance. That way I can just pull the page count, author, etc. from that list when I'm updating my post. This is particularly helpful for audiobooks. I like to start a new audiobook (something shorter and fun) the day of the readathon. I try to finish the book during the day and I look up the page count in advance so I can keep track easily. 

Happy reading!

PAST READATHON POSTS:

April and October 2011  /  April and October 2012 / April and October 2013 / April 2014 / April and October 2015.

Photos by me. 

Dewey 24 Hour Readathon!

******************    UPDATED HOUR 18  *****************

Pages Read: 1,613
Currently Reading: King John by William Shakespeare 

Books Finished: 7: Go Ask Alice, Enchanted Night, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Whale Rider, The Missing Golden Ticket, Blankets and The Magician's Elephant

Breaks Taken: 5: ran on the treadmill, laundry, chat with friendly new neighbors, and making food

Snacks Eaten: Guacamole and chips, breakfast at IHOP, lots of coffee, blackberries, salad, brie and apple chips.

Music Listened To: Bach, Cat Power, Head and the Heart

Mini-Challenges Completed: 7

Blogs Visited and Commented On: 52

End of Event Meme: 
Which hour was most daunting for you? 16
 
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? We Have Always Lived in the Castle, A Streetcar Named Desire, and AD: The Deluge. 

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Honestly no, you guys are awesome.
 
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The cheerleaders were so organized! I loved that Heather split them into groups to cheer on specific platforms.  

How many books did you read? Seven! 

What were the names of the books you read? Go Ask Alice, Enchanted Night, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Whale Rider, The Missing Golden Ticket, Blankets and The Magician's Elephant
 
Which book did you enjoy most? Blankets and The Witch of Blackbird Pond
 
Which did you enjoy least? Enchanted Night
 
If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I cheered for 3 to 5 blogs each hour and that split it up nicely for me. I like that more than taking a big chunk of time just to cheer. 

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Definitely! I will be both a reader and cheerleader and maybe host a mini challenge or something.

Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now? Blankets by Craig Thompson
 
2. How many books have you read so far? 4 completed books
 
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I think I might need a comfort re-read to keep going and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be perfect.
 
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? I made sure to avoid scheduling anything today and the Huz is keeping me company.
 
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? A few, I tried not to get to worried about missing reading time.
 
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I haven't taken a nap yet! This is the first readathon with no nap for me!
 
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I know you guys say it every year, but stressing that people should turn off word verification on comments is always great for cheerleaders. 
 
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I have figured out quite a few things that work for me. I would probably take allergy medicine earlier in the day next spring because my sinuses are going nuts.
 
9. Are you getting tired yet? Surprisingly, no!
 
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? For me I really like cheering for about 5 blogs per hour. That way my comments stay fresh and it gives me a short reading break.
 

 
HOUR 10 Mini Challenge: Shelfie hosted by The Book Monsters


HOUR 7 Mini Challenge: Six Word Celebration 
hosted by Estella's Revenge 

Books, snacks, naps, it's Dewey day!!!

HOUR 6 Mini Challenge: The Best of Your Reading Year 
hosted by Lisa's World of Books.

Best Supporting Character of Your Reading Year

Best Supporting Character: Almondine from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. One of the best characters I've encountered... and she's a dog!   

Best Fantasy Book: Tooth and Clawby Jo Walton, it's a re-telling of a Trollope novel with dragons.

Best Non-Fiction Book: At Home by Bill Bryson, he could make any topic interesting.

Hour 6 Mini Challenge: The Best of Your Reading Year - See more at: http://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/2014/hour-6-mini-challenge-best-reading-year#sthash.hS9y181M.dpuf

Hour 6 Mini Challenge: The Best of Your Reading Year - See more at: http://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/2014/hour-6-mini-challenge-best-reading-year#sthash.hS9y181M.dpuf

Hour 6 Mini Challenge: The Best of Your Reading Year - See more at: http://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/2014/hour-6-mini-challenge-best-reading-year#sthash.hS9y181M.dpuf

Introduction Quiz:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Indianapolis, IN
 
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Blankets by Craig Thompson
 
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Brie and crackers
 
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm turning 30 in May and I'm so excited about it! I'm taking a trip to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji in September and I've read 27 of Shakespeare's 37 plays.
 
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? This is my 7th readathon (I've linked to the others at the bottom of the post). Last time I was in Iowa visiting family. This time my whole day is about reading!

