Read-a-Thon Coverage Take 3

Update: 12:53 p.m., Sunday
I managed to read until almost 2 a.m., but I didn't have the energy to come back and check blogs anymore, nor to update mine. Sorry! I didn't mean to fall asleep either. I was reading and then thought I'd just rest my eyes for a second ... and didn't wake up until 7 a.m. I read again until 8:30, when I left for my long run. So, I think all together I did 15 hours of reading and 183 pages. Not such a great total, but at least I have something to beat for next year. Thanks everyone for cheering me on. The comments made my heart smile in a big way.

Update: 10:43 p.m.
I spent the last section of time reading one of my friend's blogs, which she just began posting on. It's a little risquee compared to my little book blog here, but she makes me laugh and I don't see here nearly enough so I'm glad I now have a connection to her through her writing. I also read more of David Sedaris' new book, which I've really enjoyed so far. I'm now up to 141 pages. Still kind of low, but definitely improving. My enthusiasm was wavering there for a bit, but I just took a shower to wake me up so I'm feeling refreshed and ready for the second half.

Update: 8 p.m. (hour 11)
Still reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
I managed to read 28 pages in the last couple of hours, which puts me at 105 pages for the day. I feel like this is really low compared to other readers. I never thought I read this slowly.

Anyhow, since my last update I also ate dinner and went for a walk as part of one of the mini-challenges. The walk was really nice, and Coco was really happy to have gotten out of the house. I haven't taken her running at all this week because she had a limp earlier in the week. She was walking fine today so I'm assuming her paw is healed. There was a nice breeze despite the 90-degree weather. And the best part was that I could finally see the sky! Here in Sacramento we've had a depressing haze of wildfire smoke suffocating us for nearly a week so I was glad to see blue skies again. Also, it smelled like jasmine outside. To me it's the smell of summer in California. I loved it. Oh, and the crows were cawing overhead. I think they were coming in to roost. Anyway, it was a nice break, so I was grateful for that challenge, and little Coco was as excited as ever to go for a walk. OK then, back to reading...


Update: 5:24 p.m. (hour 8?)
Still reading the same books, mostly Animal, Vegetable, Miracle this hour.
I'm up to 77 pages now (yes, another hour with only 11 pages read).
On the plus side I've managed to wean myself of checking the computer and reading all the blogs instead of focusing on my books so that's good, right? However, all this reading about food has gotten me hungry. I made banana-oatmeal muffins during a recent break (really, it doesn't take that long and I read while I was waiting for them to bake). Now my house smells delicious and I had a yummy snack before dinner. Next hour I want to read more than 11 pages and then I'm going to stop for a bit to prepare and eat dinner with my boyfriend. I should be back around 8:30. See you then!


Update: 3:51 p.m. (going on to hour 7)
What I'm Reading: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Pages Read This Hour: 24
Total Pages Read: 66
Books Completed: 0
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 2
Minutes Spent Blogging (reading and writing): 65

Updated 2:48 p.m. (Hour 5 - almost 6)
What I'm reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Pages read this hour: 11
Total pages read: 53
Books completed: 0
Mini-Challenges Participated in: 2
Minutes Spent blogging (total throughout read-a-thon, reading and writing): 60

This last 1.5 hours was spent reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I really like the chapter I just finished, which was about how Kingsolver learned to make her own cheese and why. I never realized how easy cheesemaking could be. I've always been interested in it, but was worried I'd make some fatal mistake. It seems though that you can make cheese just using milk from the carton and cheese cultures. Somehow I'd always though I'd have to get it directly from the cow, sans pasteurization (don't ask me why I thought this, considering pretty much everything in this country is pasteurized). Anyway, I was super excited and plan to get the book she recommended about cheesemaking. Also, reading about food made me hungry so I took a short break to pick some tomatoes and basil for a tomato-mozarella-basil salad. Yum!

Updated 1:11 p.m. (Hour4)
What I'm Reading: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Pages Read This Hour: 31
Total Pages Read: 42
Books Completed: 0
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 2
Minutes Spent Blogging (reading and writing): 50

I was reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in the beginning of the day, but the pressure of the clock was making it difficult for me to concentrate so I decided to switch over to the new David Sedaris because the essay format would make it easier for me to break away if I wanted to check up on challenges and whatnot. Hopefully I'll get back to Kingsolver's book soon though.

