Labor Day Readathon!!!!

Make celebrating Labor Day a labor of love and spend a chunk of the holiday weekend -- reading!

Unilaterally -- since this was my idea anyway -- we'll kick off Friday night at 6.p.m. Eastern in North America. And we'll wrap it up at the same time on Monday, so that we have time to get their dinner and brace themselves for a (curtailed) work week next week.

No theme or anything else, just be prepared to check back in every so often to tell the rest of us what you've been reading and what you think of it -- and maybe give us a few tips.

I'll post some thoughts and questions on Friday for you folks to ponder and comment on, if you feel moved to do so. Or not, if you don't!

In the meantime, sign up below, and tell us you'll be joining the party and whether you have any special reading plans for the weekend... For my part, I want to read Hild and wrap up a couple of other joint reads for the August TIOLI challenges.

Chatterbox -- Suzanne -- Reading in Providence, Rhode Island.
majkia -- Jean -- Reading in Niceville, Fl
Cariola -- Deborah -- Reading in Pennsylvania
calm -- reading somewhere along the Welsh border...
streamsong -- reading in Montana
sandragon -- reading in Victoria, BC
cameling -- Caro -- reading in a Boston suburb, or wherever she happens to find herself
crazy4reading -- Monica -- reading in Pennsylvania
porch_reader -- Amy -- reading in Iowa
gennyt -- Genny -- reading from her new home in Birmingham!
Athabasca -- Anna -- reading in Edinburgh
ursula -- reading in Gent/Ghent/Gand, Belgium
cbl_tn -- Carrie, reading in Knoxville, TN
fairywings -- Adrienne, reading in Brisbane, Australia
drneutron -- Jim, reading in Columbia, Maryland
LibraryLover23 -- reading in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
AnneDC -- Anne, reading in Washington, DC
lachochstetler -- reading in Washington state
qebo -- Katherine -- reading in Lancaster, PA
smilinkyn -- Kyndra -- reading in Tennessee??
LucindaLibri -- Lucinda, reading in Minneapolis
Lindapanzo -- Linda, reading in Chicagoland

I'll be there! Jean in Niceville, FL

I'll be finishing up Map of Bones by James Rollins and The Difference Engine by William Gibson. If I've finished with them before the readathon starts, well, I'll pick something from my September planned reads list.

I'll be in and out. Some of my reading will be related to classes I'm teaching; I'll be finishing Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, for one.

ETA: Deborah in Chambersburg, PA.

I'll be reading:) Whatever I need to finish for August's TIOLI to start with and then either Wool or Flight Behaviour as they are library books.

calm in West Wales.

I'll be joining in, although I will be MIA most of Saturday. I'd like to finish a few for August TIOLI that I have well-started: Gorky Park and MetaMaus as well as continuing a group read book for the science, religion and history thread , Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality. I'm hoping to get my audiobook done Saturday during my drive: a reread of Anne of Green Gables. And if that's not enough, my first September book will be an ER book, Montana, by Gwen Florio, a local writer.

calm, I really enjoyed Flight Behavior and I hope to join you in reading Wool later this month once it comes in through the library.

ETA: I'm in Montana, northwestern USA.

Cool -- five people signed up, but I'm sure we can get at least a baker's dozen. Can't we??

Sure--just keep posting to push this to the top of the list!

I'd like to join in, but I'm not a 75 Books Challenge member. I just lurk a lot. Is that all right?

Count me in, Suz. I have plans for the long weekend, but I think I should be able to get some good chunks of time to read as well.

#8 -- Sandra, certainly it is! We're a kinda friendly bunch about here, as you'll have discovered while lurking. Hope you decide to unlurk & post, too! And definitely, please, join in.

Caro -- great!!

Thanks, Chatterbox. I find the size of your group and amount of chat more intimidating than the actual members :o)

I won't be able to join in all weekend, but I'd like to get in a good dose of enjoyment reading. I also have reading to do for a course I'm taking that I will definitely not be counting as enjoyment.

I'm in Victoria, BC.

I'm out tomorrow for dinner with some friends, so I won't be able to start until probably much later tomorrow night, or, depending on how much I've had to drink, Saturday morning.

Victoria, near one of my favorite places in the world, the Butchart Gardens!!!! (and home to a good friend of mine, who I think ran as a Liberal candidate in one of the recent elections.)

Some of the threads are surreal, and I can by no means keep up at all, if I want to have time for work or reading.

OK, Caro, won't expect to see you until Saturday afternoon sometime... :-) Wouldn't want you to stint yourself on either food or drink, since you'll be able to share it with us here on Saturday...

Count me in! I am hoping to get some reading done this weekend!!

Monica from Pennsylvania!!

Another readathon stalwart heard from -- welcome back, Monica!

I'm hoping to join in for part of the weekend. It is SO hot here that staying inside and reading sounds pretty good. I've got an ER book (The Funeral Dress) and the new Louise Penny book (How the Light Gets In) on tap.

Amy from Iowa

It would be unfortunate if the heat kept you from reading on the porch, Amy -- but welcome!!

Suzanne it is great to do one of these again! Thanks for setting this up!

Count me in too, Suz. I won't be able to do much before Sunday: Saturday I arrive back from a break and need to unpack my belongings in my new home - but that should only take an afternoon as it's just a few boxes. So I hope to get back to reading Sat evening, and to have a restful couple of days Sunday and Monday to continue reading, making up for lost time this month. Not sure what I'll read -it depends what takes my fancy as I unpack!

Genny from (new location) Birmingham!

Suzanne - I'm in! Probably for Friday night and Sunday afternoon. We don't get the holiday, but I'm looking forward to spending some serious time reading this weekend. I'm just outside Edinburgh, where it decidedly isn't too hot to go outside. Anna

>Genny, congrats on the move. I hope everything went well.

As a displaced American, I don't get Labor Day this year (and I'm not working anyway, it's more that my husband doesn't get Labor Day this year!), but I'll be reading this weekend. I'm in Gent, Belgium, so it'll probably be a lot in the wee hours of your days in the US. I am determined to finish The Passion of New Eve by the end of the month, and I'm 2/3 of the way through The Forsyte Saga, so I'll be reading those, plus whatever I pick up when I finish that first one.

I'll join in for a while this evening and Sunday. I have to work tomorrow and Monday. I want to finish The Big Over Easy. I haven't deciced what to read after that. I'm in Knoxville, TN.

I'd like to join in. I'm aiming to finish Fable by Chanda Hahn, and if nothing else put a dent in The Light Fantastic and The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag.

I'm Adrienne and I'm in Brisbane, Australia.

I'm in for at least a few hours tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

I'm Jim, in Columbia, Maryland, US.

Hurrah, welcome everyone!!

#20 -- Anna, the last time I was in Edinburgh it was at this time of year, and I caught an epic cold. So yes, better to stay indoors!

#21 -- Ursula, in the Belgian weather, I'd suggest doing the same! I spent my teen years living in Brussels (Woluwe St. Pierre, not that far from Tervuren & Quatre-Bras) and remember being made clinically depressed by all the rain and gloom.

Here's a rough chart you can use when you check back and tell us how you're doing. If you want to do that hourly, every few hours, twice a day -- whatever you feel like. Whenever you need a break from the reading, or are curious to see what others are doing/reading. And again, this isn't mandatory! If you want to just make notes on your reading or ramble about something you've read, that's fine, too. We're not in school....

Time Period: (eg 10 AM to 1 PM)

# of books read from in this period:
titles:
# of books completed in this period:
# of pages:

Totals:
# of books completed so far
# of books read from total
# of pages total

What are you eating/drinking right now?

Favorite book so far?

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

I'll be back around 6 to get things rolling...

I'd love to join in as well, with the extra-long weekend I'm hoping to get lots of reading done.

~LibraryLover23 reading in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Time: 8pm to 10pm GMT Friday

I'm reading William Dalrymple's wonderful (and extremely sad) From the holy mountain - the tale of a trip from Istanbul to Alexandria, tracing the fall of the Byzantine Empire.

Just had pâté on toast and a glass of red wine.

I need to get some reading done tonight as tomorrow evening I'm out at a lovely Italian restaurant with friends and on Sunday I'm getting another quote for a new kitchen.

Oh, Anna, I LOVED that book. I discovered it when it came out in paperback and BBC radio aired a reading of a big part of it -- I went out and bought it the next day. It's still a top 100 book for me.

#26 -- Welcome aboard, LibraryLover23!

I'm reading Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, which took a lurch in an even darker direction at the midway point or thereabouts.

I finished Map of Bones earlier today. What a great thriller!

Now beginning book 8 of Janny Wurts's series, Stormed Fortress. Also listening to The Difference Engine which I hope to finish by the end of the month.

I just got in from going out to dinner and some shopping. Now I am home to get started reading. Here are the books I hope to read:

Covet by J.R. Ward
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
This World we Live in by Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have been reading Covet for about a month. I just haven't been able to get into it like I have some other books.

This world we Live in is part of a series and I just love it that I keep reading them when I can get them from the library.

Harold Fry is for my September book club meeting.

Will be back later to post an update!

I know a lot of people kinda enjoy pondering memes periodically during this readathons, so for them...

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review?

2. Any other plans for the weekend?

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours?

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us? This tends to be a bit of a cross-section of people who may not follow each other's reading routinely, so it might be fun to use the opportunity to toss out an idea to others.

I'll be back later to update my reading...

I plan to do a chunk of reading tonight. The Eye of the World is my main read at the moment, and I'm just over halfway through. I'll probably read a chapter of that, but it's a thickie and, even though I'm enjoying it, I've started feeling the need for something to break it up. Maybe something non-fiction, or a short story collection. I'll have to browse my shelves and see what catches my eye.

1. My objectives for the weekend are just to get in some non-course related reading in while I can, before the term officially starts and I have to kick my brain into high-study mode.

2. Other plans this weekend: I should probably get some weeding done in the garden. And we're having the extended (and there are lots of them) family over for maki night. Makis is short for te-makis which are hand-rolled sushis. Everyone brings something (usually a veg or a seafood) to be rolled. We'll provide the rice, nori, wasabi, and soya sauce, and maybe some sweet bell peppers. And everyone does their own rolls with whatever combination of fillings they want. We used to host this every weekend, but haven't in months, so I'm really looking forward to it.

3. My favourite months are the spring and fall ones. I can't choose just one month. Spring for the new flowers and fresh greenery that start popping lushly everywhere. Fall for the change in colours, the crispness in the air, and the leaves to crunch when I'm out walking.

