Social Distancing Readathon #46 - January 29 - 31

Welcome to another readathon!

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

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

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

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

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA
2. June (June) -- South Carolina, USA
3. Lynda (Carmenere) -- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
4. Carrie (cbl_tn) -- Seymour, Tennessee, USA
5. false-knight -- San Diego, California, USA
6. Susanna (susanna.fraser) -- Seattle, Washington, USA
7. Kerry (avatiakh) -- Auckland, New Zealand
8. Anne (AnneDC) -- Washington DC, USA
9. Benita (benitastrnad) -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
10. Cyrel (torontoc) -- Toronto, Canada
11. PawsforThought -- Sweden
12. Paul (PaulCranswick) -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
13. Nancy (nrmay) -- North Carolina, USA
14. Luci (elkiedee) -- London, UK
15. Dee (Deedledee) -- Nova Scotia, Canada

I'd like to join you for the first time if I may.

June in South Carolina

I will be returning. A potential snow storm headed my way will be keeping me inside this weekend.
I'll be reading from 142 Ostriches, The Last Season and Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

Welcome, June!

I'm in again. We're supposed to get rain on Sunday so I'll for sure be staying in then!

I'll give it a shot!

Count me in again.

I'm in again. This weekend is a 3 day one, Auckland Anniversary Weekend, so I will be reporting for three days.
I've finally picked up The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath again and hope to finish it this weekend.
Also have Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail to finish and make a start on The Way Back by Gavriel Savit

I'm in--it's the last weekend of the month and I have some challenges to wrap up. Anne, Washington DC. I hope to finish Team of Rivals, Longitude, and I Capture the Castle.

I'm in again this weekend. Have been since April 2020 so might as well try to make it a complete year.

Oh, Yes, I am in- it is going to be very cold in Toronto this weekend!

I'm in, I have a book I want to finish before the month is over.

I'm in Sweden.

I'm in Silver. Paul from Kuala Lumpur

And I am off already since it is friday evening here.

Books read from: 1 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: Shepherd's Pie
Thoughts: Full of beans this weekend with an off-day on Monday coming
Non-book activities:

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

Count me in!

I'll be finishing the widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, set in India, 1920s.

Check in: Saturday morning 8am

Books read from: Wolf by Gillian Cross
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 1.5hr

Snacks: moussaka for dinner last night
Thoughts: a busy day ahead
Non-book activities: watched 2 episodes of 'A Korean Odyssey' tv show which is based on Journey to the West.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 1.5hr

Wolf won the Carnegie Medal in 1990. I've read several of Gillian Cross's books in earlier years but not this one.

>15 avatiakh: Kerry, is the Journey to the West the TV series you're watching based on the Chinese classical literary work or another book of the same title? Not that I know anything much about it as I haven't read it, but my father worked on an English translation of the literary work and gave my son a copy a few years ago (D's just been telling me he found it hard to read and I just said, yes, you were 11 and it looks a bit daunting to me and I'm a lot older than that!)

I'm in! But I'm the Saturday librarian this week so that'll cut into my reading time. Working for a living can be inconvenient sometimes.

HI, Luci in London. It's 8.40 pm on Friday here. Although I read a bit this afternoon it was before 5 pm. I might manage a few pages later but I'm really going to get stuck in from tomorrow. Over Saturday and Sunday I'll probably read something from most of the books I have on the go, but there's only one that I might, or might not, finish! Last weekend I finished one book, and another on Monday morning, so I am still reading 7 and have started two new ones. I've finished reading 5 books this year so far. This is pretty slow for me but I'm still hoping I might pick up a little pace.

I will be reading from

Lindsey Davis, Poseidon's Gold
Lara Feigel, The Bitter Taste of Victory
Sita Brahmachari, Tender Earth
Penelope Lively, Pack of Cards
Laura McVeigh, Under the Almond Tree
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Jane Smiley, Golden Age
Lissa Evans, V for Victory
Elly Griffiths, The Night Hawks

>16 elkiedee: Amazing that your father worked on a translation of such an epic work.

Yes, 'A Korean Odyssey' is a 2017 Korean tv show set in present day Seoul and the characters are all based on those in the Chinese classical novel, Journey to the West. I found it on Netflix where I've been watching & enjoying lots of Korean tv, I'm going through a period of not minding subtitles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Korean_Odyssey

Btw, we are doing a group read of Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the category group, about 10 chapters per month all year.

Friday evening check-in:

Books read from: listening to the Children of Blood and Bone and Neverwhere, and reading From the Ashes
Books finished:0
Snacks: pizza
Thoughts: I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow.
Non-book activities: took my friend's dog for a walk

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3

Friday evening check-in - 9:40pm

Books read from: 142 Ostriches
Books finished:0
Snacks: Dinner - Eggplant Parmigiana Snack: Mexican Hot Chocolate
Thoughts: no thoughts
Non-book activities: Watched Netflix movie "The Dig" - Chatted with son in college

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1

Friday evening

Books: Close to finishing the widows of Malabar Hill, for book club.

