The 24-Hour Read-A-Thon: Continued

After a good night’s sleep it’s time to continue 24 Hour Read-a-thon! More than 300 book bloggers and other book lovers all over the world are reading as much as they can within 24 hours. Some will read 6 hours, some will try and read the full 24 hours. I wonder how many are still going!

I’ve got 6 more hours left until the read-a-thon is over so I’m going to read, read, read. I’ll leave an update every now and then. Check out my progress from yesterday HERE.

Come back if you like to check up on me and cheer me on. If you’re also taking part, leave me a comment and I’ll come and visit you too.

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After waking up (yesterday plus some bed-time reading): 7 hours of reading time and 247 pages. It’s 8 am now.

I’m reading The Four Fingers of Death (continuing at page 150) and I’ve Got Your Number (also at page 150) .

Hour 22 -  Still reading I’ve Got Your Number. Since I actually have a chance to finish this book (the only book I CAN finish now) I better keep reading it. I’m at page 237 of 306 so that should be easy enough. Then, if there’s time, I’ll continue in the other book.

I’ve also been cheerleading as that was my task. Not that many people seem to be around now, but can you blame them?

Read 87 pages since earlier, total of 334 pages and erm no idea how many hours. I’m guessing: about 9. Yes, it seems I’m reading VERY slowly… I’m actually a fast reader but this one book is SO dense!

FINAL UPDATE HOUR 25 – I’ve read another 46 pages in The Four Fingers of Death. I’m now at page 196.

Total read: 380 pages

Finished: 1.25 books

Hours Read: about 11.5 includes some social media too AND I did cheerleading for about 45 minutes

End of event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
I was very tired at 1am, which was Hour 12 for me.  By then, I was in bed reading but I had to put the book away as the story in my head started to diverge from that in the book.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

I think something like The Time Traveller’s Wife would be good, Chocolate by Jane Harris, chick-lit by Marian Keyes.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Not really. I would like an End of Event post on the website. Now it finishes at hour 24 when there is still an hour to go.

4.What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

From what I saw, the mini-challenges were up on time and were fun to do.

5. How many books did you read?

1 book and a quarter way into the next book

6. What were the names of the books you read?

The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody (I read 196 of 730 pages)

 I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella(all 306 pages)

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

The Four Fingers of Death

8. Which did you enjoy least?

I’ve Got Your Number

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

For the participants, not the cheerleaders: make clear on your latest post when you’re going to sleep (or out) so we don’t have to guess whether we should be cheerleading you or not.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

100% I was happy as reader and cheerleader so I’d do that again

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These are the books I’m planning to read:

That’s two English books and two in Dutch (although they are all available in English so I’ll give you the English titles):

• The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody
• Sister by Rosamond Lupton
• I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
• The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

Are you participating? What are you reading?

Please leave a link to your starting post so I can easily find you.

The 24-Hour Read-A-Thon Is Starting!

It’s time to start the 24 Hour Read-a-thon! More than 300 book bloggers and other book lovers all over the world will be reading as much as they can within 24 hours. Some will read 6 hours, some will try and read the full 24 hours.

Everyone starts at the same time, 12 GMT, which is 2pm for me here in the Netherlands.

I’ll read as much as I can as I have no other commitments (of course not! I kept this weekend free for the read-a-thon). I’ll update (probably) hourly – for today in this post and tomorrow in a new post. So you won’t see new posts from me every hour – that would be too much!

Come back if you like to check up on me and cheer me on. If you’re also taking part, leave me a comment and I’ll come and visit you too.

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Introductory Questionnaire:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Utrecht, the Netherlands, Europe.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I’m keen to finally read I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella. Should be a nice and easy read.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I’m not looking forward to… I’m enjoying already…  Trish’ Blueberry Cake

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m 40+, I bought myself a beautiful mug yesterday (I collect Emma Bridgewater stuff), I took my son to the library to choose a fiction book for school rather than starting the Readathon right on 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? Against all advice, I’m reading a BIG book, 730 pages, and it’s not an easy read either. 

Update 1 - 16:00 Hour 0-2 I read 25 pages in The Four Fingers of Death and I read for about 45 minutes.

The book is dense, big and totally unsuitable for a readathon. I’ll stick with it for a bit longer as I am enjoying it at the moment. I started late – had to take son to library for a suitable fiction book for school and am spending too much time on Twitter and other participants blogs. On the other hand, that is fun too!