4. I'll have to think about this and come back with a book recommendation.

I'm mostly cataloging this weekend (trying to finish my huge wall unit of books in the living room), but will try to take a few breaks for actual reading :)

I've got several books going, so will probably stick to those. I'm reading and enjoying Snow-storm in August by Jefferson Morley . . . the topic is rather depressing, but the writing is engaging.

Lucinda in Minneapolis, MN

Finished Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, which was very good, then fell asleep on the sofa, with a cat fast asleep and keeping one leg pinned in position. I think I'm going to make an early night of it; I'm exhausted & stressed. In that case, I'll be back in the morning to update my reading and see where all of you are at!

The menu here: quiche lorraine, some celery root salad and fresh heirloom tomatoes. Good end-of-summer fare.

I have started Hild, but am finding it tricky keeping track of the characters.

I took my family out for pizza and frozen yogurt tonight, but now I'm back and can start reading right away since there are no dishes to be done. My husband and older son headed to watch the local high school football game (the heat index is still over 100, so I'm hoping that everyone is drinking plenty of water), and my younger son has a friend over, so I should get some quiet time to read the new Louise Penny mystery, How the Light Gets In.

I was hoping for a Readathon this weekend! Count me in, though I haven't started yet.

Anne, Washington DC

Fabulous, Anne -- welcome aboard...

I do hope your A/C is working well, Amy, and that the water supplies are ample. It's been quite cool here, although still on the humid side.

Time Period: 8 pm to 10 pm Eastern US

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles:

The Magician (second in the Nicholas Flamel series)

# of books completed in this period: 0.25
# of pages: 90

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0.25
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total: 90

What are you eating/drinking right now? Water over ice

Favorite book so far? The Magician

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

So much of this book is everybody not trusting everybody else...

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

Parents arrived from Louisiana, wife cutting fabric for a craft.

I had planned to read this evening, and I did get to read for about 20 or 30 minutes. However, I had a nice surprise at work this morning. One of my cousins and his family showed up. Their daughter is a senior in high school and they brought her here to visit a local college she's considering. They came over this evening for a couple of hours and we had a good time catching up on things that have happened since the last time we saw each other and reminiscing about the aunts, uncles, and cousins who are no longer with us. No reading took place. I'll read for a little while before going to sleep, and I'll probably read for a while during the night when I wake up and have to take more pain medicine to get back to sleep. (I'm recovering from a tonsillectomy and I haven't yet slept through the night without waking up in pain.) I'd like to finish The Big Over Easy before I go to work tomorrow.

Sandra I never knew what Maki was. It sounds like a very interesting thing to do. Hope you are able to get some weeding done. I did some today after work and still have more to do.

Lucinda good luck with the cataloging. I had to do that earlier this year with a box of books I had received. It was fun but time consuming.

Suzanne have a good night and hope to see you in the morning. I will be calling it an early night too but will take my books with me.

Amy your dinner sounds great especially on such a hot night. Enjoy the Louise Penny book. I haven't read her in a while.

Jim making some progress on that book. I think I may be looking for books in the Nicholas Flamel series.

Here are my answers to the questions:

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review?

My objectives are to make some progress on my current books so that I can work on one of my ER books. I am behind on them and really need to get caught up.

2. Any other plans for the weekend?

Well I always go and get a massage on the weekend which I did tonight with my friend Amy. We get 10 minute chair massages. It is always relaxing and just makes me feel wonderful. I also plan to walk my dog and to get some yard work done. Plus I have some cleaning to do too. Hope to get reading and all that stuff done this weekend.

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours?

I love the Months of April, March, December, January. April is my birthday month and I love to celebrate it every year. March is my son's and my dad's birthday month. Plus my ex- MIL's birthday too. My son was born 5 days after my dad's birthday and 5 days before my MIL's birthday. I love December for the change of weather, my daughter's birthday and for Christmas. I always hope for snow in December. January is the start of a new year and I just love that. Seeing the parties, and people celebrating and just having fun, plus it is also my Puppies birthday month!

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us? This tends to be a bit of a cross-section of people who may not follow each other's reading routinely, so it might be fun to use the opportunity to toss out an idea to others.

I usually don't have recommendations because I never have a book that has really caught my attention that people haven't read, but this time I have one. I read Life as we Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer which is the first book in the Last Survivors series. I have read 2 of the 4 and I am reading the third now. So I recommend the books Life as we Knew it, The Dead and the Gone, This World we live in and The Shade of the Moon. I just found it very interesting and really has me thinking about how dependent we are on certain things.

Well I am going to head up stairs to bed to get some reading done and to go to sleep.

Time Period: ??

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Covet by J.R. Ward
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: I believe 4, pitiful

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total: 4

What are you eating/drinking right now? I have been eating gluten free chocolate chip cookies and drinking water

Favorite book so far? None since I haven't read that much

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? Not at this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? Well my puppy was whining so I took her out for a short walk and every time I picked up my book she would jump up on my lap and want me to pet her so I had trouble reading. Now you have to realize she is not a lab dog. She is a Beagle/Basset Mix. You can see pictures of her in my gallery. Plus the computer has been a distraction. I keep wanting to check on the thread to see what everyone is reading. Hoping that if I go up to bed I won't have the computer to distract me.

Well I am going to get off now before I spend another hour on here.

Happy Reading!!

Monica

Joining in- Laurie from Washington State

I'm in the middle of many books right now. I'm hoping to get through some combination of:

Philida by Andre Brink
The Death-Cap Dancers by Gladys Mitchell
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb

We'll see how well I do.

#42 - Laurie, I've been thinking about getting Sisterland. Curtis Sittenfeld is coming to a book festival near me in Oct. I'll be interested to see what you think of that one.

Time Period: 7-9 pm (Central Standard Time)

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: How the Light Gets In
# of books completed in this period: .25
# of pages: about 100

Totals:
# of books completed so far: .25
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total: 100

What are you eating/drinking right now? Had pizza and frozen yogurt (blueberry) earlier

Favorite book so far? I'm loving How the Light Gets In. Louise Penny at her best!

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? The title comes from "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There's a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? My 9-year-old has a friend over, so I've been getting snacks and checking on them. But they both have their DS games, so they've been pretty self-sufficient. My husband and older son have been texting updates from the HS football game. (We won!) They'll be home soon, so my reading time is likely nearing the end for tonight.

>44 porch_reader: Love that Leonard Cohen song!

Also enjoying the food info folks are posting.

I'll be having leftover Thai Food most of the weekend (Evil Jungle Prince with Chicken, and Spicy Eggplant & Bok Choy with Yellow Bean Sauce both served over Sticky Rice). After a week of eating salads due to oppressive heat and humidity (and an un-air-conditioned kitchen) I finally had to cook last night . . . but these two dishes should keep me going for most of the weekend . . . though I'll probably make burgers on Monday.

The book I'm reading, Snow-storm in August also involves food. The main character, Beverly Snow, is a former slave who starts a restaurant in Washington DC (this is the 1830s and a true story). His specialties included many ways of preparing things like Green Turtle, Venison, Oysters, and Mutton. I'll stick to Thai Food :)

26: ~LibraryLover23 reading in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Oh? Me too.

OK, I’m in. Haven’t done this before, but I have two goals for the weekend:
Finish reading The Dervish House. I read a few pages this evening after work, but was distracted by caterpillars.
Write a review of ER Toms River, which I read in, um, March.

Hello, readers! I'm just barely getting started, so I'll hold off on my "counts" until tomorrow. I'll be finishing Thomas Kyd's revenge play, The Spanish Tragedy, and trying to make some headway in The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri.

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review?

I need to finish The Spanish Tragedy for a course I'm teaching, and I owe Amazon Vine a review of The Lowland. If I get that far, I'll be happy as there will be a lot of distractions.

2. Any other plans for the weekend?

Holiday-type plans, no. But this was the first week of the new semester, and I fell like I'm behind already. I have exercises to grade, lessons to plan, some assignments to write and post, and I need to create grade books on D2L, the online learning system. Plus I still need to reshelf several boxes of books and put back furniture; they've been out of place since I had the living room painted a week ago. The lawn needs to be mowed, and I hope to be able to hang a new curtain rod and new drapes in the living room. Oh, and a new stove is coming Sunday morning.

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours?

Well, for reasons related to the above, it's not September! (Or late August, actually.) Seasonally, I love October--the brisk air, the leaves turning color, getting to wear warmer clothing but not needing to be buried in a wool coat, apple cider and warm cinnamon donuts. But I'm starting to enjoy May more as the school year ends and I can work in the garden.

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us?

The best book I read all summer--make that all year--is Transatlantic by Colum McCann. Brilliant structure--especially if you enjoy interwoven stories--and beautiful, pure writing.

Be back some time tomorrow . . .

I've been reading from The Eye of the World for about 1 1/2 hours, about 30 pages read. My husband brought me a glass of red wine and had been cooking a ground bison tomato sauce to go over cheese tortellini. He's been distracting me about every 10 minutes with bites of parm and tastes of the sauce. I've just finished a chapter and dinner's almost ready so I'll take a break now. My kids were playing video games while I read in the bedroom so it's been a pretty relaxing evening so far.

Amy, I take it I should keep trying with the Three Pines books? I've read the first four of the Three Pines mysteries and I'm not convinced they're for me. There's too much about how wonderful and perfect Gamache is; makes me grit my teeth. And I find the writing a little too descriptive and flowery. But I'm starting to like Beauvoir more (he was too judgemental in the beginning) and I do like reading about the Three Piners. I've heard the later books are better than the earlier one. What do you think?

Distraction: On Friday nights, I stop at my 86yo Mom's house and give her an injection for her RA. Tonight we decided to drive up Lolo Canyon, the site of a large forest fire with many evacuations last week. We planned to eat dinner at a small restaurant at Lolo Hot Springs, about ten miles beyond the fire. Wow--that was a truly awe-inspiring site. The narrow canyon must have acted like a chimney for the flames and jumped the highway in several places. We saw the chimneys of a couple houses that burned; everything else was gone. The amazing thing was that only a handful of houses were destroyed when the fire obviously came within twenty yards or so of a hundred homes. In some places, the very soil was charred. The firefighters did an absolutely awesome job!

Mom said she heard on the news that apparently it was two of the floating Chinese sky lanterns that started the fire. Double wow.

Awesome: Mom was a grade school librarian. On the way back, she joined with me in listening to about a half hour of Anne of Green Gables which is my audiobook in the car. The neat thing about Anne's adventures are that you can jump in and out and listen just a short while and get an entire episode. I should finish Anne tomorrow when I drive to the next-bigger-town over to take advantage of some of the weekend sales with my daughter.

