Falling Into the Readathon: Shiny New Things

Readathon Days are here again! The skies above are...

Well. Never mind about the skies, which are sort of gloomy and overcast. I'm focused on my stack of books for the next 24 hours.

In my previous post, I discussed all my half-read projects like Frankenstein and the Sontag biography, but a funny thing happened on the way to the Readathon: I was once again seduced by the shiny and new. Blame it on The New Yorker, which keeps appearing mysteriously in my mailbox. I don't know why. I love it, but I didn't subscribe to it. I guess I give off a heady bookworm scent that defies conventional borders.

Pictured above, this is my shiny new object: Lucky Per, a 1904 novel by Danish writer Henrik Pontoppidan. (His name makes me smile, but I tremble every time I type it, for fear of misspelling it.)

Why did I feel compelled to go out and get Lucky Per? The usual reasons: It's old and obscure. There are good, strong whiffs of Realism. And yeah, this Everyman edition is so stinking cute. I'm not that hard to figure out, am I?

Okay, time for that first cup of coffee in my beloved Korea mug.

My plan is to read the last 150 pages of Sontag, then move onto Frankenstein, then soak my eyes in a vat of Visine.

Happy reading to all the Readathon participants. As always, I wish Dewey could be here with us, but I feel her spirit.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Reading

I tried several times, but couldn't get this post off the ground. After a great deal of cursing and sweating, I decided to ask myself questions.

Did you notice that you were wrong again with your Pulitzer Fiction prediction?
Yes. There needs to be a new word for my level of perennial wrongness; it's truly breathtaking.

How do you feel about how it all shook out this year?
After my initial surprise, I hied myself down to the bookstore to order a copy of Less for my permanent Pulitzer shelf as well as my immediate future reading enjoyment. Can't wait to read it!

How about that biography winner?!
GASP!  Prairie Fires! I was completely delighted, and my joy was compounded upon realizing that I own a hardcover first edition. When I first read the book, I was struck by the brilliance of the research, construction and writing. There was not a wasted page; the editing is top-notch as well. I'll be reading Prairie Fires again soon and pestering my fellow bookworms to follow my good example. So glad the enigmatic Pulitzer committee saw things as I did.

Have you read any Pulitzer fiction winners lately?
Aaargh. I read the 1942 winner, In This Our Life. Not my favorite. I had high expectations because I loved the movie version starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. This was a case of Hollywood improving on a book. The screenwriter took this bloated, analytical novel and using some sort of alchemy, got it in fighting trim. I understand why it may have won the Pulitzer, but it's aged badly.

What are you reading now?
A couple of weeks ago, I found a copy of Life Plus 99 Years by Nathan F. Leopold (of Leopold and Loeb infamy). Although it was an autobiography/memoir, the book seemed evasive. Dishonesty fairly oozed out of the prose. Of course it was written about the time Leopold became eligible for parole (Loeb was murdered about ten years after the pair went to prison), so he was writing with one eye on  a specific audience, casting himself in the best possible light. In the book, Leopold wrote about a visit from author Meyer Levin and Levin's plans to write a novel based on the murder case. Leopold went on to discuss the result, Compulsion (1956) in scathing terms. It was the only time in Life Plus 99 Years that his carefully constructed mask seemed to come off. Of course I had to read Compulsion, which is creepily good in that In Cold Blood sort of way although Meyer Levin lacks Truman Capote's delicate touch with the written word. I also checked out a detailed nonfiction account titled The Crime of the Century.

Do you plan to have fun, fun, fun! at the Readathon?
Yes! I'm so tired of missing the Readathon allllllll the time since I moved back to the United States. Plopping myself down somewhere reader-friendly next Saturday, I shall refuse to be moved. Unruly Reader is helping me to start out in fine style; she gifted me a copy of The Teammates by David Halberstam. I'll do an update or two here on Blob, but I'll mostly be doing quick check-ins on Twitter @susanandbooks and at Goodreads where I'm SusanInSedalia. I'll devote this week to figuring out the rest of my stack and snacks. Any suggestions?

All Day and All of the Night

Last Update!

