3, 2, 1…Begin Reading – Dewey’s 24hr Read-a-Thon Updates

Here is the first meme of the day & after that is my first update!

Where are you reading from today?

I am on my back patio in Sunny(ish) Miami, Florida.

3 facts about me …

1. I began my career as an Obsessive Reader at the tender age of 7 years old.

2. I live with my husband, 2 teenage daughters and 4 insane cats.

3. I am an insomniac, which is a wonderful way to get all my reading done.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

I have approx. 15 books in my Read-a-Thon TBR pile.

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon?
My only goal since this is my first time participating in the Read-a-Thon is to read as many books from my pile as possible. Do you think its possible for me to read them ALL??? Anything is possible, right?

And the race is on…

I of course overslept. I woke up at 7:30 which is only half an hour before I was supposed to start reading. Lets just say it was a bit hectic getting myself together to try and make the 8AM start time. But here I am and I started reading just after 8:00!!! I have my coffee and my cigarettes so I am good to go for the morning reading session. **No comments on the smoking please…yes I know I should quit…I know it’s bad for me & honestly I am quiting in January, so no need to urge me to quit. I love you all & appreciate your concern, but I am a smoker. Soon to be former-smoker.*** Now that the smoking disclaimer is out of the way…On to the good stuff!

How I will be updating:

I will be using this post for the  entire 24 hours. I will update approx. every hour unless there is a qupte from whatever book I am reading that just needs to be documented or I finish a book before the next designated check in time. I may also deviate from the every hour updating if I just need a break from reading, considering the way I read somehow I doubt that will happen often but you never know. So please check this post periodically to see what I am up to – what I am reading, how much I have read, and what I think of the books I am reading. Cheerleader comments are always welcome and even encouraged – especially as the day/night progresses! I will also be periodically updating on Twitter & encouragement there is welcome too! Feel free to follow me @bookobsessedGrl !

Reading Status Update:

8:15 AM

The first book I am reading is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (208 pages) at the intense urging (for years) of my husband. It is his favorite book. I hope I like it because I will never hear the end of it if I don’t!

I have already read 6 pages so far and it has quite an interesting beginning. Good Start.

Now back to reading…

12:00 PM

So the updating hourly has not gone well so far. This is due in part to my Darling Husband stealing the computer for over an hour.

I am still reading Fight Club.

Here’s the breakdown:

Title of book(s) read since last update:Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik
Number of books read since you started: Still on first  one!
Pages read since last update: 30
Running total of pages read since you started:45
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 4hrs trying but breaks down to 2hrs of actual reading 
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 2hrs
Mini-challenges completed: 1 – Starting Meme
Other participants you’ve visited:Actualize and Crystal Posey
Prize you’ve won: None yet…

6:30 PM:

I have no decided that updating on the blog hourly is overly ambitious for me.  So I may or may not actually post updates hourly for the rest of the Read-a-Thon. I had decided to stay off the internet for a few hours so I could attempt to bulldoze my way through Fight Club (see notes below for how far I got). Lets just say I should have taken my buddy Colette’s advice hours ago and set it aside. Instead I feel asleep for 2 hours! LOL I am back now and moving on to a new book: Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland.

Here’s the breakdown:

Title of book(s) read since last update:Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik (DNF)
Number of books read since you started: Half of 1 and Starting another
Pages read since last update: 70
Running total of pages read since you started:100
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 3 hrs (sleeping, eating & being interupted the rest)
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 5 hrs 
Mini-challenges completed: 1 – Starting Meme
Other participants you’ve visited:Actualize, Bibliophile by the Sea & Princess Bookie
Prize you’ve won: None yet…

9:30 PM:

I have given up on the Mini-Challenges & Meme page I set up do from now on they will be posted here.  This is my second time typing this Mid-Event Meme so forgive me if its not as amusing as the original one I had all typed up when my WP & Browser crashed. 😦

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now? Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

2. How many books have you read so far? One #2 – 1st one just couldn’t hold my interest.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The one I am reading now.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Just a few.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Many, Many interruptions. The good news is that I appear to be indispensable at home. 🙂 But everybody in my house better back off and deal now because I’m diving in head first & not coming up for air from now on – okay well I’ll still be tweeting & checking other people’s progress & maybe a few bathroom breaks but thats it! LOL

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How hectic it is & how hard some of the challenges are!

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Only one I can think of right now is that some of the challenges & contests could have clearer rules.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I would only choose books that I am really excited about reading & not ones I have been harassed into reading.

9. Are you getting tired yet? Nope accidentally fell asleep reading in bed around 3PM & slept until 6 so I am good to go! 😀

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? If a book isn’t holding your interest stop reading it and move onto another book. You will feel less discouraged that way! 🙂

And now back to reading!!!

10:14 PM:

A Mini-Challenge I just couldn’t pass up! This one from Fizzybeverage at Fizzy Thoughts:

The challenge was to tell her what music I like to listen to while reading or what song reminds me of a particular book. Here’s my answer: (lyrics or a link to someplace to hear the song were requested)

Set Fire to the Third Bar by Snow PatrolFor the Weather Wardens Series by Rachel Caine
Why?:It so completely fits the relationship between Jo & David and the haunting feel of the song really works with many scenes throughout. I listen to a lot of Snow Patrol while reading. Excellent music for Urban Fantasy reads!

