A Strong Belief in Wicker: Readathon

Showing posts with label Readathon. Show all posts

Sunday, 21 October 2018

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon The Fifth

I can't believe that this is already my 5th Dewey's Readathon.!

It's an 11pm start time for us in Australia in Spring. So it's quite a day of waiting around, just waiting to start. I filled in my time today going to a Lifeline Book Sale. Naturally, I bought quite a bag of books. I haven't really planned a TBR this time round. But I decided to kickstart my Readathon this time with one of the books I bought today. A book of short stories.

I even started a little early as I'd waited long enough.

I'm very keen to use this Readathon to get back into my #LesMisReadalong. Rather shamefully somehow back in May I put my copy of Les Mis down one day and didn't pick it back up again til today. I have no idea why. I was really enjoying it. I have been in quite a reading slump this year though. I'm not so much reading as listening at the moment as the vast majority of my book intake has been via audiobooks for the last few months.

But I've done it. I've just reread the last chapter I read in May. V2B8C1. And now onwards... It's such a shame it's after midnight.

Sunday 1230

I had a nice long sleep and a Sunday morning sleep in, then out to brunch with friends. It's such a gorgeous spring day here, and we enjoyed a short stroll in the gardens after. Just so that I haven't completely wasted readathon time I was listening to an audiobook while I was out (although I live in a small town, and it literally took me about 4 minutes to drive to brunch), I did finish off 20 minutes of Chapter 1 when I got home. It's fascinating. Highly recommended.

Sunday 1800 (Hour 20)

I've had a lovely restful day, even if I haven't made as much progress as I would've liked (and when is that ever the case?)

1 nap
7 hours sleep
30 minutes Any Ordinary Day
45 pages Living Alone and Loving It
53 pages Les Mis
57 pages Beneath the Earth

Sunday 2300 (in reality Monday morning, after midnight)

So I managed to fall asleep sometime after 10, and long before 11. I could count the number of times this happens per year on one hand, and of course it happened tonight. So my planned gallop to the end with a third short story was a bit of a wipe out.

My final tally

2 naps

7 hours sleep

67 minutes Any Ordinary Day

77 pages Les Mis

80 pages Beneath the Earth

83 pages Living Alone and Loving It

A total of 240 pages. Which is not what I had hoped to read, but better than nothing. And much better than I would have done without a readathon this weekend, my reading has definitely been slumped for some time now. Months.

I'm very glad to have picked up Les Mis again, and am now only 4 months behind, and not 5. Still it does give me some chance of catching up again so as to be able to finish it. I'm 549 pages in, much longer than any other book I've read this year. It's rare for me to pick up a book longer than 500 pages. Actually, 400 pages makes me nervous...

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon The Fourth

I really thought that this was my third Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, but it turns out it's my fourth!

We have a 10pm start time in April in Australia, so it's always a bit of a tricky slow start. I made a tactical error with my starting selection I think. I'm so far behind on my #LesMisReadalong and so sad about that that I picked up Les Mis to start. I finished V2B3 in the evening/early hours of the morning, but not before I napped. I should have picked something quicker- Note to Self for November! Yes I'll still be reading Les Mis then, as it's a year long read along.

So some time in the early hours I picked up My Brother's Husband. My first ever Manga I think. And I got 64 pages in before I conked out at 0230.

So now it's just after 0900, I've been up for half an hour, and about to launch into reading for the day. Which is when I always get the majority of my #readathon reading done.

1 nap
6 hours sleep
38 pages of Les Mis
64 pages of My Brother's Husband

1300 Hour 15 - entering peak reading time for the Aussies

1 book finished, about to start the second I will finish
1 nap, but touch and go on #2
6 hours sleep
25 pages of The Dress
54 pages of Les Mis
352 pages of My Brother's Husband

1600 Hour 18

2 books finished
2 naps finished
6 hours sleep
19 pages of The Pigeon
25 pages of The Dress
54 pages of Les Mis
306 pages of Long Way Down
352 pages of My Brother's Husband

2000 and into the final two hours

3 books finished

3 naps finished

6 hours sleep

25 pages of The Dress

54 pages of Les Mis

77 pages of The Pigeon

306 pages of Long Way Down

352 pages of My Brother's Husband

My mind was seriously blown by The Pigeon. Now I don't know what to do with myself. I do want a sprint to the finish, but I'm not sure what I can possibly read. I think I will go with a bit of fashion non-fiction with The Dress, and then maybe try another graphic novel.

