Friday, April 27, 2012

Spring Horror Read-a-Thon: Just the Weekend Left

I made a lot of reading progress today. We had a drive-tour-drive kind of day with uninterrupted time for reading as we drove from Ely, NV to Great Basin National Park and then from the Park to St. George, UT. The most significant accomplishment is that I finished reading Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I was determined to finish it! I'm pretty sure that I won't be reading any of the sequels.

I also finished reading Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis. I took the book to bed and read for about 30 minutes and then read a couple of chapters when I woke up this morning. I read the last page in the book just as we were crossing from Nevada into Utah early this afternoon. The next book in this series (Occult Special Investigators) will be released at the end of May and I'm sure I'm going to want to get my hands on it as soon as possible.

Having finished reading Infernal Affairs, I resumed reading Kiss at Your Own Risk and finished it at supper. I haven't started another book—yet—but I will be reading Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon as soon as I have posted this update to the blog. This is the fifth and final book in her Vatta's War series which I have been enjoying very much.

Read-a-Thon Stats

  • Total Books Read: 4
  • Total Books Completed: 4
  • Total Pages Read: 1303
  • Books Read since last update: 2
  • Books Completed since last update: 2
  • Pages Read since last update: 321
  • What I'm currently reading: Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon

Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Spring Horror Read-a-Thon: After 4 days

It's the end of another day and time to tell everyone what I've been reading in the past 24 hours. When I headed to bed last night, I tucked myself in with Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon and a flashlight. The batteries went dead in the flashlight, so I moved from the bedroom to the parlor—thank goodness our hotel was one of those with only 2-room suites—and continued to read out on the couch while hubby slept undisturbed. I finished Command Decision around 2am and then returned to bed and quickly fell asleep.

At breakfast today, I resumed reading Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe. After all, it's supposed to be the one required “scary” book for the Spring Horror Read-a-Thon. After we checked out of the hotel and headed eastward on US 50, I kept reading Kiss at Your Own Risk, until mid-afternoon. I'm still not enjoying this book very much, so I set it aside at page 223 and picked out another book to read.

What I selected was Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis, fourth in his Occult Special Investigators series. This was much more to my liking and I'm already 1/2 way through the book.

Since we spent the whole day on the highway, I sent several text messages to Twitter and even received some from Shaunesay and Michelle. Even with this, I was out of communication most of the day due to the sparsity of cell towers in remote Nevada. They don't call US 50 “The Loneliest Road in America” for nothing. The only thing that interfered with reading today was falling asleep with a book in my hand.

Well, it's time to pull on my jammies and crawl into bed. The flashlight has fresh batteries in it and I'm ready to read a couple of chapters of Infernal Affairs before I fall asleep. Good night, all

Read-a-Thon Stats

  • Total Books Read: 4
  • Total Books Completed: 2
  • Total Pages Read: 982
  • Books Read since last update: 3
  • Books Completed since last update: 1
  • Pages Read since last update: 353
  • What I'm currently reading: Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis

Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis

Mobile Update

At p 233 in Kiss at Your Own Risk and p 76 in Infernal Affairs. Nearing Eureka, NV. Nothing like road trip for time to read. Spring Horror Read-a-Thon.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

SpringHorrorRAT: Day 3 Status

It's almost bedtime here in California, so that makes it time to report on my progress in the Spring Horror Read-a-Thon. This event officially began at midnight on Monday morning and my participation began when I awakened and picked up One Night at the Call Centre which I had started the day before. As I reported in my previous post, this became the first book finished during the Read-a-Thon.

I started reading Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe and read it on Monday evening and most of the day on Tuesday, setting it aside on Tuesday afternoon at page 155. While I am enjoying it, I was just eager to read Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon even more. I took that book to bed with me, reading until I fell asleep with book & flashlight in my hands. Waking up on Wednesday morning, I read for about 45 minutes, and then took the book with me to breakfast. I resumed reading early in the afternoon while we were driving over to Carson City and kept reading through our dinner. I'm now at page 228, ready to start Chapter 16. I suspect that I'll finish this book by the time breakfast is over tomorrow morning.

