Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon - October 22, 2016

It's time for another Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon and I couldn't be more excited! I really look forward to these, I love read-a-thons of all kinds, but Dewey's is just extra special.  There are so many people taking part together, it was really one of my very first experiences with online read-a-thons and it opened up a whole new community to me. Reading was no longer a solitary activity, it was now a game, a race, a party, a celebration of books! I've lost count of how many Dewey's I've taken part in. If you're interested in learning more, there's the Dewey's Website which talks about how this Read-a-thon got started, and it is where you sign up, and there is Facebook Group and a Goodreads Group. I will probably update my blog, but also post on the Facebook group as that is the easiest for me to do from my phone.

I hope you decide to join us!  Here is my stack of possibilities, which is always subject to change!




Updates:

7 am on a fine Saturday and all is well!  I'm starting off with Blameless and also a Doctor Who 50th anniversary short story: The Ripple Effect by Malorie Blackman. I just loved the box edition where each story cover is the Doctor's signature outfit!  See you in awhile!



7 pm - halfway through! I have gotten halfway through Blameless, finished The Ripple Effect, and also The Rat Queens, which was a lot of fun!  Thinking about some dinner now, and getting back into Blameless, which is also a lot of fun!  Maybe pizza... or BBQ... but leaning towards pizza! 393 total pages so far 8 hours and 45 minutes of attempting to read, which makes my average per hour 44 pages, yay for graphic novels and short stories! lol!

10:30 pm - less than 100 pages to go in Blameless, I can do this!  Time for some cake!

Finished:

Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon - Spring 2016

It's time once again for the Spring Edition of Dewey's 24-Hour Read-a-thon! I look forward to this so much, there's just so much excitement around it, so many people taking part all over the world yet also together, united in our love of reading! I just love it! I even made myself a banner!

There are some big changes this time, with cheering moving exclusively to Twitter, there is also a new Facebook Group that has already been super active and supportive, sharing our TBR stacks and making suggestions for each other.  It's hard to decide where to post.  The blog is fun, but I think Twitter and Facebook will allow for more immediate contact with others, so I will likely do most of my updating and cheering for others there. Feel free to give me a shout @Shaunesay during the 'thon!

Here are some books I've got lined up, but these are always subject to change depending on the mood of the day!

Dewey's TBR:

Audio and Kindle:



Physical Books:

Finished:

23 pages

74 pgs, 2:31:44

463 pgs

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon October 17th 2015 - It's Here! It's Here!

What's this? What's this? The books are everywhere! What's this? There's pages in the air!

It's time once again for Dewey's Read-a-thon! Yay! I'm a reader and a cheerleader this year, so I can't wait to go visit my Dogwood team and see what everyone is up to, encouraging them on to reading greatness!

I'll be out for a few hours around lunch time to go see Crimson Peak, but other than that, it's reading, reading, cheering and reading some more!

I'll post all my updates in this thread.  Here are a few of the books I may work on.  I think I'm going to focus on pages read, rather than books finished, because I like to skip around, and I am in the middle of a lot of books right now that I really need to finish!

As a seasoned read-a-thoner, here is some advice: don't put so much pressure on yourself to perform and reach goals that you don't have fun, or lose sight of the awesome thing you are a part of.  You're taking part in an event that includes people all over the world, and we're all in it because we love to read!  It doesn't matter if you read 1 page, or 1,000, you're still wonderful! Also, don't get too comfy, because you'll fall asleep! ;)  Take care of yourself today, your health comes first, it's okay to take that nap, and enjoy every minute of it!


Updates:

7:00 am - starting with Doctor Who #3: The Spear of Destiny to get a quick one under the belt!

8:23 am - just finished with The Spear of Destiny and now starting on Aunt Dimity Digs In.

10:00 am - 18 pages into Aunt Dimity and heading out the door to go see Crimson Peak (Tom Hiddleston *squee*) I'm taking The Door in the Hedge with me that I've already started, since it's on my Kindle and easier to pack in the purse. See you all later for more reading and cheering!

2:24 pm - I'm back from Crimson Peak!  It was beautiful and deliciously creepy, just the right amount of scary without being over the top for me, I highly recommend it! Now it's time to hit the books again!  I want to get a few more pages down and then I'll be out cheering some of you on to victory! :D

4:00 pm - Up to page 80 of Aunt Dimity and got in some steps on the treadmill at the same time!

