Read-a-thon Mini Update

Oh my goodness, how can people out there have been doing this for 19 hours straight? I have been going for about 6 or 7 and I am totally restless. It has taken me the last couple of hours to get a few chapters into a book, I can't maintain focus!! Hope everyone else is getting through what they wanted to - only 4 hours to go!

Hour 18 Update

Title of current read: Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

Title of book(s) read since last update: Moral Hazard by Kate Jennings

Number of books read since you started: 3

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 6 hours? I am losing track

Mini-challenges completed: Get the Heck out of Here Mini Challenge, Bookish Movies, Where in the World are You Reading, Romancing Your Friendship, Mid Event Challenge and Get Up and Move Challenge.

Other participants you’ve visited: Lots and lots.

Prize you’ve won: Nil :-(

Get the Heck Out of Here Mini Challenge

This challenge is hosted at The Literate Housewife Review!

These are the questions that she has asked us to answer:

1. What steps did you take to ensure you’d be able to read as much as possible today?

I am at home alone. I don't think I could have done it if someone else had been here to distract me. I made sure that the books I decided to read were shortish books, and I have a pile next to my reading place ready to go. I have chosen the sunniest place in the house so that there is good light, and sun, which should should keep me going through the rest of the read-a-thon. I have made sure that I have had breaks when I needed, and I put time aside to stop reading for a lunch break, very important for mental and physical health. No television, just music in the background.

1. Of those steps, which proved to be the most beneficial to your day?

Definitely having a good reading space. It is so bright and warm here (without being warm enough to send me to sleep) that I can keep reading and reading.

1. Is there anything you might do differently next time?

Next time I will try and go the full 24 hours. I am a person that needs sleep, and I have a big criminal trial starting on Monday in which I am the instructing solicitor, so I knoew that this time around I couldn't afford to tire myself out right before work this week. Next time though, I think I will do all the same things, but try and aim for the full 24 hours. I know my hardest times will be throughout the night, so I think the plan will be that when I find myself slipping into sleep, I will get up and go for a walk to refresh myself.

Hour 16 Update

Title of current read: Moral Hazard by Kate Jennings. I have to admit that I am not enjoying this one at all.

Title of book(s) read since last update: Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom

Number of books read since you started: 2

Running total of time spent reading since you started: 5 hours 2 minutes

Mini-challenges completed: Bookish Movies, Where in the World are You Reading, Romancing Your Friendship, Mid Event Challenge and Get Up and Move Challenge.

Other participants you’ve visited: Too many to count, but I haven't been as good at commenting as I should be. Too focused on reading.

Prize you’ve won: Nil :-(

Bookish Movies Mini Challenge

Lydia at The Lost Entwife is hosting this one - what book would like you turned into a movie and who would play one of the main characters?

I am going to choose Father Frank by Paul Burke.

I reviewed it here in my meme A Blast from the Past.

I love this book because it a lighthearted exploration of important issues - religion, love, honesty and coming to know yourself. Briefly, it is the story of a Roman Catholic Priest who doesn't believe in God, but loves his job. It is not until he falls in love that he re-thinks his life path.

I think that I would have Ashley Judd playing the role of Sarah Marshall, the woman that makes Frank question his life choices.

Read-a-thon Mini Update

Now that it is getting closer to 11.00am I feeling the pressure to get through some more books. So, I have decided to shake things up:

• I have had a second shower, washed and blow dried my hair and got changed;

• I have put a big pot of coffee on the stove and it is currently brewing, tempting me with the delicious coffee smells;

• I have put some crumpets on to toast for breakfast;

• I have changed location - I am now all set up in the dining room which is the sunniest room in the house;
  

• I have put some music on - MAX channel on foxtel, which I have playing through the stereo. They are currently playing the top 25 High School songs, followed by the Top 100 Albums of all time, so that should give me some variety throughout the day; and

• I have chosen a lot of books (more than I will get through) and put them in a big pile just next to me.

The books in my challenge TBR pile are:

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving),

• Moral Hazard (Kate Jennings),

• Surfacing (Margaret Atwood),

• Remembering Babylon (David Malouf)and

• Selected Stories (Anton Chekov).

Anyone have any tips about which to tackle next?

Romancing Your Friendship Mini Challenge

Emma by Jane Austen

My choice for this mini-challenge (hosted at Star Shadow Creative Mishaps) is Emma and Mr Knightly.

Here is the back of the book: First published in 1816, Jane Austen's EMMA is about an unconventional heroine--and one whom Austen thought no one but herself would like. Emma Woodhouse is bright, beautiful, and rich; she is also snobbish and judgmental, and she can be cruel, with a tendency to interfere in other people's lives. The novel chronicles Emma's attempts to make a match between a hapless vicar who is, in fact, enamored of Emma herself, and her friend Harriet, a poor and simple young woman in love with a farmer. Unlike many of Austen's heroines, Emma is possessed of very little good sense; her absurd machinations complicate the lives of everyone involved--and, needless to say, get nowhere. Emma, however, learns from her mistakes and gains some badly needed insight into herself as she discovers her feelings for the older, steady, aristocratic Mr. Knightley. The novel moves toward a not unexpected but perfectly satisfying conclusion, and in the process introduces Austen's usual cast of amusing, pretentious, hypocritical, and/or dim-witted characters, including the appalling, nouveau riche Mrs. Elton, and Emma's widowed father, one of the most insufferable (and delightful) neurotics in literature.

