Social Distancing Readathon #78 - September 10 - 12

Welcome to another readathon!

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

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

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

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

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA

I'm in- I am rereading a memoir (that I liked years ago. )

I'm in

Yes! This is my first free weekend in a month so I'm looking forward to lots of reading time (doesn't mean I'll actually get that much reading done, but a girl can dream.)

I'm in Sweden as always, and will be finishing The Secret History and Five Go to Smuggler's Top, continuing with Busman's Honeymoon and hopefully starting something else.

I’m in. On Danish time.

I'm in again.

Trying to finish Afterland calamity so I can start The Jane Austin Society by Natalie Jenner for book club next week.
Listening to The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee.

I usually resist book clubs because if I don't like a book I won't read it.
Now I find myself in 2 - my neighborhood book club and my women's group club, mainly because I like the ladies and right now these are my only in-person social opportunities other than family.

Blissfully cool 59 F. (15 C.) and sunny, just after 8am in Charlotte NC

I'll join in too. I need to finish The Gifted School before my library book club meets Monday morning to discuss.

78 of these? The mind boggles. I'm in. I have to distract myself from the 9/11 anniversary. This year another friend's name will be added to the list of names -- he died of lung failure initially caused by 9/11 (after spending six months in an ICU in 2001/2002).

I finished Farewell, Babylon Coming of Age in Jewish Baghdad by Naim Kattan and am looking for my next read.

kicking off on Friday just after 5p -

Books:
Finished the strange Afterland. Fair to middling. : |
Only 30 pages into The Jane Austen Society and I'm liking this one already.

Other activity:
Catering to the needy old cat.
Watching wildlife in my back yard - 3 bunnies, butterfly, lizard, myriad of birds, pesky squirrels so far today.
I think something is eating my oak leaf hydrangea. I suspect the bunnies but I haven't caught them at it.

Dinner? I hope my husband brings something back . . So far just a gin & tonic.

Sunny, 79 F. (26 C.)

>8 Chatterbox: That's so sad for you and their family. I hope you get through the day ok.

I'm in, I managed to finish a chunky manga, Osamu Tezuka's Triton of the Sea omnibus 1, before getting out of bed this Saturday morning.
I will now tackle my daily chapter of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, ten of these each month and I'm on target to finish by end of year.
Also on the go are The Driftway by Penelope Lively, The Know by Martina Cole, Dodgers by Bill Beverly and a novella A Village Romeo & Juliet by Gottfried Keller.

I'm in.

I finished a bunch of books this last week and started one. I will be mainly working on When the Sea Turned to Silver and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made for the Non - fiction challenge for this month. I am also listening to Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi. I don't know how much I will post as my computer is all messed up, but I will post some.

Friday night check-in.

Books read from: 2: The Secret History and Five Go to Smuggler’s Top
Books finished: 1: The Secret History
Time reading: 3 hours
Snacks: Tea, chocolate, almonds
Non-book activities: Knitting, watching TV, cat-snuggling

I'm in again.

I'm in again as I have time. I have a busy weekend ahead. I have managed to read a bit this evening, and I'm almost caught up with the group read of Salem Chapel.

Books read from: Salem Chapel
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: cashews, tea
Thoughts: I love the cooler weather but not the earlier sunsets.
Non-book activities: Long walk

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

Once I catch up with the Salem Chapel group read, I'll turn to this month's Donna Leon, Earthly Remains. I'm still trying to finish Stage-Coach and Tavern Days, and I'll try to read two or three chapters this weekend. There's so much information packed into it that my brain can't absorb much more than a chapter at a time.

I plan to participate this weekend although I've done very little reading tonight.

Update for Friday:

Books read from: The Gifted School
Books finished:
Time reading: about an hour

Snacks: Raspberry coffee cake, tea
Thoughts: Aaaah, nothing to do this evening
Non-book activities: You tube

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1

Update Friday and Saturday afternoon:

Books read from:
The Divine Comedy by Dante (for 100 Days of Dante) join here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/335118
The Humiliated and Insulted by Dostoevsky
By the Open Sea by August Strindberg

Books finished: 0
Snacks: Tea, coffee, bread and cheese
Thoughts: Excited to start on The Divine Comedy. Will I ever finish The Humiliated and Insulted?
Non-book activities: Watching movies tonight
Total books finished: 0
Total time reading: 4 hours

Saturday morning update:

Books read from: Earthly Remains, Salem Chapel, Stage-Coach and Tavern Days
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: sparkling water
Thoughts: It's a beautiful Saturday!
Non-book activities: farmer's market, hair appointment, errands, laundry

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

Saturday night update.

Books read from: 4 - Five Go To Smuggler’s Top, Busman’s Honeymoon, The Green Mill Murder, The Borrowers Afield
Books finished: 1 - Five Go To Smuggler’s Top
Time reading: A couple of hours
Snacks: Dinner (Nasi goreng), tea, nuts, sandwich, chocolate
Non-book activities: Grocery shopping, cat-cuddling, watching TV, crafts, yoga

Update for Saturday:

Books read from: The Gifted School
Books finished:
Time reading: a few hours

Snacks: Pizza with mushrooms and onions - Raspberry coffee cake, tea
Thoughts:
Non-book activities: Watched college football - had coffee with neighbors - picked up my new prescription sunglasses - shopped at a farmers market

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1

Saturday update

Books reading from: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt. Devils’s Cave by Martin Walker. I started Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I returned to listening to Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi.

Books finished in the last week: I finished a bunch of books this last week. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. Last of the Stanfields by the French author Marc Levy. When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin.

Time reading: 1hour this afternoon.
Time posting:
Food: roasted some eggplant to use in a salad I will make tomorrow.
Thoughts: I have become accustomed to having a computer at home and being without one is tough. However I had better get used to it as it is going to take a long time to get mine fixed.

Non-book activities:

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 157
Total time reading for the Read-A-Thon since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 429 hours since April 2020.

I've finished A Village Romeo & Juliet by Gottfried Keller. Also been reading from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Know by Martina Cole, Wynter's Thief by Sherryl Jordan.

Snacks: Feta, basil & sundried tomatoes scones
Non-book activities: baking, food prep, watching more K-dramas, listening to music.
Total books finished: 2 A Village Romeo & Juliet by Gottfried Keller (1856) & Triton of the Sea omnibus 1 by Osamu Tezuka

Update on Saturday Reading

Books read from:
The Invention of Nature - Alndrea Wulf
My Darling Detective - Norman Howard
The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal - Mary Trump
The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain

Books finished: 0
Time reading: 2 hours plus 3 and 1/2 hours listening
Pages read: 80 plus 6 chapters of audiobook
Snacks: chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, carrot sticks, chicken, wine
Thoughts: My house is extremely quiet this weekend.
Non-book activities: farmers market, yoga, laundry, chatted with my daughter, went to pool with a friend since it's about to close for the season, watched The Crown

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 4
Total pages read: 80 plus 6 chapters of audiobook
Total time reading: 2 hours plus 3 and 1/2 hours listening

Sunday morning update:

Books read from: Earthly Remains
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: breakfast was buttermilk pecan pound cake and tea
Thoughts: I'm so happy that cooler weather has arrived.
Non-book activities: Prepping vegetables for the roast I'll cook after church.

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

Friday/Saturday update:

Books read from: Ceremony of Innocence by Madeleine Bunting, The Women of Troy by Pat Barker, Stettin Station by David Downing (a 're-listen').
Books finished: 3
Time reading: About 15 hours

Snacks: Peanut butter sandwiches yesterday since I already had a migraine; today a rice bowl with raw tuna, salmon, marinated cucumber, seaweed salad, mango, edamame. Delish.
Thoughts: Feeling overwhelmed by the world
Non-book activities: Not all that much. Went for a walk yesterday.

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 15 hours or so

Dunno what I'll read next. I should read some of my borrowed books, but that would require GLASSES, horrors. I can read with them on, but they also (ironically) feel as if they strain my eyes.

