Social Distancing Readathon #81 - October 1 - 3

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

Count me in again. I'm hoping to finish Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution.

I'm joining!

I'm in again. I have a full day tomorrow, but I should have time to read in the evenings. I'd like to finish The Museum Guard this weekend, and make good headway on At Home on the Range for next weekend's book club discussion.

Count me in.
Company coming for the weekend but I'll still have time to read.
I'll be finishing Relentless by Mark Greaney.

sunny, 64 F. (18 C.) at 10am in Charlotte.

I'm in again, although this may be a lighter reading weekend, with family visiting - my daughter & SIL with 2 month old granddaughter - yay!

Almost half way into The Evening Star by Larry McMurtry, as I work through his catalogue. Also reading Tales of East & West, the Limited Editions Club collection of Rudyard Kipling short stories.

I will participate. Finally got my computer up and running so it will be easier for me to stay connected with the group. I will be reading Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe this weekend.

Count me in!

Friday evening update

Books reading from: Still plugging away at Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt and oh so close to the end. I started reading Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe for one of my book discussion groups and I am listening to Last Girls by Lee Smith. I hope to start Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss tonight for the upcoming nonfiction challenge for October.

Books finished in the last week: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier and Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith.

Time reading: read for 1 hour today at lunch
Time posting:
Food: left over pizza
Thoughts: There is a big football game in town this weekend. UA against the University of Mississippi. Mississippi is ranked #12 in the nation so people are anticipating a good game. I have to work this weekend and will be doing so from home. I have to monitor our real time chat line. I think I will get lots of time to read and do some knitting.

Non-book activities: supper with friends tonight at their house.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 163
Total time reading for the Read-A-Thon since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 439.5 hours since April 2020.

I'm in although with less time this weekend. My pottery co-op is having a drive way sale this weekend

Friday night update:

Books read from: The Museum Guard
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: hot chocolate
Thoughts: I am glad it's Friday!
Non-book activities: walking the dog, TV, knitting

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

Friday 10 PM:

Books read from: Hero of Two Worlds
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: chicken biryani
Thoughts: It was a long week, so I hope for a restful weekend.
Non-book activities: Listening to the Mariners on the radio even as I type this.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 3 hours

Saturday afternoon in Charlotte NC

Books:
Finished Relentless by Mark Greaney. Now caught up with Gray Man series till new one comes out in Feb!
Now reading The Light Years, vol 1 of the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Howard. historical fic, England pre-WWII.

breakfast: museli and blueberries; lunch: sandwich

sunny and hot, 82 F. (28 C.)

Saturday afternoon update

Books reading from: I have about 10 pages left in Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt. My main effort is in reading Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe for one of my book discussion groups and because I had to get it through ILL and it is due back October 15. I am listening to Last Girls by Lee Smith. I hope to start Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss tonight for the upcoming nonfiction Heroes & Villain's challenge for October.

Books finished in the last week: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier and Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith.

Time reading: read for 1 hour today at lunch
Time posting:
Food: pasta salad
Thoughts: There is a big football game in town this weekend. UA against the University of Mississippi. Mississippi is ranked #12 in the nation so people are anticipating a good game. I have to work this weekend and will be doing so from home. I have to monitor our real time chat line. I think I will get lots of time to read and do some knitting. I got my computer up and running but the only thing is that I don't have the clock set to the correct time. I will have to figurer out how to do that.

Non-book activities: work and laundry

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 163
Total time reading for the Read-A-Thon since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 440.5 hours since April 2020.

I'm here again.

Update as of late afternoon Saturday:

Books read from: The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny, The Missing Piece by John Lescroart, One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley, Mayday 1971 by Lawrence Roberts and re-read via audio of The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
Books finished: 1, The Madness of Crowds. Felt too didactic for Louise Penny.

