Social Distancing Readathon #52 - March 12 - 14

Welcome to another readathon!

Amazingly we've been doing this for a whole year!! When this all started how long did you think it would take for every thing to settle down?

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. Jim (drneutron) -- Washington DC area, USA
3. Lynda (Carmenere) -- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
4. Susanna (susanna.fraser) -- Seattle, Washington, USA
5. Carrie (cbl_tn) -- Seymour, Tennessee, USA
6. Benita (benitastrnad) -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
7. Luci (elkiedee) -- London, UK
8. Kerry (avatiakh) -- Auckland, New Zealand
9. Paul (PaulCranswick) -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
10. Nancy (nrmay) -- North Carolina, USA
11. Cyrel (torontoc) -- Toronto, Canada
12. Ella (EllaTim) -- Amsterdam, Netherlands
13. Suzanne (Chatterbox) -- Rhode Island, USA

Yeah, I saw this is the one-year anniversary of the pandemic readathons. Unbelievable. I'm in.

I'm in too. To answer your question, I thought a month or two and things would be back to normal. I soon found out things wouldn't be normal again.
I enjoy these readathons because they keep me focused. Thanks for continuing with them.

In again, because here we still are.

I'm in again!

I'm in again, even though this is not the one year anniversary for me on this thread. I didn't join until in April, but who wooda thought...?

I'm going to join. I've nearly finished book #7 this month, The Vanishing Half, but it's quite possible I'll actually finish it before I start counting.

I'm in again. I've managed very little reading so far this month, though have picked up in the last couple of days.

Im also in again.

signing in again from North Carolina

I'm in as well- still isolating and I just started Spring by Ali Smith

6:30pm Friday
Ok, I just finished dishes and about to start a relaxing evening of reading.
I'll be reading from The Last Tourist and D is for Deadbeat.
Hope you all have a successful readathon.

I'm in as well. Late night Friday.
I've started reading Nevermoor:The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Fun. A nice change from watching election debates on TV.

Friday evening check-in:

Books read from: Striding Folly
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: yogurt, tea
Thoughts: With rain in the forecast most of the weekend, I should get quite a bit of reading in.
Non-book activities: Laundry, online shopping

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

I have just a few pages left in Striding Folly so I should finish it this evening. Next up is We'll Meet Again by Philippa Carr for this month's BAC.

Friday evening in Seattle. I'll probably read some more before bedtime, but I just finished the book I've been reading the past several days, so:

Books read from: One Fell Sweep
Books finished: One Fell Sweep
Time reading: 1 hour
Snacks: BBQ sandwich for dinner
Thoughts: It's been so gorgeous and sunny here for most of the week, and I needed it.
Non-book activities: Work, laundry

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

Saturday morning 7.10 am in London

Books read from: 7
Susanna Jones, The Missing Person's Guide to Love
Anne Tyler, Clock Dance
Rachel Holmes, Eleanor Marx: a Life
Cathy Cassidy, Looking Glass Girl
Amy Hempel, The Dog of the Marriage
Janine Beacham, Hounds and Hauntings
Alix E Harrow, The Once and Future Witches

Books finished: 0
Pages read: 102
Snacks: Tea, chocolate

Book activities: Looking through free Kindle short stories, have most of the ones I'm interested in but found a couple more, a few more Kindle purchases, some LT and Goodreads updates
Non-book activities: Thinking about someone very dear to me and my family, as it was the anniversary of his sudden death at 74 on Thursday. WhatsApp and a long telephone conversation with a friend. Bejeweled Blitz, TV and radio, sleeping. I'm enjoying the quiet down here but will probably go back to bed and sleep some more than read, as soon as anyone comes down.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 7

As predicted, I finished The Vanishing Half a bit earlier on Friday afternoon. I'm not sure I will finish anything else over the weekend.