Dinner: leftover Chinese take-out, chocolate cookie.

Other activity: Watched the new 2020 production of Emma.

Thoughts: Very happy that I got my covid vaccine this morning.

Friday evening check-in from Seattle:

Books read from: The Riches of This Land
Books finished: none
Time reading: 2 hours
Food: steak sandwich and tater tots for dinner
Thoughts: happy it’s the weekend
Non-book activities: Played Wingspan with my husband

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 2 hours

Friday night check-in from San Diego!

Books read from: My Name is Red, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room
Books finished: 2
Time reading: 5 hours?? I started early
Food: steak, bread, mixed greens, some peanut M&Ms
Thoughts: I really need to vacuum my room and do some laundry
Non-book activities: showered, took a nap of indeterminate length, sort of paid attention while my parents watched some Letterkenny and Kim's Convenience

Saturday lunchtime here in Kuala Lumpur

Books read from: 2 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side & Charlotte Sometimes
Books finished: 2
Time reading: 5 hours
Time posting:
Food: More Shepherd's Pie (waste not want not) & lava cake
Thoughts: Full of beans this weekend with an off-day on Monday coming
Non-book activities:Work this morning

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 7 hours

Saturday morning check-in from South Carolina

Books read from: 3 Bryant and May: Oranges and Lemons, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and The 99% Invisible City

Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 7:30 AM
Snacks: Pollo Fundido

Thoughts: Oranges and Lemons is the best so far in the Peculiar Crimes Unit Mysteries series. Every few days I try to read either a short story or essay. Friday I read "The Getaway Car" in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. I also read a little nonfiction occasionally. The 99% Invisible City addresses the hidden world of everyday design in the infrastructure and architecture of cities.

Non-book activities: Watched The Great British Baking Show on Netflix

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

Report on Friday night reading

Books read from: Transit, Team of Rivals, Longitude
Books finished: Transit
Time reading: 3.5 hours
Time posting:0
Snacks: lentil and sweet potato curry
Thoughts: looking forward to the weekend
Non-book activities: zoom call with college friends, making dinner, watching Bridgestone

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 3.5 hours

Saturday morning check-in:

Books read from: Busman's Honeymoon
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: breakfast was cereal & hot chocolate
Thoughts: Another cold day. I'm looking forward to spring!
Non-book activities: genealogy, laundry

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading:

I ended up doing things other than reading last night. I did manage a chapter of Busman's Honeymoon before going to sleep. I'm enjoying it tremendously!

Saturday midnight here in Kuala Lumpur

Books read from: 3 The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Charlotte Sometimes, Jazz
Books finished: 3
Time reading: 5 hours
Time posting:
Food: Home made pizza and camembert
Thoughts: Full of beans this weekend with an off-day on Monday coming
Non-book activities: N/A

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 12 hours

Check in: Sunday morning 9am

Books read from: Free Falling, As If in a Dream by Leif Persson, Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2.5hr

Snacks: lots of cold drinks
Thoughts: should spend time in the garden
Non-book activities: watched more of 'A Korean Odyssey' & Voice 2, a Korean crime tv show, visit to my favourite used bookshop

Total books finished: 2 Wolf by Gillian Cross, Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 1.5hr

Zail's YA book is based on the experience of Fred Steiner whose story she first heard in Sydney's Holocaust Museum. I hadn't known about the Horse Commando in Auschwitz before.

Saturday evening check-in:

Books read from: Busman's Honeymoon
Books finished:
Time reading: Not as much as I'd like!
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lunch was Chinese (egg drop soup, shrimp in lobster sauce, steamed rice, fortune cookie); carrots, cassava chips, yogurt, orange juice, and tea this evening
Thoughts: I was surprised to see snow this afternoon. It wasn't in the forecast! Didn't stick, but it was fun while it lasted.
Non-book activities: Chinese takeout pickup, grocery pickup, long walk, laundry. I've also ended up working this evening. We're having database access problems so I'm monitoring our chat service this evening. I might be able to help a few students with workarounds, and if I can't help I can at least commiserate with them.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: ?

Early evening check-in from Seattle:

Books read from: The Riches of This Land
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: about to make spaghetti for dinner
Thoughts: January went by fast.
Non-book activities: Lots of errands this morning, all carefully double-masked

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 5 hours

Saturday evening check-in

Books read from: Team of Rivals, Longitude, The Children's Hour, I Capture the Castle
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Pages read: 152
Time posting: 30
Snacks: bagel with avocado, vegetable sambusa
Thoughts: our dinner smells delicious, it is hard to concentrate
Non-book activities: farmers market, yoga, laundry, preparing beef bourgignon in the slow cooker

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 6.5 hours

Saturday night check-in
Books read from: When You Find Me by P. J. Vernon for a book club and Jury by Stephen J. AdlerMy recorded book Island of Sea Women by Linda See.