Time reading: About 11 hours
Time posting: none at all!
Snacks: had cheese and crackers for dinner last night.
Thoughts: Brain is dead.
Non-book activities: Returned some books to Athenaeum, picked up a few urgent supplies on the way home, talked my father down from his latest anxiety attack.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5 (see list above)
Total time reading: 11 hours

Saturday 9 PM

Books read from: Hero of Two Worlds
Books finished: none
Time reading: 2 hours
Food: grilled cheese and tomato soup
Thoughts: What a gorgeous sunny day after a week that was ridiculously rainy even for Seattle.
Non-book activities: Watching the Auburn-LSU football game

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

Saturday reading

Books read from: The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf
Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon

Books finished: 0
Pages read: 113
Time reading: ?
Dinner: Pasta with white beans and pesto
Thoughts: I was able to make all the travel arrangements for my father's memorial service next weekend. It feels like it took up a large chunk of the day.
Non-book activities: yoga, farmers market, booking plane tickets, Ted Lasso episode

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3 The Bluest Eye, The Invention of Nature, Death at La Fenice
Total time reading:?

Sunday 6.10 pm

Books read from: 9
Rebecca Pawel, Law of Return - #8 - FINISHED 01.10.21
Maggie Shipstead, Great Circle
Christopher Duggan, Fascist Voices
Anne Bogel, I'd Rather Be Reading
Frances Brody, A Snapshot of Murder
Willy Vlautin, The Night Always Comes
Sinead Gleeson, The Glass Shore
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising
Philip Pullman, Lyra's Oxford
Katherine Rundell, Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise

Pages read: 241
Books finished: 11
Thoughts: Aaarrrgghhhh
Non-book activities: COVID tests and discussions. Danny started complaining of feeling unwell late on Friday, saying he'd been feeling rough for a few days, and we had to raise the issue of him taking a COVID lateral flow test. He wasn't very happy that we brought it up, but he did do it. Mike and I have also tested positive, Conor doesn't seem to be. Who writes the COVID guidance online? It's very hard to understand if you want to be vaguely responsible, and there are a lot of exemptions to needing to isolate that will leave people thinking either that no one needs to isolate, or that the distinctions are completely arbitrary and unfair.

Total pages read: 241
Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 9

Update as of early afternoon Sunday:

Books read from: The Missing Piece by John Lescroart, re-read via audio of The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn, and Codebreaker: The Untold Story of Richard Hayes, the Dublin Librarian Who Helped Turn the Tide of World War II by Marc McMenamin, Something of His Art: Walking to Lübeck with J.S. Bach by Horatio Clare.
Books finished: 2, The Missing Piece, Something of His Art

Time reading: 6 hours
Time posting: none at all!
Snacks: roast beef sandwiches for dinner yesterday evening, and rice pudding with lots of cinnamon. About to nosh on a peanut butter sandwich now.
Thoughts: Listening to the audiobook about Irish code breaking, read by a narrator with an Irish accent, caused unintentional hilarity. Often, the Irish don't pronounce the "h" in a word with "th" -- myths can become myts, for instance. In this case, since it's world war 2, the narrator is pronouncing Third Reich as if it's "turd" reich. accidentally extremely appropriate.
Non-book activities: Trying to get enough sleep, trying to find energy to do some work.

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 8 The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny, The Missing Piece by John Lescroart, One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley, Mayday 1971 by Lawrence Roberts, re-read via audio of The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, The Testimony of Alys Twist and Codebreaker: The Untold Story of Richard Hayes, the Dublin Librarian Who Helped Turn the Tide of World War II.
Total time reading: 17 hours

Saturday afternoon update:

Books read from: The Museum Guard
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lunch was ground pork & cabbage skillet, a peach, & tea
Thoughts: It's nice to be able to stay in and read on a rainy fall Sunday.
Non-book activities: church, cooking lunch & cleaning the kitchen

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

>19 Chatterbox:
What did you think of Something of His Art? That is a book I am curious about.

Sunday afternoon update

Books reading from: I have about 10 pages left in Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt. Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe for one of my book discussion groups and because I had to get it through ILL and it is due back October 15. I am listening to Last Girls by Lee Smith. I started Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss last night tonight for the nonfiction Heroes & Villain's challenge for October.