I first read this book when I was in High School and absolutely fell in love. I love Emma for all her weaknesses and good intentions. I love that her friendship with Mr Knightly was fun and light, and yet from it came such a strong and ardent love. I love that they each had faults and strengths that complimented each other so wonderfully. I love that it took them so long to realise their true feelings for each other - I think for a lot of people, it is time that makes such feelings clear and these two are an example of that. The more time you spend getting to know someone, the closer to them you feel and this is where their love comes from.

It is for these reasons that I think they should be the top friends to lovers couple.

Dewey's Read-a-thon 12 hours

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now? Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom

2. How many books have you read so far? 2

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? That's really tricky, all of them!

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Not really, but if my DP hadn't have happened to co-incidentally been at work I wouldn't have been able to do this.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? The only interruption was sleep. Now its morning, so no interruptions yet. I know that at 3.00pm my time a friend will be coming over to drop off a bike, so I am hoping that I can send them away pretty quickly without being to rude,

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How many people are participating!

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not at this stage, I will have to think about it.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? Put my foot down and try and do the 24hours.

9. Are you getting tired yet? Nope.

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? Not really, but if I think of any I will let everyone know!

Dewey's Read-a-thon Hour 11 (+mini challenge)

I am finally getting around to a new post about the read-a-thon. I wasn't able to stay awake so I had to have some sleep, but it is now 9.00am Sydney time and I am back to reading.

I have just started a book called Lost in Paradise by Cees Nooteboom. I first heard about this book almost a year ago at the Sydney Writers Festival, where I saw the author read from the book to a room of a few hundred people. He really fascinated me and the book sounded wonderful. I never got around to reading it, but when I went the library yesterday to look at books for the read-a-thon, I saw this sitting on the shelf. It hadn't even occurred to me to look for it. So I took this as a sign and borrowed it. I can't wait to get started!

I hope that everyone else is going strong, especially those that haven't caved in like me and had a nice refreshing snooze.

Get up and Move Challenge

As soon as I woke up I checked the Read-a-thon website and saw the Get Up and Move Challenge by Jehra. I figured this was a great way to wake up and get into it.

So I got out of bed, got straight into my walking gear and did a lap around the block. Perfect way to wake up. I had a quick shower, got back into my pyjamas, set my laptop up in the bedroom and now I am comfortably back in bed ready to read!

And that's my little update for now.

Go readers!

Dewey's Read-a-thon plan

Well,I have decided to participate in the Read-a-thon, which starts at 10pm Australian time.

I know that I won't be able to read straight though the night, I am definitely someone who needs her sleep. I will, however try and read as long as a I can tomorrow. I will read from when I wake up until the end of the read-a-thon at 10pm Sunday.

I borrowed a couple of books from the library and I have the world's longest TBR list so I should get through a few I hope.

I can't wait!

Mini Blog-a-thon II

I had a mini blog-a-thon on the weekend which you can read about here.

I was actually very very productive, but there are still some things that need doing, so I am posting them here to keep myself accountable. I need to review The Spare Room by Helen Garner. I need to rate my reviews prior to my bringing in my star rating system. I need to change my links at the top of my blog and I need to add my new challenge to the challenges page.

There you have it. Now I will have to do them all because I have announced it publicly :-)

Deweys Readathon - I NEED HELP!

Hi everyone,

I have decided that I think I would like to participate in Dewey's Read-a-thon which I never done before but I have a couple of questions:

1. I can't figure out what time I am supposed to start in Sydney. It says that it starts 12noon GMT - how do I figure out what time that is in Sydney?
2. Is it ok to read for a total of 24 hours over the weekend, rather than 24 hours straight?

Thanks for your help!!!

Mini Blog-a-thon

These two little rabbits aren't quite as cute as mine (even though as I type they are in the progress of tearing their cage apart) but they are cute nonetheless!

Anyway....

Easter is over, and I have the day to myself. So, I have decided to have a mini bog-a-thon today.

Reviews
There are 4 book reviews that I am behind on - The Legacy by Kirstin Tranter, The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, The Double Crown by Marie Heese and The Spare Room by Helen Garner.

Additional
I also want to write about a post about the book club I went to recently, and I have a new idea for a challenge. I know that its late in the year to be starting a new challenge, but even if it's only me participating in it I think I will have fun with it.

Progress Report
The Legacy review begun
The Legacy review posted
The Portrait of a Lady review begun
The Portrait of a Lady review scheduled for 07/04/10
New Challenge: 'The My Name Book Challenge' post created
The Double Crown review completed and saved
Through the Looking Glass review scheduled 06/04/2010
Author interview questions emailed to the authors