Saturday morning 10:25am
Books read from: 2
Books finished:
Pages read: 4 chapters from each book
Snacks: Just Cranberry/Lime seltzer

Non-book activities: Episode of Virgin River
Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2

Saturday afternoon check-in:

Books read from: Striding Folly, We'll Meet Again
Books finished: Striding Folly
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: leftover rice, iced coffee
Thoughts: I need to get some cleaning done, but I'd rather read!
Non-book activities: putting chili in the Crock-pot for supper, grocery pick-up, hair appointment, laundry

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

Late morning in Seattle:

Books read from: You Never Forget Your First
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 2 hours
Snacks: mandarin orange
Thoughts: I'm glad I managed to finish all the laundry yesterday. Makes the weekend seem much more relaxing.
Non-book activities: Loaded dishwasher, placed a curbside pickup grocer order for tomorrow

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

Sun morning check-in: 9.30am

Books read from: Isabella: the warrior queen by Kirstin Downey, Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Guanzhong Luo, We Couldn't Leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 4hrs

Snacks: chicken fajitas, mexican rice
Thoughts: Finally making headway in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, need to keep at it.
Non-book activities: visit to bookshop in city

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

Used my book token to purchase a few books in the city yesterday. Lovely to be able to browse in a bookshop again after a couple of weeks of lockdown. The PM keeps shunting our city into lockdown whenever there is a community case.

Saturday evening check-in:

Books read from: We'll Meet Again
Books finished: Striding Folly
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: white bean chili, tea
Thoughts: I'm taking one for the team so no one else has to suffer through this dreadful book. We'll Meet Again was either my grandmother's or my mother's book and I kept it, thinking I might read it one day. Philippa Carr is one of the authors for this month's British Authors Challenge so it was finally time to read it. The best thing about reading it is that it will leave shelf space for a new (and hopefully better!) book.
Non-book activities: Cleaning, laundry, short walk with the dog.

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

Still reading Spring by Ali Smith

I'll join in belatedly. Just back from final clearout of my stuff from my late friend G's apartment in NYC. Sad. This week's reading has been dismal, thanks in part to dose 1 of the vaccine, to which I reacted a bit more strongly than I anticipated.

At least I got rid of this week's migraine by mid-afternoon!!

I'm reading an advance copy of Linda Castillo's new Amish mystery, and may pick up something slightly more ambitious after that.

Saturday night update:

Books read from: We'll Meet Again
Books finished: Striding Folly, We'll Meet Again
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: carrots, tea
Thoughts: I just finished the worst book I've read in ages. It was so poorly written that I couldn't put it down. It was like watching a disaster unfold. I kept waiting to see how much worse it could get, and it never failed to disappoint.
Non-book activities:

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

Saturday evening in Seattle:

Books read from: You Never Forget Your First
Books finished: You Never Forget Your First
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: spaghetti, cucumber salad
Thoughts: That was really a too-brief Washington biography IMO.
Non-book activities: Wrote, went for a walk.

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

Sunday morning 6 am in London

Books read from: 4
Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Daughters of Night
Susanna Jones, The Missing Person's Guide to Love
Anne Tyler, Clock Dance
Rachel Holmes, Eleanor Marx: a Life

Books finished: 0
Pages read: 86

Non-book activities: Facebook and Bejeweled Blita, a walk across to the park to see if other women/people would be there - official protests prompted by the murder of a women in London, for which a police officer has been arrested, have been banned but I think there were a lot of small peaceful unofficial protests in very local parks.

Total books finished: 0
Pages read: 188
Total read from: 8

Checking in at 7:33 EDT on Sunday morning

Books read from: 2
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 3 hrs
Time posting: 7:30 AM
Snacks: right now, coffee
Thoughts: been taking care of the mother-in-law, so no distractions!
Non-book activities: see above

Total books finished: 1
Total read from:2
Total time reading: just the 3 hours or so

Still reading Spring by Ali Smith
Last night I had good leftovers for supper- chicken roasted with squash and chickpeas,( dates were to be added after 20 minutes in the oven- I think that the next time I make this recipe I will add the dates at the beginning)mashed potatoes and salad.
I hope to finish this book today- wonderful prose and interesting subject matter.