Books finished: none

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
supper: grilled steak with mushrooms, baked potato, and romain salad.

Thoughts: Worked on my journal article and did nothing else.

Books Read From: 3

Total time reading this weekend: 1 hour

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 97
Total read from: 103
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 272.5 hours since April 2020.

Saturday evening check-in - 12:10am Sunday

Books read from: 142 Ostriches, Behind the Beautiful forever
Books finished:1
Snacks: Dinner - leftover Eggplant Parmigiana and salad
Snack: none
Thoughts: I’m spending too much time on you tube
Non-book activities: chatted with two friends. Funny, both wanted to call rather than text. Seems like we’re all missing that normal human connection of talking in person. You Tube

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 2

Saturday night check-in:

Books read from: The King in the North
Books finished: 1
Time reading: ~5 hours
Food: leftover pasta casserole for lunch, bag of popcorn, pork-and-misc.-vegetable stir fry with rice and seasoned bok choy salad for dinner, more peanut M&Ms
Thoughts: wish my TMJ would calm down and stop popping
Non-book activities: transcribed some stuff for a friend, family call with my little brother, helped with dinner prep and clean-up

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: about 10 hours

Check in: Sunday evening 9pm

Books read from: Everything everything by Nicola Yoon
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2.5hr

Snacks: Lentijas stew
Thoughts: lovely day again
Non-book activities: food prep, out for a coffee, groceries

Total books finished: 3 Wolf by Gillian Cross, Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail & Everything everything by Nicola Yoon
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 6.5hr

The Zail & Yoon were my January reads for my Z to A YA writers challenge

Sunday morning check-in:

Books read from: Bryant and May: Oranges and Lemons
Books finished: 1

Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 7:45 AM

Snacks: crabcakes
Thoughts: terrible weather all of January, not our usual
Non-book activities: jigsaw puzzle

Total books finished: 1 Bryant and May: Oranges and Lemons
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 6 hours

Report from Saturday Night

Books read from: Team of Rivals, Longitude, The Children's Hour, I Capture the Castle
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Pages read: 121
Time posting: 0
Snacks: dinner: beef stew and noodles
Thoughts: I stayed up very late reading so that I could get to the part where General Sherman takes Atlanta and Lincoln is re-elected. You would think reading history would not feel so suspenseful.
Non-book activities: dinner, finished Bridgerton

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 9.5 hours

Sunday lunchtime check in:

Books read from:From the Ashes, A Study in Emerald, Neverwhere, Normal People, Children of Blood and Bone, Palaces for the People
Books finished: From the Ashes
Non-book activities: knitting and petting kitties

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 6

Sunday morning

books:
finished widows of Malabar Hill. Interesting and horrifying look at what life was like for women in India, 1900s-1920s.
Started back blast by Mark Greaney. My guilty pleasure. If you like Jack Reacher, you'll love the Gray Man.

food:
dinner last night was a big garden salad and Welsh Rabbit, though my variation is called Blush Bunny. My hubby made a cherry pie. Just coffee and toast so far this morning.

Other activity:
postcrossing, watched the first couple episodes of Schitts Creek - stupid and hysterically funny.

thoughts:
hard day yesterday. My mom, who will be 99 in a few weeks, tested positive for covid. Fortunately, she's asymtomatic so far and she did get first vaccine dose a couple weeks ago.
my 17 yr old cat went to emergency vet and is still there being treated for severe dehydration.
Talked to my sis and facetime with my kids cheered me up.

Sunday midday:

Books read from: Sweep in Peace
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: banana
Thoughts: most of the time I feel younger than I actually am, but my back knows better
Non-book activities: Zoom annual meeting for my church

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 8 hours

Sunday evening check-in:

Books read from: Busman's Honeymoon, A Long Way Home
Books finished: Busman's Honeymoon
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lentil soup (lunch); cassava chips; grapes; orange juice; Ovaltine made with almond milk
Thoughts: The drizzly weather made it a perfect day for reading indoors
Non-book activities: Work. :-(

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

Sunday night- I finished From Memory to Transformation, Jewish Women's Voices edited by Sarah Silberstein Swartz and Margie Wolfe
Dinner- really nice leftovers-
tonight watching PBS!

Sunday evening check-in:

Books read from: Still Life by Val McDermid
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 3
Time posting: 7:00 PM

Snacks: Chicken breast
Thoughts: I enjoyed my first readathon.
Non-book activities: Jigsaw puzzle

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 9 hours

Sunday evening check-in
Books read from: When You Find Me by P. J. Vernon for a book club and Jury by Stephen J. Adler. I got a good start on Almost A Woman by Esmeralda Santiago. My recorded book Island of Sea Women by Linda See.

