Social Distancing Readathon #200 - January 12 - 14

Welcome to another readathon!

We generally run from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at midnight in whatever time zone you choose, but feel free to start earlier on Friday and wrap up overnight Sunday/Monday, if that's what you want to do.

Here are some things to track throughout the weekend, if you choose:

Books read from:
Books finished:
Time reading:
Time posting:
Snacks:
Thoughts:
Non-book activities:

Total books finished:
Total read from:
Total time reading:

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA

I am afraid that I will not be able to participate either this weekend or the next since I will be out of town.

I'm in.
10pm Friday
I've been reading The Gardener's Year by Karel Čapek. Finished it tonight.

I'll be reading some over the weekend. Monday will be a work day for me unless it snows, but it will be a holiday for some.

I’ve been watching from the sidelines, but I think this weekend I’ll be joining in and posting. I’m in Minnesota and it will be cold and maybe snowy, and what better thing to do than read…a lot!

Karen O

I'm in - just started on Tales From Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin.

Sooo looking forward to having a book in hand this weekend! Count me in!

I'm in!

I finished the epic The Tiger and the Wolf, and am currently reading one of my Christmas presents, How to Speak Chicken.

I’m in.
Finished The Secret by Lee Child.
Half way through When in Rome, humorous romance by Sarah Adams.

My neighborhood book club holiday lunch party was at a nice restaurant today.

Rain, 55 F. (13 C.) in Charlotte NC.

There's a snow storm alert so this weekend seems like a good one for a readathon!

Books read from: La Langue des rêves by Mickaël Lahmi,
Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice, Signs and Symbols by Kathryn Wilkinson and Miranda Bruce-Mitford

Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3
Time posting: 8 pm on Friday
Snacks: clafoutis and chocolates
Thoughts: the dream interpretation book is quite fascinating but makes interpretations seems easier than they are!
Non-book activities: laundry

Total books finished:0
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 3

Books read from: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, Banned Books, Burned Books
Books finished: The Silkworm
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 7:12 pm Central time
Snacks: Christmas petit-fours, now all gone
Thoughts: The Silkworm stalled for me partway through, but it was so much fun in the second half. The Banned Books Great Course is fantastic.
Non-book activities: Read the newspapers

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 3

Hope I'm not too late to join in. I had a bit of a tummy ache last evening and fell asleep very early. A good sleep and feeling better but I think a weekend of hot tea and good books is just what the doctor ordered. I plan on making London Fog Lattes...earl grey tea with steamed milk and honey. Going to start by finishing Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown after I visit a couple more threads.

The storm is here and I'm going no where fast!

Books read from: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice, Signs and Symbols by Kathryn Wilkinson and Miranda Bruce-Mitford, Rebel's Apothecary by Jenny Sansoucis, Les mille et une nuits edited and translated Jamel Bencheickh and André Miquel

Books finished: La Langue des rêves by Mickaël Lahmi
Time reading: 3
Time posting: 10 am on Saturday
Snacks: baguette and coffee
Thoughts: debating on whether to pick up some detective fiction
Non-book activities: shoveling snow

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 6
Total time reading: 6

Sat afternoon

Books:
Finished When in Rome, Adams.
Started The Echo Wife

Brunch was strawberries & granola.

Waiting for sis & her husband to arrive. Family dinner party at our house this evening. We’re not cooking but having Chinese take-out. Husband & l just getting over colds/cough we came home with after visiting granddaughters - our adorable little germ bundles.

Pearl-ruled Surviving the Applewhites...a Newbery Honor book, really?!?

Next...

Saturday report
Books read from: Doc by Mary Doria Russell and Unwarrented: Policing Without Permission by Barry Friedman, and Discord of Gods by Jenn Lyons. I am listening to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

Books finished: none this weekend

Book Thoughts: I hope to finish Doc this weekend, but that might not happen as my time is not my own at this point in my life.

