Social Distancing Readathon #137 - October 28 - 30

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 excited that I'll be done with the presentations except for a Q & A by tomorrow at noon so I can hopefully settle in for a weekend of reading and stitching. Well, I do work Sunday so it will cut into the time, but maybe I can listen to an audiobook part of the time since Sunday library traffic doesn't usually pick up until about 7 pm.

>1 SilverWolf28: I am in again. I have a bunch of October TIOLI Challenge books yet to read.

I'm in.

Have to finish my book club selection - Varina by Charles Frazier.
Heading to Asheville and the mountains tomorrow for a couple nights. Meeting up with husband's siblings.
I can read on the way.

cloudy, 63 F. (17 C.) in Charlotte

Halloween edition!

That may not be a big deal to anyone else, but my kids are excited

I'm in for this weekend. I have a pinched nerve in my neck and sitting in urgent care and doctor's offices I've been getting a lot of reading done over the past few days. I've been in a lot of pain and now I'm pretty drugged, so I mostly can't do anything but read. I haven't been able to concentrate for audiobooks, my preferred reading, so I've been focusing on ebooks and paper books.

>6 The_Hibernator: That is exciting! Maybe I should prioritize my spookiest books this weekend. Definitely I should take the opportunity to catch up with Dracula Daily.

I'm in - reading slowly but now reading!

I’ll be in and out all weekend but I hope to fit some reading in so please add my name.

>7 lottpoet: sorry to hear about your neck, I have suffered from neck pain in the past and it's awful.

Books read from: October Country, The Windsor Knot
Books finished: October Country
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 7:15 pm
Snacks: chili and a maple glazed donut
Thoughts: thought I’d post now and put books down to play Rummikub and watch game one of the World Series
Non-book activities: went to medi-clinic to remove a tick from my neck and get script for antibiotics.
He must have hopped on board as I was picking up sticks and twigs last night for a bonfire. Sheesh!

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

I'm in, hoping to have a semi-relaxing weekend even thought we have to plant the tree we got from the city (a Bosnian pine) in our backyard tomorrow and I'm preaching at my church on Sunday.

Friday night:

Books read from: Saga, Vol. 2
Books finished: Saga, Vol. 2
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting: 8:40 PM
Snacks: pizza for dinner
Thoughts: This series is so strange and beautiful and weird and ugly all at the same time.
Non-book activities: Work, laundry

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

Friday Night Update:

Books read from: From the Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe, Endpapers by Alexander Wolff, Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace, In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar, and The Yard by Alex Grecian
Books finished: 2, From the Land of Green Ghosts and Endpapers
Time reading: 4.75 hours

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 4.75 hours

Friday

Books read from: Dracula by Bram Stoker from Dracula Daily
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ?
Snacks: banana, clementine, apple slices dipped in chocolate hummus, homemade granola and vanilla non-dairy ice cream, tacos, cacao tea, fruit smoothie, cashews
Thoughts: Still upping the dose of one of my meds so I slept most of the day. In and amongst snoozing, Dracula feels very wordy and glacial to me. It's hard to remember that I know more about vampires than they do.
Non-book activities: lots of dozing, washed some dishes, played Two Dots on my phone, had a couple of short phone meetings

Almost finished Deceiver last night, should be able to complete it this evening.

Update on Friday reading.

Books read from: A Shot in the Dark, Le Petit Prince, The Sympathizer, Interpreter of Maladies
Books finished: 0 but I finished two on the plane
Pages read: 138
Snacks: dinner at Japanese restaurant
Thoughts:I’m reading this weekend from Claremont, California where I’m visiting my daughter.
Non-book activities: brunch, campus art tour, catching up, dinner

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 4
Total pages read: 138

Saturday morning update

Books read from: I read my 2 pages today in Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty. I started reading Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn last night. My main book is A Surprise For Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards for a book discussion in December. I am listening to Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I am also slowly looking at the illustrations in Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill since I have the book.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon:
Book Thoughts: I am loving the illustrations in Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill. Now that I have the book they are really helping me to make sense of the recorded version. I also noticed that the illustrations are beautiful and precise reproductions. This might be one of those books that should be read rather than listened to. I started the second memoir by Loretta Lynn and so far the book is a rehash of her first memoir. It does have a bit more detail in it and since I am only 35 pages into it I will continue to read it and hope that it covers the years of her life after 1976 when Coal Miner's Daughter was written.