Lyrics:

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from ‘A’ to where you’d be
It’s only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I’d find your face
My finger in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I’ve found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We’d set the fire to the third bar
We’d share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can’t keep in

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

3:30 AM

Okay – here we go – gonna try to make this a quickie update since the hours are dwindling & I really want to at least finish 1 book in the 24 hours! This slow progress is really bad for my rep! I have participated in some Mini-Challenges recently & even successfully left comments on a few blogs! *If you did left me a comment & didn’t get one back from me please accept my apologies! I know Crystal at ACTUALIZE is one who didn’t. I had mad issues most of the day with comments not saving*

Here’s the breakdown:

Title of book(s) read since last update:Still Reading Mark of the Demon
Number of books read since you started: Half of 1 and a Qtr. of Current 1
Pages read since last update: 73
Running total of pages read since you started:173
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 4 hrs (That’s Only counting actual focused reading time – snaking, Tweeting , Mini-Challenges, Cheering Others & being interrupted the rest)
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 9 hrs Amazing how much time everything else takes up! 
Mini-challenges completed: 5 (WOO-HOO!)
Other participants you’ve visited:Actualize, Bibliophile by the Sea, Princess Bookie, Denise Robbin’s Blog (a couple of times its like an addiction!), Bookcation, 1330V, Books that Bite, The Bookcase, A Striped Armchair, My Bit of Earth, Care’s Online Book Club, Ms. Bookish, Jenn’s Bookshelves, The Hungry Readers, Karin’s Book Nook, Life is a Patchwork Quilt, Katrina Reads & Stella Matutina (WOW! That’s more than I thought it was!!! No wonder the time passed through my hands like grains of sand – should have signed up as a cheerleader! Of course not everyone got comments due to my commenting issues but we won’t go there…)
Prize you’ve won: None yet…that I know of

Now for my quick entrances for some recent Mini Challenges:  (then back to reading I swear!)

At The Hungry Reader’s Blog:

**We were asked to turn to page 23 and insert an interesting or funny phrase into the following sentence: “I would rather read than _____________________any night!”

Here are my entries:

“I would rather read than be a small lump surrounded by stained concrete any night!””I would rather read than be summoning a demon any night!””I would rather read than reach out with my arcane sense any night!”

From Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland

**Seriously there are some great ones over there YOU MUST go check them out. Click on the Name of the blog to take you there. All are right there in the comments section so you won’t have to go clicking around a bunch.

Now here is my entry for the Challenge on Stella Matutina’s Blog:

Challenge: To show pictures either taken yourself of from around the web that remind you of the book you are reading.

Here you goes:

And now back to reading!!! (not as quick as I thought sheeshss)

5:58 AM:

Short Update…

I’ve only read 10 more pages since last update. There is finally nobody bugging me & the house is quiet and the book is getting better and better but NOW THERE ARE ONLY 2 – 2 1/2 hours left of the Read-a-Thon! Now I am upset that it is almost over! Plus reading is getting a bit more difficult but this time it is only because my eyes keep crossing & my brain is trying to shut down on me. Ughhh…The injustice of it all!

And that’s it for now…Back to reading!

7:32 AM: (only a half hour left)

Here’s the breakdown:

Title of book(s) read since last update:Still Reading Mark of the Demon
Number of books read since you started: Half of 1 and a  bit more than a Qtr. of Current 1
Pages read since last update: 20 (sad I know but slowed down as it got earlier in the morning)
Running total of pages read since you started:193
Amount of time spent reading since last update:2 hrs –  I am not really sure at this point its a blur
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 11 hrs Amazing how much time everything else takes up! 
Mini-challenges completed: 5 (WOO-HOO!) No new ones except Meme below
Other participants you’ve visited: Denise Robbin’s Blog (a couple of times its like an addiction!)
Prize you’ve won: None yet…that I know of…I’ll check when I wake up!

Here is the Meme for the last hour:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The last one!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland, Grimspace & Wanderlust both by Ann Aguirre
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The Cheerleaders & the Main Website
5. How many books did you read? Combined it would equal 1 but none finished start to finish
6. What were the names of the books you read? Fight Club & Mark of the Demon
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Mark of the Demon by Diana Rowland
8. Which did you enjoy least? Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was just a Reader who occassional spent too much time on others blogs cheering…LOL
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will definitely participate again most likely as a Reader but possibly as a Cheerleader also.

Now I am going to read for the next Half hour – maybe hour since I started a half hour late yesterday morning – but only if I can keep my eyes open beyond 8AM! No More Updates until I am fully rested – but expect to see my final thoughts in a post within the next 24 hours – just no promises about what time that will be.

Thank you everybody who hung in there with me & cheered me on!!!! G’Night or G’day as the case maybe…

Cheers,

Heather