Sunday and Monday I will stay nicely at home and read, clean and do outside work (hopefully getting a load - 16 tons- of hay delivered later this week and need to finish cleaning out the spot where it goes).

Settling in to read for a bit--trying to finish Gorky Park by tomorrow night. I'm about half way through.

A quick summary of where I'm at by now:

6 p.m. until midnight

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, Hild by Nicola Griffith
# of books completed in this period: 1 (the MacLeod novel)
# of pages: approx 107 in the former, 92 in the latter: 199 total

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 199

Menu: as noted before, the quiche & stuff, followed by a strawberry banana yoghurt.

My upstairs neighbor has just gone out for the night -- at midnight -- all glammed up. This means she'll be coming back around 4:30 or thereabouts, playing music very loudly on her car stereo outside my window for a while, then going upstairs and crashing around until she passes out. So I should probably try to squeeze in a tranche of sleep time before she returns. It's very annoying, and has started to happen every weekend and some weekdays as well. When she gets back, the noises sound as if she is moving furniture right above my head.

Piffle.

I've been reading Man Booker prize nominees intermittently, but the novels that have spoken to me most recently weren't nominated. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna comes out next month and Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally just came out here. Both are brilliant.

Anne of Green Gables is lovely. Although, as I got older, I found myself appreciating some of her other stories more, including some of her short stories. My all-time fave is certainly The Blue Castle, set, I think in the early 1920s in the Muskoka area of Ontario.

I'll read some more of Hild, and dip into Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien. My audiobook at present is The Iron King by Maurice Druon, so it's all very bleak and gloomy reading -- I'll need to add something lighter to leaven it a bit!!

41 - Monica, maki is Japanese for roll. Te is Japanese for hand. Temaki = hand roll. They're great because nori is one of the few green things I can get my youngest to eat, although the only things he rolls into his makis are rice and egg.

I enjoy dystopic novels but I've been avoiding Life as We Knew It as there are already so many on my wishlist, but you've convinced me. I'm going to have to give it a try. My first book bullet of the readathon :o)

It's almost 11:30pm here. We've just finished watching a movie and I'm going to try and stay up to do a bit more reading before crashing out.

>25 Chatterbox: That's what I was expecting, weather-wise. Instead, it's apparently been the driest August in something like 20 years. I'm sure it's coming with a vengeance soon, though. We visited Brussels for the first time (for me, my husband had been there a few years ago on another trip) a couple of weeks ago. Up till then, I'd just passed through its train stations a lot! It was fun, and I look forward to going back soon.

I just woke up; it's 9:30 AM here and I'll probably read a little once I get some breakfast in me.

>33 sandragon: sandragon: a maki party sounds like so much fun! And just reminded me that it's been far too long since I had Japanese food.

>50 Chatterbox: Chatterbox: I feel your pain on the neighbor. We are currently living in the family student housing at the university here, so it's very close to the dorms and also to the "student party street," which means we are regularly woken up for stretches between 3 and 6 AM by drunk people yelling and singing. Luckily, we're supposed to move by the end of September so hopefully that situation will improve.

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review? I want to finish one more book this month. I only have about 80 pages left, and that's an easy finish if I just sit down and read. So, that's my objective for today. The rest of the weekend, I have no plan, just looking forward to spending some time with a book.

2. Any other plans for the weekend? This weekend is totally open. Oh wait, we're going to do some shopping today. Maybe I'll try to video chat with my kids (son is in his first week of college in Colorado, daughter is flying back to Long Island today for her second year). Last night, we went out to a couple of bars. The first one, the Trollekelder (Troll Cellar) has a bunch of statues of trolls scattered throughout it. The second, Molotov's, has ... reconstituted, I guess you'd say, dolls hanging from the ceiling. The one above us last night was made of a head and 5 or 6 arms; I'm kind of surprised it didn't inspire nightmares!

As for food, we had the time-honored late-night snack of friet met stoofvlees, which is fries topped with beef stew and mayo. Picture (not mine) of that here for the curious.

I'll come back for the last 2 questions later!

I read several more chapters of The Big Over Easy when I was up a couple of times during the night. I've got about 75 pages left. I'll see if I can finish before I have to go to work.

Well the Readathon started after I turned my computer off last night. I did a little bit of reading in bed last night and some more this morning and managed to finish the last two books for August's TIOLI

Time Period: (last night and this morning)

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: India: A History and The Land of Spices
# of books completed in this period: 2
# of pages: 147

Totals:
# of books completed so far 2
# of books read from total 2
# of pages total 147

What are you eating/drinking right now? Just some black coffee though I do need to think about eating soon

Favorite book so far? The Land of Spices

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

"— she developed a need, a love of reading, which made her unsociable and absent-minded towards other children as it grew. She was, for many of her early years, the kind of reader who will gratefully read anything rather than not read."

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

Last night there was loud music somewhere near by. Fortunately all is peaceful now except for a cat purring loudly and digging her claws into my leg. We'll have to see if she lets me read today.

I know a lot of people kinda enjoy pondering memes periodically during this readathons, so for them...

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review?

Well I have already met my first goal - to finish the August TIOLI books I had started. Not entirely sure what I will be reading next so will have a look at September's TIOLI, see if I can match any reads and see what takes my fancy. Maybe I will juggle two or three books so that I don't finish another one in August:)

2. Any other plans for the weekend?

None at all, though I do have an appointment on Monday.

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours?

I like the autumn months, not too hot with some lovely days here in Wales, the changing leaves and the start of cosy evenings near the fire. Autumn fruit and vegetables.

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us? This tends to be a bit of a cross-section of people who may not follow each other's reading routinely, so it might be fun to use the opportunity to toss out an idea to others.

People's tastes differ so much that I find it really hard to recommend books to other. I really liked The Land of Spices, the story of a young girl's life at a Convent Boarding School in Ireland at the start of the Twentieth Century.

I managed to squeeze in a tiny reading session this morning during breakfast.

Time Period: 10-10:30
# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: The Passion of New Eve
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 26

Totals:
# of books completed so far 0
# of books read from total 1
# of pages total 26

What are you eating/drinking right now? Nothing, but we just had a lovely lunch and coffee.

Favorite book so far? n/a

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? Oh, I don't know. The book is a strange one. I will have thoughts when I'm done, but not quite yet. The quotes I've pulled out so far all sound like they come from a thesis on feminist theory.

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? My husband interrupted me a couple of times, but overall it wasn't too bad. I used to joke that me picking up a book seemed to trigger some desire in him to immediately talk to me. After breakfast, we went out clothes shopping and also brought home some artisan chocolates (a hazard of leaving the house in Belgium).

Time period: 5-6pm, then 9-11pm (GMT +10)

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles:Fable (Book 3 of An Unfortunate Fairy tale)
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 90

Totals:
# of books completed so far 1
# of books read from total 1
# of pages total 90

What are you eating/drinking right now? Nothing right now

Favorite book so far? Fable

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? We spent the day at a theme park with the kids today and tomorrow is Fathers day here in Aus but we don't really have any plans to do much more than chill out tomorrow.

#47 - Deborah - Looking forward to hearing your comments on The Lowland. I pre-ordered it. I love Lahiri.

#48 - Sandra - I liked all of the Three Pines books, but I definitely think they've gotten better. In this one, Gamache is back in Three Pines, and Ruth is in fine form. There's another character from the Surete that plays a big role in this book, and keeps Gamache in check somewhat. And Gamache is more focused on the corruption in the Surete - a plot that connects the books. I also went back and looked at my review of #5 A Brutal Telling, and it was my favorite book of the series up to that point.

Haven't picked up my book yet this morning, but I did find an interesting article on Flavorwire: 50 of the Best Books You Haven't Read by Authors You Already Love.

I finished The Big Over Easy and I'm off to work. I'm not sure if I'll do much reading after work. The Vols kick off their football season this evening, but the game is pay-per-view and they're only playing Austin Peay. Not a game to get excited about. If I decide not to listen to the game I'll probably read. Otherwise, I won't get any more reading done until tomorrow.

Started Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts last night.

Listening to, and will finish today: The Difference Engine by William Gibson

Mr Majkia is cooking breakfast : bacon, egg, and bagel. And I'm having Vanilla flavored tea.

>50 Chatterbox:--Chatterbox, although I'm enjoying Anne of Green Gables, the best part so far was a forward by Margaret Atwood comparing Marilla and Anne. I hadn't remembered it, but Marilla was also an orphan, raised by her grandparents. Atwood says that Marilla is the person we fear we will become under difficult circumstances and Anne is the person we want to become. She also pointed out that Marilla is the only one in the novel who shows growth.

Hope your neighbor let you get some sleep last night!

sanddragon - ooh those rolls sound lovely. I took a quickie hour long class by a local restaurant chef several years ago and thought how much fun they'd be to make at a party. You are inspiring me!

Ursula--ain't video chat grand! DD is looking at a grad school program in Denver, although at this point I think she's leaning more toward Seattle. DS has one more year undergrad.

Never heard of the unique combination of friet met stoofvlees. I think I'd need a few beers before trying it.

Took the elderly dog for a lovely walk--she dances like a puppy in these cool mornings.

Breakfast while typing--coffee, toast (and can I admit it here?) - peanut butter.

Reading accomplished Friday night; I'm trying to finish both of these today for TIOLI:

40 minutes audiobook Anne of Green Gables
30 pages Gorky Park -- about half way there.

Off for a bit of Saturday reading.

Aaagh! Sat down to read, in the media room (TV, books, various electronic devices, and an open door to the balcony with bird feeders), with a cup of coffee, and my NOOK DOESN'T WORK! And that's where The Dervish House lives. It was fine last night (read from about 11:30-midnight). It's on, but it's ignoring the unlock slider. Fortunately I have another, but it needs to be charged. This frustration has occupied my brief window of opportunity for reading this morning.

As I expected, I didn't get any reading done yesterday because I didn't come home until 11pm and crashed after a shower.

I did wake early this morning and got started on my readathon. :-)

7am - 10.30am

# of books read from in this period: 1
Title: The Bridegroom by Ha Jin
# of pages: 148

I need to take a break to do a bit of house cleaning and grocery shopping

Not sure how (or if I can) edit the list up in the original post . . . but if someone could add

LucindaLibri reading in Minneapolis, MN

that would be appropriate . . .

Baked a batch of Breakfast Fruit & Seed Bars and am waiting for them to cool . . .

Reading some poetry by Seamus Heaney . . . may he RIP.

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Ten Little Indians and Wool
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 110

Totals:
# of books completed so far 2 - India: A History and The Land of Spices
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total 257

What are you eating/drinking right now? Black coffee, had a Quorn sausage sandwich, a macaroon and some biscuits earlier

Favourite book so far? The Land of Spices

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

"Corliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a book rightfully be called a book if it never gets read? If a tree falls in a forest and gets pulped to make paper for a book that never gets read, but there's nobody there to read it, does it make a sound?"
from The Search Engine in Ten Little Indians

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

LT threads, cats, computer games

Time Period: about 11:30-12:00 last night

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: The Lowland
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 28

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total 28

So far, The Lowland is a bit slow, but I really enjoyed all of Lahiri's earlier work, so I trust that this one will pick up.

Major distractions today are that I REALLY want to get those boxes of books back on the shelves, and I need to tidy up the kitchen for the delivery of a new stove tomorrow morning. Plus some of my reading over the weekend will have to be exercises by my freshman writing students.

Menu: skipped breakfast, but I'm about to make a BLT for brunch.

Ooof, I'm back.

Neighbor wasn't too noisy coming back (although I did hear her...) but I really can't remember the last time I slept through the night for a reasonable period without waking. It's starting to become annoying.

The EXCELLENT noise today is that for the first time in a couple of months, there is no kickball tournament in the park! I live one housing lot from a corner -- the house stands on a double lot, and occupies the half of it that isn't the corner, with the other half occupied by parking, a lawn and a giant oak tree that is currently raining down outsize acorns all over the place, so loudly that when they land on my A/C, they sound as if someone has just flung a stone at it.) Cater corner from the oak tree is the top corner of a large park, which means it's lovely and green here. The only park-related downside is that on Saturdays, all summers, the part closest to my house has been the domain of a big kickball league, from about 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Big speakers, music, endless commentary, nonstop. It has meant that I prefer to be out on Saturday afternoons, at least partly, whenever possible. Today has been unusually tranquil, and I realized it's because there is NO kickball! So I can listen to my own music -- I'll create a playlist for the day -- without having even the smallest nerve jangled by the other sounds.

Land of Spices is a book that I want to read, and had set aside while unpacking after my move -- thanks for the reminder!

Here is where I am now:

Time Period: midnight until noon

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Hild by Nicola Griffith and Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 7 in the former; 142 in the latter: 149

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 3
# of pages total: 348

Menu -- I'm going to have some shredded wheat with blueberries on top for "brunch".

I'm currently reading A Half-Forgotten Song and it is wonderful. It's similar in feel to The Thirteenth Tale, gothic atmosphere, suspense, you know something terrible has happened and you're waiting to find out what it was.

I'm jealous of all the food posts. On Wednesday I'm leaving town for two weeks, so I'm eating all sorts of weird combinations of things to get them eaten up before I leave. I do have ingredients for a mushroom and green onion omelet, but I'm saving that for tomorrow morning's breakfast.

And another update, since I had to get up from the sofa to answer the door to the letter carrier -- another Amazon Vine book just arrived!

Time Period: noon to 2:30 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Hild by Nicola Griffith
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 83

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 3
# of pages total: 431

Not much else happening around here; quiet and sleepy day. Overcast and that odd kind of coolish humidity.

Count me in! Will be finishing up a cozy Bagpipes, Brides and Homicides and starting a mystery Bombshell by Catherine Coulter. We'll see how much I actually get read! Have a safe weekend, God Bless!

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Ten Little Indians and Wool
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 107

Totals:
# of books completed so far 2 - India: A History and The Land of Spices
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total 364

What are you eating/drinking right now? I had a Pizza and tomato salad. Drinking cider

Favourite book so far? The Land of Spices though Wool is turning out to be really good so that my change

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

Haven't spotted any quotes this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

LT threads, cats, computer games, TV

Pleased you are having a quiet day Suzanne. Hope you like Land of Spices when you get around to reading it.

I really enjoyed The Land of Spices.

Time Period: 5:00-8:30 pm
# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: The Passion of New Eve, 11/22/63
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 49

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 75

What are you eating/drinking right now? We had dinner earlier, which was gnocchi in a cheese sauce. Just had one of the artisan chocolates I mentioned we bought earlier today - this one was dark chocolate with a chai spice filling. Absolutely delicious.

Favorite book so far? 11/22/63. I'm only 25 pages into it, but after the difficult reading experience of Angela Carter, reading King is like changing into an old comfy sweatshirt.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? "I stroked a big red A on top of his paper. Looked at it for a moment or two, then added a big red +. Because it was good, and because his pain had evoked an emotional reaction in me, his reader. And isn't that was A+ writing is supposed to do? Evoke a response?"

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? I'm distracted by also following what's going on at the US Open at the moment. I'm a big tennis fan, and it's a bummer not to have tv and also not being able to stream any of the matches. I can listen to the US open site's radio, but they're not always following the match I want to know about, so I keep the live scores open in another window. But paying attention that isn't too compatible with reading, so I've been alternating between the two.

Done with the grocery shopping and lunch with a friend, but I'm distracted by the tennis on tv. Good thing I was reading a book of short stories.

2 - 3.45pm
# of books read from in this period: 1
Title: The Bridegroom by Ha Jin
Total # of pages: 225

# of books completed : 1

I've started Rescue at 2100 Hours but that's going to be a slow read, so I might leave it aside during this readathon and pick something else for my 2nd readathon book.

Oof, fell asleep on the sofa!! Still, I finished the shorter book that I was reading, and it will only take me another two or three hours to finish Hild. So I can pick a final book to read tonight for the month, but am undecided about whether to seek out my copy of Land of Spices or pick one of the Man Booker nominees I had already listed for the TIOLI wiki. Decisions, decisions.

Time Period: 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 110

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 2 (Dogs at the Perimeter and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod
# of books read from total: 3
# of pages total: 541

Off to have lunch. I think a grilled cheese sandwich with some of the heirloom tomatoes left over from dinner last night. Then back to read about Hild and her adventures in 7th century England.

I have been reading off and on today in between doing shopping and laundry and some online work. I am slowly getting into Covet. Hopefully it will start to pick up soon.

Sandra I never heard of Life as We knew it until I received a copy from a friend after her mother passed. I read it for a challenge I was doing and got hooked. I hope you are able to find the time to read it.

Well I am going to get off to do some reading.

Happy Reading all!!

I haven't done any more reading since I was last here but thought I would check in to see what everyone else has done. Will be off to bed soon and back to the books before I go to sleep.

Suzanne - if you do decide on Land of Spices - it is listed on the August TIOLI challenge 18 Read a book that has been published as a Virago Modern Classic, by an author new to you.

calm, I have decided to pick Land of Spices as my last-minute August book. I'll need a change from all the intensity of my recent reads -- apocalyptic/dystopian fiction, war, the dark ages in England, genocide in Cambodia... *eyes roll*

I have another 200 or so pages of Hild to read, and the Kate O'Brien novel is only about 300 pages, about 3 1/2 hours.

Time Period: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Hild
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 87

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 2 (Dogs at the Perimeter and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod
# of books read from total: 3
# of pages total: 628

Spent an hour making some lunch, eating it, doing dishes and a bit of cleaning. Back to the books, now!

Time Period: Saturday, 8 am - 6 pm (read about 3 hours by stealing 30 minutes here and there)
# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: How the Light Gets In
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 150

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total: 250

What are you eating/drinking right now? Just finished dinner - raspberry chicken and chips/guacamole. Also bought some S'mores flavored candy corn while we were running errands. (The kids picked it out. I'd have preferred Ursula's artisan chocolates.)

Favorite book so far? Still How the Light Gets In.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? I haven't stopped to note any quotes. The plot just keeps me turning pages.

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? I'm distracted by the Iowa Hawkeyes game. It's been on all afternoon, but I really started paying attention when Northern Illinois tied it late in the 4th quarter and then scored a field goal to win it. My two sons are going to run a 5K tonight at 9 pm (a glow run), so I'll be distracted by that soon.

I feel like I've been reading all day, but after reading some poetry this morning it's really just been snippets of many books while I was cataloging . . . I'm always tempted to stop and read, which probably explains why my cataloging takes so long!!

I've discovered I have many more books about Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Hepburn, and Patti Smith than I remembered :)

But now I'm going to take a break from cataloging and actually read the next section of Snow-storm in August.

I think this will probably be my last update of the evening. Every time I interrupt my reading to post things here I end up getting distracted by other Internet stuff! Monday is my designated day for work on this long weekend, so I don't like having my attention grabbed by work issues today. piffle.

OK, here's the update: I have made a start on The Land of Spices and so far am enjoying it, although not enraptured. Interested & intrigued, perhaps?

Time Period: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Hild by Nicola Griffith and The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 62 in the former; 91 in the latter: 153 total

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 2 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod
# of books read from total: 4
# of pages total: 781

Dinner plans: eventually, but not for a while, I have a prepared dish from WholeFoods of BBQ ribs, and some potatoes that will turn into mashed potatoes, with either corn or peas.

Enjoy the rest of your evenings reading!!

Oh, I've been listening a bit, off and on, to the audiobook of The Iron King by Maurice Druon, mostly at night when I can't sleep. Probably about 90 minutes of that, but I'm not factoring it into my totals. I read these in my teens, and am enjoying rediscovering the series, but the narrator is a bit hyperbolic. The Lombard bankers are caricatures, with their accents, and calling Paris, Pareee in an English translation is just silly. Is someone reading an audiobook of Tolstoy supposed to refer to Moscow as Moskva? Or, in a French book where London is written Londres, should a reader automatically replace it with the original? That's just affectation, IMO.

Which begs a question that I'll leave you to ponder and comment on:

What annoys you most in a book? (Beyond just having a bad book, or one that you're not enjoying?) Is it something about style? Characters? The use of jargon?

52: Ursula, maki parties are a lot of fun. And it's wonderful to see the kids get into it. Actually, our kids are so fond of makis, that when they were about 4 and 7 years old they weren't willing to try tacos until we said they were mexi-makis. I've never heard of them, but riet met stoofvlees sounds yummy. Now I've got a craving for the closest thing we have, poutines (fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.) Oh, and I like your Belgium-style hazards. Our most likely hazard is being used as target practice by the seagulls.