Books finished: When You Find Me by P. J. Vernon

Time reading: 1.5 hour
Time posting:
supper: Indian food. the Dal and the peanut rice was excellent

Thoughts: I read through the journal article and made notes. Will finish it up tomorrow. I finished the quick mystery read When You Find Me and I really liked the ending. I suspect that this was a set-up for another book, but I am not interested. This was a quick relaxing mystery read, but not a series I want to invest time in.

Books Read From: 4

Total time reading this weekend: 2.5 hour on my books. More if you count reading through my article and skimming through other journal articles to make sure that the citations are correct.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 98
Total read from: 104
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 275 hours since April 2020.

Sunday Evening

I’ve finished both The Lost Plot and Speculative Los Angeles today!

Sunday evening check in:

Books read from: From the Ashes, Study in Emerald, Children of Blood and Bone, Palaces for the People, Normal People, Neverwhere, One Good Turn
Books finished: From the Ashes and A Study in Emerald
Snacks: My friend made fresh fettuccine with pesto, yum.
Thoughts: I'm "attending" a conference next week. I was going through the schedule and there are so many great sessions but I wonder how it's going to be to attend online.
Non-book activities: Knitting - more than halfway through a second mitten.

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 7

Sunday evening check-in - 9:20pm

Books read from: 142 Ostriches, Behind the Beautiful forever, The Last Season
Books finished:1
Snacks: Dinner - Chili (kindly dropped off from my neighbor) and salad
Snack: Hershey candy bar w/almonds
Thoughts: Missing humans
Non-book activities: Texting with three friends and son. Watched Lupine on Netflix and hockey

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3

Sunday evening:

Books read from: Sweep in Peace
Books finished: none
Time reading: 2 hours
Food: chili for dinner
Thoughts: I wonder how much longer this semi-locked down life will last, and how weird it'll be to be around people again once it's over.
Non-book activities: Listened to podcasts

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 10 hours

Sunday night check-in:

Books read from: Armistice
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ~1 hour
Food: homemade breakfast burrito for lunch, chile verde and cornbread for dinner
Thoughts: typo detection on Duolingo could be way better than it is
Non-book activities: transcribed some more stuff for the same friend, walked to the grocery store with mom, did my laundry, made chile verde, watched Devil in a Blue Dress with my parents

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: about 11 hours

Final Effort :

Books read from: 2 A Question of Upbringing & At Bertram's Hotel
Books finished: 1 A Question of Upbringing
Time reading: 7 hours
Time posting:
Food: Fried Sea Bass in a three-flavour sauce (sweet, sour and spicy)
Thoughts: Full of beans this weekend with an off-day on Monday coming
Non-book activities: N/A

Total books finished: 4 A Question of Upbringing, Jazz, The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, Charlotte Sometimes

Total Read from : 5

Total time reading: 19 hours

weekend wrap-up

on Sunday
books: Back blast. action/thriller
Sunday newpapers

dinner: fish, fried rice, leftover cherry pie.

other activity:
cat came home from emergency care, rehydrated and she probably has hyperthyroid, test results due back soon.
watched all creatures great and small and THE LONG SONG on Masterpiece.

Looked to back to see when I began these read-a-thons. First one was Mem Day weekend, end of May, so it's been 8 months!

Check in: Tuesday morning 9am

Books read from: The Way Back by Gavriel Savit, Free Falling, As If in a Dream by Leif Persson (audio), The Lark in the Morn by Elfrida Vipont, Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, Rock War by Robert Muchamore, The Story of the Last Thought by Edgar Hilsenrath
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3.5hr

Snacks: chicken satay
Thoughts: another lovely day
Non-book activities: gardening out for a coffee

Total books finished: 3 Wolf by Gillian Cross, Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail & Everything everything by Nicola Yoon
Total read from: 10
Total time reading: 10hr

Monday was a holiday here in Auckland province. Back to normal today.
I started reading a number of books, just the first chapter to see how it goes.

Books read from: 5
Lindsey Davis, Poseidon's Gold
Lara Feigel, The Bitter Taste of Victory
Sita Brahmachari, Tender Earth
Penelope Lively, Pack of Cards
Laura McVeigh, Under the Almond Tree

Between 5 pm Friday and midnight Sunday, Greenwich Mean Time

Pages read: 121

Books finished: 0
Time reading: Not sure
Time posting: Not much
Thoughts: What I read was interesting but not as much as I'd hoped. more on Saturday than Sunday
Non-book activities: Bejeweled Blitz, Facebook, online political discussion, 2 Zoom meetings (actually one full meeting and the latter part of another)

I have since finished Poseidon's Gold and read more on Monday and Tuesday than at the weekend!

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/329485