Showing posts with label #HSreadathon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #HSreadathon. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2014

#HSreadathon -- summing it all up

High Summer Read-a-Thon While I didn't post any status updates for this read-a-thon, the first four days were running concurrently with the Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon, so my updates applied here as well. I'm counting this a successful read-a-thon. I read a total fo 567 pages, finishing two books during the week: Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood and Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons by Allegra Skye. I also read portions of 3 other books and listened to 2 hours of an audio book.

Almost all of my reading was of electronic books. My primary reader is a Kindle. But, when I borrow eBooks from my public library through the Freading service, I can only get them in ePub format, which is not supported by the Kindle. That's when I turn to the BeBook reader. Heavenly Pleasures was borrowed from the library. I started reading it before the read-a-thon began and it was the first book I completed this week. This is the second in Greenwood's cozy mystery series set in a bakery in Melbourne. I definitely enjoyed it and have already checked out the next in the series, and read the first 13 pages of Devil's Food.

I then thrashed around a bit trying to decide what to read next. I read a couple of pages of U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton—the only "paper" book I read all week—before settling down to finish a book I had started in June. Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons is a freebie I picked up from Amazon in early June. I had read about one third of it and then set it aside for a while. For the read-a-thon, I resumed reading and finished the book. It was a pretty good story and I would have given it fairly high marks if the author had finished it before publication. But, she didn't. The story just stops, having come to no resolution at all. Supposedly there's a sequel, but I don't know when it will be released.

Over the weekend, I listened to a couple of hours of The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester. This is the story of William Smith, the father of English geology. Smith developed the theory of stratification and was one of the first to recognize that the fossils in rocks could identify the time period when the rocks were formed. There's a map, too, as the title says. It measured 6 feet by 8.5 feet, and was colored entirely by hand. I'm thoroughly enjoying this recording, read by the author himself.

Lastly, I've settled down to reading Torch of Freedom by David Weber and Eric Flint. It's grand science fiction set in the universe of Honor Harrington. One of my reading goals this year is to complete the multiple series of books in the "Honorverse".

The Books

Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood Charlotte Tweed and the School for Orphaned Dragons by Allegra Skye
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton Torch of Freedom by David Weber & Eric Flint Devil's Food by Kerry Greenwood The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester

Saturday, July 19, 2014

#HSReadathon --- High Summer Read-a-Thon

High Summer Read-a-Thon This year, the High Summer Read-a-Thon is going to run concurrently with the last four days of Wicked Wildfire Read-a-Thon. That's not going to cause a particular problem since both of these are very laid-back events. Neither read-a-thon has a particular emphasis on challenges—it's really all about reading, blogging (or sharing on Facebook or Twitter if you don't have a blog), and being part of community of readers.

As with other read-a-thons, my own goal is simply to do a better job of sharing what I'm reading via this blog. I'm sitting on a couple of library books which will need to be returned in the next week, so I'll probably focus on completing those. Right now I'm reading Heavenly Pleasures, the second book in Kerry Greenwood's cozy mystery series starring baker Corrina Chapman, which I may finish before the read-a-thon begins. This one is an eBook checked out through my library's subscription to Freading.com. Also checked out are Demon Drums by Carol Severance and The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.

Heavenly Pleasures by Kerry Greenwood Demon Drums by Carol Severance The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Monday, July 23, 2012

High Summer Read-a-Thon - Event summary

The High Summer Read-a-Thon has come to an end. Michelle set things in motion—recruiting readers through her blog and then kept things going by sending frequent tweets. From all that I can see, “a good time was had by all”.

As for me, I enjoyed the camaraderie and the motivation to keep records and post regularly on the blog. I don't know that I read any more pages this week than I would have ordinarily, but I did write about reading and tweet about my progress. So that's the difference that the Read-a-Thon made.

Summary

7/16
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 76
Number of books completed today: 0

7/17
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 142
Number of books completed today: 1

7/18
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 60
Number of books completed today: 0

7/19
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 346
Number of books completed today: 1

7/20
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 56
Number of books completed today: 0

7/21
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 379
Number of books completed today: 1

7/22
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 48
Number of books completed today: 1

Totals
Total number of books I've read: 6
Total number of pages I've read: 1107
Total number of books completed: 4

Books:
* A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell -- finished 17 July
* Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
* Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri -- finished 19 July
* The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- finished 22 July
* An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished 21 July
* Nutty as a Fruitcake by Mary Daheim

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear Nutty as a Fruitcake by Mary Daheim

Sunday, July 22, 2012

High Summer Read-a-Thon: down to the wire

It's Sunday morning, and the last day of the High Summer Read-a-Thon. I was able to read quite a lot yesterday, starting out by staying in bed until I finished reading An Incomplete Revenge. Then more dedicated reading time as hubby drove us both down to my son's house to keep the grandchildren for a couple of hours. We're talking at least one hour each way.

After finishing An Incomplete Revenge, I picked up The Hunger Games which I had set aside on Thursday when the Kindle battery ran out. I read in the car, during both lunch and supper, and then took the book to bed with me. When I finally gave in and turned the lights off, I was on page 350 of 374. So, the first thing that I did this morning was to turn the Kindle on and finish the book. It was very good—which is what most reviewers have been saying—and I'm glad I have both sequels on hand.

But before plunging back into the world of The Hunger Games, I'm going to read a couple of swap books. I'm offering Nutty as a Fruitcake by Mary Daheim in a Christmas in July swap over at BookObsessed, so I'm going to see how far I get into that book by midnight tonight.

