#readathon morning
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Readathon Intro Kick Off
Yippee! (I’m kind of still getting some work done but the spam can wait for me to introduce myself and eat the first yummy food of the day…)
1) I’m reading from Chicagoland — mostly the bedroom but also from the back porch and the office and maybe the front porch if the weather holds.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? — tough question. Probably Spellbound.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? — another tough question, they’re all going to be yummy. Probably the braided mozzarella.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! — what? no! no time for that! I have to get some work done before I can officially start. Click About Me up there instead, ‘k?
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’ve tossed some zines into the reading mix this year, and I’m going to make extra sure not to do more work than absolutely necessary. No workplace distractions for me!
Happy #Readathon! Now excuse me while I wolf down a cranberry scone and grab my first book!
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Readathon – Eve!
Tomorrow is one of my two favorite days of the year – Readathon Day! Yippee!
I dragged TW to Trader Joe’s this morning and picked up snacks for the big day (she picked up some to take with her to her Prom/mommy weekend readathon in Des Moines.) I have cranberry scones for breakfast. I’ll have spaghetti sandwiches (on the Italian loaf I bought at TJ’s) with my leftover Creamy Crock Pot Spaghetti that’s cooking right now for lunch. I have vegetable bird nests for dinner. In between, I’ve got a black bean salsa, falafel chips, quinoa & black bean tortilla chips, braided mozzarella, chocolate covered pomegranates, and olive oil popcorn.
I’ve finally decided which books I’m going to focus on and here’s a photo (pretend you can see a couple of eBooks in there, too.)
I tossed some ‘zines I’ve been meaning to read onto the top, those will be nice when I need a bit of a break. And, I’m amused that NieNie’s book is on the stack – during last spring’s readathon, I read Ree’s book. Spring seems to be a good time for BlogHer blogger’s books, doesn’t it?
Wonderstruck
I’ve been putting off reading Wonderstruck because it’s a really, really big book for a middle grade graphic novel. I was waiting until I was in the right mood for reading what I imagined might be a book that wasn’t easy to follow – black and white pictures, and lots of ‘em. Even though Elly read it ages ago and said it was good… I put it off.
Then a couple of days ago, I realized it was not JUST a graphic novel, but a graphic novel and a written novel. Well shoot, I could have handled that weeks ago.
So I picked it up last night and LOVED it. Brilliantly done – two different people, from two different eras. One child’s story told in words, another child’s story told in images – until those stories merged. Brilliant. Why haven’t I read Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret? I must read it – soon.
The Gilly Salt Sisters
I really, really liked The Little Giant of Aberdeen County and was really excited to start reading The Gilly Salt Sisters. But, it started off really slow. I tried not to let that get to me because I remember some slow points from Little Giant, too… but, The Gilly Salt Sisters had a few too many slow points and I found myself tempted to skim a lot more than I’d like.
I also did not love the end – as in the very, very, very end like the last chapter end. What was the point of that jumping so far forward? Take my advice and stop with chapter 30. Or, if you really need a tiny bit more – read a few pages into chapter 32 and then quit. That’s all you need. The rest was just a letdown and left me saying, “huh?”.
Now I want something salty. Or maybe salty-sweet.
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One Cybil – One Not
How could I not love Sylvie, the little flamingo who decided she wanted to try being all sorts of different colors by eating things other than little pink shrimp. Cute. Very cute. I liked it.
Blackout was nice, too — and this was the Cybil. I liked the illustrations better than the story – which was just a little predictable.
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Swordspoint
Ages ago, we read a book that I only barely remember – a gender bending story about swordsplay called The Privilege of the Sword. It was good, even though I can only barely remember what it was about. Then, a couple of weeks ago I saw that book on the library shelves. It made me wonder if the author had written any other books… she has and I read Swordspoint this week.
Not a gender bender but gay swordsman and gay Lords and it was good. Very good. The problem is – I’ve read the darn things out of order now. It looks like The Privilege of the Sword came much later… Alec is young in this story and old in Privilege of the Sword. Darn it. I hate reading books out of order and now I need to read the second book in the series and quite possibly re-read The Privilege of the Sword after that.
Sacre’\ Bleu
I love Chris Moore. I should just leave it at that. It’s enough. Really. Except that Sacre Bleu is a beautiful book. The cover is GORGEOUS – I want a t-shirt with the cover on it. Seriously. How about a laptop bag? We could make the cover of this book the new Monet’s Water Lilies and have it printed on EVERY THING and sold in art galleries and gift shops all over the world. We should. It would be awesome.
If you liked Lamb or Fool, you will love Sacre Bleu. If you haven’t read either of those, what the hell are you waiting for?
Below Stairs
Oops. I forgot to blog Below Stairs – I finished it days ago. It was kind of fun, and a wee bit interesting. I’d have probably enjoyed it more if I was a Downton Abby watcher or if I’d recently seen Upstairs, Downstairs (which I enjoyed when I was a kid.) I spent a lot of time looking up things like Scotch Woodcock and Gentleman’s Relish, which is what happens when I read a book like Below Stairs. Heh.