5:00 pm - I've been doing some cheering and really enjoying visiting different blogs and seeing what others are reading today! Now back to my own reading and contemplating what to have for dinner!  I think I'll focus on The Door in the Hedge for awhile and see if I can get that finished up!

6:00 pn - 35 pages of The Door in the Hedge, no decision on dinner yet! lol!

8:35 pm - Dinner is a BBQ feast!  I have about 6 pages left of The Door in the Hedge, and then I think it's time for a computer game break!

9:30 pm - Done with dinner, done with The Door in the Hedge, done with computer games and ready to get back to it!

10:23 pm - After a bit more cheering, I'd best get to reading some more before I get too sleepy!  I'll hang out with Aunt Dimity some more for awhile, then maybe get into my next Doctor Who short story.

12:00 am - Up to pg 132 on Aunt Dimity, not quite halfway.  I'm probably off for a few hours sleep, and I'll try to make it up a couple hours before the finish line, but we'll see!

11:35 am Sunday - Well, I didn't make it back up in time for the finish line, but I did get 22 more pages read before I fell asleep!  Thanks to everyone for another great read-a-thon!  

Total Pages: 321

Books Finished:
Doctor Who #3: The Spear of Destiny
The Door in the Hedge

Time for some Napping!

I finished my second full length book, and hit 541 pages! 2nd level achieved!

I discovered Nancy Springer in junior high when I read The Silver Sun by her, so I always know I'm in for a good story, whatever she tackles.  I love Arthurian tales, and this was no exception, poignant and sad however, told from Mordred's point of view, and no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, his fate seems sealed.  It's making me want to go watch Excalibur again,  even though I really recall not liking Mordred in the movie.  There was some rearrangement of the tale here, but there are always differences in every retelling.

And the cover goes really nicely with my blog color scheme, I just noticed!

I'm headed to bed for now with my next read, Ashes and Alchemy by Cindy Spencer Pape.  It's part of a steampunk series I've been enjoying.  I may try to get up before the end of the read-a-thon to be there for the finish.  If I don't make it up, I'll wrap up later, and another round of thanks to all the cheerleaders and organizers!  You all make this the wonderful event it has become!


Finished:
A Big Hand for the Doctor - Eoin Colfer - 46 pages
Something From the Nightside - Simon R. Green - 230 pages
The Nameless City - Michael Scott - 81 pages
I Am Mordred - Nancy Springer - 184 pages

Total Pages: 541

ETA: Fergus was nice enough to wake me up half an hour before the Read-a-thon was over, so I got a few more pages in before the end, after I fed the furballs of course! 

Partial:
Ashes and Alchemy - Cindy Spencer Pape - 30 pages

Updated Total Pages: 571

A Little Smackeral and Goal #1 Achieved!

I've made my first goal of 350 total pages with the little Doctor Who #2 book in the picture, "The Nameless City."  That one was cute, never underestimate the fearsomeness of bagpipes!  Also it was time for a snack, coffee #2 Coconut Mocha, and a big ol' sugar cookie!

Finished:
A Big Hand for the Doctor - Eoin Colfer - 46 pages
Something From the Nightside - Simon R. Green - 230 pages
The Nameless City - Michael Scott - 81 Pages

Total Pages: 357

Next Stop, 500!

Eighth Hour

We're about 1/3 of the way through the day and I've finished Something from the Nightside! Go me! It was a fun and pretty quick read, I think Jim Butcher's blurb on the cover describes it perfectly: "A fast, fun little roller coaster of a story..."  It kept me interested and I'll keep going on the series.

I'm actually pretty proud of keeping focus and pretty much staying off the social media except to do updates and cheer on some fellow read-a-thoners. I have a feeling that will get harder as the day goes on.

Finished:
A Big Hand for the Doctor - Eoin Colfer - 46 pages
Something From the Nightside - Simon R. Green - 230 pages

Total Pages: 276

I'm not quite at my first level goal, which is 350 pages.  Next up is"The Nameless City" another quick Doctor Who adventure by Michael Scott, and I Am Mordred by Nancy Springer.  These two should get me to my second level goal of 500 no problem!