Update 2 - 18:00 Hour 3-4 I read  55 pages in The Four Fingers of Death and I read for 90 minutes. [total 80 pages and 2 hours 15 mins].

I’m enjoying the book but it’s oh-so slow! It’s dinner time which my husband will take care of. Just a few simple things involving opening bags and tins.

Update 3 - 21:00 Hour 5-7 I read  29 pages in The Four Fingers of Death (to page 115); I then started in I’ve Got Your Number  and read 51 pages  (to page 58) and I read for 150 minutes. [total 160 pages and 4 hours 30 mins].

I had dinner, am watching The Voice (UK) while reading and I had too many chocolate eggs that were left over from Easter.

NEWEST! Update 4 - 00.30 Hour 8-10 I read  52 pages in I’ve Got Your Number (to page 110) and 35 pages in The Four Fingers of Death (to page 150)  and I read for 120 minutes. [total 247 pages and 6 hours 30 mins].

That’s enough for one day! I’m off to bed and will be back bright and early (oh yeah?) tomorrow morning!

—> Check out THIS post for my Sunday updates! <—

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These are the books I’m planning to read:

That’s two English books and two in Dutch (although they are all available in English so I’ll give you the English titles):

• The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody – a slow read – I’m at page 150 now
• Sister by Rosamund Lupton – Who knows? I may make it to this one… but I doubt it
• I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella – a quick read – I’m at page 110 now
• The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell – I’ll never get round to this one, at least not during the readathon

I’m starting with The Four Fingers of Death and will then read I’ve Got Your Number. I’m expecting to finish two, maybe three books at the very most, but you never know. From experience I know I always read less than I would like.

I’ve bought some nice food to keep me happy. If you need any food ideas see this guest post by Kristin of Peace, Love, and Muesli about good foods for the read-a-thon.

This time around I’m also a cheerleader. I’m in Team Falstaff so keep a look out for me. I’m scheduled to cheer towards the final hours of the readathon. But if you leave a comment, I’ll come and find you any time!

Are you participating? What will you be reading?

Please leave a link to your starting post so I can easily find you.

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Update 1

This wekend is the Thankfully Reading Weekend that lasts until Sunday night. The organisers call it “An excuse to do an obscene amount of reading over the long Thanksgiving weekend!”

This is my list…

How it’s going

• A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. I was 2/3s into this book before the read-a-thon started. I finished this one on Friday – 167 pages
  
• The Secret Shopper Unwrapped by Kate Harrison. This seems an ideal book to get into the Christmas mood. Started Friday, page 1-22 – 21 pages on Friday, and 65 so far on Saturday. Later on the Saturday: I finished this book: -392 = 371 pages).
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. A memoir about bringing up your children (or how not to). Sounds like another easy read. I finished this book on Sunday pages 3-240 = 237 pages
• The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. In Dutch, about a 100-year old man who disappears from his nursing home just before the birthday celebrations. On Sunday, I read 60 pages of this very funny book.

Friday, I read a total of 188 pages. Not a great deal, but here in the Netherlands it was a normal day for us.

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Saturday, I read a total of 371 pages and finished my second book.

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Sunday, I read 297 pages and finished my third book.

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Total: 856 pages over the long weekend, two whole books, one end of a book, and one beginning. That’s more than normal, that’s for sure!

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Mini-challenge

Jenn asks what book we’re especially thankful for. I’ve been thinking, and it’s not so much one book but a type of book that I’m thankful for:

Lately, I’ve won some books in giveaways, and when they arrived at my home, they turned out to be hardbacks. I’ve never really been a hardback person, but I’ve been finding it more and more a real treat to receive a hardback copy of a book.

So, whenever I get one, I’m really, really thankful. Sounds odd? Read my review of The Night Circus where I do mention the physical aspects of the book a few times. I also got a beautiful copy of The Beauty of Humanity Movement, Low Town, and The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, among others.

It seems I love hardbacks! I never knew, because I’ve always been a pile them high, buy them cheap kind of woman when it comes to books. No more!

What book are you thankful for?

Thankfully Reading Weekend: Starting Post

Today, Friday, is the start of the Thankfully Reading Weekend that lasts until Sunday night. The organisers call it “An excuse to do an obscene amount of reading over the long Thanksgiving weekend!”