Non-Book activities: It was another snow day for the schools and so I spent yesterday afternoon baking cookies with my young cousins. It is time for them to go back to school as I am getting tired of them and their demands. I realize that this is an unprecedented winter (it has never snowed or gotten cold in Kansas before) starting a week ago, but these people need to settle down and get to work. We have only had 11 inches of snow and I am wondering if any of the people in authority have bothered to look at the NOA weather site to see what the records for this are really are. I would guess that they would be surprised by both the snow fall amounts and the temperatures. Nothing that has happened here in North Central Kansas in the last week is record breaking. Even if they think it is.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Food: oatmeal for lunch

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 380
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1076.5 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

Saturday report. This is my first Read-a-thon, and I’m really enjoying it!

Books read from: My Everyday Lagos, Jane Kenyon: Collected Poems, Banned Books, Burned Books (2 lectures)
Books finished: My Everyday Lagos
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 8:02 pm Central time
Snacks: Tuna sandwich for lunch, excellent chocolate chip cookie, big dill pickle
Thoughts: The Lagos cookbook was interesting to read, but I didn’t find it too “appetizing.” The fault is my limited exposure to African food. The Banned Books Great Course is fantastic.

Non-book activities: Read the newspapers and two magazines

Weekend totals:

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 6 hours

Books read from: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice, Signs and Symbols by Kathryn Wilkinson and Miranda Bruce-Mitford, Rebel's Apothecary by Jenny Sansoucis, Les mille et une nuits edited and translated Jamel Bencheickh and André Miquel, Sans feu ni lieu by Fred Vargas, Le dictionnaire amoureux d'Albert Camus by Mohammed Aïssaoui

Books finished: La Langue des rêves by Mickaël Lahmi
L'Iris blanc by Fabarco
Time reading: 2
Time posting: 8:30 am on Sunday
Snacks: chips with lobster thanks to my Dad
Thoughts: am I reading too many books at once? I sometimes feel I'm not getting anywhere fast, but it's the way I read non-fiction and big fat tomes.
Non-book activities: playing with my niece

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: 8

Read/completed two books yesterday.

Deuteronomy (KJB)

---

The River Between Us by Richard Peck

An absorbing tale of a poor family living in southern Illinois at the start of the US Civil War. I was so drawn into the story and characters that I read on, late into the night. Another excellent work by this author.

Sunday afternoon update:

I've managed to squeeze in some reading in what has turned out to be a pretty busy weekend. I read a chapter or two of The Girls Who Fought Crime on Friday night and I finished it this afternoon. Yesterday I listed to quite a bit of The Golden Calf while I took down the Christmas tree and packed up all the decorations to store in the garage.

Nonbook activities:
Friday night I did my grocery shopping, washed and dried a couple of loads of laundry, and chatted with genealogy friends on Zoom. Yesterday I did a couple more loads of laundry, took the trash to the dump, made applesauce in the Crockpot, took down the Christmas tree and other decorations, and made cottage pie for supper. One of my neighbors came over for supper and we watched a Hallmark movie afterwards. This morning I've been to church, and I ate leftover cottage pie for lunch.

Sunday afternoon update:

Books finished: Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown

Books read from: Bibliomysteries: Volume Two, The Thing About Life is That One Day You'll Be Dead by David Shields

Nonbook activities: nothing too exciting: further protected my hydrangeas from the coming cold, made meatloaf hash for dinner, played the piano, just put a turkey in the oven (I always buy one in November when they are cheaper and freeze it), may try making a book cover later

Thoughts about reading:

I loved Atlas of the Heart. Brown explores the wide range of emotions, presenting them in families but then teasing out the differences between things like envy and jealousy and happiness and joy. Brown is a born qualitative researcher who loves to tell the stories of her subjects. But she has the data to back up those stories. Her section on anger, disgust and dehumanization speaks to the very moment in which we live.

>20 fuzzi:
Like you, l thought Surviving the Applewhites was ho hum. . 🫤
And l loved The River Between Us!

>23 nrmay: I checked, it was YOU who referred The River Between Us to me. Thanks.

I think I've liked every Richard Peck book I've read, so far.

Sunday report. I plan to continue my part in the read-a-thon through Monday (MLK).