This is usually a hard time of day for me in the sleepy department, 3 pm is nap time!  Hopefully I can hold out!

Awake and Ready to 'Thon!

I've had a tasty breakfast burrito, and some coffee and I'm ready to get to it!

I knocked out a quick short story, "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer that is part of a 12 story collection, one for each doctor. This was for #1. I got the box set because each story has a cover showing that Doctor's signature outfit and I just thought they were cute, so there's #1's outfit to the left!  Here is the link on Amazon if you are so inclined.

I'm ready to dive into something a little longer, so I'm giving Something From the Nightside by Simon R. Green a try.

Finished:
A Big Hand for the Doctor - Eoin Colfer - 46 pages


Opening Meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?  Kansas, USA
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?  All of them really, I tried to pick books to fit my mood, rather than just for length this time.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  I have some Ben and Jerry's ice cream all ready for later!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  I'm an introverted Inventory Analyst who very nearly because an Archeologist instead!  Okay, not that nearly, but I've always love Archeaology, and studied it in college before my better sense too over and I chose something that probably suited me better.  I do still love reading about it though!
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?  I've lost count of how many of these Read-a-thon's I've done, but so far my nemesis seems to be getting too comfortable, so I've got a secret weapon this time.  If I start to get sleepy, I may try sitting on my stability ball, it forces your body to be actively keeping balance, and you have to be awake to do that!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon Kick Off - April 2015

Goooooood Mooooooorning Read-a-thoners!  We've made it!  The wait is over and the time to start reading is NOW!  I got a little bit of a late start, but I'm here now and ready to go!

I'm going to get some raspberry truffle coffee and some breakfast and dig into my first Doctor Who story "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer.

I'll see you all in a little while!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon Eve April 2015 Edition

Oh yeah! It's time for another Dewey's Read-a-thon, Spring 2015 Edition! I am super excited this round! I even did my nails for the occasion!

Here are my current choices to pull from, but I'm definitely a mood reader, so we'll see what happens!

I have a few Kindle books lined up as well. I will get nowhere close to finishing all of these, I just hope to finish a couple, but I've decided I'm going for page count this year instead of number of books read, so if I want to skip around, no biggie! It's very hard for me to stay focused on one book from beginning to end, I usually have several going at any one time.


Goal

Realistic = 350 pages   This is 7 times and more what I usually get read in one day, but should be pretty easy to do in a day devoted to reading.

Hopefully = 500 pages   I'll feel pretty good about this one.

Formidable = 750 pages   I'm not holding my breath.

Seriously?! = 1000 pages   Yeah, probably not, but weird things happen!


Good luck to everyone taking part!  An up front THANK YOU!! to all the cheerleaders and organizers that make this such an amazing event.  I can't wait to get started!

Dewey's 24 hour Read-a-thon October 2014 Edition

It's time for the Fall Edition of Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon! *throws confetti, shakes pompoms, puts on a tiara* This year I booked myself for a 5K before I knew when the Read-a-thon was, but that's okay, there is time before and after, and I'll be getting colorful with a friend, so it will be an awesome day!  I just couldn't skip a Dewey's! Good luck everyone!

Updates: (See what I'm reading at the bottom)

Wrapup - I actually ended up having a family emergency and never really got more read during the read-a-thon, but thank you to everyone that commented, and I hope to see you all in April!

11:00 am - Done with Foundation, it was a quick prequel to the Enclave series, and time to head to the races!  I will be out until this evening, so I hope everyone enjoys their day and I'll see you later!  Next up, The Dalai Lama's Cat.

9:00 am - first read done!  I really enjoyed Silent Blade and highly recommend it!  Next up Foundation by Ann Aguirre another fantastic author, her Sirantha Jax series is one of my all time favorites!  Also time to start getting ready for the day!


7:00 am - Good morning everyone! My cat Fergus wanted to make sure I didn't miss the read-a-thon (he wanted to eat), so he kindly woke me up 15 minutes before my alarm went off!  I'm going to start off with Silent Blade by Ilona Andrews and see if I can finish it up before needing to get ready for my Color Run 5K today.