Books finished in the last week: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier and Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith. I am not likely to finish any more books this weekend. Throwaway Children is a chunkster and I have managed to read half of its 500 pages while sitting here monitoring my computer for work.

Time reading: read for 2 hour today. 1 while drinking coffee and 1 while at lunch
Time posting:
Food: indian take out food. I had a very spicy potato and cauliflower dish.
Thoughts: Rain spoiled the after game revelry last night. The big game ended about 5:00 PM. It was a short game with a very lopsided score and just about dark the rain broke through. It got windy and rained off and on all night long. The temperature outside is just about perfect now, but I am sure that the rain ruined the plans of many partying types of football fans. For those of us concerned about COVID that will mean an uptick in our "highest in the nation COVID related deaths" statistic because all those outdoor parties moved inside where people are more likely to get infected.

Non-book activities: work and laundry

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 163
Total time reading for the Read-A-Thon since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 442.5 hours since April 2020.

Sunday 5:45 PM

Books read from: Hero of Two Worlds
Books finished: Hero of Two Worlds
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: pumpkin spice flavored chocolate bar (it was fairly meh)
Thoughts: That was a very good book, but I wish it had included more of the author's thoughts on Lafayette's character and impact--thoughts I know he has because I listened to him talk about the book on a couple of podcasts.
Non-book activities: Listened to my favorite paleontology podcast (The Common Descent Podcast)

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

Books read from: The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn, Codebreaker: The Untold Story of Richard Hayes, the Dublin Librarian Who Helped Turn the Tide of World War II by Marc McMenamin, The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
Books finished: 1, The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn

Time reading: 5 hours
Time posting: none at all!
Snacks: Some pasta.
Thoughts: Struggling to find a good audiobook in which I can really immerse myself.
Non-book activities: Not much at all, alas. Yet again.

Total books finished: 4, The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn, The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny, The Missing Piece by John Lescroart, Something of His Art by Horatio Clare
Total read from: 9, the above plus One More Christmas at the Castle by Trisha Ashley, Mayday 1971 by Lawrence Roberts, re-read via audio of The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, and Codebreaker: The Untold Story of Richard Hayes, the Dublin Librarian Who Helped Turn the Tide of World War II by Marc McMenamin.
Total time reading: 23 hours

Sunday evening update:

Books read from: The Museum Guard
Books finished: The Museum Guard
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: carrot sticks
Thoughts: I finished a book, so it's another successful readathon!
Non-book activities: short walk with dog, laundry

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

Moving on to At Home on the Range for next week's Zoom book club.

I didn't do much reading this weekend. My pottery co-op had an outdoor driveway sale and it was great. The people who came did a lot of socializing in addition to buying pottery. I think that outdoor activities have a lot of attraction this fall.

Sunday night

Still reading The Light Years by Howard.

Dinner at a nice place overlooking Lake Norman with outdoor dining:
grouper and collard greens. Ice cream and cookies for dessert.

Other activity:
watching tv series 'A Million Little Things.'
took a walk
catching up with sister-in-law and her husband, here for the weekend.

Sunday reading

Books read from: The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf
Death at La Fenice - Donna Leon
A Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths
Henry and Clara - Thomas Mallon

Books finished: 1 (The Bluest Eye)
Pages read: 86 plus 13 chapters of audiobook
Time reading: ?
Dinner: Squash ravioli with sage
Thoughts: I would like a three day weekend please.
Non-book activities: walk, New York Times, errands, birthday dinner with daughter (27)

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5 The Bluest Eye, The Invention of Nature, Death at La Fenice, A Dying Fall, Henry and Clara
Total time reading:?

Sunday night summary:

Books read from: The Evening Star by Larry McMurtry. Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Tales of East and West - the Limited Editions Club collection of Rudyard Kipling short stories.

Books completed: The Evening Star

Pages read: 460

Sunday night

Books read from: 1
Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway

Pages read: 69
Books finished: 0

Total pages read: 310
Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 10

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/335838