End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 9 settled my hash for a while.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?  Roddy Doyle's quartet of novels about the Rabbitte family of Dublin -- The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van and The Guts.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  No
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  Firming up deadlines. Switching out hosts.
5. How many books did you read? 2
6. What were the names of the books you read?  Dispatches From The Edge by Anderson Cooper and The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?  The Homesman.
8. Which did you enjoy least?  Both books were first-rate.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?  N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?  I'll be in a different place next spring, where people will be puzzled and/or offended that I would take 24 hours 'just to read books', but I am a bookworm, and bookworms always find a way.  I'm cooking up a scheme even as I write this.

***

5th Update:
Only 90 minutes left.  Powered by a chocolate bar, I just finished The Homesman, a deserved Spur Award winner back in the late 1980s.  All that reading's got me hungry.  I'm thinking about my homemade chili.

***

4th Update:
Mid-event survey:

1. What are you reading right now?  The Homesman, by Glendon Swarthout. 

2. How many books have you read so far?  I'm on book #2.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?  The Homesman is a little twist on the pioneer stories I love, and there's a strong female lead character, so I'm looking forward to finishing it.  Supposed to be a movie version soon.  Great!

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?  Conditions are ideal, but I got k.o.'ed by The Sandman for 5 hours.  I chafe at my limitations...oh well, this means I'll be sharp when others are weeping with fatigue.

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?  Can't think of anything.  It's all good.

***

3rd Update:
SEVEN hours in?! Really!  I haven't read anything since my last update.  I haven't slept, either.  Just puttering around and charging my Kindle, which I forgot to do before we got started.  I also ate an apple. Now the Kindle is showing a green light, so back to reading.

***

2nd Update:
4 hours done.  I just finished Dispatches From the Edge.  Not an easy read, so I'm not sure what to read next.  I've got to make a decision soon, because I'm starting to feel the familiar tiredness. My mind and body are telling me to go for the pajamas.  They're telling me the softness, most snuggly pair.  No, I won't do it.

***

Update:
2.5 hours in.  Page 125 of Dispatches From the Edge.  It's not a long book and it's written in straightforward language, but Cooper's themes are personal loss, war, natural disasters, starvation, and disaster, so it's not the sort of book one breezes through.  I decided to stop and make myself some tea, which somehow became hot chocolate.

***

OK, now it begins!  Here's the opening meme from the Readathon hosts:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?  Busan, South Korea.  It's 9 pm, straight up!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?  Not sure yet.  I'm beginning with Anderson Cooper's memoir "Dispatches From the Edge".

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  Apples...and chocolate.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  Oooh, having an attack of shyness.  Don't know what to say!  I'm a longtime Readathoner, since the days of Dewey.  I still miss her.

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 been having trouble staying awake the last few Readathons, so I banned pajamas and a pre-Readathon hot shower this time.  And bananas.   Maybe that'll help. ETA: I'm also doing updates on Twitter for the first time @susanandbooks

Readathon My Mind

It's getting closer and closer...the Readathon is almost here!  Next weekend.  Awkward start time for those of us in Asia, but you know what?  After all these years, I'm starting to develop an affection for beginning at 9 pm on Saturday night.  When I move back to the USA next spring, it won't feel natural to pry open my concrete eyelids at what?  5 am?  On a Saturday?  That's some hardy stuff.  I'll have to get in touch with my inner pioneer.

Meanwhile, that will be then and this is now.  This time,  I'm going to change up how I do the Readathon.  This may hurt, but I've decided to provide myself with healthy snacks.  It's funny; just as I put this down, the longing for combination pizza pierced my soul.  There's a growling -- oh wait, that's my stomach.  Since this is something that doesn't come easily, I'm taking suggestions for healthy snacks.  Don't get too California with me, because it has to be a snack that is procurable, and there's only so much healthy that this poor body can take. Thanks in advance.

My other big change for the Readathon is that I'm not going to do a bit of it in pajamas.  Pajamas are sleepwear and sleepwear leads to sleep in most cases.  I have found myself nodding but not reading as early as 2 am (remember my awkward start time?) and it could be that I'm just a little too comfortable.

 Ditto for the pre-Readathon shower and shampoo.  Although clean hair makes it feel as if the words are getting into my brain so much more efficiently, there seems to be a relaxing side effect that comes back to haunt me when I wake up from an unexpected snooze with my nose in a book tent.

