Social Distancing Readathon #148 - January 13 - 15

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'd like to finish Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and then move on to The Passenger or the Rosie project

I'm in! I have a couple of ebooks I need to finish before the loan expires.

>2 Carmenere: I loved The Rosie Project!

I'm in. I'm having surgery on Monday (breast reduction to help manage chronic upper back, neck, and shoulder pain, so it should be fairly routine...but surgery is surgery), so I'll probably be looking to distract myself from stressing about it.

I am IN again this week! I have a RLBG book and a pile of library books and other potentials.

>2 Carmenere: >3 cbl_tn: I also loved The Rosie Project.

Friday evening update:

Books read from: Detective Inspector Huss
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: Supper was salad, ceral & fruit, and tea
Thoughts: It's cold and we had a wintry mix most of the afternoon. I did my grocery shopping on the way home from work so I don't need to go out tomorrow if I don't want to, except I do need to take the trash to the dump at some point!
Non-book activities: Fixing supper

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

I have a couple of chapters to go in Detective Inspector Huss so I should be able to finish it tonight.

>4 susanna.fraser: Sending healing thoughts to you. Reading is a great distraction. My Kindle was recommending a hot romance that promised "scorching-hot forbidden love" and I'm wondering if it was trying to tell me something.

>7 witchyrichy: Thanks! I'm simultaneously nervous and kinda looking forward to the recovery time, because it's going to be so nice to not have to be responsible for much of anything for several weeks because I basically have to act as if I have T-rex arms and not lift or carry anything much heavier than a Kindle for awhile. :-)

Friday evening:

Books read from: Saga Vol. 8
Books finished: Saga Vol. 8
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting: 6:20 PM
Snacks: granola bar
Thoughts: Saga remains consistently the weirdest.
Non-book activities: Work, laundry

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

>2 Carmenere:
>3 cbl_tn:
>5 witchyrichy:
2 thumbs up for The Rosie Project!

>8 susanna.fraser:
Susanna, hope your surgery goes smoothly with complete success. Wishing you an easy and speedy recovery.

Books:
Just finished Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen.
Now reading The Various Haunts of Men, first in a British mystery series.
Still reading Carbonel.

Dinner was leftover turkey/rice/vegetable soup.

Packed away the last of the holiday decorations today.
No obligations this weekend! I plan to read a lot.

Friday evening update:

Books read : Tomorrow and Tomorrow and tomorrow
Books finished:
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 10:30 pm

Non-book activities: watched a few episodes of The Office

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

Friday night update:

Books read from: Detective Inspector Huss
Books finished: Detective Inspector Huss
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: beef broth
Thoughts: I'm too sleepy to think!
Non-book activities: Nap

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

I'm off to bed. Next up: After the War

Finished a book I'd been working my way through all week:

Books read from: Alternate Peace
Books finished: Alternate Peace
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting: 9:25 PM
Snacks: Chinese takeout for dinner
Thoughts: Hopefully tomorrow we'll manage to put all the remaining Christmas stuff away.
Non-book activities: Eating dinner

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

Saturday morning update:

Books read from: The Belton Estate
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: breakfast was toast and hot chocolate
Thoughts: I woke up to light snow and ice on the deck, and I was glad I did my grocery shopping yesterday on the way home from work. No need to get out today if I choose not to!
Non-book activities: laundry, thread-hopping

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

I am caught up with the group read of The Belton Estate so I'll move on to After the War.

Saturday noon update

Books read from: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. I am listening to Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Thoughts: I enjoyed reading the second installment of the Last Policeman series by Ben H. Winters. I started this one while driving back from Kansas. I don't have access to the third and final installment to the series so will have to place an Inter-Library Loan request for it. Since it is a three day weekend for me, I hope to spend most of Monday reading and catching up on all of my books for various obligations.

