#WWReadathon: 2014 Summary post

It's been a very good Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-thon this year. Organized by April and Kat at My Shelf Confessions, The Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon has been a time when online book fanatics got together to dedicate the days of October 17-27 to as much reading as possible.

For me, this was a successful read-a-thon. As the read-a-thon began, I was just starting out on a four and a half day road trip. Hubby was driving and I was reading as much as possible. In those five days, I completed five books. In the remaining six days, I only managed to complete one more book—though I was getting close to finishing a couple more.

Completed books:

Books in Progress:

Thanks so much to April and Kat for organizing the read-a-thon and for their encouragement all throughout the event. I had a lot of fun posting to Twitter and following everyone else through the shared #WWReadathon hashtag. Looking forward to next fall and a repeat of this event.

#WWReadathon: 2014 Kickoff post

The Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-thon begins today. Organized by April and Kat at My Shelf Confessions, “The Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of October 17-27 to as much reading as possible.”

On this first day of the read-a-thon, I'm on the road. We're traveling from Texas to Las Vegas to take our granddaughter back to her mother's house, and then we'll turn right around and drive home to Texas. That's going to give me at least four days in the car, reading if I don't fall asleep. I hope this uninterrupted reading time will give me a chance to catch up with some of my TBR list. Setting out on the road trip, one hard-back book from the library and my Kindle. I am about 1/2 way through the library book and I have a couple of started but unfinished books on my Kindle that I want to finish during the read-a-thon. There are also a couple of audio books on my smartphone, but I don't anticipate listening to one.

Starting Position

Right now, I'm reading V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton. It's the library book I checked out on Monday morning, but didn't start reading right away. It's part of my annual Series Challenge wherein I try to “finish” as many series as I can. With Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series, finishing will simply be catching up, since there will be more in the series as soon as she finishes writing them. Starting position is page 224.

In Entwined Realms, Volume One, I've started reading the first of four stories, the novel Stone Guardian. I'm at Kindle location 1225—would be page 97 in the print edition. This is a review book received from the publisher via NetGalley. Since its publication date was 2 October, I want to read it as quickly as possible and get my review posted to the blog, Goodreads, and Amazon.

The Oblate's Confession by William Peak is also a review book downloaded from NetGalley. I have a little bit more time to finish reading it and post a review since it's due to be published at the beginning of December. In 7th century England, a young boy is taken to a monastery by his father and given to the monks to raise. He will grow up in the monastery, become a monk, and never know any other home. Years later, the monk is commanded by his Abbot to write an account of his life—the “confession” of the title. I've only read the first chapter or so, but found it quite interesting so far. I'm starting at roughly page 28.

Goals

I'd like to finish the following books during the 11 days of this read-a-thon:

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

Entwined Realms, Volume One by Dannielle Monsch—and post review

The Oblate's Confession by William Peak—and write review

Murder 101 by Mercedes Lackey

POD by Tobias Roote

... and any other book that strikes my mood

Upcoming read-a-thons

In the next month, I plan to participate in four read-a-thons. The extra attention on reading helps to spur me on to spend even more time reading as well as talking about books and reading—here on the blog, in Twitter, and in comments left on other peoples' blogs.

Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-thon

First up is the 11 day Wonderfully Wicked read-a-thon organized by April and Kat at My Shelf Confessions. According to these ladies, “The Wicked Wildfire Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of October 17-27 to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile!” I'll be participating by posting my status to the blog from time to time and tweeting occasionally. I'll also be reading posts from other participants.

Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon

The very first read-a-thon that I participated in was the October Dewey's in 2009. This read-a-thon is held twice a year and runs from noon UCT on a Saturday to noon UCT the next day. Everyone starts and ends at the same time, so since I live in Texas, my start time is 7am CDT. This year's Fall Dewey read-a-thon takes place on Saturday, October 18th. Since I will be on a road trip for the entire event, I'll have to make sure I know the start and end times for whatever time zone I might find myself in. With the overlap between Dewey's and Wonderfully Wicked, I will have plenty of incentive to spend all my spare time reading. And, since hubby drives on our road trips, all I have to do is resist the temptation to nap as we travel.

BookObsessed Haloween Read-a-thon

Over at BookObsessed, the community has decided to hold a short read-a-thon over the Halloween weekend. We're planning on starting on Halloween/Friday and reading through Monday—taking a nice, long 4-day weekend. There will be a focus on seasonal books: Halloween, orange & black, fall festival, autumn leaves, candy, horror, terror, scary, etc. This is probably the only mention you'll see on the blog as all of the read-a-thon discussion takes place on the forum at BookObsessed.

Ho-Ho-Ho Read-a-thon

Last, but not least, is the Ho-Ho-Ho Read-a-thon which kicks off on November 6th. This particular read-a-thon is all about holiday themed or winter setting reads. It's organized by Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Jennifer at BookShelfery and all readers are invited to participate. We'll get a head-start on the Winter holiday season and share reviews of holiday books so that others can locate copies for themselves. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else will be reading.

#WWReadathon -- a final post

Well, Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon is over for another year. If I've done the math correctly, I read 912 pages during the 11 days of the read-a-thon. I completed four books, three of which were library books. I read a mixture of electronic books and traditional books printed on paper. I tried to follow the postings to Twitter and responded to a couple as time permitted. As usual, it was a joy to participate in this event celebrating the love of reading. I look forward to next summer.