I am mainly reading A Surprise for Christmas and am enjoying these golden age of mystery short stories a great deal - but not as much as I thought I would. Most of the stories were written in the 1940's and 1950's and are the typical British mystery books.

I am deep into the reading of Beartown and this book is not at all what I expected. I think I will read more books by Fredrik Backman.

Non Book Activities: Knitting. I am trying to finish a shawl and am very close. I will be cooking this afternoon. I spent a wonderful evening with my Friday night supper group. We had another picnic on the Quad with wine and Greek food from the local Greek restaurant. It was lovely. We had a great time and I didn't get home until just before midnight. The weather was perfect for a picnic and I intend to enjoy this time with them to the fullest since it will be my last few months at work and I will be moving back home.
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: I have to make a salad for wine club on Tuesday and plan on making a ferro vegetable salad. I am going to cook the ferro today, cut up the veggies, and make the dressing so that all I have to do on Tuesday is throw it together and take it for the meeting.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 273
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 742 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Books read from: Station Eleven and The Death of Jane Lawrence
Books finished: The Death of Jane Lawrence
Time reading: hours and hours -was on a plane…
Time posting: Saturday evening
Snacks: really nice Blue Apron dinner. Gonna have some bourbon later
Thoughts:
Non-book activities: yard work, yard work

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

Saturday night:

Books read from: A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Books finished: none
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting: 8:20 PM
Snacks: pumpkin gelato
Thoughts: Is it weird that I love pumpkin gelato when I don't like pumpkin pie (or at least would never choose it in a world that has pecan, apple, or berry pies)?
Non-book activities: Farmers market, laundry, planted tree in backyard, watched a little football and continued to growl at Auburn for not firing their coach yet.

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

>15 fuzzi:
Auburn can't fire their coach until December 1, 2022. If they do they have to pay him 15 million. It's in his contract.

However, I really don't think that would bother the people who pump money into the Auburn sports machine. After all, these are the same people who paid three coaches at the same time for over two years when they fired them after giving them contracts that guaranteed the coaches payment. One of those three was the current idiot senator from Alabama - Tommy Tuberville. Every time I see him and he refers to himself as "coach," or somebody else does, I want to scream at the TV that "you were fired from that job, so why brag about it?"

Saturday night update

Books read from: I read my 2 pages today in Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty. Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn. A Surprise For Christmas and Other Seasonal Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards for a book discussion in December. I am listening to Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I am also slowly looking at the illustrations in Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill since I have the book.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: A Surprise for Christmas edited by Martin Edwards
Book Thoughts: I finished reading A Surprise for Christmas and enjoyed it, even though I don't really care that the stories are all centered around Christmas or holiday celebrations.

I listened to more of Beartown as I drove around doing my errands today and this book is really different than I thought it would be.

Non Book Activities: I slept in and talked on the phone alot today.
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: I botched the bulger cooking and am going to try to salvage it. I put too much water in it and so it is more like a porridge than the separated kernels I need it to be for a salad. I may have to cook a new batch tomorrow. However, the roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas turned out well.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 274
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 744 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Saturday reading
Books read from: A Shot in the Dark, Le Petit Prince, The Sympathizer, Interpreter of Maladies
Books finished: 2 (A Shot in the Dark, Le Petit Prince)
Pages read: 225
Lunch: fish tacos Dinner: ramen
Thoughts:I had more time to read than I expected as my daughter is stressed about midterms and needed to study
Non-book activities: walk, lunch, nap, dinner

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 4
Total pages read: 321

Saturday Night Update:

Books read from: Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace, In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar, The Report by Jessica Francis Kane, Royal Blood by Bertram Fields, Denmark Vesey's Garden by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts, and The Yard by Alex Grecian
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 5.65 hours

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 8
Total time reading: 10.4 hours

Saturday

Books read from: Dracula by Bram Stoker from Dracula Daily, The Oracle, Book I: Here of There by Joanna M. Pilatowicz, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters, Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John, Fiancee of the Wizard 1 by Masaki Kazuka
Books finished: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
Time reading: ?
Snacks: banana, clementine, apple slices dipped in peanut butter, tacos, cacao tea, fruit smoothie, cashews, homemade chocolate oatmeal walnut coffee cake, homemade applesauce in the crockpot
Thoughts: Now that I'm out of the haze of pain, I have a lot more questions about what recovery looks and feels like.
Non-book activities: Quordle, some dozing, washed some dishes, played Two Dots and Free Cell on my phone, cooked, did a load of laundry, watched an episode of Hannibal (now in second season)

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: ?