Sunday 8 pm

A lot of distractions from reading this weekend, but on Friday night, Saturday morning and late last night I did manage a bit of reading, and am hoping to fit in another hour or so this evening.

Books read from:
Sally Rooney, Two Stories - audiobook of two short stories - FINISHED 10.09.21
Nathan Harris, The Sweetness of Water - FINISHED 11.09.21
Pat Barker, The Women of Troy - STARTED 11.09.21
Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: a Life
Lilian Li, Number One Chinese Restaurant
Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers
Christopher Duggan, Fascist Voices - STARTED 10.09.21

Books finished: 2
Pages read: 206
Listening time: 20 minutes
Book related activities: LT and Goodreads updates
Non-book activities: Social media, TV and radio, Bejeweled Blitz
Saturday: end of a Friends of the Library meeting, visiting my cousin
Sunday: Zoom meeting

Total books finished: 2
Total read/listened from: 7

Books read from: 3 - Busman’s Honeymoon, The Green Mill Murder, The Borrowers Afield
Books finished: 0
Time reading: A couple of hours
Snacks: Dinner (risotto), tea, dried apple rings, sandwich, chocolate
Non-book activities: cooking dinner, cat-cuddling, watching TV, knitting, yoga

Total books finished: 2 - Five Go To Smuggler’s Top, The Secret History
Total read from: 5

Update for Sunday:

Books read from: The Gifted School
Books finished:1
Time reading: a few hours

Snacks: Leftover pizza
Thoughts:
Non-book activities: Watched football
Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1

Yay! I finished my book in time for today's book club!!

Final report:

Books read from: Salem Chapel, Stage-Coach and Tavern Days, Earthly Remains
Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3

I read half of Earthly Remains and made good progress in Salem Chapel and Stage-Coach and Tavern Days. Given how full my weekend was with non-reading activities, I am very happy with the amount of reading I was able to fit in!

Final report:

Books read from: Commodore Hornblower, Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology
Books finished: 0

Pages read: 300

Definitely a lesser weekend of reading for me. I blame football season.

Sunday evening, late night

Books read from: Hermione Lee, Penelope Fitzgerald: a Life

Books finished: 0
Pages read: 72
Book related activities: LT and Goodreads updates
Non-book activities: Social media, TV and radio, Bejeweled Blitz

Total books finished: 2
Total read/listened from: 7

I didn't finish any further books but today I've finished reading the Penelope Fitzgerald buigraphy. I'm also more than halfway through The Women of Troy and have read more from Number One Chinese Restaurant and The Great Believers.

I have too many books out from libraries, a lot of them are in demand and several more books that I'm at the top of the queue for have just come through to the library (a number of Booker longlist titles which were on order).

Weekend roundup

Books:

Finished The Jane Austen Society by Jenner late last night, in time for book club tomorrow.
I liked it. Made me want to read/reread all the Austen books.

20% of the way through the audio ed. of
The Downstairs Girl, Stacey Lee.

Pre-ordered the newest in the Outlander series, out in Nov!
Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon.

Breakfast: coffee, museli and milk.
Lunch: leftover Chinese fried rice.

Other activity -
Finished watching Masterpiece series "Guilt" last night.
Planning a road trip!
Donated memorial trees to Arbor Day Foundation

Thoughts:
Depressing that after a year and a half of covid, here we are as bad off as ever. Come to think of it, SOMEWHAT better due to vaccine, but I'm still staying in and avoiding crowds after short reprieve in the spring/early summer when things improved for a short time.
Now concerned about the kids, still unvaccinated and back in school; and breakthrough cases, and mutations.

Final update:

Read from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Know by Martina Cole, Wynter's Thief by Sherryl Jordan, The Driftway by Penelope Lively

Snacks: leftovers
Non-book activities: baking, food prep, watching more K-dramas

Total books finished: 2 A Village Romeo & Juliet by Gottfried Keller (1856) & Triton of the Sea omnibus 1 by Osamu Tezuka

Total reading time: about 8hrs

The Know will be a DNF, after about 60pages, just don't feel like this type of read.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/335306