2200 My final tally

3 books finished

4 naps finished

6 hours sleep

40 pages of The Dress

54 pages of Les Mis

77 pages of The Pigeon

96 pages of Persepolis

306 pages of Long Way Down

352 pages of My Brother's Husband

For a total of 925 pages! My biggest ever tally- reading graphic novels and verse novels sure helps get those numbers up. Next time I'll have to try and crack 1000....

Friday, 2 February 2018

#24in48 Readathon Wrap-up January 2018

I hadn't heard of the 24 in 48 Readathon until very recently. Twitter can get me in a bit of reading trouble it seems. The idea is to spend 24 hours of a 48 hour period reading. That seemed easy enough!

Anyway, last week I made a spur of the moment decision to join in. For the first time ever the gods of International Time Zones shone on Australia! Joining in in real time, #24in48 starts at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, and when you have two more weeks of holidays, and don't have to work on Monday-then the question is why not?

I perused my shelves and made a quick TBR. Some of it plundered from my #summerreadingstack.

And I started reading at 4pm Saturday. Then I spent a goodly portion of the first two hours napping.

Still by Hour 3 (and 1h40 of actual reading) I had read my first book.

Hour 5 (2h10 reading) I finished my second. See my review.

In a moment of reading serendipity both of my first two choices were set inside libraries!

I also read some more of my current 1001 read, The Complete Blinky Bill.

It was late in the evening by this stage, and I wanted something lightish, no heavy nonfiction for me near midnight.

And so I started on my third book. I've been meaning to read it for ages, the movie is coming out next month, and it seemed like the right time.

It was the perfect book to start, although I was asleep reasonably soon.

Hour 22 (Sunday 2pm)

5h 38

Lets face it I'm not going to make 24.

I've had a lovely morning. I'm half way through Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

I walked my reading assistants while listening to the Moby Dick Big Read. I've been going for some months, but I'm 60% through now! I read my chapters to keep up with #LesMisReadalong

And I've been allowing myself time to blog too. I've found that frustrating in previous readathons. Rush, rush, rushing with the reading doesn't give me enough time to process what I'm reading, and then I don't enjoy it so much.

I forgot to update after that. Ah well, no system is perfect.

All up I read for 12h50 minutes. I'm pretty happy with that. It was a lovely relaxed weekend. I got quite a bit of reading done. I finished Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda. I finished Blinky Bill. And made a start on The Monkey's Mask. My first adult verse novel.

I'll definitely be joining in for 24in48 again.

Sunday, 22 October 2017

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon the Third

Today is the 10 year anniversary of Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, so I guess that there have been 20 readathons. Even though I knew about it for a long time I wasn't able to get organised, but I finally did last year, and loved it so much that I've been scheduling so I can participate. This is my third time. And possibly my most disorganised...

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is an international even,t so time zones make it interesting. Here in Eastern Australia it starts at 10 or 11 pm on Saturday evening. Australian Eastern Summer Time in October is the 11pm start time. I was still at work at 11pm. I was meant to finish at 11.30, but got home at about 2am. Obviously you're a bit tired at that stage and it's not an ideal time to be starting anything.

I'd also worked Friday evening, had not all that much sleep, had been up early Saturday morning to travel to a book sale, so have been even more tired than normal. I've barely stayed awake til now. But 14 hours in I think I'm finally awake.

I have made a little progress so far. I picked some easy reads to start off.

I finished off the last 52 pages The Dress.

I read Bill's New Frock. (96 pages)

So I'm at 148 pages total. I need to settle down on my next book. I'm not sure what it will be yet. I didn't really refine my TBR prior to starting. I'm still working on my #springreadingstack.

I've read 5/10 so far

I gathered together some other options of course.

But I may read any of the other unread books I have all over the house, depending on where my mood takes me.

Ever since I discovered Booktube a few months ago my reading has taken a dive as I watch other people talk about (or sometimes do) their own reading. My goodreads target dropped from on schedule for most of the year to 5 books behind! I need to whittle that down some more today. I've got a few partially read books languishing next to the bed, I want to finish some of those and read some others. There's always so much more reading to do.

Tally ho!