>24 cbl_tn: "I just finished the worst book I've read in ages. It was so poorly written that I couldn't put it down. It was like watching a disaster unfold."
Too funny! Thanks for taking the hit for all of us, Carrie.

Sunday morning 11:10am
Books read from: 2
Books finished:
Pages read: about 2 chapters from each book
Snacks: Veggie burger with cheese puffs
Thoughts: I've got to get to bed early tonight, it's 8:30 pm and I'm already exhausted
Non-book activities: puzzle, Episode of Virgin River, Ohio State Basketball, cross stitch baby bibs
Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2

Saturday noon check in

Books read from: I am almost finished with Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock is my recorded book and my novel Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell.
Books finished: 1 - Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock. I am going to start listening to the last of the Queen's Thief books. This one ends this wonderful saga. It is Return of the King by Megan Whalen Turner.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Snacks: I had toast with cheese and coffee this morning for breakfast.
Thoughts: I have had a great week of reading. I actually finished listening to Smell of Other People's Houses while I was doing my morning driving around errands. I was impressed with it. It was a great book to listen to. It was done with a cast of readers and produced by Listening Library. Listening Library does a really good job producing recorded books and this was an outstanding recorded version of a good book. It made the YA Amazing Recorded Books list for 2016 and it deserved the honor. I really enjoyed the recording and the content of this book. If you are looking for a good YA book this one might fit the bill for you.

I am also enjoying Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell. This is the first in a series of 7 books and I was a bit reluctant to start another series when I have spent the last year trying to finish up series, and keep up with the ones I have going, but others were reading the Powell books so I decided to join in. This one is a nice quiet book to end the day with. I will finish it this weekend because I need to return it to ILL. It is due on Thursday.

Non-book activities: will put the finishing touches to the journal article and hope it gets published in this March issue. That way I can put it on this year's faculty evaluation which is due at the end of this month.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 110
Total read from: 113
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 325 hours since April 2020.

Jokes on me. I posted this to last week's thread instead of this week's. I guess I just wanted to return to last week instead of springing forward to this week.

Sunday noon check in

Books read from: I finished reading A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell. I started listening to Henna Artist by Alka Joshi and started By It's Cover by Donna Leon. I am also very slowly reading through Turkist Lover by Esmerelda Santiago.
Books finished: 2 - Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Snacks: I had my usual hazelnut cappuccino from Starbucks this morning.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed A Question of Upbringing. It is one of those books where nothing happens but everything happens and you get a great picture of what this young man's life was like. You can live it right along side of him. This is an excellent example of a descriptive novel at its best.

Non-book activities: We posted the article to the reviewers again late on Friday night. I hope we are done with it. I had a blinding headache last night and went to bed at 9 p.m. I didn't get out of bed until 9 a.m. this morning and took more Tylenol because I have the residual headache left over from the migraine of yesterday. I did get my granola baked and it turned out to be excellent. That is amazing considering how bad I felt by evening time yesterday. But, I didn't get my taxes done and filed. Oh well - there is tomorrow night and a long stretch in front of the computer. I went out and got a hamburger and French fries for supper because I thought that eating something might make me feel better. It didn't, so went to bed early.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 111
Total read from: 114
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 326 hours since April 2020.

Monday morning check-in: 8.30am

Books read from: Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Guanzhong Luo, We Couldn't Leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold, The Queen's Gambit by Walter Trevis
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 3hrs

Snacks: burritos
Thoughts: Cats are lovely creatures
Non-book activities: late night outing for milk

Total books finished: 1 We Couldn't Leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 7hrs

We Couldn't Leave Dinah won the Carnegie Medal (UK) in 1941 and is about two children left behind on a Channel Island when the Nazis invade.

I'm now caught up on my February quota of chapters of the Three Kingdoms and will be reading the 10 March chapters this week.