57: Amy, I'm willing to giving the next Three Pines mystery a chance, especially if I can hear more about Ruth *hopes Ruth still has her duck*. I've been borrowing these audiobooks (and any other cozy mysteries I can find) from the library for my MIL who went blind a couple of years ago. She used to be a big reader and is very grateful for audiobooks. I rip them to iTunes so she can listen to them with her phone, and I usually listen to them as well before deleting them.

60: Streamsong, our makis are not pretty to look at (pretty lumpy actually), but yes, maki nights are a lot of fun! Anne of Green Gables is another book I've been meaning to reread. I never liked the sequels as much, but I loved this first one.

66: Chatterbox, sorry to hear you've got such a noisy neighbor/hood, but glad you were able to enjoy a quiet afternoon today. Our street tends to be pretty quiet, but a house across the way has been rented by university students so I'm expecting there to be a loud end-of-summer party this weekend. There was one last year and around midnight I put in the earphones and listened to an audiobook so the noise wouldn't get to me. And there have been a couple of other noisy parties over the school year. But this year I don't mean to be so easygoing. If they're noisy for too long after 10pm I'm calling the municipality to complain.

Distractions: I got stung on the toe by a wasp while cleaning up the yard this morning. You'd think I know by now not to wear sandals while gardening (it's not the first, or second, time I've been stung while gardening). It hurts like ****. I planted myself on the couch and listened to about an hour of Nature Girl, by Carl Hiaasen, to try to distract myself from the pain, but I ended up taking some ibuprofein. And I've still been reading The Eye of the World on and off. Neither stories take too much brain power. In between bouts of reading I've been playing games on the phone and checking LT.

I have been reading off and on tonight. I have made some progress on Covet. I am 30% done the book now. I am heading up to bed and may try to read before falling asleep.

Read from 7-9pm CDT with a short break for leftover Thai food described above.

Finished a section called "The Perilous Fight" in Snow-Storm in August. Also started Preludes and Nocturnes (Sandman, Vol I) by Neil Gaiman. I've been meaning to read this series every since reading The Graveyard Book and finally got this first volume from the library. Already have a few comments/questions for the Group devoted to this series.

Major distraction when I started reading . . . sitting on my screen-in porch with the windows open enjoying the breeze. Until a couple decided to plant themselves on the corner in front of my house; the gal was yelling, very loudly, at the guy about her unintended pregnancy. I felt sorry for them, but really didn't want to hear about it. After it went on for 10 minutes I put the baseball game on the radio and turned it up LOUD to cover their conversation.

>80 Chatterbox: One thing that annoys me about a book is when an author is trying to be clever and it's obvious they are proud of how clever they are . . . I love writing in which the CHARACTERS sound clever, but sometimes it reads more like the author saying "look how clever I am" . . . which distracts from the characters and the story and pulls me out of the book.
(NOTE: this does not apply to either of the books I am reading right now, but does apply to a book I read earlier this summer.)

I'm going to read a bit more of Sandman before the sandman takes me off to sleep :)

See you all tomorrow!

p.s. >82 sandragon: OUCH!! my foot/toe/leg would be all swollen and I'd be pumping myself full of Benadryl. Hope you feel better soon!

Had a longer than expected dinner with friends. Not that I regretted it, far from it. It was a lot of fun and the food was incredible.

6 - 7.30pm
# of books read from in this period: 1
Title: Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser
Total # of pages: 75

# of books completed : 1
Books read : The Bridegroom - Ha Jin

Time: 1:45pm-2:00pm
Book: The Dervish House - a section of chapter 5.
Distractions: A brief break from gardening, and I wanted to get back outside. The new Nook still wouldn’t swipe on, so I switched to the old Nook and remembered why I replaced it: heavy and not e-ink.

After another stint in the garden, a trip to Barnes & Noble with the defective Nook, since I had to run errands in the vicinity anyway. As I was walking into the store, I tried another swipe and... it came on. Well that was poor timing. Talked to the clerk anyway, and he checked a few things, but if there’s no trouble then he can’t really troubleshoot. He did say someone else had reported a similar problem today, and the previous version had a reputation for freezing up.

Time: 8:00pm-10:30pm
Book: The Dervish House - the rest of chapter 5, all of chapter 6; now on page 273 of 424.
Distractions: Switching between devices, pros and cons of all. The new Nook was OK initially, but after awhile its problems reemerged: tapping to turn the page didn’t work, and highlighting either selected the wrong text or didn’t stick. The old Nook, well, nice to have it as backup, but it’s clunkier than the new tablet. So I set up the tablet with a Nook app, which is faster than either Nook, but the screen is shiny and I prefer reading on the new Nook. Decided to stay with the old Nook and not bother with highlighting. Then I went away for several minutes, and when I returned, it wouldn’t swipe on. Aaagh.

The book cycles through each of its main characters in each chapter. I’m interested in some of the characters, and not others, but they are intertwined in ways that are gradually revealed, so I have to pay attention when I’d rather skim. I’m not annoyed with the author though; I’ve noticed that I’ll be confused as I’m reading, not entirely sure what happened, and then in the next chapter the event will be summarized.

Time: 11:30pm-11:55pm
Magazine: Atlantic - May 2013

I actually began this in May, and set it aside. I want to be current by the end of the year.

So, I've spent much of today reading The Death-Cap Dancers, which is a classic English mystery. I'll probably finish it tonight or in the morning. Very enjoyable thus far.

Last night before bed I read for a little while longer, again alternating with listening to US Open Coverage. (I'm happy that Tipsarevic is through, but sad that it means he'll be playing Ferrer, which in turn means I will have to hope Tipsy loses.)

Time Period: 9:30-11:30 pm
# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: 11/22/63
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 53

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 100

It's funny, doing this has made me realize that I rarely read in large blocks of time - I'm much more likely to read somewhere between 30 and 50 pages at a time in intervals throughout the day.

Swooping back to answer questions and respond to people:

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours? I'm also a fan of the fall - I think October is my favorite. Although I'm a fan of hot weather, I enjoy the turn in atmosphere in October, when the air gets a distinct bite to it, the light is slanting and tinged with warm color, and leaves are crunchy underfoot.

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us? This tends to be a bit of a cross-section of people who may not follow each other's reading routinely, so it might be fun to use the opportunity to toss out an idea to others. I quite enjoyed The Absolutist, which is a novel about a British soldier in World War I.

Chatterbox: Ha, I just noticed that you listed my location as "Gent/Ghent/Gand" ... I love it!

streamsong: video chat is the best, especially since my son finds even sending a Facebook message not immediate enough. The late-night snack I'd need a few beers to tackle (actually, that's probably still not enough) is the Bicky burger. A deep-fried burger patty made of beef, pork and horse? Uh yeah, I'm not rushing out to try that.

sandragon: I've heard of poutine, and it always sounded kind of weird. But after seeing and tasting how fries are done here, I am firmly in the "don't-knock-it-till-you-try-it" camp. Sorry about your sting. You know, I've somehow made it to 41 without ever being stung by anything ... which means I'm kind of terrified of the idea.

Okay, time to think about breakfast since it's 8:30 AM here.

Too many years of looking at those signposts, Ursula! The ones for Mons always bothered me -- the Flemish version seemed to bear no relation whatsoever to the French name...

Yeah, I was thrown looking at a train schedule and trying to figure out which ones stopped in Liege ... not knowing that the Flemish name was Luik. Makes it difficult since none of the info here is ever in French.

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Wool
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 151

Totals:
# of books completed so far 2 - India: A History and The Land of Spices
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total 515

What are you eating/drinking right now? So far today black coffee, a cheese and onion Quesadilla.

Favourite book so far? The Land of Spices though Wool is turning out to be really good so that my change

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

Haven't spotted any quotes this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

Well sleep last night; cats; a Skype chat with my mother; catching up on LT threads; computer games.

What annoys you most in a book? (Beyond just having a bad book, or one that you're not enjoying?) Is it something about style? Characters? The use of jargon?

I think what annoys me most is style, sometimes the way an author writes just rubs me up the wrong way. The usual typos, continuity errors, having characters who act anachronistically in HF or just things that are plain wrong for the period. On the other hand if I am caught up in a good well written story I can forgive a few errors.

Finished The Difference Engine last night, just in time to count it for August.

Later read Stormed Fortress. I really love Janny's series and her twisty, smart and sneaky main character. He's also surprisingly vulnerable which I love most about him.

I'm planning to listen to The Inimitable Jeeves today also.

#93 : I love PG Wodehouse and his Jeeves series. Enjoy!

I woke and put in some piano practice for about an hour this morning before my husband woke up and I had to go make breakfast. It's been a while since I put any decent time in on the ivories, so of course I was quite horrible and had to do scales for about 10 mins before my fingers loosened up. But I felt wonderful at the end of the hour.

8.30 - 10am
# of books read from in this period: 1
Title: Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser
Total # of pages: 136

# of books completed : 1
Books read : The Bridegroom - Ha Jin

I made blueberry pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast and will watch tennis for a bit before going out for a run in the woods.

Time Period: Saturday night - Sunday morning (read about 1 hour last night and 1 hour this morning)
# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: How the Light Gets In, Leadership and Self-Deception
# of books completed in this period: 2
# of pages: 100

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 350

What are you eating/drinking right now? Coffee!!! We were up late last night, so I'm drinking lots of coffee.

Favorite book so far? How the Light Gets In - I finished it last night. An excellent addition to the Three Pines series

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? I'm ready Leadership and Self-Deception for work. I'm leading a book club for a women's leadership event, and this is one of the books the organizers picked. I'm not a huge fan of "business fables," but the main idea of this book is that what you do (your behavior) doesn't matter as much as how you do it. People know whether you see them as people or as objects, and if you treat them as people, your behavior is going to be more well received. (Sounds simple, but it is often forgotten in the business world.)

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? Not too many distractions from my kids this morning. They ran their first 5K last night, and they are pretty tired this morning! I'm hoping to get some house cleaning done today, and we are packing up for a canoe trip tomorrow.

It's quite a challenge reading and watching the US Open at the same time, but this spiraled to such a surprising end that I ignored the tennis for the last couple of chapters and finished the book.

11.20 - 12noon
# of books read from in this period: 1
Title: Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser
Total # of pages: 185

# of books completed : 2
Books read : The Bridegroom - Ha Jin
Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser

Calm, finished Land of Spices last night, and it is very good. Not blow-my-socks-off fabulous, but intriguing & deft; a lovely chronicle of a particular period in time. I do think Hild, in spite of its flaws, was the better reading experience. I'll update my book reading on my thread later today.

Bad night of attempted sleep, for all kinds of reasons.