It’s Readathon time! For the past few years I’ve spent one day each April and October participating in the Dewey Readathon. It’s always so much fun and I get a ton of reading done. There’s a great sense of community, mini-challenges each hour, cheerleaders and prizes.  Heather and Andi are the incredible ladies who help organize the whole thing and you can get more details at the official site. 

Tomorrow I will be reading from 8 am until whenever I fall asleep! I have my stack of books ready to go (see my pile with Ollie pup above) and I will be cheering for at least 4 hours.

TIPS FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS:

- Have meals for your day ready to go. I’ve got chili already made for dinner. It gives you more time to read.

- Listen to an audiobook during events that can’t be avoided. If you have to do a bit of yard work or cooking, have an audiobook on while you work.

- Have snacks ready to go. I look forward to special snacks on readathon day, but don’t pick only stuff that’s bad for you or you’ll sugar crash pretty quickly!

A FEW NOTES: 
- I will be updating this post throughout the day so I don’t bomb people with half a dozen new posts.
- Please turn off your comment word verification for the day! It’s such a pain for cheerleaders.
- Tweet about your day with the hashtag #Readathon or by tagging @readathon 

PAST READATHON POSTS:

April and October 2011  /  April and October 2012 / April and October 2013

Start 2014 Write

I'm such a fan of writing REAL letters. There's nothing quite like getting a personal letter in the mail. That's been one thing I've loved about being a book blogger. The world is full of fellow letter lovers and over the past 4 years I've received some wonderful mail from other bloggers. 

So this venture, headed up by The Estella Society and Kailana from The Written World 
is right up my alley.

-You may send letters, postcards, or greeting cards, but you should write a significant, thoughtful message meant to brighten someone’s day. This may require you to poke around on their blog and get to know them better.
- Sign-ups end January 20
- Receive your assigned recipients by January 27
-You have the entire month of February to send your letters, postcards, cards, etc. All correspondence should be in the mail no later than February 28, 2014. 

You can find the complete details and sign up at The Estella Society or The Written World.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by Neil Gaiman

★★★★★

I have been so hesitant to write this review because of the absolute deluge of reviews I’ve already seen and also because I felt like I still needed to process it. It’s been a few weeks now and I think I can put my reaction into words. It’s funny that this book is so hard to review considering it’s less than 200 pages long.

We begin with our narrator, a forty-something adult returning home for a funeral. Soon he is bombarded with long-forgotten details from his childhood. When he was seven a series of odd events happened to him. An opal miner who was a lodger in his home commits suicide. Then his path crosses with the incredible Hempstock women, particularly the 11-year-old Lettie and around the same time he gains a new nanny, Ursula Monkton.

This fantastical walk down one boy’s memory lane brings up so many thoughts about our own childhood memories. How much is fact, how much is the fiction we tell ourselves? Can we trust our memories or have they become distorted with time and our worldview as a child?

“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences.”

Many of my favorite scenes in the book take place in the Hempstock women’s kitchen. It seems our young narrator is always eating. He describes the dishes in detail, mounds of shepherd’s pie, pancakes, etc. It paints such a picture of comfort and warmth and reminds me how food is such a strong trigger for memory.

I’m going to avoid sharing any major plot points, because the apprehension of not knowing what’s next is what makes the book impossible to put down. It is entirely a Gaiman novel in every sense of the word. So expect it to be a bit dark, include some fantasy elements and gorgeous writing. If you already love his work you won’t be disappointed.

BOTTOM LINE: For me it was a beautiful and strange novel. It was short, but it’s been a few weeks since I read it and I keep thinking about different aspects of the story. It raises questions and answers others. Gaiman’s writing brought all these elements together to create something I know I’ll return to again and again.

 “That’s the trouble with living things. Don’t last very long. Kittens one day, old cats the next. And then just memories. And the memories fade and blend and smudge together…”

“I’m going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

For anyone who is new to Gaiman’s work but would like to try more I’ll refer you to a previous post of mine. I recommend books based on his work, but you can use the list in reverse, picking your next book by him based on work by other authors.

There have already been some beautiful reviews written about the bigger issues in this deceptively simple novel, memory, female portrayal in literature, fantasy elements in coming-of-age, etc.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

Things Mean a Lot

Estella’s Revenge

A post on the strength of female characters in the book.