A nice round number

Today, on the way to the airport, I completed book number 46 for the year. And, as I was updating the statistics, I noticed that the number of pages read so far this year totals up to 16,000. Wow! That's just strange that it would come up to a nice round number like that.

But that number is simply the number of pages in the books that I have finished reading. It's inaccurate as a total of the number of pages which I have read. After all, there are the 3 other books which I am actively reading. My Kindle tells me that I'm 80% of the way through The Baritone Wore Chiffon, which computes to about 183 pages. I'm half-way through the 8 CDs of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which computes to about 168 pages. And, I've barely started reading In Enemy Hands, so I'd say I'm only about 30 pages into that book. Then, there are the two books that I abandoned part-way through. I stopped at page 218 in The Know-It-All because I needed to mail the book off to Lauren in Canada. And, I set aside The Night Shifters about 1/3 of the way into it. I plan to finish both of these books sometime, but I have others queued up to read first.

Read-a-Thon: End of Event Survey

The Read-a-Thon is over and it's time to post my responses to the end of event summary. My responses are amazingly similar to those I posted for the past couple of events. I really look forward to the Read-a-Thon and try to clear my calendar so that there are no distractions. This time, I focused solely on the reading and post, so the end of event summary is the only mini challenge that I've participated in.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
   The wee hours from about 1am are the hardest for me. This year I wound up falling asleep and napping for a couple of hours.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
   I'm not sure I have any recommendations to make. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer—so much so that I called my friend Beth and recommended that she pick it up for her Kindle.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
   All-in-all, I think the Read-a-thon runs very well. I'd still like to see the start time changed so that in my time zone the wee hours aren't at the end of the 24-hour period.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
   This year, I didn't participate in any of the mini-challenges. I just did my own thing, reading and posting and visiting the blogs of my BookObsessed friends.
5. How many books did you read?
   I read in 3 different books, finishing two of them.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
   The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer, Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy, and The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
   I have to say that The Alto Wore Tweed was the most delightful. It was zany and even a bit campy.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
   I didn't pick a book that I couldn't enjoy. The Alphabet Sisters had the most serious theme and therefore reading it went more slowly, but that wasn't because I didn't enjoy it.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
   N/A. I didn't sign up to be a cheerleader, but I did stop by friends' blogs and leave comments to cheer them on.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
    Oh yeah! I'll be back in October as a reader.

Read-a-Thon: Ended

Hour 24 Update

Reading Location: my couch

Currently Reading: The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 671 pags

Total Time spent reading so far: 740 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: None recently

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: Just the two already noted: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer and Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Comments: Well, another Read-a-Thon has come and gone. I've enjoyed participating again and look forward to next October. I'm going to hop over to the Read-a-Thon web site and see what I missed in terms of mini-challenges.

Read-a-Thon: Almost over

Hour 22 Update

Reading Location: on the couch

Currently Reading: The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 622 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 646 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: None recently

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: 2. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer and Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Comments: I had every intention to stay up and to keep reading through the night, but I just couldn't stay awake. I've slept for almost 4 hours and have awakened ready to read for the next hour and a half.

Read-a-Thon: Midnight

Hour 17 Update

Reading Location: Sitting at the dinner table

Currently Reading: The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 582

Total Time spent reading so far: 585

Other Readers I have visited: None recently

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: 2. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer and Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Comments: Drinking a Diet Coke and sitting at the dining table; I think it's helping to fight the drowsiness. Found out that LiveJournal is unavailable again due to DOS attack. I'll have to make up my A-Z Blogging Challenge update when they return. I'm glad that I'm posting my Read-a-Thon updates here instead of there.

Read-a-Thon: 8 more hours

Hour 16 Update

Reading Location: on the couch

Currently Reading: Just finished reading Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy; will pick back up The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney.

Total Pages read so far: 555 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 561 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: No one new

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: 2. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer and Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Comments: Oh my. I know I was dozing in the last hour. It took me almost 30 minutes to read the last 10 pages of Bit the Jackpot. I need to get up and walk around, find something cold to drink and maybe even relocate to the dinig room to try and stay awake.

Read-a-Thon: 14 down, 10 to go!

Hour 14 Update

Reading Location: During the last hour or so, I was in the car and at Braum's; now back at home

Currently Reading: Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy. I'm now on page 218.

Total Pages read so far: 478 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 465 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: During this break, I stopped by to check up on Shaunesay, dancing-dog, azuki, and Noumena12. Left messages on their most recent blog posts.

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: 1. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Comments: Shortly before 20:00 (an hour ago), we headed out to Braum's for ice cream. Round trip plus time to eat our ice cream in the store, we were gone for almost exactly an hour. I read the entire time—except for the 2 minutes that it took me to study the menu and place my order. Now I'm well fortified for some serious reading. I'm getting close to the end of Bit the Jackpot and then I'll move back to The Alphabet Sisters. Don't know what will be up after that. I'll just play it by ear.

Read-a-Thon: the half-way point

Hour 12 Update

Reading Location: mostly on the couch

Currently Reading: Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Total Pages read so far: 378 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 392 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: During my last break, I hopped over to visit Sanddanz and Noumena12 and leave some encouragement on their blogs.

Mini-challenges completed: None. In fact, I haven't looked at the Read-a-Thon site since early this morning.

Finished Books: 1. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Comments: I'm reading much faster in Bit the Jackpot. I took a couple of short breaks to put together Chicken Chili with Barley. It's simmering on the stove and smelling really good. I plan on sending the hubby out to buy some ice cream so I'll have a wonderful snack later tonight.

Read-a-Thon: Another update

Hour 11.5 Update

Reading Location: still on the couch

Currently Reading: Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy

Total Pages read so far: 328 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 362 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: I dropped in on Kanaye and left a comment.