Summary

7/21
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 379
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 5
Total number of pages I've read: 1059
Total number of books completed: 3

Books:
* A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell -- finished 17 July
* Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
* Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri -- finished 19 July
* The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
* An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear -- finished 21 July

Friday, July 20, 2012

High Summer Read-a-Thon: rolling into the weekend

My work week has ended! Today was a normal (non-travel) workday and I was not able to read at all except for my lunch break. I'm finally done and the weekend is MINE. I do have to watch two 2-year-olds on Saturday, but the rest of the time I'll be reading for the High Summer Read-a-Thon.

When the book fell out of my hand last night, I was on page 53 of An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear. I managed to squeeze an hour's reading in during my lunch break and then a few pages while eating supper, so now I'm on page 109. The story ends on page 306, so I don't think I'll finish tonight—but tomorrow looks really good. I should be able to have at least two hours of uninterrupted reading time while I travel to and from my son's house.

The twitter chat tonight has been fun. If you weren't able to join us, just search for #HSreadathon to read the tweets. This chat was leisurely instead of frantic like during Bout-of-Books, so I could actually follow the conversations.

Summary

7/19
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 346
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 5
Total number of pages I've read: 624
Total number of books completed: 2

7/20
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 56
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 5
Total number of pages I've read: 680
Total number of books completed: 2

Books:
* A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell -- finished 17 July
* Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
* Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri -- finished 19 July
* The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
* An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

Thursday, July 19, 2012

And the High Summer Read-a-Thon continues

Yes, the High Summer Read-a-Thon continues. Since today was a travel day, I managed to get through quite a few pages while I was in transit.

First, I listened to a full disk of Keturah and Lord Death while driving from Providence, RI, to Boston. I need to try and figure out an approximate page location so I can update my statistics. Then, as soon as I boarded my plane, I pulled out Murder 101 and read for most of the flight, finishing the book about an hour out of DFW.

At this point, I turned on my Kindle to resume reading The Hunger Games. I had started reading it back in June, but set it aside early this month because I really felt the pressure to read a couple of the books which I have promised to send to fellow readers that I swap book with at BookObsessed. Kindle power level was very low, but it wasn't long before they had us turn off our electronics in preparation for landing. I returned to the Kindle on the way home from the airport, surprised that it didn't run out of battery before we got to the house. Once I had brought my luggage inside, I plugged the Kindle into the wall charger to recharge the battery.

Ninety minutes later, when I took the Kindle off of the charger, it started complaining about the battery level being critically low. Since I didn't want to take a chance that it would crash on me during supper, I decided to take a paper & ink book with me. So, I picked up the next episode in Jacquelyn Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mystery series, An Incomplete Revenge.

Summary

7/18
Number of books I've read today: 1
Number of pages I've read today: 60
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 3
Total number of pages I've read: 278
Total number of books completed: 1

7/19
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 346
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 5
Total number of pages I've read: 624
Total number of books completed: 2

Books:
* A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell -- finished 17 July
* Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
* Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri -- finished 19 July
* The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
* An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

High Summer Read-a-Thon Update: #HSreadathon

It's now day 3 in the High Summer Read-a-Thon. In the first two days of the Read-a-Thon, I have read 218 pages in three different books. If I can maintain that pace throughout the rest of the week, I'll hit around 700 pages for Read-a-Thon. Actually, I'll be happy if I read at least 500 pages by Sunday evening.

Like the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon, the participants are being encouraged to communicate with each other using Twitter. In this case, we're using a hashtag of #HSreadathon. I haven't tweeted too many times:

15 Jul: High Summer Read-a-Thon starts tomorrow. There's still time to join in. #HSreadathon

16 Jul: Almost forgot the High Summer Read-a-Thon. Been reading, but not tweeting or keeping records. #HSreadathon

17 Jul: Finished reading A Thread of Grace. Now starting Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri. #HSreadathon

Summary

7/16
Number of books I've read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 76
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I've read: 2
Total number of pages I've read: 76
Total number of books completed: 0

7/17
Number of books I've read today: 3
Number of pages I've read today: 142
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 3
Total number of pages I've read: 218
Total number of books completed: 1

Books:
* A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell -- finished on 17 July
* Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
* Murder 101 by Maggie Barbieri

Monday, July 16, 2012

High Summer Read-a-Thon

High Summer Read-a-Thon This is a week-long Read-a-Thon sponsored by Michelle at True Book Addict. This time, there appear to be no challenges—just plenty of reading and communicating about reading. Primary site of discussion will be at Twitter using hashtag #HSreadathon. Since I'm still feeling like a bit of a looser from the Christmas in July Read-a-Thon at BookObsessed, I'm hoping to accomplish more during this particular event. Of course, since my travel will take place during the Read-a-Thon, I know I will have a much higher chance of completing at least one book during the week. And, I can tweet about my progress even when I'm not able to be connected to the Internet!

Starting Position

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell I'm currently reading A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell. On Monday morning, I started reading at page 269. I intend to complete this book early in the week since I need to mail it off to a fellow BookCrosser in Missouri.

This is a fascinating historical fiction set in 1943-45 in northern Italy. It's the story of the Italian Catholics and the Jews—both Italian and refugees from all over Europe—whom they hid from the occupying German forces. It's the story of ordinary people responding to extraordinary challenges. I heartily recommend it.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt In the car, I'm listening to Keturah and Lord Death by Martin Leavitt. I started it this morning, listing to the first 8 tracks of disk 1 on the way to and from the dentist office. This is a charming fairy-tale type of fantasy novel which I received from a BookCrosser in Florida. When I've finished listening to it, I will be passing it along to another. I'm heading to Rhode Island tomorrow—flying into Boston and driving to Providence—so I'll have plenty of time to "read with my ears" this week.

Come back periodically to see my progress and what I choose to read next.

Summary

7/16
Number of books I’ve read today: 2
Number of pages I've read today: 76
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of books I’ve read: 2
Total number of pages I've read: 76
Total number of books completed: 0
Books: A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt