Social Distancing Readathon #49 - February - 19 - 21

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. Paul (PaulCranswick) -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3. Kerry (avatiakh) -- Auckland, New Zealand
4. Benita (benitastrnad) -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
5. Lori (thornton37814) -- Tennessee, USA
6. Suzanne (Chatterbox) -- Rhode Island, USA
7. Susanna (susanna.fraser) -- Seattle, Washington, USA
8. Carrie (cbl_tn) -- Seymour, Tennessee, USA
9. June (June) -- South Carolina, USA
10. Nancy (nrmay) -- North Carolina, USA
11. Cyrel (torontoc) -- Toronto, Canada
12. Jean (majkia) -- Niceville, Florida, USA
13. Lynda (Carmenere) -- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
14. Luci (elkiedee) -- London, UK
15. Anne (AnneDC) -- Washington DC, USA

Sorry to be so late posting this, we've been snowed in all week, and my schedule is completely different.

I'm in Silver and completely un-snowed.

It's a lovely sunny summer's day here and I'm in, though I'm fairly busy this weekend.

I will be in this weekend. I was rained in last week and got to extend my weekend read-a-thon, by two days. I even got to bake a batch of cookies on Monday night.

I hope to have some time to read. After all, I did sign up for Knox County Public Library's Stay Home and Read a Book Ball that is on Saturday. That said, I have a genealogy society board meeting that will last 4 hours on Saturday and a Zoom Genealogy Chat on Saturday night. Still I should be able to find time to read Friday night, in between the meetings on Saturday, and some on Sunday. If I don't complete my conference syllabi tomorrow, I will need to squeeze that in over the weekend too. They are nearly done so I should be able to finish them tomorrow. (We normally have about 6 months from notification until they are due. This year we had 6 weeks. We normally have about 8 months to tweak and finalize lectures; this year it is about 2 months because they are being pre-recorded.)

Back again. Hopefully I'll do better at reading. It's been hard to focus on anything this week.

I'm in again. I need to set aside some reading time, since I'm just about drowning in all the library holds I've had come in of late.

I'm in again too.

Check-in: 6.30pm Fri from Auckland, NZ

Books read from: Falling freely, as in a dream by Leif G.W. Persson - audio
Books finished: Falling freely, as in a dream by Leif G.W. Persson
Time reading: 1 hr

Snacks: homemade burrito
Thoughts: love Persson's books
Non-book activities: making burritos for the third night in a row

Total books finished: 1 Falling freely, as in a dream by Leif G.W. Persson
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 1 hr
Persson's novel is an extensive, imagined 2007 investigation into the bungled investigation of the murder of Swedish PM, Olof Palme, in 1986. Quite riveting considering it was a cold case. Last of his Fall of the Welfare State trilogy as well, so extra marks for me.
I'll be busy most of tonight (...and maybe tomorrow) preparing a powerpoint for a genealogy presentation.

I'd like to participate again this week. I'll have to read around softball and baseball games though so I don't know how much I can get done. I will start at the beginning of one nonfiction book The Data Detective, one collection of short stories Telling the Map, one fantasy The Fairies of Sadieville and one mystery All the Devils are Here.

June in South Carolina

I'm in again.

Finished lark in the morn by Elfrida Vipont late last night. :)
About to pick up a new one.
Still listening to the huntress, Kate Quinn.

I'm unpacking new porch furniture today. :)

Partly sunny and warming up to 52 F in Charlotte NC.

I'm in- lots of snow here, so a good weekend for reading!

I'm in. Cold here in Florida, Freezing nights here too.

Jean in Niceville, FL

I will participate too! :0)

Luci in north London here - I'm planning to join in. I may or may not finish one of my books, but I think I might finish 3 or 4 by the end of the month next Sunday, which would be 7 or 8 books - not a large number by my normal standards but an improvement on 5 in January.

I'll join in again--cold and sloppy this weekend, I might as well read. Anne, Washington DC.

Check-in: 10:39pm Fri from a very chilly Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
Books finished:
Time reading: 2 hrs

Snacks: Garlic Mussels and spaghetti
Thoughts: Hard time getting into this novel
Non-book activities: You Tube
Total books finished:
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 2 hrs

Check-in: 8.00pm Sat from Auckland, NZ

Books read from: Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork, Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi, The Complete Stories: Clarice Lispector
Books finished: Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork
Time reading: 2.5 hr

Snacks: takeout beef and black bean
Thoughts: really full of food
Non-book activities: been out and about most of the day

Total books finished: 2 Falling freely, as in a dream by Leif G.W. Persson, Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 3.5 hr

Must continue work on the genealogy presentation, going very slowly at present.

Saturday 9 am

I actually read a lot yesterday, rather to my surprise - I don't really expect to match it but I finished one book and read so much of another I'm hoping to finish that up this afternoon. Plus I'm now apparently halfway through my Netgalley book, from 7% to 50%, I'm not really sure how this divided between before and after 5 pm - started reading at 2 or 3 pm. So I'm just going to count it. I'm not sure how much reading I'll do tomorrow either, as there are a few Zoom meetings/events.

Books read from: 8
Rachel Hore, A Beautiful Spy estimated 121 pages
Penelope Lively, Pack of Cards 29 pages
Jane Smiley, Golden Age 179 pages
Laura McVeigh, Under the Almond Tree
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Lissa Evans, V for Victory
Dorothy Whipple, Young Anne
Kerry Hudson, Lowborn

Books finished: 1
Pages read: 423
Time reading: Several hours between 2 on and midnight, but with lots of interruptions too
Time posting: None on this thread
Snacks: Pain au chocolat, crisps, chocolate and tea, some hot, some not so much
Thoughts: Aarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhh (not about the books I was reading

Other book activities:

Putting away some children's books I lent out a few years ago and trying to see what I have (most of the shelves of children's and YA books in my room are double layered with the front layer in no particular order and with other stuff in front, some is hard to reach for a short person like me.

Playing around with the lists feature on LibraryThing - a bit annoyed that someone can't even read the list description of a list for books set in the 1930s, whether written in that period or later. He's objected to all the recent historical fiction which fits the list description and added some books which don't at all (Laura Ingalls Wilder books about growing up in the 19th century). I do, though, agree that historical novels set in the 1920s don't belong there.I'm also not sure about some of the fantasy and speculative fiction someone's added to the list - I suppose there is an argument that books set in Middle Earth, about King Arthur and in an imagined future do reflect some preoccupations of some writers of this period.

IF anyone wants to waste time in the Lists rabbit hole there are lists used by several 75 group LT members and other friends of the group including Books read in 2021, 2020 etc. Perhaps we should have a Social Distancing Readathon List!

Non-book activities: WhatsApp, worrying about stuff, Bejeweled Blitz, listening to the radio

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 8
Total time reading: ?

>11 June: Tim Harford is a presenter on a BBC Radio 4 programme here called More or Less which examines statistics, often in response to listener enquiries. As you can imagine, it's become very focused on health and government statistics over the last year. I've found it more interesting than usual because it's much more questioning of government policy than it was before life became so strange last year.

>21 elkiedee: Elkiedee: Since I am in the US, I listen to the podcast version of More or Less. I feel like it is more trustworthy than most sources today and I agree with you that its coverage of the pandemic has been especially interesting.

June

Kuala Lumpur Sunday Teatime

Books read from: A Burning & Moon Over Soho
Books finished: A Burning
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting:
Food : Chicken Biriyani (Malay style)
Thoughts: Busy work week so too much sleep between my reading is expected
Non-book activities: Prepping for a Virtual Hearing Insurance Arbitration relating to raft foundation failure at PNB 118.

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

Less ambitious this weekend with my work commitments but I hope to finish at least three.

Saturday Morning Checkin.

Books read: Orley Farm
None finished.
2 hours at hospital waiting for friend having cataract surgery
3 hours rest of the day and evening at home.

Thoughts: Still cold but supposed to be warming up to more normal temps here. At least we now have sunshine!

I fell asleep reading in bed last night so this is my report from Friday. I have yet to do anything today except make coffee.

Books read from: Difficult Women, A Promised Land, Locking Up Our Own, Kindred
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 80 minutes reading, 99 minutes listening
Pages read: 89 pages
Time posting: none to speak of
Snacks: butternut squash risotto and some glasses of chardonnay
Thoughts: The dog will survive without another walk tonight.
Non-book activities: Making and eating dinner, an episode of The Crown.

Total books finished:0
Total read from:4
Total time reading: 80 minutes reading, 99 minutes listening

Sat. morning- I am in the middle of Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore and it is really good. I had read Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by the same author a few years ago and finally got to this book.

Books read from: 6
Rachel Hore, A Beautiful Spy
Jane Smiley, Golden Age
Laura McVeigh, Under the Almond Tree
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Lissa Evans, V for Victory
Kerry Hudson, Lowborn

Books finished: 1 |Golden Age
Pages read: 129
Time reading: An hour or two
Time posting: A few minutes

Other book activities:

Finding a short story collection which turned out to be hidden in an awkward place on my shelves. I thought I'd have to move a lot of other books to get it out but Mike managed to reach it for me, and to keep his temper, and not even comment about my excessive numbers of books! What a hero. I did have to find some other random places to balance the books on my shelves.

Choosing another book to start later, or possibly tomorrow/in the next few days

Non book activities: WhatsApp, radio

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 8
Total pages read: 552

Saturday morning in Seattle

Books read from: One to Watch
Books finished: One to Watch
Time reading: 3 hours
Snacks: cereal for breakfast
Thoughts: I think I've spent more hours reading novels about participants on reality TV shows than on actually watching such shows (unless you count cooking shows--I've watched many an hour of Chopped, GBBO, etc.).
Non-book activities: Watched WandaVision last night, errands this morning

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

Battled horrible migraine until mid-afternoon, so I'm just getting started reading. All I could do was listen to audiobooks that I've already read before, hoping that the voices would put me to sleep.

Books read from: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard
Books finished: none yet
Time reading: 2 hours
Snacks: samosas with tamarind chutney
Thoughts: I can't deal with many more epic migraines.
Non-book activities: Trying to sleep, grappling with outsize pain.

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

Saturday evening checkin - I just finished work and am trying to catch up the threads here on LT.

Books read from: Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision by Peter Irons. I read a great big chunk of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker is languishing on my bedside table because Missoula has caught my interest. I am also finished with my recorded book Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry.

Books finished this weekend: 0
Time reading since last report: 1.5 hour
Time posting:
Lunch: was kale and polenta soup and bread.

Thoughts: I am feeling stresed because I have a huge work load right now.
Books Read From: 4
Books Finished: 0

Total time reading this weekend: 1.5 hours

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 103
Total read from: 107
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 292.5 hours since April 2020.

Well, so far the weekend has been a terrible fail in terms of reading, but successful in other ways. Today was beautiful so I was able to take a long walk with a neighbor. I actually hit 10,000 steps today for the first time in a long time! I've also spent quite a bit of time on genealogy, having connected with a couple of newly discovered cousins over the last few days. I have enjoyed getting to know them.

Books read from: In the Teeth of the Evidence, Orley Farm
Books finished:
Time reading:?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: dinner was mac and cheese, salad, and mini cinnamon rolls
Thoughts: I am looking forward to spring!
Non-book activities: Laundry, in addition to the above

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: ?

It's almost 11:30 p.m. in Rhode Island

Books read from: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and listening to a bit of The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse
Books finished: 1, The Dutch House
Time reading: 4.5 hours
Snacks: about to have some turkey sandwiches
Thoughts: exhausted, feeling isolated
Non-book activities: Took delivery of a small grocery order (bread and turkey for those sandwiches), talked to the cats, listening to the Saturday evening "new standards" show on WNYC FM. This weekend's fun stuff has included more Joe Jackson (from his "Night and Day" album), great Ella Fitzgerald and a single solitary Sondheim song.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: The two above, plus M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard
Total time reading: 6.5 hours

At some point I'll pick up Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles and finish that so I return it to the Athenaeum Tuesday.

Saturday night checkin

Books read from: Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision by Peter Irons. I read a great big chunk of Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker is languishing on my bedside table because Missoula has caught my interest. I am also finished with my recorded book Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry.

Books finished this weekend: 0
Time reading since last report: 1 hour
Time posting:
Supper was left-over take-out Mali Kofta from the local Indian restaurant.

Thoughts: I am totally engrossed in Missoula and hope to come close to finishing it this weekend. I started knitting on a new project tonight. I am learning how to knit intarsia on this one. Really cute pattern and amazing wonderful yarn. I had intended this for a gift but am thinking that I might keep this one. I ordered the yarn from the local yarn shop in Lincoln, Nebraska and had it mailed to me. I made a great choice with this one.
Books Read From: 4
Books Finished: 0

Total time reading this weekend: 2.5 hours

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 103
Total read from: 107
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 293.5 hours since April 2020.

Saturday night report

Books read from: Difficult Women, Locking Up Our Own, Kindred, Red at the Bone
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Pages read: 174
Time posting: 10 minutes
Snacks: Dinner: braised lamb shank and bean salad from local restaurant
Thoughts: Weekends are nice but a little monotonous. I do yoga with a friend over zoom and when we try to schedule a time, I hear myself saying "I am free all day Saturday. No plans whatsoever."
Non-book activities: farmers market, picked up a grocery order, yoga, dog walk, talked to my husband, my son, and my brother on the phone; laundry, dishes, nap, watched anime with my daughter for a few hours

Total books finished:0
Total read from:5
Total time reading: 4 hours 20 minutes reading, 1 hour 39 minutes listening

Sunday morning check-in:

Books read from: All the Devils are Here
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 7:53 AM

Snacks: a burger
Thoughts: Fifty-two degrees is too cold to watch baseball & softball. I wish they could start in March.
Non-book activities: Two baseball games and one softball. One more baseball game today.

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

Sunday morning check in:

Books read from: Orley Farm and Three Parts Dead
Time Reading: 3 hours

Non-book activities: Started re-watching a favorite show now streaming. Enjoying it even more: Fringe
Today we're going to the commissary (military food store) for the first time in awhile. I generally have food delivered, but now that we are both covid vaccinated and over two weeks from last shot, we're feeling a little bit more adventurous.

Sunday afternoon check-in (Reporting Saturday reading):

Books read from: Bible (ESV), Old Testament Words for Today by Warren W. Wiersbe, Near to the Heart of God by Robert J. Morgan, Magnify His Name by Ed White, Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates

I didn't track the time.

Non-book activities: genealogy society board meeting, Facebook, RootsTech Relatives, petting cats, Zoom genealogy chat

It's 3:30 p.m. Sunday in Rhode Island.

The migraine is back, alas, so it has been audiobooks (on and off again) for me today. That said, I did do some more reading late last night. So here's the summary:

Books read from: Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker, The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag; listening to a bit of The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse and Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
Books finished: None since last night
Time reading: 6 hours
Snacks: cereal, lemon-flavored selzer water
Thoughts: headachey, overwhelmed
Non-book activities: late last night watched kinda creepy mystery show on Netflix. It started out being a true crime drama kinda thing (documentary) but ended up morphing into something more mundane and depressing. Which worked, as it turned into a take-down of conspiracy theorists/cybersleuths who were convinced they knew what had happened to this young woman.

Total books finished: 1 (The Dutch House by Ann Patchett)
Total read from: 6: The four above, plus M, King's Bodyguard by Niall Leonard
Total time reading: 6.5 hours

I've preordered some MSG-free Chinese food for dinner, so I don't end up missing it because I don't feel well enough to cook. Ho hum.

Sunday midday in Seattle:

Books read from: Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies and The Last Million
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Snacks: ice cream
Thoughts: Hopefully I'll get some more reading time this afternoon and evening. I've been busy with various chores and errands.
Non-book activities: virtual church, caught up on emails requiring responses from the past few weeks

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 6 hours

I am almost finished reading Young Stalin- very well researched.
Today is laundry day- so towels are done and sheets are in the washing machine.
Dinner- last of leftovers- have to think of menu for tomorrow.

Sunday late afternoon.

Books: finished the huntress by Kate Quinn - adventure, suspense, chasing Nazi war criminals.

lunch was leftover steak and eggs; dinner will be take-out pizza, salad, and cannolis.

other activity:
Sunday papers, enjoying the new sun porch; we spent Fri and Sat assembling new furniture and porch is nice and cozy. Also encouraging my sister in her house-hunting and Facetime with my little granddaughters. Ordered groceries.

weather: sunny, 46 F.

Sunday afternoon checkin

Books read from: Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision by Peter Irons. I finished Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker won't languish on my bedside table anymore because it will be my main read for the next couple of days. I am also finished with my recorded book Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry, but because I haven't gone much of anywhere this weekend the ending of this book is dragging out.

Books finished this weekend: 1 - Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer.
Time reading since last report: 2.5 hours
Time posting:
Snacks: lunch was take-out Indian food. I really need to do some cooking, but I am trying to get the freezer emptied a bit. I still have plenty of left-over soup to eat.

Thoughts: I got immersed in Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town and just couldn't quit reading it. It reminded me so much of the problems that we had and still have here in Tuscaloosa. At the bottom of most of the problems is a sense of entitlement that young men have combined with the drinking culture and it is a made for disaster formula. This book was for my real life book discussion group and I can imagine that there will be lots of discussion about this one.
Books Read From: 4

Total time reading this weekend: 2.5 hours

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 104
Total read from: 107
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 296 hours since April 2020.

Sunday night check-in (for Sunday reading)

Books read from: Bible (ESV), Old Testament Words for Today by Warren W. Wiersbe, Near to the Heart of God by Robert J. Morgan, Magnify His Name by Ed White, Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope, Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates

Other activities: Online church, RootsTech Relative Finder, Online book club, petting cats, listening to a National Archives video featuring the author talking about the book we were discussing in book club tonight, phone calls

I didn't track total time reading. I will be reading a little more from one of the books before I go to bed, but it is already listed.

This has not been quite as productive of a weekend, but I didn't expect it to be. Still I made some progress.

Books read from: 6
Laura McVeigh, Under the Almond Tree
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Lissa Evans, V for Victory
Kerry Hudson, Lowborn
Dorothy Whipple, Young Anne
Sidney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown

Books finished: 1 Under the Almond Tree
Pages read: 125

Other book activities:

Thinking about books to read next, as I finished a 3rd book and only have a few pages to go of a 4th. A bit of Kindle/LT messing about.

Non-book activities: WhatsApp, a meeting, Bejeweled Blitz, listening to the radio

Total books finished: 3
Total books read from: 10
Total pages read: 677

Well, my weekend got sidetracked in a good way. I made a connection to a distant cousin in the Midwest who provided a copy of a family history that includes several letters my ggg-grandfather wrote to his sisters and their families who had moved away from PA. None of this information had been passed down in my line, so now I have lots of new info to absorb. The book even had a copy of a photograph (probably a tintype) of my ggg-grandfather! So, most of my reading was from this family history. I did complete today's chapters of Orley Farm.

Sunday night in Seattle:

Books read from: Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies and The Last Million
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Snacks: Takeout Chinese food for dinner
Thoughts: These books are both interesting, but depressing. After I finish them I'm going to need a good light palate cleanser or two before diving into another serious nonfiction book.
Non-book activities: Book club, which involved maybe 10 minutes talking about what we've been reading and an hour or more just catching up on each other's lives.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 9 hours

Sunday report

Books read from: Locking Up Our Own, Kindred, Red at the Bone, A Promised Land
Books finished: 1 (Locking Up Our Own)
Time reading: 3.5 hours
Pages read: 120
Time posting: 1 hour
Snacks: Dinner: leftover lamb and beans
Thoughts: Every weekend should be a three day weekend. Sigh.

Non-book activities: met with my brother to plan and take measurements for shelves in my new library! yoga, dog walk, family zoom call, laundry, dishes, watched anime with my daughter

Total books finished:1
Total read from:5
Total time reading: 5 hours 50 minutes reading, 3 hours 33 minutes listening

I have just about 100 pages to go in the Obama book and should finish that and Red at the Bone in the next few days. I loved Locking Up Our Own--very engaging and very informative.

I had to give up my reading for working on a presentation to our genealogy group. Took longer than I thought and I've not got back to a book since, too tired.

Check-in: Monday 11:20am from a very gray and chilly Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
Books finished:
Time reading: 1hrs for both Saturday and Sunday :0(

Dinner: My neighbor purchased three very large pizzas and shared a huge slice of each variety with me and my son, Will.
Thoughts: I don't want to read I just want to watch Ghost Town Living on You Tube all day long.
Non-book activities: You Tube, puzzle and making homemade stuffed cabbage.
Total books finished:
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 3 hrs. Big fail for the weekend.

weekend wrap-up

Monday, early afternoon.

Books: Yesterday I started the last time I lied by Riley Sager - mys/suspense.
Looking for a new audio book . .

food: Just coffee so far today. I'm making sweet Hawaiian crockpot chicken for dinner. Very easy, just 4 ingedients.

other activity: tending the needy old cat; sitting on new porch with said cat watching the rain and the birds.

weather: cold and raining

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/330097