Social Distancing Readathon #111 - April 29 - May 1

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 will participate again. I hope to have a quieter weekend and so get more reading done than last weekend.

I'm in! I have a couple of books I want to finish by the end of the month.

I'm hoping to finish one tonight, but if not, I'll probably finish it tomorrow and will be able to count it as a finish. I have a busy weekend so I'm not sure how much reading time I'll have. I'll have at least a few hours listening time though--and that counts!

I am definitely in! I have TIOLI books for April that I need to finish yet.

I’m in, getting a start on my May reading.

Just got home last night from 3 days in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My sis and I were hiking in the Pisgah National Forest. I'm only a little stiff and sore. :)
Now I have a free weekend with no obligations. I plan to read a lot.

More than halfway through These Is My Words; very good!

Sunny, 61 F. at 10:30a

I'm in - currently reading The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad and The Best American Short Stories 2015 plus small daily readings of The Confessions of St. Augustine

I'm in--trying to finish my April reads and decide what to read in May.

Friday evening update:

Books read from: Fatal Pursuit, Heaven and the Afterlife, Broken Verses
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: Dinner was pork barbecue, slaw, and mac & cheese. We have a new barbecue place in town and it just may become my regular Friday night thing!
Thoughts: I love spring!
Non-book activities: walked the dog

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

I'm in- reading The Mirror and The Light.

Friday evening update:

Books read from: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings, and The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Books finished: 2, A Room of One's Own and Castle of Wizardry
Time reading: ~2.75 hours

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ~2.75 hours

Friday evening reading

Books read from: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott, Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan, In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie
Books finished: 2, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Small Things Like These
Pages read: 186 + 5 chapters audiobook
Time reading: 3 hours plus 1 hour listening
Snacks: Dinner was short ribs, and grilled halloumi with asparagus, that I ordered myself for pickup as a treat
Thoughts: I'm home alone for the weekend and enjoying the quiet and the reading time.
Non-book activities: work, pick up dinner, talked to all three kids and husband on the phone, dog walk

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 4 The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott, Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan, In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie
Total pages read: 186 + 5 chapters audiobook
Total time reading: 3 hours plus 1 hour listening

I will read some more after I get ready for bed. The big plus from having my husband gone this weekend is I can read with the light on as long as I want, and if I fall asleep with the light on (very likely) it won't matter. Small joys.

Friday night in Seattle:

Books read from: The Guns of August
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 9:50 PM
Food: Burrito for dinner
Thoughts: I'm still feeling fatigue from my second covid booster on Wednesday afternoon, somewhat to my surprise--I don't remember the first booster having as much of an impact.
Non-book activities: Work, laundry

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

>7 nrmay: oh, Pisgah is gorgeous.

I'm still spending most of my energy and time outside as the weather has been unusually cool. So far this weekend I've read several chapters of Where Eagles Dare and a couple of Old Testament books.

Saturday reading

Books read from: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott, In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie, The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin
Books finished: 1, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
Pages read: 110 + 1 chapter audiobook
Time reading: 2 hours plus 30 minutes listening
Snacks: Falafel sandwich from the farmer's market
Thoughts: I never used to suffer from seasonal allergies but in recent years I'm finding I do. My eyes are very itchy.
Non-book activities: farmer's market, dog walk, clean out refrigerator, accidental nap

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 5 The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott, Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan, In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie, The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin
Total pages read: 296 + 6 chapters audiobook
Total time reading: 5 hours plus 1 1/2 hour listening

Saturday night posting:
Books Read From: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission by Barry Friedman. I am close to finishing listening to Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brene Brown. I started reading Driving Mr. Albert: Trip Across merica with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti for a real life book club and started listening to Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for a shared read here on LT.

Books finished in this week's Readathon: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown

Book Thoughts: Persephone Station was a fun book to read. I read the 510 pages in 4 days, so it was an easy Mind Candy kind of read. Lots of fun. I didn't enjoy Atlas of the Heart that much, but that is not surprising. I am not big on self-help kinds of books. I hope to spend some time reading tomorrow since I didn't do much reading today.
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:1 hour
Food: mexican take out from Taco Bell.

Nonbook activities: I planted some of the plants I purchased last week. I had to do lots of digging and fertilizing so it was slow going today. I will work on this all of next week - a little bit at a time. I also put out the Fire Ant poison. I will do weed killing next weekend. I have cooking to do tomorrow so I can eat all week.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 227
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 602.5 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020.

Saturday evening update:

Books read from: In Two Minds by Alis Hawkins and Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
Books finished: 2, In Two Minds and Remote Sympathy
Time reading: ~6.5

Total books finished: 4
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: ~9.25 hours

Sunday morning update:

Books read from: Broken Verses, Heaven and the Afterlife
Books finished: Broken Verses, Heaven and the Afterlife
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: breakfast is cereal and banana
Thoughts: I wore myself out yesterday pulling weeds on the ornamental rock-covered slope near my house. I am still exhausted. It probably doesn't help that the allergist said I could try going without my asthma maintenance med (for mild asthma), I'm allergic to weeds, and I didn't have gloves to wear. I plan to take it easy today.
Non-book activities: weeding, shopping, walking the dog, catching up on Shakespeare and Hathaway

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

Sunday morning

Books:
Finished These Is My Words. Loved it; looking forward to the 2nd one, Sarah's Quilt
Well into the thriller, The Overnight Guest.
Tried to listen to my audio book, Sylvester by Heyer, on my walk last night but it cut off and wouldn't play to my great annoyance. Hoopla is not working for me. Prefer Libby Overdrive.

Snacks:
just coffee so far this morning, though husband just got back with some croissants. :)
Dinner last night was leftover smoked ribs and bbq beans from lunch out.