I had considered going in the opposite direction and dressing up as if I were going to work (even shoes, jewelry and makeup) but that seems too extreme.  Besides, if my beloved St. Louis Cardinals are still in the championship race, I'll need to wear my baseball shirt.

As always, what to read?  What are other people going to read?  I made a reading list for fall, but am feeling the urge to deviate from it.  Saturday morning will probably find me at the Busan English Library making a stack.  

September 2014 with Books

A satisfying month for reading:

1. New Grub Street - George Gissing. Novel.

2. Hometown Appetites - Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris. Nonfiction.

3. The Lost Art of Dress - Linda Przybyszewski. Nonfiction.

4. Yes, Chef - Marcus Samuelsson. Memoir.

5. The Lifeboat - Charlotte Rogan. Novel.

6. Grammar Slammer - English Teacher X. Nonfiction.

7. Audrey Hepburn - Barry Paris. Biography.

8. Eve's Ransom - George Gissing. Novel.

9. Black Water - Joyce Carol Oates. Novel.

10. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel. Graphic Novel. (re-read)

11. Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel. Graphic Novel. (re-read)


Top Favorite:  The Lost Art of Dress.  I love this book.  I want to buy a hard copy.

Other Favorites:
Audrey Hepburn   
The Bechdel books
New Grub Street
Black Water

Not all I'd hoped for, but OK:
The Lifeboat
 Eve's Ransom.

Looking forward to October.  I'm doing the Readathon.  Watch these eyeballs go into overdrive.

Readathon: The Silent Wife

So far Jodi and Todd both seem like unsympathetic characters, but if I must brandish pom-poms for someone, I'll be looking at Team Jodi.  Good stuff.  If I don't finish The Silent Wife tonight, I'm sure I'll be in Book Coma mode, missing subway stops and putting out a "get-lost-I'm-reading" vibe until I'm done.  It seems that Nicole Kidman has signed on to star in the movie version.  Can't wait.

Snack:  I couldn't if I wanted to.  I'm doing a mask.

Hours read this weekend:  Eleven-something.

Readathon: The Hour In Which I Contemplate Moving To Omaha

In the interest of time, my most recent Facebook update and this Readathon update are one and the same.  Except I forgot to mention the glazed donut I'm going to eat in approximately one minute:

Done with Fangirl! I want to lie there and look back through it dreamily, and break that up with scrambles across the room to the computer to squeeee! about its awesomeness and my fierce new-found love for Rainbow Rowell. But this is a Readathon and it's onto the next book, The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison.  Total reading time: 9.5 hours.

Readathon: Carving Out The Hours

I didn't mean for so many hours to go by before I made a post for this Readathon.  I was away from home and my computer and Internet Explorer and Blogger and I had a bit of a standoff.

Friday night, as soon as I got off work at 10 pm, I started racking up the reading hours.  Now it is 2:30 pm Sunday afternoon.  I've managed to carve out 8 hours of reading time this weekend.  Hoping to get as close to 24 as possible.

I finished Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, and plugged one of those abysmal gaps in my reading experience.  Now I'm reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell which I dearly love and funnily enough, has a Flowers in the Attic reference.

Snacks:  I'm drinking a Schweppes Lemon Tonic and eyeing the box of donuts I picked up at Dunkin' in Busan Station.

Hope everyone is doing great.  I plan to come visit your pages and get ideas for books and noshes.

Singing a Different Readathon Song

I'm singing a different Readathon song this time.  Since the participants living abroad have the awkward start time of 9 pm Saturday night, I've decided to just do what I can on Saturday and Sunday and try to make it add up to 24 hours.  A strict accounting of my reading time will be logged, and who knows?  Maybe I'll do better than I would with one sustained 24 hour effort.  My past few Readathons have involved humiliating and lengthy encounters in which the Sandman has made me curse and cry and say Uncle.

Here's what's on the Readathon shelf:

1. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell.  It's been so difficult for me to stop myself from reading this one.

2. In the Nick of Time: How Joseph S. Hall discovered the truth about "Appalachian English" and rescued Smoky Mountain music, to boot - Ted Olson.  Linguistics and music!  I have such high hopes.

3. Maggie, a Girl of the Streets - Stephen Crane.  I'm doing pretty well on my resolution to read 100+ year old books.  25 is the goal.  I'm on #17 right now (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass) The Readathon is an opportunity to work one more in.

4. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl.  Recommended to me by my new friend, Nancie.

5. The Silent Wife - A.S.A. Harrison.  I've heard it compared to Gone Girl.

6. Black Water - Joyce Carol Oates.  I've been on a JCO kick for a couple of months now.  I'm even following her on Twitter.

7. The Thin Commandments: The Ten No-Fail Strategies for Permanent Weight Loss - Stephen Gullo.  I've got a theory that self-help books might be the way to go for a long reading siege.  We'll see.

My Real Life friends Teri and Val will be joining me.  Nancie's not sure, or as my Pirate English Facebook tells me, "[Her] Gut Be Uncertain!" Teri organized an all-weekend event on the Readers of Kindle Books Facebook page, and so far, about 60 people have been making bookish plans.

 Teri will be reading (since she reads so fast, I should say "cutting like a laser through") "...the next one in the #1 Ladies' Detective Agency and listening to the third in Jeff Shaara's WW2 series."  

Val will be reading "Cookoff ....and some book about being fat in America."

 I hope to see many of my Read Life friends as well. Good luck and happy reading!

Readathon: Do Real Bookworms Sleep?

Oh VERY BAD!

After my 5-hour sleep, I continued reading Two For The Dough.  Then I started having indigestion.  I ate a couple of extra-strength Tums and continued reading (More Ranger, less Morelli!).

After  I felt better, I felt sleepy again, and passed out for almost 3 more hours.  So not happy!!!

I'm 22% of the way through Two For The Dough.  Time for a cup of tea.

I will have a successful Readathon, if I have to claw the success out of myself with my bare hands.

Readathon: Halfway There

Mid-Event Survey

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?  No, not sleepy, because I crashed for 5 hours.  It's up to me to shine in the second half.

2) What have you finished reading?  Bless The Beasts and Children

3) What is your favorite read so far?  Same as #2

4) What about your favorite snacks?  The nachos were a delight.  A revelation.   Now I need something more delicate, like fruit.

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!  Ding! One serving of love coming up!  Becca at Lost In Books has a very cool feature on her blog, "Take Me Away Saturday" in which she chooses a country and takes an intense look at it via fiction, nonfiction and children's books.

Hour 5: Cheerreading

During this hour, I've been visiting other Readathoners' blogs. As always, everyone's food looks better than mine, and everyone's reading stack makes for a richer reading experience.  I'm taking furious notes about what I'm seeing.

Put down the pom-poms:   Now I'm ready to start my second book, although my eyes are getting that crunchy feeling.  A little dose of Visine, and they'll be back to good in no time.  I'll resume my cheering duties in a few hours.

Which book, you ask?  Two For The Dough by Janet Evanovich.  I recently discovered Stephanie Plum, and I can't help loving her and wanting to see how things work out for her.

The book pictured above, The Cheerleader by Ruth Doan MacDougall is an excellent portrayal of high school life in the mid-1950s.  Lots of details -- it's like a time capsule!

Snacks: I'm still sipping on my Coke.

What's new or different?  I felt an extreme desire to change into pajamas.  Coinciding with this feeling was also the extreme need for it to be bra o'clock right then and there.

Readathon: Hours 3 and 4

Books read: 1

I finished Bless The Beasts and Children.  Excellent YA fiction (I didn't realize this was a YA novel!)  and Glendon Swarthout was the supplest of writers.  Although I know it was necessary to spell out what was happening to the buffalo, and why the boys were compelled to rescue them, I chafed at the obvious author intrusion.  Also, the biblical allusions were a little too heavy-handed for me.  The way the novel was structured with the flashbacks to the boys' lives and their previous experiences at camp was perfect, though.  Glendon Swarthout is a writer whose other novels I'll be actively seeking.

Snacks:

I'm drinking a Coke.

April, 2013 Readathon

SECOND HOUR

Book: 
Bless The Beasts and Children

Pages read: 
23

Snacks:
The nachos.  Living in Korea, it isn't always easy to find proper cheese, so I used Tesco cheese slices.  Too late, I remembered that sometimes the liquor section has little blocks of Cheddar next to the wine.  Serves me right for not being a lush.