Books read from: Jane Kenyon: Collected Poems, The Little Match Girl Strikes Back
Books finished: The Little Match Girl Strikes Back
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 6:52pm Central time
Snacks: Christmas cookies
Thoughts: Loved The Little Match Girl—well-done, empowered spin on the the classic

Non-book activities: Read the newspapers and two magazines; church with a wonderful performance by the Nordic Choir of Luther College

Weekend totals:

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 8 hours

Sunday report
Books read from: Doc by Mary Doria Russell and Unwarrented: Policing Without Permission by Barry Friedman. (I didn't read from Discord of Gods today.) I am listening to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

Books finished: none this weekend

Book Thoughts: I won't finish Doc this weekend, but I am now within 100 pages of finishing so will get it done this coming week. I only got to read for 1 hour early this morning before I had to start to work for the day. I keep hoping I will get back to my regular Sunday reading schedule were I can read for 2 hours or more in the mornings - but I don't think that is likely to happen.

Non-Book activities: The neighbor kids spent the entire afternoon with me baking our third batch of cookies. This time we took them to our neighbors for a potluck supper. The adults loved them and the boys were proud of their contribution to the table. (So was I.) We had church this morning. 6 people attended.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Food: ramen noodles gulped down before the boys came over.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 380
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1077.5 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

I haven't read anything else since my last report. However, we are officially off tomorrow due to weather so I'll be reading tomorrow as well.

Weekend wrap-up - I'm very pleased, I haven't read this much in a while

Books read from: Maximum City by Suketu Mehta and The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice, Signs and Symbols by Kathryn Wilkinson and Miranda Bruce-Mitford, Rebel's Apothecary by Jenny Sansoucis, Les mille et une nuits edited and translated Jamel Bencheickh and André Miquel, , Le dictionnaire amoureux d'Albert Camus by Mohammed Aïssaoui

Books finished: La Langue des rêves by Mickaël Lahmi, L'Iris blanc by Fabarco, Sans feu ni lieu by Fred Vargas
Time reading: 6
Time posting: 11:00 am on Monday
Snacks: popcorn
Thoughts: Sans feu ni lieu is one of Fred Vargas's first books and it still has that fresh, dreamy style that became her trademark (and that she had trouble maintaining in her lastest). Although I had guessed the murderer, there was enough suspens to keep the book going. I was able to stay up until I finished!
Non-book activities: playing with my niece

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: 14

Monday, MLK holiday

I’ll keep reading through today.
No obligations! Want to sit by the fire, sip coffee and read all day.

Books:
Finished The Echo Wife, Sci-fi.
Started Starter Villain, John Scalzi. Another Sci-fi.

Breakfast was berries, granola, milk, coffee

Thoughts:
For decades my New Years Resolutions have been the same-
Get fit & trim/lose weight
Get organized/de-clutter
LT has threads on both topics that l think l must join for moral support.

Partly sunny, 49 F. (10 C.), early afternoon in North Carolina.

Weekend summary:

Books read from: Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Iliad by Homer, Just Show Up by Drew Dyck
Books finished: Talesfrom Earthsea
Pages read: 350-ish

Non-reading activities: Cooped up in the house due to snow & deep freeze. Watched some NFL playoffs - I grew up in Detroit & enjoyed seeing them win a playoff game for the first time in forever...

I've read the introduction and the first two chapters of 1812: War with America. I'm getting ready to switch to Life on the Mississippi. We have another snow day tomorrow so I'll be reading through tomorrow.

My neighborhood has had more rain than snow this afternoon, but I expect that to change as soon as the temperature drops.

I finished two books, The Gardener's Year by Karel Čapek & How to kill your family by Bella Mackie. I also read from several others including The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso and listenied to more of Shogun

To finish up the long weekend I read from Numbers (Bible) and started a Glenn Balch book for the L'Amour and Beyond challenge: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356917.

Monday report. I continued my participation today (MLK Jr Holiday). I had such a great time in my first read-a-thon! I think it did make me more productive, at least more tuned in. I enjoyed reading what others are reading! I’ll be back. Thank you!

Books read from: Jane Kenyon: Collected Poems, Wind in the Willows, Dinner in One, Banned Books, Burned Books (2 lectures: “Allen Ginsberg’s Alarming Howl” and “Holden Caulfield’s Subversive Voice.”