Opening Meme:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Kansas, USA

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I've got a bunch of novellas ready to work through today, but I have one called the Dalai Lama's Cat that I'm interested to get into.  I've also got Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to read, season appropriate, and I've never read it before.
 
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  I think we're going out for fish and chips after our 5K so I'm definitely looking forward to that, but I may need to secure myself something decadent for later tonight!  A chocolate, peanut butter, Butterfinger concrete sounds pretty good!
 
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!  I started doing the Read-a-thon in April of 2010, so that makes this my tenth one!  *throws more confetti* I have 3 cats, several giant fish (goldfish/shubunkens) and a very tolerant husband who is amused by my bookish insanity. I am on the board of my company's employee funded charity foundation, and was able to bring in our local library foundation to them for some funding.  Did I mention I love books?  Yeah, I kinda do. ;)

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?  As I realized in the last question, this is my tenth time for the read-a-thon, so I've done a few different things, one of the ones I'd recommend, if you haven't ever been awake at the end of the read-a-thon, trying getting some sleep in the middle so you can be awake at the end at least once, because it feels really awesome to be there at that finish line, but not so special to feel exhausted the rest of the day!  Get up at least an hour maybe two before the end, then you can go back to sleep when it's over! ;)

Alrighty, back to reading, trying to knock out Silent Blade before it's time to get read for the 5K!


Currently Reading:



Finished:

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon April 26th, 2014

It's time for the 2014 April Edition of Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon! I'm going to focus on short stories today as I have quite a few to choose from!  I'm actually going to cheat and start early since I'll have to run some errands tomorrow and just can't stay up as late as I'd like to and still function on Sunday, so for me, Read-a-thon starts.... NOW! WOOT!

TBR:

Magic Mourns in Must Love Hellhounds (Kate Daniels 3.5) by Ilona Andrews - 77 pages
The Grimoire of the Lamb (Iron Druid #.4) by Kevin Hearne - 76 pages
The Chapel Perilous (Iron Druid #4.6) by Kevin Hearne - 33 pages
A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows (Outlander #8.5) by Diana Gabaldon - 55 pages
A Plague of Zombies (Outlander, Lord John Grey #3.5) by Diana Gabaldon - 94 pages
Retro Demonology (Demon Trappers #.5) by Jana Oliver - 31 pages
Elusive Memories (The Hunted #1) by Amanda Shofner - 95 pages

And... whatever else I decide to be in the mood for! Pro Tip: If it's not working for you, switch to something else!  Nothing can kill your momentum faster than struggling with a book you're just not bonding with at the time.  Set it aside for something easier, shorter, funnier, scarier whatever it takes to keep your interest and get you back into the groove!

Updates:

9:00 AM - so my big talk about starting early didn't really happen.  Also, I wish that the Kindle short stories were more story and less excerpt of another book, because I don't read those, I wait until I read the actual book. I've managed 2 REALLY short stories, only about 31 pages so far because I slept in:

Retro Demonology by Jana Oliver
Guns for the Dead by Melissa Marr

4:30 PM - Back from errands and lunch, updating with a snack of strawberries and a Reeses Peanut Butter Egg!  While out and about I finished:

The Chapel Perilous by Kevin Hearne
A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon
and started Roar and Liv by Veronica Rossi

So my page count is up to 119, which doesn't sound like much, but for me lately, that's pretty good!  It seems like I manage fewer and fewer pages each read-a-thon!  See ya later!

 5:40 PM finished Roar and Liv, and now I'm going to dive into Elusive Memories by Amanda Shofner, coming soon!

10:00 PM - after an extended gaming and facebook and 2048 Loki edition break *looks ashamed* I jumped back in and really got going on Elusive Memories.  The Kindle says I have less than two hours to go on it, so fingers crossed that I can get that and maybe one more short story finished.  We shall see!  I am still going for the moment!

10:30 PM - I discovered I won a doorprize in hour 15!  First time ever!  Woohoo!  Thanks so much!

12:45 PM - Done with Elusive Memories!  I think that will be all for me for this Dewey's, so my total is around 267 pages.  Thanks again to everyone that helps organize the read-a-thon, and congrats on it being the biggest yet! 

Finished:

95 pages?

54 pages

55 pages

33 pages

11 pages

20 pages