The #24in48 Reckoning or, The Wrapup

In my last post, I laid out my overly ambitious TBR for the #24in48 readathon:

I was all ready and rearing to go for the 12:01am ET start time.  I had a big pot of tea brewed, my new mermaid blanket sprawled out on the sofa, and my first book picked.  Since it was so late/early, I decided that I needed to begin with something that would grip my attention.  So I picked Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10, about a young woman on a cruise ship who believes she's a witness to a murder.  Or is she?  Even my cat decided to get in on the readathon action.

It was the absolute right choice!  I was definitely swept up in the suspense and whodunnitness of the protagonist's story, enough so that the hours flew by.  However, it was quite late when I finally finished it.  Having been up since 6am that morning for work, I decided that it would be a good idea to get a few hours of sleep before starting another book.  Zzzzzz...

I woke up, got myself up and around, fixed some breakfast, and dove straight into Andres Barba's novella Such Small Hands.  As I was eating the mini almond croissants, I thought that they would be the perfect size for small hands.  Oh the thoughts that rattle through a readathon brain...

After that slim tome, I moved on to a collection of Roxane Gay's essays called Urgent Unheard Stories.  It was one of the Independent Bookstore Day swag items from a few years ago, but I had never gotten around to reading it.  Rectified.  Each essay dealt in some way with publishing, literature, and/or reading - but, as is Roxane's trademark, also spoke to larger social, civil, and political issues.

After that, I curled up with The Wangs vs the World, a family road trip adventure par excellence.  The father lost his makeup manufacturing business, his house, and all his millions in the 2009 recession.  His big plan to rebuild his fortune is to drive from where his family lived in Bel Air to his eldest daughter's home, north of New York City.  Himself, his two younger children, his second wife, and his nanny all pile into a Mercedes station wagon and have a bonkers trip, like something out of National Lampoon.  I fixed myself a lunch of steamed dumplings to nibble whilst I read.

After that, I picked up the only poetry collection on my TBR.  Nothing More to Lose, written by Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, focuses on issues of ethnicity, Jewish/Arab relations, personal identity, political radicalism, and many more.  As this was a collection of poetry in translation, NOT about love, this also ticks a box on my Book Riot Read Harder Challenge list!  Woohoo!

Many of these poems were hard-hitting, so I decided my next read should go in a different direction.  Plus, it was rounding the bend toward midnight, so I knew it had to be something I wouldn't get bogged down in.  I decided to read the bindup of two of Cesar Aira's short stories - The Little Buddhist Monk/The Proof

With a guest appearance by the break dancing hot dog from Snapchat!

I only was able to get through the Monk story before my eyelids got too darn heavy, so I had to call it a night.  I was up bright,but not so early, on Sunday morning, the last day of the readathon.  After breakfast, I plowed through the very bizarre story The Proof, and moved on to what was my last read of the weekend - Marilynne Robinson's essay collection When I Was a Child I Read Books.  Despite the title, the collection centered around the author's usual stable of topics - religion, science, political discourse, community, and literature.  I started reading this in physical form, but had checked out the audiobook from my local libary (hey-o Hoopla!) so I listened to it the rest of the way.  And that, reader, took me past the 24-hour mark.  I made it!

Oh, and the good folks who ran #24in48 (Hi Rachel, Kristen, and Kerry!) set up fun challenges every 3 hours on the Readathon's blog.  They'd give you a prompt, and you posted your response (linked to your Twitter/Instagram/Litsy/blog/etc.) to share with everyone.  Here were some of my challenge posts -

Selfie: Book Face Edition!

We Need Diverse Books!

Spine Poetry!

Forget monsters, my favorite thing is tote bags!  Bookish tote bags!

In the span of 24 hours, I was able to read 7 books!  Not my entire TBR pile, but pretty darn close.  I got little sleep, ate some nibbles, and had a great time with my fellow 'thon-ers!  I can't wait until the next one!!!

Did you end up participating in the #24in48?  How did it go?  Are you feeling like a zombie on this Monday morning?  And, in case you want to mark your calendars now, the next #24in48 Readathon will be happening January 27-28, 2018!!! 



Librorum annis,

#24in48 Readathon TBR

It's that time again!!  This coming weekend is the next installment of the 24in48 Readathon.  It's one of my favorite excuses to relax and do practically nothing, except read as many books as I can, all in one glorious weekend.  If you're interested in joining in on the fun, you can sign up here, and read about my previous readathon adventures here and here.  I'll be posting throughout the weekend on Litsy and Instagram, and on Monday you'll see exactly how well I got on with the reading.

When it comes to what books I read, I've tried lots of different arrangements.  Sometimes I pick a book series and read as many of them as I can.  Sometimes, I pick a few books that have been languishing on my shelves for a long time (*cough* years *cough*) and do my best to finish them.  While those tactics certainly have their merits, I've found that, for me, it's more fulfilling to read shorter books, because I get that great sense of accomplishment for finishing the things.  That's not to say that it's a bad idea to read longer books during a readathon - not at all.  In fact, it might be the perfect excuse to psych yourself up to read that doorstopper you've been putting off.  It's just not my preference. At least not this time.

I always make a TBR pile in advance of readathons, so that I don't have to spend time wondering what to read.  As the name suggests, this challenge is to read for 24 hours over the 48-hour weekend, so time is of the essence.  I like having diversity of genres, topics, writing styles, formats, etc.  Therefore, my readathon stack is usually pretty tall and interesting.  I don't think there's ever been a time when I've read all the books on my TBR, and that doesn't get me down. 

These are the books that I'm putting on my 24in48 Readathon TBR -   

 

Urgent Unheard Stories, by Roxane Gay
The Little Buddhist Monk and The Proof, by Cesar Aira
Nothing More to Lose, by Najwan Darwish
Such Small Hands, by Andres Barba
Oola, by Brittany Newell
One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses, by Lucy Corin
Eve Out of Her Ruins, by Ananda Devi
When I Was a Child I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson
Six Decades at Yaddo, edited by John Cheever
The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
The Wangs vs. The World, by Jade Chang

Another fun part of readathon prep is to consider the food and drinks that I want to have on hand.  Since the readathon starts at midnight, it's important to have nibbles and drinks on hand to make sure I don't get too drowsy...probably brewing a large pot of English breakfast tea.  To keep things balanced throughout the weekend, I'll need to make sure I have things from each of the C Food Groups: Cheese, chips, crudites, caffeine, and chocolate.  I might even mix up a garden salad if I'm feeling extra wild. Who knows?!

We'll see how I get on with these books, the foodage, and the readathon in general, in the next post.  Are you participating in the 24in48 readathon?  What books are you planning to read?



Librorum annis,

A Slightly-More-Than-Mid-Year Book Challenge Update

Way back at the beginning of 2017, I took on a few bookish & reading challenges.  Beyond just reading the books that caught my fancy, I wanted to direct my reading and interaction with books.  Since we're just a bit beyond the halfway point of the year, I thought it might be a good idea to check in and see how I'm getting on.

1. Goodreads Goal - I'm happy to report that I have far surpassed my initial goal of reading 52 books.  In fact, I finished my 52nd book (The Joy of Leaving Your S*it All Over the Place by Jennifer McCartney) on May 7.

2. Poetry365 - I've been consistent with posting a new poem every day!  I recently checked the #LitsyPoetry365 hashtag on Litsy, and I think I'm the only person who's still going with this challenge.

3. Litsy A to Z - So.  I'm still committed to reading through my Penguin Drop Caps, which was my original challenge, but I'm not as far along as I thought I'd be at this point.  We're in the 7th month of 2017, and I've only read 4 out of the 26 in the collection.  There's still plenty of time, so I'm not quite at DEF CON 1 (or am I).

4. Litsy Reading Challenge - For this one, I was randomly generated a BINGO-type card, and had to read books that fit the different criteria.  You could "complete" this challenge any number of ways, but I want to push myself and read a book for every space.

 

I'm happy with my progress, but there are still quite a few categories left to complete:

• Starts with Z - I have no ideas...
• Non-Fiction about Food/Drink - I'm planning to pick up a copy of Bianca Bosker's Cork Dork to read when I'm out in CA Wine Country this autumn
• 2016 Award Winner - I have a copy of Paul Beatty's The Sellout, which won the Man Booker prize in 2016, on my shelf.  I just need to get to it.
• Set in the 1970's - This is a decade I don't read about very often, so I'm looking for ideas...
• Person of Color Memoir - Roxane Gay's memoir Hunger is on my hold list at the library!  
• Freezer-Worthy Horror - Admittedly, I don't read much in the "horror" genre (I don't like being scared by fiction), but I have Mary Shelley's Frankenstein on my TBR, so I may choose that to meet this challenge.  

5. Book Riot's "Read Harder" Challenge
There are a whopping 24 tasks on this reading adventure, and so far I've completed 19 of them.  These are the remaining items, and what I'm considering as possible books:

• Read a Book About Sports - I'm not up for The Sport of Kings (my initial choice) at this point, so a more manageable option might be 10 Speed Press' Women in Sport: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky
• Read a Book That is Set Within 100 Miles of Your Location - Every year, on Christmas Eve eve, I re-read 2AM at The Cat's Pajamas, which is set in Philadelphia, right around the 100 mile mark, so I'm setting that as my challenge read.
• Read a Book That Has Been Banned or Frequently Challenged in Your Country - I'm doing a re-read of The Handmaid's Tale in conjunction with watching the Hulu series once all of the episodes have been released.  I'm going to binge the whole thing over a weekend, if I can handle it.  
• Read a Book Published By a Micropress - I'm struggling with finding micropresses, let alone books published by them, so any suggestions are welcomed!
• Read a Collection of Poetry in Translation on a Theme Other Than Love - I recently aquired a collection of translated poetry from Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, which should fulfill this requirement perfectly.

And that's all of my challenges.  I think I'm in a pretty good place, except perhaps with Litsy A to Z.  I still have a bunch of big books (Great Expectations, Moby Dick) on that list, but I'm staying positive about being able to complete them all by New Year's Eve.  How are you doing on your reading challenges?  Any recommendations for my remaining challenge tasks?



Librorum annis,

24 in 48 Readathon TBR

This weekend, January 21-22 is the next installment of the 24in48 Readathon.  The goal of this challenge is to read books for 24 out of the 48 hours in the weekend, beginning at 12:01 am in your local time zone. You don't have to read for 24 straight hours, however, which makes it more flexible than other readathons, like Dewey's.  If you have things to do, a job shift to work, or (gasp!) sleep - you can still participate in the readathon and do what needs to be done.

It's not just about the reading, however.  There's a real sense of community amongst all the participants, celebrating successes and rooting each other on to keep reading.  If you're involved in bookish social media, there are reading challenges, hashtags, and fun competitions that you can participate in for prizes.  During the last 24in48, I won a copy of Good as Gone by Amy Gentry for one of my photos!

This will be the first time that I've participated in 24in48 since I've started this blog.  Last time around, I updated my reading status via Instagram Twitter and Litsy, and had an absolute blast!  The readathon has a presence on all of these social media, and you can find their links on their homepage.  I'm planning to post my real-time reading updates on all of these social media channels, so be sure to follow me there if you're interested to see how I get on with things.  I'll also be posting a summary of my reading here in the following week.

Are you participating in any 2017 reading challenges...BookRiot Read Harder, Pop Sugar, etc?  A readathon is a great way to tick a few boxes off those lists!  As with all readathons, it's important to have a strategy in place for optimum success.  That's not only the books you'll be reading, but the eats and drinks you'll need to keep your energy topped up.

The Books

I always select my readathon books in advance, because I don't want to think about what book to read once I've begun.  It's important for me to be able to pick up something else right away once I've finished whatever I'm currently reading at the time.  When it comes to books, I have carefully crafted the criteria that books must meet in order to make any readathon TBR.  Generally they fall into three categories: Short, funny, gripping.  This means that I often choose short story or essay collections, graphic novels/memoirs, short novels, and culturally relevant books.  In addition, my TBR choices need to conform to my #WinterOfWomen17 project - all be written by women.

Here are the books (an optimistically large stack, to be sure) I've got on my 24in48 TBR, in no particular order -

The Eats

As I mentioned before, sustenance is important to success.  Because the hours of the readathon are individualized, the options for food and drink are wide and vast.  It might mean that you are snacking on celery and carrot sticks (popcorn and M&Ms) during the wee hours of the morning with some sparkling water.  Maybe you actually want to get some sleep, and start off your readathon with a mug of coffee or tea, and a pastry.  Whatever it takes to keep you reading, make sure you're stocked up on it before 12:01 am on January 21st.  

And what about me?  I plan to start reading right away, then napping here and there throughout the weekend.  For food, I'm actually thinking of going Gilmore - pizza, licorice whips, toast and butter, Chinese food, copious amounts of coffee, and maybe a salad.  Because, you know, health.  

Are you up for the challenge of reading 24 hours in a weekend?  If so, grab your books and snacks, log on to whatever social media strikes your fancy, and get ready to have some fun!  I hope to see you there.

Librorum annis