Books finished: None today

Time reading: 3 hours

Time posting: 7:25 pm Central time

Snacks: ham-wrapped pickles (veggie cream cheese), veggies with dill dip (it was like a party!)

Thoughts: Really enjoyed my reading today. Wind in the Willows is such poetry, and so funny. My Great Course is so informative and so timely. The cookbook is amazing. And the Kenyon poetry is great. I’m a happy reader today!

Non-book activities: Read the newspapers and two magazines (Astronomy and Quiltmaker). Took care of my three cats (food, water, litter, laser pointer). Called my Medicare customer service (problem easily remedied).

Weekend totals:

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 7
Total time reading: 11 hours

>34 klobrien2: I loved Wind in the Willows. I have a used but good copy in hardcover that I am planning to gift to my granddaughters. It's the one that has illustrations by Ernest K Shephard

I have another snow day today so I'll continue to read through today. The snow was supposed to have stopped by now, but it's still snowing lightly. I am thankful that the power is on and I am well stocked. I just baked chocolate chip muffins and I had one for breafast with a cup of tea.

>35 fuzzi: Sounds lovely! I’m reading a beautiful hardcover (cloth cover with metallic gold accents) with illustrations by Grahame Baker-Smith.

Karen O

P.s. LT shows over 900 covers for this book!

>37 klobrien2: it's the same edition my sister had, that I snitched frequently to read and reread.

A little late on the reporting ... my brain is as scattered as my reading! ... and let's just overlook how my current projects are going for the moment ...

Books read from: Poopie Suits & Cowboy Boots, Frank Hood (Kindle); American Midnight, Adam Hochschild (Audible); Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel, Christopher L. Bennett (Kindle); Scipio Africanus, B.H. Liddell Hart (Audible).

Fri: 0
Sat: 2.75
Sun: 2.5
Mon: 1.75

Snacks: chai

Thoughts: I largely skipped over the Romans in my education since they seemed very derivative culturally until Christianity started to wreak its havoc. Also had an indifferent Latin teacher (the Greek one was far superior). Started to pay attention to them again around 200 AD. Therefore, Scipio Africanus is totally unknown to me, and a great reason to now go read some Livy or other history and military strategy work: I wouldn't have been all that interested as a younger person, but find myself intrigued now with what there is to learn in this sphere of knowledge. I sense a rabbit hole developing ...

Non-book activities: I'm going to skip this as I'm actively avoiding addressing what needs to be done.

Total books finished: zippo
Total read from: 4 (2 physical, 2 audio)
Total time reading: 7h

I've read more of 1812: War with America today. We have yet another snow day tomorrow so I'll continue reading through the day tomorrow.

Reading Weekend Wrap-up
Books read from: Doc by Mary Doria Russell and Unwarrented: Policing Without Permission by Barry Friedman. (I didn't read from Discord of Gods this weekend.) I started Becoming Dr. Seuss by Brian Jay Jones. I am listening to Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.

Books finished: Doc by Mary Doria Russell

Book Thoughts: I finally finished reading Doc. This was the most enjoyable unenjoyable book I have read in a long time. It was interesting and good reading when I read it, but it was a hard book to want to pick up, so it took me 6 months of trying to finally get it finished. The book was our historical fiction selection for my real life book discussion group and it should have been interesting to me since I lived around Dodge City, Kansas for three years, but it just never took off for me. At it's heart it was a murder mystery and I think that was the problem. The mystery got in the way of the good story that all of the lives in the book had to offer a reader. i didn't care whodunit, but I did care about the major characters. The depiction of the frontier life on the Western Plains was very well written.

Non-Book activities: I am tired of baking cookies with the boys, but I will say that they made my mother's last days interesting. I am glad for their company and the way they kept me and her occupied. I am now busy planning her funeral, and that has proved challenging in its own way, even though my mother had made many of her own plans and arrangements ahead of time.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Food: mostly cookies for the entire week!

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 381
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1078.5 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

>41 benitastrnad: I'm sorry. (((hugs)))

>41 benitastrnad:
so sorry and sincere condolences on the loss of your mom.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/357476