Sunday afternoon:

Books read from: Tales of the Tikongs, Fireheart Tiger
Books finished: Fireheart Tiger
Time reading: 2 hours
Food: leftover chicken tamale casserole
Thoughts: Not enjoying the return of cold and rain, but my allergy-plagued sinuses are grateful.
Non-book activities: Recorded a Zoom video for church, ran errands

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 8 hours

I finished Spring by Ali Smith and have now started Corby Falls by Robert Carr ( he is a friend of mine)

Saturday morning 7.10 am in London

Books read from: 6
Susanna Jones, The Missing Person's Guide to Love
Anne Tyler, Clock Dance
Rachel Holmes, Eleanor Marx: a Life
Cathy Cassidy, Looking Glass Girl
Amy Hempel, The Dog of the Marriage
Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Daughters of Night

Books finished: 0
Pages read: 152

Other book related activities: LT and Goodreads
Non-book activities: WhatsApp, Bejeweled Blitz, radio, sleep

Total books finished: 0
Total pages read: 340
Total read from: 8

I'm probably not going to finish The Missing Person's Guide to Love tonight but expect to finish it in the next day or two, and may well finish Clock Dance before Friday. I will also be picking up Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson within the next couple of days.

Sunday evening check-in:

Books read from: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
Books finished: Striding Folly, We'll Meet Again
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: rice, carrots, hummus, watermelon, orange juice
Thoughts: I miss the hour I lost last night!
Non-book activities: Online church this morning, a couple of long walks with the dog, laundry, Aurora Teagarden marathon

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

>29 Carmenere: One good thing about reading such a dreadful book is that anything else will seem great in comparison!

Sunday night/ monday morning check-in

Books read from: Foon by Marente de Moor, and Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Time reading:?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: leftover sauerkraut, some camembert
Other activities: lots of apping, and phoning, a visit to the allotment, watching tv-debates, election coming
Thoughts: oh the power of turning off the TV and shutting those people up!

Sunday night check in

Books read from: I listened to a little bit of Henna Artist by Alka Joshi and got a good start on By It's Cover by Donna Leon. I am also very slowly reading through Turkish Lover by Esmerelda Santiago.
Books finished: 2 - Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

Time reading: 2 hours since noon.
Time posting:
Snacks: I had Indian food for lunch. The local Indian restaurant I have patronized every Sunday for the last 4 or 5 years is closing. Their lease was not renewed and they are not able to find a space to move into to have a restaurant. They hope to be able to find a kitchen so that they can stay in business a little bit by keeping a take-out only establishment going, but I am not sure that will work for them. It seems to me that this pandemic has only hurt the locally owned restaurants and hasn't hurt the big national chains at all. That simply isn't right.

Thoughts: I spent an hour outside reading By It's Cover since it was such a nice warm day here in Alabama. The book is so relevant right now on a personal level, with the recent brouhaha about the Dr. Seuss books in this country and at my job. I also have a bit of personal experience with people who razor blade pictures out of books. It happened to me the first year I was a K-12 librarian out in a small town in Kansas. I couldn't believe it when it happened. I thought people were more liberal minded than they were. The book in question was How You Were Born by Joanna Cole. This was a book for children about the birth process in humans and the school secretary thought one of the pictures was indecent because it showed one photograph of a vaginal birth, so she took a razor blade and cut that page out of the book. This is exactly the scenario in By It's Cover except the books that got razor bladed are rare old books.

Non-book activities: We have some of the results of the review back from the editors and we have more work to do. Lots more than I thought we would.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 111
Total read from: 114
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 328 hours since April 2020.

Monday morning check in for Sunday 9:40am

Books read from: 1
Books finished: 0
Pages read: 1 chapter
Snacks: pepperoni pizza and a salad
Thoughts: How did the day slip by
Non-book activities:Short visit to SIL, Episode of Virgin River, Ohio State Basketball, Grammy Awards
Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2

Final check-in for the rest of my Sunday reading.

Books read from: Pyramids
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: strawberry cake
Thoughts: This is lesser Pratchett, but still fun to read.
Non-book activities: Cooking, listening to podcasts

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 11 hours

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/330677