Read-a-Thon Stats

  • Total Books Read: 3
  • Total Books Completed: 1
  • Total Pages Read: 629
  • Books Read since last update: 2
  • Books Completed since last update: 0
  • Pages Read since last update: 333
  • What I'm currently reading: Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon

One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon

WWW Wednesday: 25 April 2012

WWW_Wednesdays icon One advantage of these weekly memes is that it provides a stimulus for writing a more thoughtful post. I'm very good at keeping the home page and books read this year pages up to date, but I developed a dislike of writing book reports back in elementary school and although I've tried from time to time to get over it and use this blog as a place to post reviews, I just can't enjoy it enough to keep it up. So, it's up to the memes and read-a-thons to motivate me to post anything at all.

Now, MizB hosts the WWW ... WEDNESDAY meme from her Should be Reading blog, and the last time I participated was back in October. Each week, MizB asks three simple questions:
   1. What are you currently reading?
   2. What did you recently finish reading?
   3. What do you think you’ll read next?

and bloggers all over the world post their answers and link back to her blog.

Here are my answers:

1:  I'm currently reading two books: Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe and Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon. Kiss at Your Own Risk is the first of a series and I'm not sure whether I'm going to continue with it or not. I'm on page 114 and it's reading fairly slowly. That may be because I'm more interested in Command Decision. This is the fourth of five books in Moon's Vatta's War series—a series that I am REALLY enjoying. I will be moving on to the fifth book as soon as I finish this one.

Now, my home page shows a few other books that I've started reading. I'm only a few tracks away from finishing The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman, but I didn't bring the CDs with me on this vacation trip. It's delightful, and I was very happy to discover that one of the disks in the set contains the cookie recipes in computer readable format. And, when I pick up my Kindle again, I'm going to resume reading The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors!

Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

2:  Last Friday, I finished reading Third Watch by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. This is the third (and final) book in their trilogy featuring the children of Acorna, the unicorn girl. I read the first two books back in 2007 and had put the third book onto my wishlist, but never got around to getting a copy and reading it. I wish I had read it 'way back when—perhaps I would have enjoyed it more. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty good story, but I was continually annoyed by one of the twins. Seemed like all she did was whine and act out her petulance. Well, it helped move the plot along, but I just didn't like her or even care what happened to her by the time the book got to the end.

Next up, during Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, I read Shattered by Karen Robards—a terrific mystery/suspense novel that kept me guessing all the way until the end. Then, I read another mystery, A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney. This one is the second in a series set in ancient Egypt. I'm enjoying the books and looking forward to reading additional ones in the series.

And the most recent book I've finished was One Night at the Call Centre, a somewhat funny book set in a call center (duh!) in India. The best part of the book was a look at the American callers from the point of view of the people working at the help desk.

Acorna's Children: Third Watch Shattered by Karen Robards A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat

3:  Next up, I'm definitely going to move right on into Victory Conditions, the fifth and final book in Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series. Great military science fiction, with well-developed characters, and a continuing story line that—in my opinion—could support another five books! I'm also going to be reading Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis, the fourth in his Occult Special Investigators series.

The last book that I KNOW I'll be reading in the next couple of days is Something Wicked This Way Comes, a Halloween classic from Ray Bradbury. I owe this book to Anne-Marye who won it in a swap over at BookObsessed. And, I think it's a very good fit for the Spring Horror Read-a-Thon which is going on this week.

Given that I have over 1000 books on my Kindle and a box of over a dozen paperbacks in the back seat of my car, I should have plenty to choose from for something to read during the next week. I plan to be back next week with another WWW ... WEDNESDAY post.

Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon Infernal Affairs by Jes Battis Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

2012 Challenges

In 2011, I signed up for lots of challenges, but didn't really keep up with them. Although I successfully finished several of the challenges, I didn't follow-through by posting on my blog. So, for 2012, I've only signed up for one challenge—the BookObsessed "2012 How Many" Challenge. Having discovered the challenge widget from Goodreads, I repeated the same challenge over there so that I could show off my progress in the sidebar here in the blog.