After some dithering and a morning spent picking up and sampling books, I've decided to start with Julia Spencer-Fleming's new mystery (an ARC) when I get back from grocery shopping with a friend.

Here's where I stand now:

Time Period: 8:30 p.m. to midnightish

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Hild by Nicola Griffith and The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien
# of books completed in this period: 2
# of pages: 112 in the former; 193 in the latter: 305l

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 4 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, as well as the above)
# of books read from total: 4
# of pages total: 1,096

This morning's reading I won't bother to total, as it was 10 to 15 pages in a bunch of different books, without my ever really committing to read one through to the finish line.

Still wondering why I'm not listed above . . . perhaps someone can PM me and explain what I did to offend.

Spent another hour this morning reading The Book; On the Taboo Against Knowing Who you Are by Alan Watts. The first chapter was interesting, but the one I read this morning was mind-numbing . . . and rather dated . . . . My morning reading tends to be spiritual. I read with my cat in our special spot:

I like your reading nook- it looks comfy.

I am up and working on finishing The Death-Cap Dancers this morning. it's a lovely sunny day. I'm drinking coffee and eating a bagel with peanut butter.

This is my first check-in, though I have been reading. Yesterday I was at the pool and concentrating on finishing my book rather than posting. (Success)

Time Period: (Saturday)

# of books read from in this period: 3
titles: Voices - Arnaldur Indridason, The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (audio), By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder (read-aloud)
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 360 plus about an hour of audio

Totals:
# of books completed so far 1
# of books read from total 3
# of pages total :360 +

What are you eating/drinking right now? cafe latte

Favorite book so far? I can't really say. I'm most absorbed in The Mists of Avalon, and both Voices and By the Shores of Silver Lake are entries in a series--Voices is third in a new-to-me series, and not my favorite so far, and By the Shores of Silver Lake may be my least favorite book in a favorite childhood series.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading? Nothing that's stuck with me.

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans? We went to the pool yesterday and I thought I'd have hours to read undisturbed, but we kept seeing people we knew and had to talk to. I also got more reading done once my iPad battery ran out. Today I expect to be distracted by planning out my September TIOLI reads, which I've managed to overlook until now (an unprecedented delay).

1. What are your objectives? Just to block out some dedicated time for reading; read something lighthearted and fun; get caught upon books that have to be read for work or for an ER review?

I had goals to finish up some August TIOLI reads, and I managed to complete one of three possible books. My major goal is just to clock some unbroken reading time and get back in the habit. I was pleased to actually finish a book yesterday!

2. Any other plans for the weekend?

Grocery shopping--the start of school snuck up on me and I've had to pack lunches for three days with literally nothing in the house.

3. September happens to be my favorite month -- something to do with the cooler weather that gives me a jolt of new energy and that feeling of a new school year that decades after I last left school still makes me think of the fall as the beginning of the year. What's yours?

I love autumn the best, and can't really say which month is my favorite. October, possibly, because it is the most consistently representative of fall. Growing up in New England I love the fall colors and apple cider, and here in DC the fall weather is genuinely lovely--not too hot, but alternating between warm and crisp.

4. Any books that you are reading or have read that you want to recommend to the rest of us? This tends to be a bit of a cross-section of people who may not follow each other's reading routinely, so it might be fun to use the opportunity to toss out an idea to others.

Not at the moment, but I'll think some more about this.

Lucinda -- you didn't offend anyone, really. Just please realize that sometimes the person hosting a readathon (in this case, me) isn't infallible (and may indeed have a lot of stuff happening IRL) and that may mean that sometimes we miss a post or two, in this case, yours at #34. You can always simply say -- hey, my name's not on the list or send the host a PM, too. Sorry if my oversight caused offense. I didn't see your original post, and while I saw a later one, I had thought it simply might be someone dropping by to say hello. Again, apologies.

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled reading...

Anne, congrats on getting back on the reading loop and finishing a book -- and welcome back to LT-land after the sad hiatus.

Suzanne - I always knew you were a speedy reader:) Land of Spices isn't the type of book to "knock you socks off" but there was a wonderful feeling of time and place and character. Pleased you liked it.

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Wool
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 97

Totals:
# of books completed so far 2 - India: A History and The Land of Spices
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total 612

What are you eating/drinking right now? I had a nut cutlet, roast potato, yorkshire pudding, green beans, carrots and gravy. Drinking cider.

Favourite book so far? The Land of Spices though Wool is turning out to be really good so that my change

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

Haven't spotted any quotes this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

Cooking dinner,washing up, LT threads, computer games, a bit of TV.

Oooh, cider! I just came back from Trader Joe's with some good "ready meals". Most of those in the US tend to be the same kind of stuff -- pizzas, some OK Chinese and Indian and meatloaf/mac and cheese -- relatively little variety. But I picked up some beef stroganoff and coq au vin at Trader Joe's, along with a bunch of other stuff and some produce. Affordable, relatively speaking, especially given the quality. So that was my big distraction! Now it's time to immerse myself in the world of Julia Spencer-Fleming and her characters.

This morning I went to church, then to a 50th anniversary reception for some long-time friends. There's nothing else I have to do the rest of the day so I'm hoping to get quite a bit of reading done. I read about the first 50 pages of The Tale of Hill Top Farm last night and I'll see if I can finish it today. I also read the prologue of The Book of Secrets by M. G. Vassanji while I was up last night. I haven't been able to sleep through the night since I had my tonsils out last week and I've been getting a lot of reading done while I wait for the pain meds to kick in so I can go back to sleep!

Time period 6:00 to 9:00 GMT

Still reading From the holy mountain, lots of interruptions - phone calls, in particular. I doubt I'll get it finished, but I am enjoying it. We've just reached Syria, which is very interesting indeed.

I've just had chicken fajitas, it was too cold for the salad I had had planned.

Finally got back into doing some serious reading. Well, serious at least in that it was uninterrupted, although not in the nature of it -- I seem to be focusing on mysteries right now, with one underway and one that I'm about to start.

Time Period: 2:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. Eastern

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: The Buy Side by Turney Duff and Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 24 in the former, 137 in the latter: total 161

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 4 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, as well as the above)
# of books read from total: 6
# of pages total: 1,357

Is it too late to join? I'm reading from Chicagoland.

Fri and Sat of Labor Day weekend were focused on nonreading activities.

This afternoon, I'm reading Ebbets Field by John G. Zinn, as well as Cat House: Adventures of a Real Estate Madam by M.K. Sandoval.

I've got about two-thirds of the baseball book yet to read and about half of the Sandoval mystery and would love to finish them both before I go back to work on Tuesday.

Welcome aboard, Linda!

So I finished The Magician and The Josha Stone. Still working on the 4th volume of Caro's biography of LBJ. Even though the parents came to visit from Louisiana, I'm still getting a decent amount of reading done!

I'm impressed that you're buckling down to something as weighty as the Caro LBJ bio with guests in the house, Jim!

I got delayed a bit thanks to a lovely e-mail from my niece, who turns 12 in two weeks' time, thanking me for her new Kindle. Both she and Connor, who will be 11 on the 10th, got entry-level Kindles from me, and Connor, I gather, refuses to be separated from his.

Anyway, the update:

Time Period: 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Eastern

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 106

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 4 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, as well as the above)
# of books read from total: 6
# of pages total: 1,463

When I finish this mystery, I'm going to pick up The Moor by Laurie King. I need something that is more escapist...

I finished The Death-Cap Dancers (great mystery, rather abrupt conclusion), and am now back into A Half-Forgotten Song, which is engrossing. It's a lovely afternoon here, and I'm enjoying reading. The only other thing I've done of value today is put my new vacuum cleaner together and play with it (i.e. do the vacuuming).

>46 qebo: Hey there qebo! How exciting to meet a fellow local LibraryThinger! Small world, huh? I actually live out in the 'burbs but getting downtown (or elsewhere) is no problem if you ever want to meet for coffee and book talk. :)

Time Period: Since I'm only just now getting around to posting this is from Friday morning to today.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 179 (59% finished according to my Kindle)

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total: 179

Unfortunately my best-laid plans flew out the window, although it's my own fault really. My best reading day so far was Friday with nearly 3 hours, then Saturday was literally only 5 minutes, and I got about half an hour's worth so far today. I'm really enjoying the book I'm reading, I just wish I had more time to devote to it! Hopefully tonight and tomorrow I can settle in a bit more and maybe even finish it.

Tomorrow, alas, I'm going to have to do some work as well as some reading....

But I did finish my first book for September!

Time Period: 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Eastern

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 112

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 5 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, as well as the above)
# of books read from total: 6
# of pages total: 1,575

Time: 1:30pm-7:00pm sporadically, 8:15pm-8:45pm
Book: The Dervish House - chapter 7 (pp 273-313)

A hot and humid day, spent much of it outside gardening, came inside for frequent but short breaks to cool off with a fan. Went for a walk from 7-8, then dinner with a longer stretch of reading. I’m in for the evening, should get more reading done later.

The book is now pulling together the various strands.

113: I'm in the city, can walk downtown. Also have a car. A small-world coffee would be fun.

Well I have been trying to read most of today. I am half way through Covet which makes me happy. I decided not to check in much today so that I could concentrate on reading.

Tomorrow I will be reading and doing some cleaning and preparing to go back to work.

I have also been reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Life as we knew it. I am heading to bed and will read a little bit.

Happy Reading all!

I finished The Tale of Hill Top Farm this evening, which was my final goal for the readathon. I have to work tomorrow so this is probably it for me.

Time: scattered moments and 10:15pm-10:45Ppm
Book: The Dervish House - halfway through chapter 8

About 80 pages to go, expect to finish tomorrow. Of course there's the ER review too, which I haven't begun.

#118 -- is The Dervish House the ER book in question??

It's extraordinarily humid hear -- not that hot, but the atmosphere is so thick it almost feels as if you could swim through it. I have a baby dehumidifier in the bedroom, but may need to move it into my office tomorrow to stop the sofa cushions from getting too damp. I have the A/C running simply to help dehumidify things a bit.

Funny -- a neighbor somewhere out there is playing a song I remember well from the 70s, and my high school days, "Magic Man" by Heart, and has just segued into Bruce Springsteen. Funny because the usual music around here is various kinds of Hispanic stuff (which I have to say all sounds alike to me, just as classical music probably all sounds the same to someone who doesn't find it interesting) and sometimes rap/hip hop from car stereos.

Most of my reading has been listening, to The Iron King by Maurice Druon. I'll probably finish that tomorrow, and move on to Moon Over Soho as my audiobook.

