Read-a-Thon 2013: Hour 19

I am several selections into The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger. So far, everything has been interesting; I've learned a little bit about black market organ transplants and walked away wondering if legalized payment-for-donation programs might not be the worst thing ever (although I don't think that's the direction the article was leaning); learned about something called "high meat" which...ew; read a short bit that I think was an excerpt from The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, a book I read and loved a few months back; found out that chimps seem to be a lot more fertile than humans; and was surprised when I cried during an article about neuroscience and brain surgery.

Over at Reflections of a Bookaholic, we have been issued a challenge: "...turn to page 32 of the book you are currently reading (or the nearest page with text on it) and find the most entertaining phrase to complete the following sentence:

"I would rather read than ________ any day!""

Well, I'm reading on an old Kindle, so I don't exactly have pages, per se, but between the "Look Inside!" option at Amazon.com, and some best guesses on my part, I've found what I think is probably pretty close to page 32, so:

I would rather read than SAVOR ROTTEN CARIBOU AND SEAL any day!

For sure! While I have never actually had rotten caribou or seal, I'm going to go ahead and say that it's not anything I'm in a big hurry to try.

2013 Read-a-Thon: Hour 11

Well, after a 9-hour...let's call it a nap, I'm back to the Thon. I feel like naps are allowed but sleeping just implies failure to plan. So, nap it is!

Kristen wants to know where we'll be reading, so here is a picture of my current location. Oh dear, can you can tell which side gets the most use? I think I need to rearrange my furniture to even out its wear and tear!

Read-a-Thon 2013: I'm Doin' It!

Well, it's been a while (three years in fact--holy cow!!) since I've participated in a Read-a-Thon, but I've been seeing the tweets coming in; I'm awake; I'm in the middle of a book that I'm loving; I've got nine e-books checked out from the library; about as many samples of potential purchases on my Kindle, awaiting further perusal; plenty of unread books sitting on my shelves; and I suspect my hubby's going to be busy with one of his hobbies this weekend (weather permitting), so, what the heck? I'm going to go ahead and participate in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon. Now, I know full well that I'm not going to make it the full 24 hours (at start time I will have already been up for 12 hours...I'd prefer if you didn't do the math on that one), but I'm going to do what I can.

My starting read? Blessed Are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch. I can't help but love a book that opens with: "'You can't hurry cheese. It happens in its own time and if that bothers you, you can just feck off.'" and follows up a bit later on with: "'If you can see the magic in cheese, you can see the magic in everything.'"

OK, so wish me luck, and happy reading to all the other participants!

What I'm Reading Now-Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm

I will be away from civilization for a while, so I have scheduled a few posts to go up while I'm gone. Please feel free to leave comments, but just know that I probably won't be able to read or respond for a while.  So, please don't feel like your comments are being ignored-I will be super excited to read them when I finally get to them!

Fables Vol. 2:  Animal Farm by Bill Willingham-While the human Fableland exiles can blend in with the regular city folk, the non-humans have been made to keep to themselves on a farm, and there is some dissension among the ranks.  When Snow White and Rose Red arrive for a regular visit, they find things amiss.  Treachery and trouble ensue!

I read this back in April for the Read-a-Thon.  I don't have a whole lot to say here-it was entertaining, but I don't think I liked it as much as Vol. 1.  I will probably still pick up the next volume though-they are easy to read and provide some light entertainment.

Other reviews:

Chris at Stuff as Dreams are Made On

That's the only other review I could find on short notice, so I'll ask if anyone else out there has read the Fables series.  I know there are more of you out there!  What did you think of Vol. 1 vs. Vol. 2, and how do they stack up to the rest of the series?

Read-a-Thon Hour 24!: The Wrap Up

I made it!  I feel like I accomplished virtually nothing from a reading standpoint, but that's OK-that just means there's more for me to read later!  I want to give a big, big thank you to everyone who put this event together!  I thought everything ran great, and I was impressed by just how much stuff you had going on!

Some final tallies:

Total time spent reading: 7 hours 3 minutes
Total pages read:  270
Mini Challenges completed:  6
Posts posted:  16 (counting this one)
Snacks Eaten: 4 (add popcorn to the list of previously enumerated snacks)
Items Fished Out from Under Stove by Cat: 1
VH1 Top 20 Countdowns Watched, Wherein I was Pleasantly Surprised to see Lady Antebellum topping the chart:  1
Naps Taken:  1
Merrie Monarch hula Performances Watched:  2
Teeth Brushed:  29
Minutes Spent Conversing with the Cat and the Dog:  Lots.  But to be fair, they are both serious talkers.
Books read:  3
Books finished:  1

So, Jennifer wants to know:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  Probably the ones where I was sleeping.  No, wait, actually those were pretty calm and restful.  OK, I'd say right around the halfway point.  So probably around hour 10 I started to hit the wall.  I broke down and took a nap during hours 11-12, and convincing myself to get out of my big comfy bed to come read and sit in front of the computer was haaaaard!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I think any of the Fables would work well-they go quickly and you feel like you are making progress.  That was the only recommendation I really have from my reading today.  Recent reads that I could recommend though would include The Maze Runner, The Book Thief, The Hunger Games, The Sparrow, even The Pillars of the Earth, which is a total chunkster, but if you can actually devote the time to sitting down and reading it, it goes pretty quickly.


        


3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  Move the start time up so that it starts a little bit later, (just by an hour or two!) but I'm not sure how everyone else would feel about that!  Barring that, could we have a personal scribe on hand so that we can just tell them what to write while we keep reading?  No?  OK, so maybe just the time thing then?
  
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  I think the hosting was great-there was always something to do, and it seemed really well-organized.

5. How many books did you read?  Read 3, finished 1

6. What were the names of the books you read? The Best of The Best American Science Writing,  The Cellist of Sarajevo, and Fables Vol. 2:  Animal Farm

7. Which book did you enjoy most? Fables Vol. 2:  Animal Farm

8. Which did you enjoy least? The Cellist of Sarajevo

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was not a cheerleader.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?  I'm sure I will probably participate on some level again. Next time I think I might like to host a challenge or two and then just sort of read along on my own.  That way there's no pressure either way-I can be on line as much as I want or I can read as much as I want and I won't feel like I'm not spending enough time, or too much time, on one or the other.  I realize the pressure is totally self-inflicted, but it takes away from the fun a little bit.  

    

Read-a-Thon Hours 16-20

Hours 16-20:  6:00PM-10:00PM
Time Read: 1 hour 20 minutes
Pages Read: 48
Mini Challenges Completed:  1
Snacks Eaten:  1 ( Cream Cheese Pound Cake topped with Citrus Cream and blueberries)
Merrie Monarch hula performances watched: 2
Teeth brushed:  29 (that's all I have-I counted).
Currently Reading:  The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

So far, the prologue has reminded me of The Unthinkable and The Book Thief.

Read-a-Thon Hour 20 (!) Mini Challenge

Shel and Monica at The Hungry Readers want to know about food.  What deep dark food secrets have kept us all going for the last 20 hours?

Nothing too deep and dark here, but I have realized that I have a pretty standard formula when it comes to food-some form of carb topped with some sort of dairy and some kind of fruit or vegetable.  So far today I've had

Breakfast/snack #1:  Bread with cheddar cheese and apricot preserves, toasted in the oven until golden bubbly.  I would have preferred fontina, but I didn't have any; and, let's face it, in a pinch any cheese will do.

Dinner/snack #2:  Rosemary olive oil bread with olive oil and pesto, topped with mozzarella, zucchini, tomatoes, and pine nuts.

Dessert/snack #3:  Cream Cheese Pound Cake topped with Citrus Cream and blueberries.

In any "thon"-triathlon, marathon, read-a-thon-hydration is important.  Unfortunately, this is not my strong suit, but so far today I have had 1 cup of coffee, 1 glass of home-made lime-aid, and 1 glass of water.  Well, OK, my glass of water is still full, but I'm working on it.  I promise to finish it sometime in the next 5 hours.

I don't go too crazy with the reading and eating thing.  I will read while I'm waiting for stuff to cook, but I generally put the book down to eat.  I'd rather not get food all over my new books (they're new!) or the library's books (that just seems rude) so I'll take a break and turn on the TV while I eat.  As far as food prep, I had most of this stuff ready to go last night.  The cake was made the cream was whipped, the veggies and cheese were sliced; all I had to do today was assemble and eat.  

Read-a-Thon Hours 8-15

Hours 8-16:  9:00AM-6:00PM
Time Read:  1 hour 54 minutes
Pages Read:  38
Mini Challenges Completed: 3
Naps Taken: 1
Snacks Eaten: 1 (toasted rosemary olive oil bread with pesto, mozzarella, zucchini, tomatoes, and pine nuts.  Slightly overcooked, but still yummy)
Currently Reading:  Let's face it.  This might not change for the rest of the challenge.  Still reading The Best of The Best American Science Writing, edited by Jesse Cohen

Interesting things that have come up during my reading:  

1.  In "Dr. Daedalus" Lauren Slater mentions people wanting to become amputees.  This is the second time in a couple of days that I have seen references to people who want to become amputees.  The other was a movie called Whole that I discovered while browsing through documentaries the other day.  Here's an article on Slate that talks about it some more.  Have you ever heard of this before?    

2.  People have been obsessed with low-fat diets for a few decades now, but according to Gary Taubes' "The Soft Science of Dietary Fat" there doesn't seem to be any science to actually support this craze.  Amidst all the recommendations floating around out there, including that Americans over the age of two should follow a low-fat diet, how many of us have ever stopped to consider that     

[t]he brain, for instance, is 70% fat, which chiefly serves to insulate neurons.  Fat is also the primary component of cell membranes.  Changing the proportion of saturated to unsaturated fats in the diet changes the fat composition in these membranes.  This could conceivably change the membrane permeability, which controls the transport of everything from glucose, signaling proteins, and hormones to bacteria, viruses, and tumor-causing agents into and out of the cell.  The relative saturation of fats in the diet could also influence cellular aging as well as the clotting ability of blood cells. (p.94).

Look, I know we don't want a bunch of obese children running around, but aren't two-year-olds still developing their brains and stuff?  Couldn't they maybe use a little extra fat?  I don't know; I'm not the scientist here, but stuff like this makes me think it's all just a bunch of hoopla and we should just go back to "everything in moderation".

Read-a-Thon Hour 14 Mini Challenge

Lydia at The Lost Entwife says:  wants to know what favorite book we would like to see made into a movie and who we would cast in one of the roles.

I am normally not very good at this question, but when I read The Sparrow all I could picture was Johnny Depp as Father Emilio Sandoz.  I think he would be perfect for the role from a physical standpoint as well as from a character standpoint.  Sandoz goes through a range of emotional/mental states but always he has a sense of humor, sometimes bitter, sometimes light-hearted but still a part of who he is; and I think Johnny Depp could pull that all together perfectly.

According to Mary Doria Russell's web site, Brad Pitt may be on board for a movie version.  His IMDB.com profile seems to confirm this as a project in development.  I love Brad Pitt, but, honestly, I don't think he is right for the role at all.  Not that I don't think he can pull it off, but I just can't picture Emilio Sandoz as anyone other than Johnny Depp.  Apparently Antonio Banderas was also on tap at some point, but that seems to have fallen through.  Meh-he probably would have been an OK choice, but how are you people not seeing Johnny Depp???

Also, I think this will be a hard book to make into a good movie.  I think it will either be wonderful or terrible.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for wonderful.

Read-a-Thon Hour 12 Mini Challenge: The Mid-Event Survey

Wow, I can't believe we're already 12 hours in!  Shesten wants to know:

1. What are you reading right now? The same thing I've been reading since I started, The Best of The Best American Science Writing edited by Jesse Cohen, but I think I'm going to shake things up and move on to a novel.  I'm enjoying my read so far, but I think I need something I can sit down and sink into.

2. How many books have you read so far? Um...that would be a whopping .215

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?  Probably The Cellist of Sarajevo because I have a pen-pal in Bosnia & Herzegovina or Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm because that will make me feel like I am making some progress!  Or Cutting for Stone or The Knife of Never Letting Go because I've heard nothing but good things about them.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? No, not really.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?  You mean aside from all the blogging and the nap?  Nope, none at all!

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?  How little reading I've done!  86 pages is all!  

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  No, so far so good.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?  I would definitely try to get more sleep the night before.  My Read-a-Thon began at 2AM, and I intended to be in bed by 8:00 or 9:00, but as it turns out, I didn't get to bed until about 10:30, then I think I tossed and turned until about 11:30, and then my alarm went off 20 minutes earlier than I had intended!  So, either earlier bed time, or be realistic and admit that I might have to start a little bit late. 

9. Are you getting tired yet? Yes, that's why I gave in and took a two-hour nap.  When my alarm started going off, I would have given about a million dollars for an iPhone or a laptop or something that would have allowed me to blog from bed.  I'm feeling better now though, and I think I might be able to make it through some more reading if I just STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER.

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?  LOL-No!  Haven't you been reading my answers?  

Read-a-Thon Hour 11 Mini Challenge

Trisha at Eclectic/Eccentric wants us to find book covers that fit the following categories:

Disturbing

Vibrant
Beautiful
Scary
Moving

So here we go:

Disturbing:  In fact, I think my exact words when I looked closely at this cover were,"Oh!  Well, that's disturbing."

Vibrant

Beautiful:  I love this version of the cover

 

Scary-Eeee!  I don't think I would want to go to sleep with this book hiding out in the dark on my nightstand.

Moving-I'm going to go back to a cover I used in a previous challenge. It's sweet and it implies love and trust and happiness and friendship and I absolutely love it!