Read-a-thon: I'm back

I was planning on doing the whole 24 hours but I wasn't planning on feeling ill. My cold has pretty much gone and been replaced with a sore throat and up and down temperature. So last night I decided it was better to have a few hours sleep, I went to bed at half one and got up at 6 (real time, 5 as the clocks changed in the middle of the night). And guess what I dreamed of....blogging the read-a-thon :D
I'm going to check my google reader then read for a while and get some cheerleading in later on.
Hope everyone else is still doing well x

Read-a-thon Hour 11

Books read: 2
Books Finished:The Earth Hums in B Flat, The 13 Clocks
Current Book: Up next will be The Farming of Bones
Running total of pages read since you started: 559

The last hour has been far more productive, I've read a Finnish folk tale about a witches spell and James Thurber's The 13 Clocks, as well as polishing off most of a bag of family size Walker's Sensations and I visited about 20 blogs.
I've completely lost track of the blogs I've visited in total or the total amount of reading time.

Read-a-thon Hour 9

I've finally finished my first book!!!!!!! The Earth Hums in B Flat an okay but average read. I'll be doing mini reviews of my reads early in the week. I haven't been blogging or cheerleading in the last 4 hours because the internet decided to play up earlier, and just kept freezing.

It's now half 9 at night here, I've had dinner and the moon is shining brightly through the window. I'm off to do some cheerleading and get bathed and into my pjs before I start reading again. I'm thinking a few short stories then The 13 Clocks next.

Thanks for all my comments, hopefully I'll get to catch up with what everyone is doing through my cheerleading.

Read-a-thon Hour 4

Books read: 0
Current Book: Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Running total of pages read since you started: 90
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 1 hr and 45 mins
Cheerleading: 28 people visited
Favourite posts:


I've read till the end of the first part of Nights at the Circus, I'll be moving on to a new book after a bit of cheerleading as although I'm enjoying the plot the type is tiny not all that comfortable to read which is slowing me down massively.

Read-a-thon the 3rd hour

Books read: 0
Current Book: Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Running total of pages read since you started: 46
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 55 mins
Cheerleading: 10posts
Favourite posts:

So far this hasn't been going to well, I've been figeting and not concentrating, have had phone calls to deal with and managed to stop at a ton of blogs trying to cheerlead where people haven't started posting yet. Going to try and manage a solid hour of Nights at the Circus, if I still can't concentrate going to change to another read.
Hope everyone else is doing better than I am

Read-a-Thon the Beginning

I had many plans for this morning; a stroll along the river up to the library among crunchy leaves, cleaning the whole house, making vegi bolognase and peanut butter cookies from scratch. However I woke up to the sound of heavy rain and I still have my horrid cold, so I've pottered about and generally just been waiting for the read-a-thon to start. As we're starting in England at 1pm (probably one of the best starting times) I'm starting with fish and chips for my lunch which I've just popped out for and Nights at the Circus:





When I was cleaning my bedroom this morning - crisp fresh bed covers to snuggle up on the sofa with tonight while I read - I kept gazing at the stacks of unread books and mentally picking out ones to read. After I realised I was being unrealistic I've stayed downstairs where the only books in eyesight are these ones which I picked out on Thursday evening:



(The rabbit is a camera w*ore!)
The list:
The Virago Book Of Witches (for the RIP III challenge) - which was missed out of the pic.
The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (a 1001 book)
Piecing by Ryu Murakami (for the Japanese Literature challenge)
My Children my Africa by Athol Fugard (a play)
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes (Both are for a bookcrossing bookbox)
Feminine Gospels by Carol Ann Duffy (for the Twelve Step Poetry Programme)
Creole Folktales by Patrick Chamoiseau
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Kate Culhane by Hague

Out of this pile the poetry, the two short story collections (Creole Folktales and The Virago Book of Witches) and Wolf Hall will be dipped into. I'm hoping to polish of 4 or 5 of the other books. Possibly more.




I'm hoping to read for 24 hours but will sleep if needs be, my cold has left me with achey shoulders and my eyes have felt tired since I woke up. I'll be curling up with blankets, my stripey slippers and the bunny whatever happens. Oh and I'll also be cheerleading this year!
I'll be making a donation to the Royal National Library for the Blind I've made monthly donations to this charity for years and years, but it has become more important to me since I started teaching as our school has a specialist unit for Visually and Hearing Impaired pupils who are integrated into mainstream education.

My Thoughts: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

After whinging about having readers block I then went and read all afternoon and a lot of the evening, it was still a bit of a struggle, I kept getting figgity but I managed to read for a decent length of time. Luckily I had the rilliant Scott Westerfeld to get me through.

Near about everyone in blogland seems to have read these - although they seem pretty unheard of on English book blogging sites.
Ugles is the first book in a quartet based in a country where between the ages of 12 to 16 you become an Ugly. You leave segregated away from your parents along with all the other uglies. Everyone is normal looking, they have unsymmetrical faces, spots, greasy hair, they may be slightly to fat or a bit to thin. They all look different and therefore are deemed Ugly.
They dream of being 16 of becoming a Pretty from the day of their 16th birthday when they will be whisked off for plastic surgery to make them look perfect. In New Pretty land not only does everyone have large sensual lips and big doe eyes, but they are allowed to party all night and day until they become middle pretties and have jobs and kids and stuff.
Tally can't wait for her chance to be 16, until she meets and befriends Shay, a girl who reveals to her that not everyone wants to be a Pretty and in fact some go off and live in a hidden city over where the Rusties (us) used to live, before we screwed up the world. I was shocked at her decision at the ending, looking forward to seeing where things go next.

A great teen read, good for adults to read as well. I'm looking forward to Pretties, the next book in the series which I have siting on my desk, its fast looking like it is going to be read for the read-a-thon this weekend.

Challenges:
Barts YA Dystopian Chalenge
The Scott Westerfeld Mini Challenge.