Time Period: 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: The Moor by Laurie R. King
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 92

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 5 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod, as well as the above)
# of books read from total: 7
# of pages total: 1,667

Distractions: an overly-long nap and some general house-cleaning; doing some online research for my next book project.

Now must have some dinner.

Time Period: yesterday (Sunday)
# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: 11/22/63
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 200

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 300

I kept meaning to come here and post yesterday but I didn't make it for some reason. Distractions yesterday included watching an episode of Breaking Bad (we have to buy them from Amazon, so we're just getting close to the middle of the current season - please don't spoil anything!) and working on a sock I'm knitting.

No reading yet today (it's currently 1:30 pm). The major distraction was going to a cemetery here to work on one of my other hobbies - photographing stones and entering info into Find-A-Grave. And then getting off-track along the wrong canal on the way home and biking a bit out of my way. Luckily Gent is a small city and I know plenty of landmarks to navigate by.

Now, maybe some more reading.

119: The ER book is Toms River, which was excellent, so deserves more time than I've been able to devote.

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Wool and Ten Little Indians
# of books completed in this period: 1 - Wool
# of pages: 200

Totals:
# of books completed so far 3 - India: A History, The Land of Spices and Wool
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total 812

What are you eating/drinking right now? just had a fried egg sandwich; followed by a chocolate muffin; drinking black coffee

Favourite book so far? They are very different but I liked both The Land of Spices (more for the quality of writing, glimpse of an unfamiliar place and time and the characters) and Wool (for the story, ideas and characters) and I really hope to find a copy of the sequel soon.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

Haven't spotted any quotes this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

I had to go out this morning for an appointment. Then I visited the library and second hand book shop (books make it worth going out!) also bought a few groceries.

Since I got back I've been catching up on LT threads, had something to eat and need to decide on which book to read next.

Last night (9 pm to 1 am, roughly), I read more of my baseball book and finished Cat House: Adventures of a Real Estate Madam by M.K. Sandoval. It was on my Kindle but I'd estimate it was about 175 pages.

Time Period: (2:00 pm Sunday to 1:00 am Monday)

# of books read from in this period: 3
titles: The Soldier's Art - Anthony Powell, The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (audio), By the Shores of Silver Lake - Laura Ingalls Wilder (read-aloud)
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 97 plus about an hour of audio

Totals:
# of books completed so far 1
# of books read from total 4
# of pages total : 457 +

What are you eating/drinking right now? blueberry pancakes and coffee

Favorite book so far? No real favorite

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

This observation, from The Soldier's Art struck me as both funny and apt:

No one but a tireless creator of work for its own sake would have found an assistant necessary in his job, nor, it could be added, in the ordinary course of things been allowed one, even if required. Widmerpool had brought that off.

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?
As predicted, I spent a good deal of time contemplating the September TIOLI challenges. Another afternoon at the pool with people plunking themselves down next to me to chat. I found myself feeling like the guy in The Accidental Tourist who carries his intimidating tome so the person on the airplane won't talk to him--except my intimidating tome (Movement 3 of A Dance to the Music of Time) seemed to have the opposite effect.

Suzanne, how nice that you've given Kindles to your niece and nephew. I gave my daughter one when she graduated from high school. She was a little resistant--she's very much a stickler for print books, but I preloaded it with her childhood favorites so she could bring them to college with her, and now she is hooked.

I started Death at the Alma Mater last night and ended up staying up until I finished it. Then the neighbor's dogs started a raucous and prolonged chorus this morning around 4am, which so completely woke me up I couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well ... stumbled downstairs and with a big mug of hot chocolate, I ended up finishing my 4th book for this readathon.

11 - 11.30am
Reading now: The Echo Maker - Richard Powers
# of pages : 8

# of books completed : 4
Books read : The Bridegroom - Ha Jin
Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser
Death at the Alma Mater - G.M. Malliet
Rescue at 2100 Hours - Tom Trumble

Now I'm off for a quick run, to work out the kinks from a shortage of sleep and from sitting for such a long time this morning.

Well, I knew that I'd have a lot of distractions, but I did think I'd get in a little more reading than I have. Most of today's reading will be student exercises, although I still need to finish The Spanish Tragedy.

Time Period: Yesterday to about 10:30 today

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: The Lowland
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 95

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 0
# of books read from total: 1
# of pages total 123

The Lowland is finally picking up a bit, but it hasn't captured my attention the way that Lahiri's previous works have.

The menu: Poached egg on toast and cantaloupe for breakfast; lunch will be Mediterranean Chicken Orzo Salad that I made last night so that the flavors could marinate.

Distractions: Grading papers, mowing the lawn, cat wrangling.

I haven't been here quite as much as planned, so haven't checked in since Saturday morning.

Time Period: Saturday am to 11:30 am Monday:

# of books read from in this period: 4
titles: Anne of Green Gables - audiobook - listened 2 hours - almost done
Gorky Park - about 140 pages (60 to go--would like to finish this one)
Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar - spent about 1.5 hours so far--80 pages done (currently p 160); I can only concentrate on this one when I'm fairly fresh--although, boy, am I learning a lot!
Daniel People's Bible Commentary - John C. Jeske - total: 45 minutes - 50 pages. Hard going! Dreams and prophecy.
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: about 270 plus 2+ hours of audio

Distractions: mopping floors, still cleaning up area outside for hay delivery.
Food: Soon to eat a deli turkey sandwich on rye with veggies.
For this evening, I'm trying a new-to-me recipe, Char Siu Pork. It's been marinating since this am in a very fragrant sauce and will go into the crockpot after lunch.

Sorry to have been AWOL -- bad host, I am! My sleeping schedule is off-kilter, the weather is weird (very humid but not hot all weekend, and lots of thunderstorms, including a big one rolling through right now) and lots of rain, so the dehumidifier is working overtime. The poor cats are as freaked out by thunder as fireworks, it seems, although Tigger is afraid of nothing. Although he shows zero interest in going outdoors in the downpour.

Deborah, my reaction to Lahiri's The Lowland was exactly like yours. I loved the prose/language, which was elegant & eloquent, but the story never engaged me. It feels odd when that happens.

I finished the audiobook that I had been listening to -- The Iron King by Maurice Druon -- after listening to it during my bouts of insomnia. It's a good story but I'm not sure the translation was great, and I wouldn't recommend the narrator, so the rest in the series I'll be reading, not listening to. In contrast, I loved the audiobook of Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (aka Midnight Riot) that I ended up downloading the audiobook of Moon Over Soho to start listening to it, too. The narrator has a great deadpan style and young but deep voice, which suits the character and the author's own narrative voice. Fave line so far comes early on, when Peter Grant arrives at his friend's rural home to visit -- "I paused and checked the garden; there were gnomes loitering near the ornamental birdbath." PaulCranswick and I have been joking about opening a pub named "The Debauched Sloth" after a line in one of the Patrick O'Brian novels; I think we may have to start a chain, with the second one being called "The Loitering Gnome".

It's too noisy to listen, now, so it's back to the books. (Rain on the A/C; the thunder; the A/C noise -- not just to cool but to dehumidify...)

Time Period: 1 a.m. to 2 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: The Moor by Laurie R. King and A Place of Confinement by Anna Dean
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 141 in the former, 20 in the latter: total 161

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 5 (Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Unexplodedby Alison MacLeod)
# of books read from total: 8
# of pages total: 1,828

Distractions: Meowing, fussy cats, insomnia and trying to get a decent night's sleep.

Food: Beef stroganoff ready meal last night (Trader Joe's; very good). No breakfast yet. Must do something about that.

Time: 11:15pm-11:30pm yesterday, 1:30pm-2:45pm today, off and on
Book: The Dervish House - finished chapter 8.

About 50 pages to go. Also began writing the review of Toms River.

Distractions: Stuff to do outside. But it's too hot now.

Went from warm and humid to cool, fall-like and breezy.

Back to reading now. A little while ago, I started James Patterson's The 12th of Never. These Women's Murder Club mysteries are extremely quick reads. Also continuing with the Ebbets Field book.

Oh, bring on the cool, fall-like and breezy! I don't care if it's still raining, I'm just beginning to feel as if I stood still for more than three minutes, I would start to sprout mold spores.

OK, back to finish The Moor. Not as good as some of King's earlier books in this series, but I have the next, O Jerusalem, out from the library and ready to read, so I'll continue at least that far.

Time: 1930 to 21:00 GMT

From the holy mountain

Still following in the footsteps of Byzantine monks. However, we've arrived in the Lebanon and that seems to have distracted the author into spending a great deal of time on recent history rather than ancient. Still very interesting and beautifully written.

For dinner I had a lovely watermelon salad, probably the last this year as its gotten a bit parky here. Definitely feeling more in the mood for stews and soup!

Distractions: none really. Just reading while listening to the Proms.

Suzanne - thanks for organising the readathon. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading all the posts. I particularly enjoyed the image of two of our co-readers eating an evil jungle prince and a ground bison! Magnifique!

I enjoyed Ursula's posts as I've spent some time in Brussels and your posts brought back many great memories. I also thought the roll-your-own sushi was a great idea. ( I can imagine the looks of disgust on my family's faces - rice! Vegetables! Green stuff!)

Time: 3pm-5pm with occasional brief breaks
Book: Toms River - paged through the post-its and typed notes

This is an ER book that I read in March, when I was sick. By the time I was not sick two months later, I had a backlog of all sorts of stuff, and I've been setting this book aside because it is so detailed. Even if I don't get the review written today, this step is an accomplishment and a relief.

I think it's now hotter in the office than in the yard, so I'm going outside.

Still another hour to go haven't done much reading since I was last here but it is nearly bedtime here so I'll be back in the morning (UK time) for the final tally.

Time Period: (since I was last here)

# of books read from in this period:
titles: Nine Princes in Amber
# of books completed in this period:
# of pages: 62

Totals:
# of books completed so far 3 - India: A History, The Land of Spices and Wool
# of books read from total 5
# of pages total 874

What are you eating/drinking right now? Dinner was vegetarian toad in the hole with onion gravy. Another chocolate muffin. Drink - a couple of glasses of white wine

Favourite book so far? They are very different but I liked both The Land of Spices (more for the quality of writing, glimpse of an unfamiliar place and time and the characters) and Wool (for the story, ideas and characters) and I really hope to find a copy of the sequel soon.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

"Besides, I like libraries. It makes me comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see there is something to hold back the shadows." (from Nine Princes in Amber)

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

One very clingy cat who didn't want me to read:)
LT threads, picking some September TIOLI reads and adding them to the Wiki (finding places for the library books mainly), computer games, TV, cooking, etc.