Other activity:
Going out shortly to plant flowers, tomatoes, and peppers we bought at the open-air market yesterday.
Must get going before it gets too hot.

Sunny, 72 F. (22 C.) at 11a in Charlotte, NC

Sunday evening update:

Books read from: The Women of the House, Ethel & Ernest
Books finished: Ethel & Ernest
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: leftover pizza, grapes
Thoughts: Weekends are too short!
Non-book activities: church, nap, walk with the dog

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: ?

Sunday night posting:
Books Read From: Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission by Barry Friedman. I started reading Driving Mr. Albert: Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti for a real life book club and started listening to Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for a shared read here on LT.

Books finished in this week's Readathon: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht. Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown

Book Thoughts: I didn't get to participate much in reading this weekend. I spent most of the day on Saturday working on other things, and this evening I did my Finals Week Read-Aloud at the library. This year I read Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian to 28 students. It was fun and most of them enjoyed it. Of course, we also gave out cups of free hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts.
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:1 hour - time on the computer - hours.
Food: Indian food from the local Indian restaurant.

Nonbook activities: I woke up to the wonderful sounds of rain. It rained most of the morning and I got wet going through the Starbucks drive through placing my usual Sunday morning coffee order. I started to login this morning to LT to update this thread and couldn't get on. My laptop can't connect to the Internet. I spent most of 2 hours working on that. Then the phone rang and I talked to my sister for over 2 hours. My niece didn't pass the bar exam in February and so will have to take it again. They are very disappointed, but I told my sister that just proves that there are standards in the profession and that sometimes it takes lots of work to meet those standards. She will pass it the next time. I am starting to gather the food stuff for my camping trip next weekend and will be spending most of the evenings this coming week cooking.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 227
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 603.5 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020.

Sunday evening update:

Books read from: The Outlander by Gil Adamson, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dosotoevsky, A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ~3 hours

Total books finished: 4
Total read from: 8
Total time reading: ~12.25 hours

I didn't quite finish Where Eagles Dare.

As the summer heat rolls in I'll be outside less and reading more...

Monday morning recap:

Books read from: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, The Best American Short Stories 2015, The Confessions of St. Augustine
Books finished: none
Total pages read: 230-ish

Non-reading activity: I spent most of Saturday participating in a barbershop harmony concert, so reading was slim.

>25 ChrisG1: I love barbershop and other harmonies!

Sunday reading

Books read from: In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie, The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin, Surfacing - Margaret Atwood, Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright, The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed, Circe - Madeline Miller
Books finished: 2, (In the City by the Sea, The Songlines)
Pages read: 249 + 4 chapters audiobook
Time reading: 4 1/2 hours plus 90 minutes listening
Snacks: Dinner was pizza and salad
Thoughts: Another too-short weekend.
Non-book activities: New York Times, laundry, dog walk, dishes, Wordle

Total books finished:5
Total read from: 9 The Final Revival of Opal & Nev - Dawnie Walton, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War - Karen Abbott, Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan, In the City by the Sea - Khamila Shamsie, The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin, Surfacing - Margaret Atwood, Fascism: A Warning - Madeleine Albright, The Fortune Men - Nadifa Mohamed, Circe - Madeline Miller
Total pages read: 545 + 10 chapters audiobook
Total time reading: 9 1/2 hours plus 3 hours listening

>26 fuzzi: I've been doing it for over 32 years & I find joining one's voice in harmony with other singers to be one of my life's great joys!

Weekend wrap

Books:
Finished These Is My Words and The Overnight Guest
Now reading Hissy Fit and listening to Sylvester by Heyer.

Read 6 books in April including 2 off my own shelves.

Other activity:
Watching OZARK on tv, where normal people have turned into monsters . .
Not many characters left that I still like.
Postcrossing, from which I learn something new with each postcard.
Never knew about Italy's Fat Ox Fair till now!

Going out now to finish planting my peppers. Dang squirrels dug up a couple of them. :(

Sunny, 82 F. (28 C.) just before noon.

>28 ChrisG1: I sang in a choir for a few years, loved the blending of voices. Sometimes it gives me chills.

I didn’t post after Friday night because a mildly irritated spot on my left pinky finger rather abruptly turned into a painful and even scary infection—I ended up in urgent care on Sunday morning. I’m on antibiotics and it’s a lot better, but still not fully healed.

I did manage to do some reading in the midst of all this and finished The Guns of August, Unseen City, and The Sound of Stars by Sunday night.

>31 susanna.fraser:
Wishing you a speedy recovery. I've had experience with sudden, tricky infections and they're no fun.
The Sounds of the Stars looks like one I would like; think I'll check it out. :)

>31 susanna.fraser:
I am not a doomsday person, but your story reminded me that the first person to receive penicillin was a man who developed blood poisoning from getting his thumb nicked by a rose thorn. Don't take that as a portent. It is just that when I hear about seemingly trivial things like that happening I am so thankful that I live today and not 100 years ago.

>33 benitastrnad: Definitely! This is probably the second bacterial infection I've had in my lifetime that very well might've killed me in a pre-antibiotic world, though in both cases that's assuming I would've survived childbirth given that I had gestational hypertension that might've turned into preeclampsia without treatment.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/341617

>31 susanna.fraser: sorry to hear about your experience.

My mother developed a finger infection when I was a baby, and my father was out of town. Since she was unable to go anywhere (three small children, no car) she called her physician who told her to soak her finger in warm water and epsom salts. She kept her finger soaking most of the day, and even soaked a washcloth in a strong epson salts solution and wrapped it around her finger before going to bed. The infection cleared without ever seeing the doctor.