denise

Reverse Readathon: That’s a Wrap!

I’ve decided I like this reverse readathon thing. It’s officially over but it’s 8pm and what else are we going to do but read for another few hours? So, we get an extra four hours added to our readathon this way. I LIKE IT.

Here’s the final survey:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

I took a 20 minute nap at 4:30 p.m.

2. Tell us ALLLLL the books you read!

I finished Master Magician (I was 100 pages into it when the readathon started.)
I read Stray City in its entirety.
I finished a short story in Dear Sweet Filthy World (after trying to finish one for weeks.)
I’m 132 pages into Lady Jayne Disappears.

3. Which books would you recommend to other Read-a-thoners?

I’d recommend the all (though you should start with the first book in the Paper Magician trilogy.)

4. How did you feel about this first-ever Reverse Readathon? Should we do it again?

See above – loved it! Let’s definitely do it again.

5. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? Would you be interested in volunteering to help organize and prep in October?

I definitely want to do more readathons, they’re my favorite.

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Reverse Readathon: Mid-Event Survey

We turned off the light at midnight and were up at 8 a.m. and ready to go again. Well mostly ready to go again. The coffee has been made, the cinnamon rolls (oh, orange rolls actually) are in the oven. The dogs are using the bathroom and TW has the vacuum cleaner out cleaning up silica gel balls (don’t ask.) I read two paragraphs of a book of short stories, Dear Sweet Filthy World, while the coffee was brewing but that’s about it — so far. I’ll be back to it for reals as soon as the orange rolls are out of the oven.

On to the survey:

1. What are you reading right now?

I’m reading Stray City and the aforementioned Dear Sweet Filthy World.

2. How many books have you read so far?

I’ve just finished the one and am well into #2.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

Stray City, the one I’m reading now.

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

No real interruptions last night except going to sleep to get my 8 hours of sleep. 😉

5. What surprises you most about the Reverse Readathon so far?

I was a little worried about starting so late, taking that long sleep time, and then getting back to it but it seems like it might be ok… aside from the issue with the silica gel beads… I think we might do it this way again, the next time we do a fake readathon.

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The Master Magician

I finally, FINALLY finished The Master Magician. I started it a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t get into it. Too much work stress and then a trip to California and then the boys and their parents moved to Georgia and I just didn’t read a darn thing.

This book moved really quickly, once Ceony moved out of Magician Thane’s house. It also didn’t feel very suspenseful, which is interesting since they were fighting the Excisioner. Overall, I liked the book but I wish Ceony had really been recognized as a Master Magician.

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#ReverseReadathon Opening Survey

It’s been awhile since I did a readathon opening survey — I might have missed them. Maybe. A little.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

I’m reading from my bedroom in Keystone Heights, FL. I will probably also read from my living room, maybe from my kitchen bar, or my back deck, and I’ll probably drive around town for a pokemon run while listening to a book on audio, too.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Stray City, I hope I get to it!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Cheese. Always cheese.

(I’m snacking on some weird jerky called pizza in a bag and it’s…. weird. Really weird. I think I might like it. Sort of. I’m not sure. It’s really weird.)

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

This is the question I hate most. Does that count as a little something about myself? I think it does.

5) This is our VERY first Reverse Readathon! How does it feel in your time zone?

I’m worried about it. I’ll do 8pm-midnight but I’m pretty sure I’ll be asleep after that. (It’s been a very long work day/week/month/year.) I hope I can keep get started with it again in the morning. I think I can. I hope I can. I’m excited to try!

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Reverse Readathon!

Right about the time TW started bugging me about having a “fake” readathon, I saw the post saying there would be a Reverse Readathon in July. And, it’s actually on a weekend that works for us to participate! (Shocking, considering how busy our weekends have been and will be, for awhile.)

We didn’t prepare well with the reserving and checking out of special books and our snacks are heavy on processed food and sugar but we’re doing this and we’re darn excited about it. (And maybe I can actually finish a book?)

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Saving Montgomery Sole

I’m pretty sure Saving Montgomery Sole arrived because I saw a list of LGBTQ books during Pride month and I reserved a bunch.

This one is written by the author of Skim and if you’ve read Skim, I think the writing here will feel familiar. At least it felt familiar to me. The problem was that I didn’t particularly like Montgomery, though I understood her and why she was struggling. If empathy is all I can really summon for the main character, the book is not really going to be one of my favorites. (I liked all of the other characters more! Every single one of them. OK not the stupid minister.)

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The Girl Who Drank the Moon

We listened to The Girl Who Drank the Moon on audio and I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Some cute little creation type story about witches and swamp monsters and dragons. And it was all of that. It was also a cautionary tale about adoption, among other things.

I enjoyed it and think part of that is because I listened to the audio rather than reading the print version.

(Interestingly, I thought this was a Cybil but it’s not — it’s a Newberry. I wonder why it didn’t make it the Cybils. Odd. Seems very Cybil-like.)

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