My Friday here in the Netherlands is a standard Friday and I’m doing NaNoWriMo, which means I’ll be writing as well reading (but I’m ahead of schedule, so all is well). Anyway, I’ll do my best to do a relatively obscene amount of reading.

I’ve got enough books that I’d like to get through before the end of the year, so from those I chose the following for this weekend:

• A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. I’m already reading this (p 225 out of 392) and it’s alternately fun and boring. Update: I finished this one (Friday) – 167 pages
• The Secret Shopper Unwrapped by Kate Harrison. This seems an ideal book to get into the Christmas mood. Update: Started Friday, page 1-onwards
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. A memoir about bringing up your children (or how not to). Sounds like another easy read.
• The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. In Dutch, about a 100-year old man who disappears from his nursing home just before the birthday celebrations.

As always, this looks like too many books, but it’s something to aim for. I’d hope to finish the first three books and make a dent in the fourth.

Are you joining in? Sign up HERE.

Two Read-A-Thons and a Final Challenge for 2011

When you think you can quietly (or not so quietly) enjoy Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas, and Christmas, there come the book bloggers with some more events to keep you busy.

Two read-a-thons and a getting ready for 2012 event. Maybe you want to join in! I do.

Thankfully Reading Weekend

Spend your Thanksgiving weekend (or if you don’t do Thanksgiving: it’s this coming weekend) reading!

There are no real rules: just to read as much as you can during Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There will be mini-challenges and giveaways.

You can sign up at Jenn’s Book Shelves HERE. Over 60 people already did! Hope to see you there!

Belated Readathon

The Belated Readathon is organised by Dead White Guys and The Souls of Thought and is “For Those Who Forgot About the Last One or Were Out of Town or Slept Through it or Whatever.”

The read-a-thon runs from 7am Saturday December 3rd until 7 am Sunday December 4th. A real 24 hour read-a-thon. So read into the early hours and join the other participants HERE.

Get Read-y for 2012

Not a read-a-thon, but a final challenge to get as many books off your shelves as possible, before the new year starts.

This is organised by Loving Books and runs for the whole of December, with weekly check-ins and a giveaway.

The goal is to reduce your to-be-read pile, and especially any review books that you haven’t got round to so you can start 2012 with a more manageable pile of books.

More information HERE and sign up on the Mr Linky on December 1st.

Will you find the time to participate?

The 24-Hour Read-A-Thon: Continued

After a good night’s sleep it’s time to continue 24 Hour Read-a-thon! More than 400 book bloggers and other book lovers all over the world are reading as much as they can within 24 hours. Some will read 6 hours, some will try and read the full 24 hours. I wonder how many are still going!

I’ve got 6 more hours left until the read-a-thon is over so I’m going to read, read, read. I’ll leave an update every now and then.

Come back if you like to check up on me and cheer me on. If you’re also taking part, leave me a comment and I’ll come and visit you too.

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Currently (yesterday plus some bed-time reading): 8.15 hours of reading time and 636 pages. It’s 8am now.

I’m reading My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock (continuing at page 59).

Update 1: I’m still reading My Year with Eleanor, 739 pages total read and 10 hours.

For the mini-challenge we are asked to zombify a book that we’re reading for the readathon.

In my book, My Year With Eleanor, the author is facing her fears, every day she’s doing something scary.

Zombified version: Noelle Hancock is afraid of a lot, and swimming (in a cage) with sharks is one of the things she undertakes. Unfortunately, there are no sharks in the water, but water-zombie who are far worse. They stick their arms through the bars and she barely escapes!

In another task, she runs naked through her apartment hall where luckily she doesn’t meet any neighbors but when zombies are hanging from her hair she escapes back into her apartment closing the door on their bodies. Body parts all over the kitchen but her boyfriend helps cleaning up. As she loses her fear for other scary things, she becomes more and more scared of zombies. But that’s another book.

Final update: The end! I made it! I read a total of ALMOST 3 books (867 pages) and I did that in 12 hours.