Saturday update:

No progress on the reading front however I’ve had a wonderful weekend with my son who’s home for the weekend.
I think I blew the leaves for the final time this season. Ugh, what a job!
Back to the books this evening.

Sunday night update

Books read from: I read a whole chapter in Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty. Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn. I finished reading Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson. I am listening to Beartown by Fredrik Backman. I am also slowly reading through the captions and looking carefully at the illustrations in Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill since I have the book.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson. A Surprise for Christmas edited by Martin Edwards

Book Thoughts: I finally finished Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground. This was a National Book Award finalist when the book was published but by the time I got to the end of the book, I was bored with all that Confederate blathering on about honor, country, and being invaded. I enjoyed how the author put the topography of the battlefield into the picture and helped the reader to understand how the land itself played such an important part in the outcome of the battle.

I am so into listening to Beartown. I can't wait to hear how this one comes out.

Non Book Activities: helped a friend of mine pack up and move her stuff. She is getting ready to have her carpets ripped up and having the original hardwood floors sanded, stained, and varnished. As much work as she is doing she should have hired a moving company. I told her to just wash the clothes instead of packing all of them up and moving them to the basement, but she isn't listening to me.
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: I cooked another batch of bulgar and this time it turned out right. Great stuff. Nutty and will fit into the salad perfectly.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 275
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 7466 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Sunday Night Update:

Books read from: Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace, In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar, The Report by Jessica Francis Kane, Royal Blood by Bertram Fields, Denmark Vesey's Garden by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts, The Yard by Alex Grecian, and Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant
Books finished: 3, Covered with Night, The Report, and The Yard
Time reading: 6 hours

Total books finished: 5
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: 16.4 hours

Weekend update:

Books read from: Bible (KJV), God Hears Her by Our Daily Bread Ministries, Where Do We Go From Here? by David Jeremiah, A Bitter Taste of Murder by Camilla Trinchieri, Read on Arrival by Nora Page
Books finished: None
Time reading: ??
Time posting: ??
Snacks: Chex party mix, peanut M & Ms
Thoughts: Happy Reformation Day!
Non-book activities: petting cats, cross stitch, editing, FlossTube, working at the library

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: ??

Sunday update:

Books read from: The Windsor Knot
Books finished: 1 The Windsor Knot
Thoughts: wondering if SJ Bennett will continue this series with King Charles as royal sleuth.
Non-reading activities: watched Cleveland Cavs vs New York

Time reading: 3 hours

Sunday

Books read from: Dracula by Bram Stoker from Dracula Daily, Tales from the Loop by Simon Stalenhag, Animal Man, Book One by Grant Morrison
Books finished: Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John, Tales from the Loop by Simon Stalenhag
Time reading: ?
Snacks: banana, cacao tea, smoothie bowl with homemade granola, cashews, homemade chocolate oatmeal walnut coffee cake, homemade applesauce, df nacho grain free tortilla chips, strawberry soda
Thoughts: I really liked Tales from the Loop. It reminds me of the 'truthiness' category at the film festival in town several years ago which featured documentaries that fuss with the foundations of documentaries. I saw the Herzog film Lessons of Darkness which featured actual footage of them trying to put out the fires on the oil wells of Kuwait but had a sci-fi futuristic story narrated on top of it, including a bit of fiddling with the timing of the documentary images (to make it seem like they re-started a fire they had just put out).
Non-book activities: Quordle, some dozing, washed some dishes, played Two Dots and Free Cell on my phone, made granola, listened to a podcast, had a short phone meeting in the evening

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 7
Total time reading: ?

Since I don't have attention for much else, I will continue to read into Monday.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345596