Mini-challenges completed: None.

Finished Books: 1. The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Comments: OK. To stave off the drowsiness, I decided to start reading another book, from a completely different genre. I'm now 72 pages into Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy, the 2nd book in her Vegas Vampires series. I owe this book to BooknBeer since she won it in a PUF Swap over at BookObsessed.

Read-a-Thon: It's been running for 9 hours and it's 16:00 here in Texas

Hour 9 Update

Reading Location: On the couch. But it's too cozy and easy to doze off. I think I'll find another place to read for a while.

Currently Reading:The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 256 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 302 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: I didn't visit any blogs since my last update.

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: 1: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Comments: Hubby is watching TV and I'm finding myself much too cozy and comfortable. I may move to the dinner table for the next hour and see if sitting there will help me stay more focused on the Read-a-Thon. I'm also going to start another book—one totally different from The Alphabet Sisters and maybe the change in subject will be stimulating, too.

Read-a-Thon: Nearly 1/4 of the Way

Hour 8 Update

Reading Location: Finally home and on the couch again

Currently Reading: The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 213 pages. 153 page equivalents in The Alto Wore Tweed and 60 pages (so far) in The Alphabet Sisters

Total Time spent reading so far: 247 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: Before we left for lunch, I stopped by to check on Shaunesay and Sanddanz. Will visit a couple of others before I resume reading.

Mini-challenges completed: None. Now that my distractions are over, I'll check in at the main Read-a-Thon site and see if there are any interesting mini-challenges.

Finished Books: 1. At 13:00, I finished reading The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer.

Comments: Took son and his family to El Guapo down in Denton for lunch. I read in the car all the way down there and all the way back home, sneaking in about 20 minutes reading time each way. I enjoyed our short visit and lunch, but I sure wish we could schedule these things for any day other than Read-a-Thon Saturday!

Read-a-Thon: at the 4.5 hour mark

Hour 4.5 Update

Reading Location: sitting on my couch in Sanger

Currently Reading: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Total Pages read so far: 129 in The Alto Wore Tweed and 28 pages in The Alphabet Sisters, which comes to 157 pages. Yes, I did the calculations and it appears that 16.5 locations is roughly equivalent to one page in The Alto Wore Tweed.

Total Time spent reading so far: 198 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: In addition to Noumena12, I stopped by Shaunesay's blog and Meshe's. It looks like Meshe isn't participating in the Read-a-Thon this time, but since she had left me an encouraging message, I definitely wanted to see what she is up to.

Mini-challenges completed: None

Finished Books: None, but I'm close to the end of The Alto Wore Tweed.

Comments: My son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter just got here. I'm taking a break to be sociable. Since I'm keeping a timeline for the entire Read-a-Thon, I know that I'll need to start reading at location 3292 when I return to The Alto Wore Tweed.

Read-a-Thon: 1/8th over

Hour 3 Update

Reading Location: back on the couch in my living room

Currently Reading: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer and The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney

Total Pages read so far: 231 locations plus 28 pages; yes, I need to do the computations to convert locations to page-equivalents

Total Time spent reading so far: 145 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: no new sites, but I'm heading out right now to check up on some of my BookObsessed friends.

Mini-challenges completed: none

Finished Books: none so far

Comments: After the last blog update, I resumed reading in The Alto Wore Tweed, but 5 minutes in, the Kindle decided to reboot itself. I put it onto the charger just to make sure that it had plenty of power to complete the reboot, picked up The Alphabet Sister and started reading at page 117. A half-hour later, and having dozed off a time or two, I set the book aside and returned to the Kindle.

Read-a-Thon: 2 down, 22 to go!

Hour 2 Update

Reading Location: Old West Cafe, and the car

Currently Reading: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Total Pages read so far: 1104 locations in the Kindle; still need to do the conversion to page-equivalents

Total Time spent reading so far: 105 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: still only Noumena12

Mini-challenges completed: none so far

Finished Books: none so far

Comments: This book is hysterically funny. At only $0.99, I would advise all my Kindle-reading friends to get a copy. In fact, I took 3 minutes off from reading during this hour to call Beth and tell her to run out and buy it!

Read-a-Thon: First Hour completed

Hour 1 Update

Reading Location: the right end of my couch; Sanger, TX

Currently Reading: The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer

Total Pages read so far: 490 “locations” in my Kindle. I'll compute that to page-equivalents later.

Total Time spent reading so far: 60 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: Noumena12. I checked in on her just before the Read-a-Thon began.

Mini-challenges completed: none. There were none posted when I checked the main site at 6:15. I'll check over there in a little while.

Finished Books: none so far.

Comments: I'm just a bit sleepy, so during this 2nd hour of the Read-a-Thon, I'll be reading and eating breakfast.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: My 4th Experience

In less than an hour, I'll be joining hundreds of readers around the world in the 24 hours of Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon. This is the 4th time that I've participated. The last two times, I've had to give in to the demands of the body and slept for several hours early on Sunday morning. I hope to stay up—and stay reading—for the entire 24 hour period this time, but we'll see.

I'm going to begin the Read-a-Thon with two books: The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney and The Alto Wore Tweed by Mark Schweizer. The Alphabet Sisters is a trade paperback that is registered at BookCrossing and which I will be mailing to Lori in Oregon when I finish it. The Alto Wore Tweed is a very funny mystery by an independent author, and I picked it up for a pittance ($ 0.99) for my Kindle. I also got the next three in the series for the same price. I'll tell you more about both books as the Read-a-Thon progresses.

In addition to reading and blogging, I'm also going to be participating in a Cozy Mystery Swap at BookObsessed. So, for the next 24.5 hours, I'm going to be totally focused on books and reading.

Let's BEGIN!!