May 2
Over the winter we hosted a scavenger hunt challenge. One item on the list was a book with beautiful cover. Participants were competing against each other to find (and read) the book with the most beautiful book cover. Now we need your help to pick the winner! The winner of this item will get to take home a beautiful Folio Society edition of a favorite book. Keep reading to vote on which book cover you think is the most beautiful. Read more
May 2
Has it come to this “great American novel?” Are you cliche? Are we? I know one thing, this book is.
May 1
Time for our April recap. Find out which books were favorites, which were duds, and which ones we are most looking forward to the following month. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out in May and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading next month.
Read more
Apr 27
Two joint reviews in a row! Book Worm and I are on a roll. Were we more aligned on this book? Keep reading to find out. Read more
Apr 26
It’s time for another joint review. This time, Book Worm and I both read House of Leaves. We had pretty different reactions to the book. One of us loved it and the other thought it was just okay. Can you guess which one of us loved it? Read more
Apr 25
This weekend I decided in the spur of the moment to take part in Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon. The readathon took place Saturday from 8am EST to 8am EST on Sunday. 1950 readers participated in the event across various platforms including Facebook, twitter, instagram, book tube, and various blogging platforms sites.
It was my first every readathon and I clearly had no idea what I was doing. I have to admit that my first thought when I heard about it was that it was rather silly. I mean I read a lot already, did I really need to try to set aside a day for reading. I was wrong because it was so much more than just a bunch of people sitting alone in their houses reading. The day was filled with mini challenges and fun activities and conversation via various social media sites.
Of course I did it all wrong since I didn’t prepare at all. I picked the wrong book(s) to read, I didn’t protect my time, and I didn’t plan out food/snacks. Here’s what my day looked like:
8-9am: Started reading. Book selected – House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Trust me – this was the wrong book to pick.
9am-10: Found out my 5-year old needed cleats for soccer practice. Went to store in a panic to buy cleats. Zero reading
10-11am: Got my daughter ready for soccer. Zero reading
11-12pm: Soccer practice. I took a book with me but ran into other parents and spent the hour talking to them and watching soccer practice. 5 year olds playing soccer is amusing to watch. Zero reading.
12-1pm: Had lunch. Zero reading
1-3pm: Cleaned the house because family were coming over for dinner later. Zero reading
3-4pm: Reading! I actually was able to read for the whole hour while my daughter played downstairs
4-5pm: Set the table, played with my daughter. Zero reading
5-8pm: Dinner. Family came over. Zero reading.
8-3am: Reading! For the first time all day I had time to sit for more than an hour and read. I finished House of Leaves (our joint review to follow later this week). I started Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford.
3-7:30am: Sleeping. I’m past the age where all-nighters are appealing or possible. I normally go to sleep around 10 – 11pm so 3am was an accomplishment.
7:30-8am. Read more of Love in a Cold Climate.
Total tally: I read 1.5 books for a total of 660 pages. House of Leaves was 705 pages but I had already read 100 pages before I started. Some of those last pages were an “index” and images. I managed an extra 55 pages of my second book.
As you can see, I did a terrible job of reserving time to read. I happen to be a very fast reader so I was able to read quite a few pages despite not reading for the majority of the day. House of Leaves was probably the worst book to pick in terms of cleaning up my TBR. I did really enjoy it (Book Worm and I differed on this as you will see this week) but it’s a hard book to breeze through with all the formatting styles — having to get up and look at passages in the mirror and work my way through the crazy maze like sections.
Overall it was really fun because of all the extras. I did check in to social media (twitter, Facebook, goodreads) throughout the day to see how others were doing and to participate in a few of the mini challenges. I saw a few of you, our lovely readers and fellow bloggers, posting answers too!
The hosts of the event did a great job, as did all the volunteers. They have organized a second one for October 22, 2016 and this time around, I’d like to prepare in advance. Maybe some of you will also join us? I’ve debated whether or not we (Book Worm and I) should volunteer to host a mini challenge for the next one.
We want to hear from you. Did you participate in this readathon? How did you do? Would you want to participate in the future?
Apr 23
This year will be my first attempt at Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. I didn’t plan ahead and didn’t block out time so we shall see how it goes – probably not too well. With a 5 year old at home and family coming over to my house tonight, there’s virtually no way I can be a fully committed participant but I do hope to check it out and get ideas for the next one.
The readathon is a biannual event where book lovers around the world come together to read for 24-hours (or as close to it as possible). There are mini challenges, prizes, and a lot of events on social media. The event starts in 30 mins. You can still sign up if you are interested.
You’ll probably be thankful to hear that I won’t be updating this blog with new posts for my personal progress. I will update on twitter and in the goodreads group. So you can follow my updates there. I will post an update at the end of the day on my experience participating and my level of success (which will probably be fairly unimpressive).
Will you be participating? Tell us your plans for the readathon including the five opening questions:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
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?
Apr 20
I’m finally back on track! After close to a month of reading very little literary fiction and too much “escapist” fare, I finally got around to reading a book that I can actually review for this blog. Today’s book has been sitting on my TBR shelf at home for a while so it’s about time. Keep reading to see what I thought, although those of you who know me well can probably guess. Read more
Apr 19
The Guardian describes Nicola Barker’s latest novel as “unclassifiable genius.” Keep reading to see if I agreed with them. Read more
Apr 18
The tournament is over so we have our first two winners. Keep reading to find out who won the first two prizes and who is in the lead for our grand prize. Read more
jenp27
The Reader's Room 