FIRST HOUR

Book: 
Bless The Beasts and Children (1970) by Glendon Swarthout

Pages read:
73

Snacks:
A few glugs of water

Readathon Intro: Assembling Reading Stacks and Reading Snacks

I'm very yay! and yippee! to be doing Dewey's Readathon again.  Although this is my 8th or 9th time to participate, I've only been awake for the whole 24 hours once.  The Sandman reminds me of that bully on the beach in the old Charles Atlas advertisements.  I guess you know who that makes me.

I'm reading today (and tomorrow, because it's already 9 pm on Saturday here) from the totally excellent city of Busan, South Korea.  The book I'm most looking forward to is Marbles by Ellen Forney.  It's a graphic novel, and I'm going to try to save it for that delicate space in which I'm tired but not yet hallucinating. 

I've gathered some snacks, and I'm most eagerly anticipating a plate of the nacho chips topped with my homemade chili and some cheese.  I'll also be visiting other blogs in the guise of a Readathon Cheerleader and providing encouragement (and getting ideas for new stuff to read and eat).

In real life (as opposed to "read life"), I'm an English as a Foreign Language instructor at a university in Busan.  The students (mostly Korean with a few Chinese) are great, which means they bring a lot of confidence, goodwill and energy into the classroom with them, which makes my job easier.  It's difficult to be strict and  hardnosed about "proper" grammar, because I'm dazzled by all the different ways the language can be manipulated and even changed to suit needs and reflect culture.

Back to the business at hand: I changed up my reading strategy for this Readathon.  For the past year or so, I was reading children's books, but I lost the heart for that genre.  I'm mixing it up this time, and we'll see how it goes.  I don't expect to get to all of these:

The two books I've selected from my Kindle are Onions In The Stew by Betty MacDonald and Two For The Dough by Janet Evanovich.

Those eggs are hard-boiled.  I tried to get a good mixture of savory and sweet.

That's it.  I'm ready.  Read-y.

Readathon: 7th Update

Yay!  I got my reading mojo back again.  With the link fixed, people are visiting and leaving their nourishing and sustaining comments.  I'm so needy, she said wryly.

I'm 63 pages into Chocolat.  Beautiful and bewitching book.  I love how Vianne, the magician of tastiness and the local curate are going head-to-head.  The voluptuous descriptions of the chocolates and other sweets (the gingerbread house = swoon!) are driving me crazy in the most delightful way. It may be time to pull out the big guns:  I've got a small stash of Cadbury assorted chocolates that my friend Val brought me back from the UK.

Readathon: 4th Update

The Readathon is half-done, or half-begun, depending on how you view these sorts of things.  I finally finished my first book Dead End In Norvelt.  This has got to be the weirdest Newbery I've ever read.

Page count:  341

Next book up:  Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Readathon: 2nd Update

Pages read this hour: 79

Still reading Dead End In Norvelt.  The power struggle between Jack's parents is intriguing.  She's a socialist and he's a capitalist.  Since this is a children's literature book, will they split up over this fundamental difference?

Waves of sleepiness are washing over me.  I need to give in gracefully and be not afraid of the nap.

Here's a picture of a snack awaiting me when I wake up.  Homemade pizza!  Actually, I already had a couple of slices for supper.  Delicious.  My beautiful, brilliant and talented neighbor, Dina, the one who wrote the Egyptian cookbook made it for me.

My nap strategy is to sleep on the couch, because it gets damned uncomfortable after a couple of hours.  That way, I won't be unconscious for too long.   Zzzzzee you zzzzzzzoon.

Readathon: 1st Update

I'm 106 pages into Dead End In Norvelt and enjoying it very much.  I'm glad it won the Newbery this year.

Readathon Ready!

I'm ready to read, but how long I will last, I cannot say.  There's no nap in my backstory.  Blame it on the St. Louis Cardinals.  Like them, I'll dig deep and do my best.

My readathon reads are pictured above.  I hope to finish these 3 books before either the Readathon or I are finished.  If I get these books done, I'll find another one.  Call it the player to be named later.

Snacks?  Not for a long time.  The Spawn had a birthday, so I'm full up on cheesecake.

The abovementioned birthday boy also chose the order in which I'll be reading these books:
1. Dead End In Norvelt - Jack Gantos
2. Sounder - William H. Armstrong
3. Chocolat - Joanne Harris

Yikes, 8 minutes after the hour!  I need to make tracks, optical-style.