End of event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Actually, the final hour, that was lunch time here in the Netherlands and we were also preparing to go on a visit, AND my sons were baking cookies which needed supervising. A lot going on at the same time.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I would say chick-lits are usually quite good. I read a great mystery, What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French which kept me going quite happily for a few hours.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Not for the organisation, but for myself: maybe I should be more involved and become a cheerleader or a giver.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Twitter! It was a great way to find out who was still reading when we got to the final few hours.
5. How many books did you read? Almost 3 (finished the 3rd one after the readathon).
6. What were the names of the books you read?
• What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French
• My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
• The Book Club by Marjolijn Februari
7. Which book did you enjoy most?  Not sure, maybe What To Do When Someone Dies.
8. Which did you enjoy least? Probably The Book Club because it was more literary than the others so a slower read (which isn’t so handy for a readathon)
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 love readathons! I would want to be a cheerleader and maybe also give away a book.

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These are the books I’m planning to read:

That’s two English books and two in Dutch (although they are all available in English so I’ll give you the English titles):

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French
• My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
• The Book Club by Marjolijn Februari

Are you participating? What are you reading?

Please leave a link to your starting post so I can easily find you.

The 24-Hour Read-A-Thon Is Starting!

It’s time to start the 24 Hour Read-a-thon! More than 400 book bloggers and other book lovers all over the world will be reading as much as they can within 24 hours. Some will read 6 hours, some will try and read the full 24 hours.

Everyone starts at the same time, 12 GMT, which is 2pm for me here in the Netherlands.

I’ll read as much as I can as I have no other commitments (of course not! I kept this weekend free for the read-a-thon). I’ll update (probably) hourly – for today in this post and tomorrow in a new post. So you won’t see new posts from me every hour – that would be too much!

Come back if you like to check up on me and cheer me on. If you’re also taking part, leave me a comment and I’ll come and visit you too.

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Update 1 - Hour 0-1 I read 52 pages in The Book Club and I read for 45 minutes. The postman came and brought another book, a review book called Men Dancing by Cherry Radford (which I will not read for the read-a-thon, though).

The first assignment from read-a-thon head quarters is to tell a bit about ourselves:

1)Where are you reading from today? I’m in a small town near Utrecht, the Netherlands

2)Three random facts about me…I’ve been on a nice cycle ride just before the read-a-thon for some exercise, my sons play way too much on the computer, I need to plant some bulbs soon

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? I’ve got 4 books in the planning, expecting to read 2.5

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)? The 2.5 books would be nice, 3 is even better. I want to spend 45 minutes reading and 15 minutes other things (incl. computer) every hour.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?  Have fun! Don’t get distracted by the computer too much. Set times for when you can check your email/blog etc.

Update 2 - Hour 1-2 I read 59 pages in The Book Club and I read for 45 minutes (110 pages and 1.5 hours).

Character Photo Mini-challenge – choose a character in your book and take a picture representing that person. In The Book Club there is a journalist, Viktor Herwig, so I took the following picture:

Update 3 - Hour 2-4 I read 99 pages in The Book Club and I read for 45 minutes (209 pages and 3 hours).

Mini-challenge: books which have good representations of the state they take place in:

• Caribou Island by David Vann – Alaska
• The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle – California
• Duma Key by Stephen King – Florida

Update 4 - Hours 5-8. I read 36 pages in The Book Club and started a new book, What To Do When Someone Dies, of which I read 199 pages so far.  (total 443 pages and 6 hours of reading time).

No more mini-challenges. But I had dinner and tried to block out the tv (Merlin) as I don’t really want to move somewhere else (where it will be lonely and cold). So I’m staying with the family in the living room.

Update 5 - Hours 9-11. I finished What To Do When Someone Dies and started in My Year With Eleanor. 8 hours total and 606 pages.

But it’s after midnight here and really time to hit the sack. I’ll be back tomorrow morning and read some more. Good luck and see you then!

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These are the books I’m planning to read:

That’s two English books and two in Dutch (although they are all available in English so I’ll give you the English titles):

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• What To Do When Someone Dies by Nicci French
• My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
• The Book Club by Marjolijn Februari

I’m starting with The Book Club and will then read What To Do When Someone Dies. I’m expecting to get somewhere half-way a third book but that will probably be it. From experience I know I always read less than I would like.

I’ve bought some nice food to keep me happy. If you need any food ideas see this guest post by Kristin of Peace, Love, and Muesli about good foods for the read-a-thon. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to bake anything this time.

Are you participating? What will you be reading?

Please leave a link to your starting post so I can easily find you.