2012 Reading Challenge

2012 Reading Challenge
Elsi has read 54 books toward her goal of 150 books.
hide

So, I signed up to read 150 books in 2012. This number is a little bit higher than the number of books which I have finished for each of the past few years.

 

This week, I'm participating in Michelle's Spring Horror Read-a-Thon. While I won't necessarily be reading more than I usually do, I will be reporting on what I'm reading via this blog, Twitter, and GoodReads. Let's see if I can finish at least four books during the week-long event.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

SpringHorrorRAT: Starting Position

My friend Melissa (aka Shaunesay) talked me into signing up for Michelle's Spring Into Horror Read-a-Thon which started this morning. I don't read horror books, but Michelle says, “Now don't let the word 'horror' scare you away from this read-a-thon. You do have to read at least one scary book during the duration of the read-a-thon. That book can be horror, paranormal, thriller, mystery, etc. The rest of the read-a-thon, you can read whatever you want.” So, since I'm fond of paranormal fiction, I figure I can find something “scary” to qualify.

First up this morning was a book which I started reading last night, One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. I finished it around 5:30 this afternoon and then picked up Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe. Since one of the main characters in this book suffers from a Black Widow curse put on her by a Black Witch, I'm hoping it qualifies as “scary” enough. If that one won't count, then I've got a copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury which should meet the criteria.

So, for this week-long read-a-thon, I'll be posting here at the blog and tweeting using the hash-tag of #SpringHorrorRAT, following others who are participating, and just having fun reading. After all, Michelle says, “my read-a-thon credo is 'a week of relaxed reading during which we can personally challenge ourselves and whittle away those ever looming TBR piles/shelves/libraries.'

One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat Kiss at Your Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: End of Event Meme

At the end of the 24-hour Read-a-Thon, participants are asked to answer 10 questions to summarize their experience with the event. The questions:

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
  5. How many books did you read?
  6. What were the names of the books you read?
  7. Which book did you enjoy most?
  8. Which did you enjoy least?
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

My answers:

1:  I started getting tired of reading around 10 pm, hour 18. At that time, it wasn't so much that I was sleepy, but that I *really* wanted to do something other than reading and updating my blog. I wanted to prowl around on the Internet. I wanted to play solitaire. I wanted to mess around with the photos we took at Redwood National and State Parks. All the stuff that I normally do when I'm not trying to stick with the 24-hour Read-a-Thon.

2:  I'm not sure that what I think of as high-interest would be appealing to other readers. I will suggest that if you read series, pick a couple of books in series that you have been enjoying and keep reading. Also, YA/teen books may be a good choice since you're likely to be able to finish those more quickly that a more serious book.

3:  The only improvement I can think of would be to shift the start/end times so that certain areas of the world don't always have awkward schedules. Otherwise, I think that the Read-a-Thon is a fine event and I'm proud to have participated 6 times now.

4:  As usual, I think that the hourly postings at the main site worked very well. The volunteers are to be commended for all the work that went into preparing the encouraging messages.

5:  I read two books, finishing one.

6:  I read and finished Shattered by Karen Robards. This mystery/suspense novel was excellent and although I figured out part of the mystery early on, I didn't guess who the murderer was until it was revealed by the author. She did her job very well. The second book that I read was A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney. I completed exactly 50% of this mystery set in ancient Egypt, reading 143 of 286 pages during the Read-a-Thon. I'm enjoying it very much and expect to finish it later today.

Shattered by Karen Robards A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

7:  Since I only read two books this time, I don't really have a favorite. I enjoyed both of the books which I read; I'm only sorry that I wasn't able to read more and have more variety in what I was reading.

8:  Since I didn't enjoyon book more than the other, I didn't enjoy one less than the other. It was a tie, a toss-up—dead even.

9:  I did not sign up as a Cheerleader, but I'm thinking this might be a great way to participate in October. As a Reader, I really appreciated the visits and messages from the Cheerleaders during the event.