Update 1700 (6 hours to go)
Well I've slept some more, but have managed to finish the last 44 pages of One For The Books, which I started on June 27.

Pages 192
Books completed 3
Sleeps 1
Naps 3

Update 1900 (4 hours to go)
No naps since the last update!

I read 118 pages of Amulet #1 The Stonekeeper.

And I listened to the first three chapters of Moby Dick Big Read whilst out walking the dogs.

And I was surprised! Really surprised. I really liked it, and will keep going. Moby Dick Big Read is free to download. Each chapter has a different narrator- some famous, some not. I wondered how I would like that. So far I haven't minded that, the main difficulty is the large and obvious differences in the technical production and sound quality.

Pages 310
Books completed 4
Chapters of Moby Dick listened to 3
Sleeps 1
Naps 3

Update 2200 (1 hour to go)
I did some real lifing for a few hours, but have read 74 pages of Amulet #2 The Stonekeeper's Curse.

Pages 384
Books completed 4
Chapters of Moby Dick listened to 3
Sleeps 1
Naps 3

Final Update 2300

I finished Amulet #2 The Stonekeeper's Curse.

Pages 529
Books completed 5
Chapters of Moby Dick listened to 3
Sleeps 1
Naps 3

Not quite the result I was looking for, but 529 pages in a day is way more than I would normally read. And I'm back on track for my Goodreads 2017 Challenge! YAY!

Now for the hard part- I need to blog my reads. I never got to finish blogging the reads from my first two readathons. Must try harder this time.

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon The First
Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon The Second

As always I'm joining Brona in #teamanz

Saturday, 29 April 2017

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon The Second

I really enjoyed participating in my first Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon last October. Even though I didn't get all that much read in the end. 150 pages and 6 picture books. I'm sure I'll be able to top that this time round. For one thing the timezones are a bit kinder because it's not Daylight Savings here, so the Readathon starts at 10pm AEST, not 11pm like it did last time. And I'm not working this weekend.

Last time it was all a bit of a last minute thing. This time round I've had over a week to prepare my TBR list. Short stories may work well. And some short books. Picture books. And there's still some books I haven't read from my last Dewey TBR.

Clearly, I'm not going to read all those books this weekend. But it's a great stack to dip into. And of course I may end up reading books not in this stack, but I figured this was a good place to start. I've got

Kids books
Adult books
Short stories
Verse novels
Graphic novels
Fiction
Nonfiction
Books I've had for ages
Books I bought this week
Books that were in the stack last time
Books that were gifts
Library books

I'm excited for the possibilities.

I'll be joining Brona and #TeamANZ2017. Last year was the first time I've represented Australia on the International Stage and I'm very happy to be doing it again.

It's not to late to join in. You can sign up at 24hourreadathon.com.

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Hourly Updates to come

I was too excited to start reading, so I snuck in two short stories from The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O'Neill, whilst having a bath to prepare myself.

Hour One 10pm

Opening Survey

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I'm reading from country NSW Australia

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Probably Joe Queenan's One For the Books

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I have some very special French Salted Caramel Lollipops.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
This is my second readathon. I'm more prepared, and more excited than I was last time.

And we're off!

I'm going to read another story from The Weight of a Human Heart, and then pick a novel. I'm not sure which one just yet.

The problem with starting a readathon in the late evening is that sometimes you fall asleep, even though you don't mean to.

So my totals before I fell asleep during the first hour was

The Weight of a Human Heart - Ryan O'Neill 6 pages
After - Nikki Gemmell 6 pages

Yep. 12 pages all up.

Hour Two 11pm

Sleeping. Oops! Guess I got myself too comfy.... That's a very early night for me.

Hours Three to Twelve Midnight - 9am

Oh dear there was a whole lot of sleeping, not reading, going on.

I did wake up around 2am and read 15 pages of After before falling back to sleep again.

27 pages in total by 9am. Well that can only improve today. I need some quick reads to get that page count up.

Hours Twelve - Fifteen 9am - 12pm

Sleeping Beauty awoke. And got reading.

37 pages of After

120 pages of The Weight of Water - Sarah Crossan (cheating with a verse novel)

184 pages in total

Hours Fifteen to Eighteen 12pm -3pm

108 pages of The Weight of Water - finished.

39 pages of After

331 pages in total. And 7 hours to go!