Statistics

Number of books read: 7
Number of books completed: 4
Number of pages read: 912

Books Completed

Books Still Reading

#WWReadathon Status Updates

When it comes to read-a-thons, I'm torn between using a single post containing an ongoing status or creating separate posts. Since this read-a-thon is one of the longest around, I think a single post will be easier to maintain. If I miss an update, I can easily correct it later.

Updates

Monday, 14 July: I almost forgot about the Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon, so I was late in signing up. I had a library book downloaded to my Kindle that I needed to finish because it was due, so I settled in to read the last ~71 pages of Running Blind. Then, I turned to another library book, Death of an Outsider and read the first 39 pages. I also visited several web sites of other #WWReadathon participants, cooked a cornbread taco casserole for supper, and watched the latest episode of Major Crimes.

Tuesday, 15 July: Death of an Outsider is a very short book, so I was able to finish it and return it to the drop-off box at my local library. With that done, I started reading Andy Weir's The Martian which has been highly recommended. The library's book club will be discussing it at the September meeting. I didn't get very far into it, but it is definitely looking like a good read.

Wednesday, 16 July: It was a busy day, and I didn't get much reading done. I made progress in The Martian and have decided that I definitely like it. The main character is very likeable and although his situation is dire, he gets busy trying to solve the problem instead of getting mired asking "why me?"

Thursday, 17 July: It was also a busy day, and I only found time to read during lunch and supper. That meant that I read 141 pages in The Martian, putting me well past ½-way through the book. This is definitely going to be one of the best books I've read all year.

Friday, 18 July: I used my lunch hour and supper as reading time and after supper I had only 65 pages left in The Martian, so I took the book to bed with me and finished it around 23:30. Yay! Now the challenge is to decide what to read next.

Saturday, 19 July: You'd think that I'd get more reading done on a day when I don't have to work, but that wasn't the case. I had so much that I needed to get done. I started reading Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood, the second book in her Corrina Chapman cozy mystery series.

Sunday, 20 July: I found even less time to read on Sunday than on Saturday! I'm enjoying Heavenly Pleasures. (Who wouldn't like a book about a bakery and a chocolate shop?) I just need to use my free time for reading rather than other chores.

Monday, 21 July: Back to work and I found a little bit of time to read during my lunch break. It was a busy day all day long and when evening came, I took time to watch a couple of shows on TV instead of read.

Tuesday, 22 July: Finally back to a more usual amount of time spent reading. I am still reading Heavenly Pleasures, but I'm nearing the end. At bedtime I was 80% of the way through it.

Wednesday, 23 July: Finally finished Heavenly Pleasures during lunchtime. I thrashed around the rest of the day, reading 9 pages in Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons by Allegra Skye and 6 pages of U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton.

Thursday, 24 July: The last day of the read-a-thon and I was still thrashing around. I read 19 pages in Torch of Freedom/i> by David Weber and Eric Flint before settling down to read more of Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons. I was making good progress by bedtime and should finish it in the next day or two.

Statistics

Monday, 14 July

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 110
Number of books completed today: 1

Tuesday, 15 July

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 119
Number of books completed today: 1

Wednesday, 16 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 54
Number of books completed today: 0

Thursday, 17 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 141
Number of books completed today: 0

Friday, 18 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 164
Number of books completed today: 1

Saturday, 19 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 35
Number of books completed today: 0

Sunday, 20 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 20
Number of books completed today: 0

Monday, 21 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 48
Number of books completed today: 0

Tuesday, 22 July

Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 98
Number of books completed today: 0

Wednesday, 23 July

Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 65
Number of books completed today: 1

Thursday, 24 July

Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 58
Number of books completed today: 0

The Books

#WWReadathon Starting Position and Goals

As Monday morning dawned, there were two unfinished books that I was actively reading. (There are more unfinished books around, but the rest of them have been set aside, perhaps forever.) On my Kindle, I was reading Running Blind by Lee Child, the fourth book in his popular Jack Reacher mystery/thriller series. The Kindle indicated that I was about 86% of the way through the book, so I'm estimating that I was somewhere around page 445 of 516. The other book in progress was The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester, an audio book. I am almost exactly ½ way through, with 4 hours and 43 minutes remaining from a total of 9 hours and 59 minutes. (Hmmm…makes me wonder why they didn't make it one second longer and call it 10 hours.)

My goals for the read-a-thon are simple: I want to publish what I'm reading here on the blog. Since this is a normal work week, I don't see any way that I can read much more than usual, but I can put more emphasis on the social aspect by posting to the blog and communicating with other read-a-thon participants.

Books queued up to read very soon which are most likely to show up this week:

#WWReadathon -- Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon

I almost missed it! The Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon begins today. The goal is to “dedicate the days of July 14-24 to as much reading as possible”. Now, I don't think I can squeeze in any more reading than I usually do, but I can post about it on my blog, tweet using the hashtag #WWReadathon, and join one or more chats in the WWReadathon room. I might even find time to participate in one or more of the challenges.

So, although I'm getting a late start linking up with other participants in the read-a-thon, I do know what I've been reading so far today. I'll be back later to post about my starting position and goals for the week.