10:  Unless something interferes, I'm going to participate in October. I'm thinking that I may try out a couple of new roles at that time—definitely as a Cheerleader, and maybe as a more visible volunteer helping out with the web site.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Signing Off

Hour 18 Update

Reading Location: In my hotel room in Arcata, California

Currently Reading: A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

Total Pages read so far: 395 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: ???. >500 minutes, but I've lost track

Other Readers I have visited: Shaunesay

Mini-challenges completed: Introductory Questionnaire, E-Book Survey, MidEvent Survey, and Library Experience

Finished Books: Only 1, Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Comments: I'm just too sleepy to keep on. I'll probably read some more tonight, but I keep dozing off and I now have no idea how much time I've spent reading. My bed is looking better and better as the night goes on, and listening to my hubby snoring is putting me in the mood to just turn off the lights and go to sleep. So, I think this will be my final post of the Read-a-Thon. I have read—mostly—from 5am until nearly midnight and that's pretty good. The rest of you guys have a good time & when I wake up in the morning, I'll come back to post the final summary.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: 5/8ths completed

Hour 15 Update

Reading Location: Back in my hotel room in Arcata, California. But I also read during dinner at Carmela's Mexican Restaurant in downtown Arcata.

Currently Reading: A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

Total Pages read so far: 348 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 489 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: None since the last post.

Mini-challenges completed: Introductory Questionnaire, E-Book Survey, MidEvent Survey, and Library Experience

Finished Books: 1: Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Comments: So, I stayed wide awake since the MidEvent Survey! Immediately after posting, we packed ourselves up to go find some place to eat supper. After driving around for a little while—during which I was navigating and couldn't really read—we settled on Carmela's Mexican Restaurant in downtown Arcata. The food was good, though the chips & salsa weren't as good as our favorite local restaurant back in Texas. I'm still reading A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney. It's a mystery set in ancient Egypt, second in a series of eight, and I am enjoying it very much. I have a couple of other books to choose from as the night goes on. And, on the way back to the hotel from supper, we stopped at a convenience store and I picked up 4 diet cokes to help me get through the wee hours of the night. And now, dear friends, I'm going back to reading.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: MidEvent Survey

MidEvent Survey

Elizabeth has posted 5 questions to check the pulse of the readers at this Halfway Mark.

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
2) What have you finished reading?
3) What is your favorite read so far?
4) What about your favorite snacks?
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!

So here are my responses:

1:  I'm feeling fine as long as I'm sitting up in a desk chair. The minute I get comfortable, I'm finding that I doze off. I don't really feel sleepy, it's more that if I'm warm and cozy, a nap seems to find me.

2:  I've only finished one book, Shattered by Karen Robards. It was an outstanding mystery/suspense novel and I'm going to make sure that other books by this author find their way onto my TBR stack.

3:  I've only read in two books: Shattered and A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney. Both are pretty good and I don't think I could rank one over the other.

4:  I haven't snacked. But at lunch, I had a handful of BBQ potato chips and could have really enjoyed another serving of those. I suspect that I'll start snacking after supper. There's going to be a long stretch from then until 5am when the Read-a-Thon ends for me.

5:  I've visited two blogs that are new to me: Michelle at The True Book Addict and Rhiannon at The Diary of a Bookworm. I'm subscribing to both so I can follow them after the Read-a-Thon is over.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: at the midway mark

Hour 12 Update

Reading Location: My hotel room in Arcata, California

Currently Reading: A Face Turned Backwards by Lauren Haney

A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

Total Pages read so far: 309 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 403 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: Noumena12

Mini-challenges completed: Introductory Questionnaire and E-Book Survey

Finished Books: 1: Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Comments: I'm reading slowly. It's the distraction of the TV which hubby is watching and feeling cozy such that I wind up dozing off from time to time. I'm going to quickly do the MidEvent Survey and then get back to reading.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: Nearly Halfway There

Hour 11 Update

Reading Location: Well, for the past 7 hours, we've been up and down California 101 from Arcata to Klamath and back. Now well ensconced in our hotel in Arcata.