In coming hours I will update this post unless a mini challenge comes up, in which case I'll write a new post.

Hope the rest of you are faring well!

24-hour Read-a-Thon Coverage Take 2

OK, so rules are made to be broken, right? I was just going to keep adding to my original post, but then I realized how LONG that would end up being, so now you're stuck with tons of posts from me on your Google Reader. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Moving on...

So far I have read 11 pages and 1 hour (unless reading blogs counts, then I'm up to almost two hours...) Woot!

And I have another suggestion for first-timers, or participants in general. And that suggestions is: Don't read from home OR get everyone out of the house before you the read-a-thon begins. My low page count this hour is partially due to my boyfriend's constant interruptions as he prepared to leave for the afternoon. "Sweetheart, have you seen my climbing shoes?" "Hey, are your climbing shoes 5.10s also? No, oh, then I guess these are mine." "Have you seen my keys anywhere?" "Hm. I think we'll be back in a couple of hours. I might get lunch while I'm out. Do you need anything?"

Gah! Do you not see the book?! The whole point of me forcing you to leave today was so I wouldn't be interrupted in my attempts to read for 24 hours! Now get going!

Um, OK then, on to mini-challenge number two, in which we were asked to read web comics and write about our reactions to them. I chose xkcd for my web comic. I used to read this a lot and am sorrily behind on it. I love this comic because it's clever and has a lot of funny observations about modern life and the tech generation. The guy is a mathemetician and a computer coder so some of his stuff I don't get, but, having a computer geek boyfriend, I do get most of the stuff even if only on a very basic level.

I spent about 20 minutes reading through the archives that I've missed and looking for a good one to post for you all. Here's the one I chose:

Cheap GPS

Winner! And Reminders

The drawing for All About Lulu is now closed, as I've selected the winner using Random.org. AND the winner is (drum roll please) Allessandra. Please send me your mailing address to bexadler at yahoo dot com and I'll get the book out to you as soon as possible.

Also, everyone remember we'll be having our book club discussion about Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on June 30 (Monday). As always I'll post my review that day and I hope to hear what you all thought of the book. In addition, if you've already reviewed the book, you can leave a comment on that post and I'll include a link to your review.

One last thing: I've already mentioned it, but since it's almost here, I thought I'd bring up the 24-hour Read-a-thon again. We'll be raising money for Reading Is Fundamental and you can contribute by pledging to donate a set amount for each hour or page I read ($1 an hour for instance or 10 cents a page) or you can just donate any amount you wish (I think lowest donation amount is $10). Go here for more information on donating to the organization. And I'll be updating my blog throughout the day on Saturday with information on where I stand. The read-a-thon starts at 9 a.m. Saturday and ends 9 a.m. Sunday. Something tells me I'll be doing a lot of sleeping on Sunday....

The 24-hour Read-a-thon!

Most book bloggers out there have already heard of Dewey's read-a-thon and the amazing prizes she's offering. But for those of you non-bloggers out there, I thought I'd fill you in. See, there's this fab 24-hour read-a-thon going on next weekend (begins June 28 at 9 a.m.), which will benefit Reading is Fundamental, an organization that works toward improving children's literacy rates. I've got a stack of about 14 books to choose from so finding something to read won't be the hard part of reading for a full 24 hours. I think the hard part will be staying awake and keeping my eyes from burning.

Also, I don't know if this counts, but I'm totally hoping it does, I'm going to download a book for my iPod so I don't have to forgo doing my long run on Saturday. I'll be able to "read" and run at the same time! How awesome is that? Yeah, I'm super happy I thought of it. Perhaps I'll also use this method for eating too. My goal is going to be to read for at least 18 hours of the read-a-thon. If I get really into a great book I'll for sure be able to make it through the wee hours of the night, but if it's something awful I won't be able to give in to the temptation of sleep.

Um, so if you want to participate, you can find the rules here. And if reading really isn't your thing, but you want to contribute to the cause you can donate here. Also, if you do donate, can you let me know either here on the comment board or by email (bexadler at yahoo dot com) so I can track how much we raise? That would be awesome, thanks!