Good luck and good reading to everyone for this last stretch of the Readathon.

Anna, you are most welcome! Re the Dalrymple book, I found his ability to link present-day events and the past particularly interesting. It was especially significant because his goal was to follow in the footsteps of a Byzantine monk at a time when the whole area was predominantly Christian, of various kinds of beliefs now folded together under the Nicene Creed under the Byzantine Empire, and look for traces of those old pre-Islamic communities in the regions through which he is traveling, at a time when religion is the fault line dividing communities in all the countries he traveled through. He really made the trip at a sweet spot in relations amongst them -- one certainly couldn't do it today. This book was directly responsible for my decision to travel to Cappadocia in early 1999 (I read the book in the fall of 1998) -- I nearly froze to death staying in one of those phallic rock formations turned into a guesthouse, a short walk from the rock chapels Dalrymple describes -- and then to Syria and Jordan in 2001. I'm so glad I saw Syria when I did -- the landscape, the nearly empty ancient Roman towns, the Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers. Sigh.

Re vegetables: I was just thinking today that I was at university before I ate a zucchini/summer squash, asparagus or eggplant and only had cauliflower or broccoli at about the same time. My grandmother used to cook vegetables until there was no life left in them, and favored things like lima beans. So my father literally wouldn't touch any of these, so my mother didn't cook/prepare them. It was carrots, green beans, corn, peas and potatoes, and that's it...

Time Period: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: The Moor by Laurie R. King
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 111

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 6 (the above, plus Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod)
# of books read from total: 8
# of pages total: 1,939

Distractions: Burning the bacon and setting off the smoke alarms

Menu: toast, jam, bacon. A very late 'brunch'. I have to get my sleeping schedule back on track somehow!!

I think I might start a Terry Pratchett book. I'm in desperate need of something truly escapist.

I hear you on the sleep schedule, Chatterbox- I'm naturally nocturnal and my body fights to sleep during the say and wake at night.

>115 qebo: I'll PM you!

Time Period: Late Sunday night-Monday afternoon

# of books read from in this period: 2
titles: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson and The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
# of books completed in this period: 1
# of pages: 112 in Hattie Big Sky and 44 in The Complete Tightwad Gazette

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 1
# of books read from total: 2
# of pages total: 335

I finished Hattie Big Sky and I thought it was great, a very well-done YA about a young girl's life of homesteading in Montana. I also read a bit from The Complete Tightwad Gazette, a book that I always have going on the back burner as I can read it in bits and pieces. All in all, I'm pleased with my progress and plan to continue to get some more reading done tonight!

Well back for my final update. I avoided posting all day so that I could finish my book Covet! I finished it at about 5:30 pm.

My reading time was off and on all day for about an hour then a 10 minute break, food break or bathroom break.

I read from one book today and that was Covet by J.R. Ward.

Pages: ?? unsure but at least 300.

Books completed: 1
Books read from: 3 Covet, The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry Life as we knew it

My menu for today was: Protein Plus cereal, banana for breakfast, Apple, Natural peanut butter and some ritz crackers for a snack, Lunch was a salad with walnuts (no dressing), Dinner is Chicken and fingerling potatoes. My drink has been my water.

I am happy with what I accomplished during this read a thon. I even did this while doing laundry and dishes.

Suzanne thanks for hosting this read a thon! Have a great week all and Happy Reading!

My own final update:

Time Period: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

# of books read from in this period: 1
titles: Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
# of books completed in this period: 0
# of pages: 19

Totals:
# of books completed so far: 6 (The Moor by Laurie R. King, Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien, Hild by Nicola Griffiths, The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Unexploded by Alison MacLeod)
# of books read from total: 9
# of pages total: 1,958

Distractions: Filling up the TIOLI wiki with still more books that I probably won't get to!

Menu: Honey sesame roasted cashews.

OK, a final quick poll, for those that care to join in:

Best book of the readathon?
Mine -- tossup between Hild and Through Evil Days

Biggest frustration/annoyance/distraction?
Mine -- my increasingly erratic sleep schedule/inability to sleep

Most serendipitous element?
Calm's suggestion that I should read The Land of Spices.

Thanks for hosting this LD Readathon, Suz. I've had fun with my reads. This 5th read of mine for the readathon is proving to be a challenge because of the tennis. With Federer and Nadal both playing their matches tonight, my attention has been glued to the tv. So I'm going to pack it in for the day. With the matches going on and Federer playing shockingly poorly, there's no way I am going to be able to concentrate on any reading.

So my final count is:
# of books completed : 4
The Bridegroom - Ha Jin
Borkmann's Point - Håkan Nesser
Death at the Alma Mater - G.M. Malliet
Rescue at 2100 Hours - Tom Trumble

The best book I've read during this readathon was Rescue at 2100 Hours.

Biggest distraction for me has to be the US Open tennis.

Lucinda and Ursula: Thanks! The wasp sting feels much better today. I've been going through a regimen of allergy shots for wasps/vespids venom and it looks like it's working. Woohoo! I did take a Benadryl right away, just in case, but no hives or breathing problems showed up.

94: Caro, what a lovely way for your husband to wake up! My kids don't play piano, but I love listening to my niece practice the piano when I'm at her place. And we used to have a neighbor that played the violin. I loved listening to her practice in the summer when all the windows would be open.

99: Lucinda, your reading spot looks so cozy. I need to work on my own reading nook. Usually, I read either on the rather beat up 17 year-old couch in the living room or in bed, but I'd like to have my own special reading spot.

103: Calm, mmmm, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. One of my favourite foods.

105: Carrie, sorry to hear you had to get your tonsils out, but glad there is an up-side and you've been able to get lots of reading in.

128: I'd love to be able to go to pubs called 'The Loitering Gnome' or 'The Debauched Sloth'!

131: Suzanne, I love Laurie King's books! O Jerusalem was one of my favourites. I've been rereading the Rusell/Holmes earlier books and have been meaning to get to Locked Rooms which is my last reread before I finally get to the new-to-be books in the series. Thanks for the reminder :o)

I didn't get as much reading done Sunday as I'd liked. We were mostly getting ready for a dozen people to show up for the maki party: house tidying, furniture rearranging, grocery shopping, etc. But it was a great get together and I think I'd like to start doing them more regularly again. The best part was watching our 2 year old nephew bounce around on the trampoline for the first time. He couldn't stop laughing :o)

Sunday morning I read a short story from the Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, which I've been reading off and on for years now. Someday I'll finish it. The short story was The Adventure of the Empty House

Sunday night and this morning I read some more of The Eye of the World. I've managed to read about 200 pages so far this weekend which I'm pretty happy about. Today's distractions were doing the last of the cleanup from yesterday, sorting out the school supplies for tomorrow and folding laundry.

On audio this weekend, I finished listening to Nature Girl (a little over the top and ridiculous; so far I like Hiaasen's kids books better) and started listening to The Help (sucked me right in; there are four people narrating this and I've only heard one of them so far, but she reads wonderfully. I just wish I knew which of the four she is!)

Thanks for hosting this readathon, Suzanne! I've had a wonderful time and would love to join in another. Now I'm going to finish up my long weekend by trying to finish The Eye of the World (which I know I won't because there are 170 pages left and I'm a slow reader.)

Final Update:

Books completed: 2
The Death-Cap Dancers - 192 pages
A Half-Forgotten Song - 469 pages (I read all but 30 of it during the readathon.

A Half-Forgotten Song is SUCH a good book. Read it! If you liked The Thirteenth Tale or other gothic fiction type books, read it! So good!

Thanks for hanging out here, folks!

Caro, I can understand your dilemma, and completely agree with the need to watch the tennis. Sometimes, books just aren't enough...

And now I'm tempted by A Half Forgotten Song. But first I have the ARC of the new novel by Diane Setterfield to read, Bellman & Black.

Sandra, you can always host a readathon, too?!? hint, hint, hint.... And I'm glad to hear that you recommend O Jerusalem. I'll still wait a few days before picking it up, I suspect. The Moor wasn't a disappointment, but neither was it a pleasant surprise, the way that the other books in the series have been.

OK, am signing off from the computer for the night. Will read a bit more of Lords and Ladies, eat some dinner and let my audiobook send me off to sleep....

Time: 8:15pm-9:45pm w/ occasional brief breaks
Book: The Dervish House - finished!

Thanks Suzanne!

Thanks to Suzanne for hosting the readathon. I really enjoyed seeing what other people were reading, eating and doing:)

Time Period: (to the official end of the Readathon)

# of books read from in this period:
titles: Nine Princes in Amber
# of books completed in this period:
# of pages: 50

Totals:
# of books completed so far 3 - India: A History, The Land of Spices and Wool
# of books read from total 5 India: A History, The Land of Spices, Wool, Ten Little Indians and Nine Princes in Amber
# of pages total 924

What are you eating/drinking right now? I had a mug of hot chocolate

Favourite book so far? They are very different but I liked both The Land of Spices (more for the quality of writing, glimpse of an unfamiliar place and time and the characters) and Wool (for the story, ideas and characters) and I really hope to find a copy of the sequel soon. Have to add Nine Princes in Amber to the list. Actually all the books I read from had something. Unfortunately India The History was at the Twentieth century point and, much as I loved the early parts of the book by the time I got to eras and people I was already familiar with it got to be a bit of a slog to read, still very pleased to have finally finished with it. Ten Little Indians is a short story collection so I never had the intention of finishing it during the Readathon and, as always with such collections, there are already stories that I liked better than others.

Anything particularly interesting you want to share -- an idea, a quotation from the book you're reading?

Not this time

What else is happening? Distractions, background noise, social plans?

No distractions. I read in bed no cats, no outside noise, just me and the book.

I did carry on reading after the official end time and finished Nine Princes in Amber, dated but a quick fun read.

Best book of the readathon?
I don't know if I can call it the best written book but the most fun was Nine Princes in Amber. One I read many years ago and enjoyed revisiting and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of The Chronicles of Amber (omnibus of the first five Amber books)

Biggest frustration/annoyance/distraction?
Well probably the cat who doesn't like me reading during the day.

Most serendipitous element?
Suzanne wanting to read a book that I finished during the Readathon:)
Also my father driving past as I was waiting at the bus stop to go into a nearby town yesterday (hadn't seen him in 2 or 3 months!) - so I got a lift, a short catch up on what is happening and saved the bus fare which I spent on a couple of second hand books:)