Hours Eighteen to Twenty One 3pm- 6pm

On a roll now....

40 pages of After

15 pages of The Weight of a Human Heart

141 pages of My Name is Book - John Agard - finished

527 pages in total.

Hours Twenty One to Twenty Four 6pm-10pm

A sprint to the end.

116 pages of After

32 pages of Don't Call Me Bear - Aaron Blabey - finished

32 pages of The Fabulous Friend Machine - Nick Bland - finished

25 pages of The Weight of a Human Heart (see my review)

732 pages all up. After a slow start wherein I pretty much slept the first twelve hours I'm pretty happy with that. It's been great.
4 Books Finished

The Weight of Water - Sarah Crossan
My Name is Book - John Agard
Don't Call Me Bear - Aaron Blabey
The Fabulous Friend Machine - Nick Bland

Hmmm. I didn't get to finish After which I optimistically hoped that I would when I picked it up last night. But I got 260 of 300 pages read. That's pretty good for me, I am a ludicrously slow reader.

I've completed two readathons now, and realise that both times I didn't even start the book that I said at the start was the one I was most looking forward to. And I didn't even have one French Salted Caramel Lollipop. But I did have some rather delicious Dulce de Leche chocolate so it's not all bad.

Will the French Salted Caramel Lollipops last till October? I'd say that would be a no.

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon the First

I've never participated in a Dewey's Readathon before. I've wanted to ever since I heard about it, but life has always conspired against me. Time zones make it rather difficult for we Aussies. The orderly 8am New York kick off translates to 11pm Sydney time. Not a great time to start anything, except perhaps a night cap...

This weekend it's me time though.

Anyway I'm late starting, dipping in in Hour 2. I've had a super busy week, and didn't get time to prepare anything even though I had vague notions of doing that. Tonight I had to work until hour 2 as well. So a little bit of catching up is in order.

Opening Meme
What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I'm reading from country NSW, Australia.

Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I didn't have vast amounts (i.e. any) time to organise my stack this week, although I did think about it a little so I'm not quite sure. Maybe Tea Time in Paris.

What snack are you most looking forward to?
I have grossly overlooked the snack department. Will have to organise something tomorrow.

Tell us a little about yourself!
This is my first time participating, and while I'm excited to join in I don't quite understand the process. I'm about to go and organise my stack, which I will photograph in the morning when I have some light.

I'm excited that Brona has organised #TeamOz, I'm looking forward to meeting the other team members.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Updates

Hour One 11pm

At work :-(

Hour Two Midnight

Just home from work, getting organised, and making a stack.

Hour Three 1am

Meeting my #TeamOZ teammates and maybe even starting to read!

Hours Four to Ten 2am to 8am
Pretty much sleeping. I read one book before falling asleep
The Red Balloon -A. Lamorisse

Hours Ten -Twelve 8am - 11am
Getting into it. But then reading and dozing. Four more books. Yes I've read five picture books in twelve hours! Let's hope for better progress this afternoon.
Meet ..... Mary MacKillop - Sally Murphy, Sonia Martinez (illustrator)
Suri's Wall - Lucy Estela, Matt Ottley (illustrator)
The Big Question - Leen Van Den Berg, Kaatje Vermeire (illustrator), David Colmer (translator)
Dirt on My Shirt - Jeff Foxworthy

Hours Twelve - Fifteen 11am- 2pm
Still dragging the chain somewhat, but some small progress.
My Mother's Eyes - Mark Wilson
25 pages of The Borrowers - Mary Norton

And I finally photographed my hastily put together stack of possibilities. Of course there are many more possibilities and there is no chance that I will finish this stack.

Hours Fifteen -Twenty 2pm- 7pm
A bit of real life activity and more reading.
75 pages of The Borrowers - Mary Norton which I've now finished.

And a nice leisurely reading of the Sunday supplements- something I enjoy but don't always manage, and rarely on the day.

Hours Twenty - Twenty Four 7pm - 11pm

Real life intervened again. But I did read
50 pages of Charlie and the War against the Grannies - Alan Brough

I've really enjoyed my first Readathon, even if I was woefully underprepared, and didn't get all that much read. At least I got to participate this time- and represent Australia in #TeamOZ! I hope to participate next time too, and will work on being much more prepared. Thanks to the Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon folks

7 Books finished.