Currently Reading: A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney

Total Pages read so far: 296

Total Time spent reading so far: 354 min

Other Readers I have visited: Melissa, Azuki, and dancing-dog

Mini-challenges completed: Just the Introductory Questionnaire

Finished Books: 1, Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Comments: We got back to the hotel shortly after hour 11 began—15:04 to be exact. We left around 10am and drove north up California 101 to the Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center, just north of Orick. After checking in and picking up a brochure on the park, we got back in the car and decided to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Grove and then continued driving on Bald Hills Road to the Redwood Creek Overlook—a climb up to 2100 feet. After winding our way back down to sea level, we continued north, bearing off on the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway to take a look at several sights in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We took pictures at Elk Prairie and Big Tree, then decided to look for some lunch. We drove north to Klamath, but struck out there, so we headed back south and pulled in to a lovely diner/cafe in Orick. Just before arriving in Orick, I finished reading Shattered, so I tucked the paperback into my traveling bookcase and started reading A Face Turned Backward on my Kindle. Now that we've returned to the hotel, I'm checking up on a couple of friends who are also reading today, transferring the hand-written notes I took in the car into my computer, and now updating this blog. Looks like it will be right at the top of the hour when I start reading again.

Mobile Update

Now reading A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney. Reading during lunch - will have to try to keep the ketchup off my Kindle
Finished book #1 for Dewey's Read-a-Thon. Shattered by Karen Robards. I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon: after 4 hours

I'm dressed and fed and ready to get going with my day. I only read for about 30 minutes during the 4th hour due to dressing and getting my breakfast, getting back online to check the blogs of a few other readers and then preparing and posting this update to my own blog. Hubby just picked up 4 or 5 brochures for things to do in the area, so I may have to count *those* as part of my reading today! I also have some shopping to do once we locate a Target, Wal-Mart, or decent department store. Highest priority is to get more batteries for the flashlight so I can read from 10pm until 5am as I finish out the Read-a-Thon.

Hour 4 Update

Reading Location: Still at my hotel in Arcata, California

Currently Reading: Shattered by Karen Robards. Still enjoying it. Now at page 231.

Shattered by Karen Robards

Total Pages read so far: 127

Total Time spent reading so far: 153 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: Noumena12 and Rhiannon

Mini-challenges completed: 1 - Introductory Questionnaire

Finished Books: 0

Dewey's Read-a-Thon - 1/8th completed

All right! Three hours of the Read-a-Thon have gone by. My flashlight batteries ran out at 6:50, so I turned on the bedside lamp to continue reading. And, for some reason, that made it much easier to drift off to sleep, so I dozed for at least 20 minutes between 7 and 8am.

Hour 3 Update

Reading Location: My hotel in Arcata, California

Currently Reading: Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Total Pages read so far: 109 pages

Total Time spent reading so far: 123 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: None since my last check-in

Mini-challenges completed: Just the Introductory Questionnaire

Finished Books: 0

Comments: Yeah, I kept falling asleep somewhere in the middle of page 209. There's one paragraph on that page that I know I read at least 6 times. So now I'm posting, getting dressed, and going to find some breakfast. All of that should keep me awake and except for the few minutes it takes to get dressed, I'll spend the entire 4th hour with Dewey activities. Let's see how soon I can finish reading Shattered

Dewey's Read-a-Thon -- 1 hour in

Hour 1 Update

Reading Location:My hotel in Arcata, Ca

Currently Reading: Shattered by Karen Robards

Shattered by Karen Robards

Total Pages read so far: 68

Total Time spent reading so far: 60 minutes

Other Readers I have visited: Shaunesay, Azuki, and Michelle

Mini-challenges completed: None, but I'm about to do the Introduction

Finished Books: 0

Comments: So here's the Introductory Questionnaire:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

I'm in California at the beginning of a road trip. We've got a hotel room in Arcata, from which we'll be visiting the Redwood National Forest later today.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I'm thoroughly enjoying this first book, Shattered which I started yesterday. The next high interest book is likely to be A Face Turned Backward by Lauren Haney.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Well, I'm planning on consuming lots of diet cokes during the day. Don't know that I'll be snacking much.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

This is my 6th time to participate in the Read-a-Thon and even though we're on vacation, I had to make it a priority.

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?

Well, since I got an earlier start due to being on the West Coast, I'm hoping I can stay awake most of the 24-hours. For the last couple of times, I've fallen asleep in the wee hours of the morning.