Non Book Activities: I will be spending the rest of today looking for my office keys. Somehow in the rush to leave in December, or the rush to get back to work, I misplaced them. I remember putting them on my kitchen counter before I left in December because I wouldn't need them in Kansas and thought they would only get in the way. This afternoon I am going to start with my bookbag and my counter top and and then move on to the car. It is cold outside, but the sun is bright and that will help with the looking for my key chain in the car. I will have to turn in my keys upon my retirement or I will get charged for them, so I had better find them. I have already been through my coats and the pockets of any clothes I wore and so far haven't found them. It is very strange for me - in 30 years of employment here and in any place I worked before, I have never lost office keys. I guess there is a first time for everything.

Time reading: 1 hours
Time posting: .5 hours.
Food: My own coffee I didn't want to go to Starbucks this morning and the last of my filled croissants from Le Quartier in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 291
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 797 since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2

Saturday evening update:

Books read from: After the War
Books finished: After the War
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: supper was salad, cheese & crackers
Thoughts: It's been a dreary day and I couldn't motivate myself to do much but read. I did make a trip to the dump, did several loads of laundry, and washed the dishes, so I wasn't completely lazy.
Non-book activities: laundry, trip to dump

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

Getting ready to start Parallel Journeys. With any luck, I'll finish it tomorrow.

Saturday update:

Nothing new to report. RL friends and fun and food took my reading time away.
Hope to catch up today.

Sunday morning:

Books read from: Rust in the Root
Books finished: Rust in the Root
Time reading: 4 hours
Time posting: 11:20 PM
Snacks: cereal for breakfast
Thoughts: This time 24 hours from now my surgery should be over, if everything stays on schedule.
Non-book activities: watching football, cooking, laundry, church

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 6 hours

Sunday afternoon update:

Books read from: Parallel Journeys
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lunch was pumpkin chili & ice cream
Thoughts: The sun is out!
Non-book activities: cooking, church, nap

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: ?

>17 susanna.fraser: I'll be thinking of you tomorrow and wishing you well.

Sunday afternoon

Books:
The Various Haunts of Men
Carbonel
Plan to finish both today.

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast

Other activity:
Not much. My husband and I both have colds. :(
First cold since before COVID. Tested this morning to make sure it's not COVID as I have things to do and places to go this week.

Sunny, 54 F. (12 C.)

Sunday afternoon update

Books read from: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. I am listening to Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Thoughts: I finished reading Thousand Ships this morning. This one was for my real life book club. I enjoyed this book and found it very readable. However, the literary quality of this book was nowhere as good as that of Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. I think that Thousand Ships gave a nice clear time-line to the story and that was helpful and interesting to read. This was a good Book Club selection as there is much to talk about in this novel.

Non Book Activities: I found the office keys. They were caught inside of my black shawl that I keep in my bookbag. The shawl was rolled up and in the bottom of the book bag where it had lain since I flew to Bozeman over Thanksgiving. Somehow the keys got into the wrong compartment and worked their way into one of the folds of the shawl. When I took the shawl out to shake it and through it into the wash the keys fell out.

Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: My usual Starbucks cappuccino and a piece of pecan bundt cake.
Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 292
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 799 since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Sunday evening update:

Books read from:

Morning by Morning by Charles H. Spurgeon
Evening by Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon
Holy Bible (NASB)
God Sees Her by Our Daily Bread Ministries
On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay
Shunned and Dangerous by Laura Bradford
When Poets Pray by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten

Books finished:

On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay - finished Saturday afternoon
Shunned and Dangerous by Laura Bradford - finished Saturday night
When Poets Pray by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre - finished Sunday night

Snacks: a cinnamon roll from Yoder's

Non-book activities:

cross stitch
petting cats
napping with the cats
church
Flosstube

Total books finished: 3

Total read from: 8

Sunday night update:

Books read from: Parallel Journeys
Books finished: Parallel Journeys
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: pistachios, cereal & fruit
Thoughts: It's been a successful readathon!
Non-book activities: Walk with the dog, cleaning up kitchen, Zoom church

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: ?

Sunday night update:

Books read from: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Books finished: I'll finish it tomorrow :0)
Time reading: 3 1/2 hours
Time posting: 9:35pm
Snacks: Leftover Hungarian Goulash with Noodles
Thoughts: Since tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day I'm planning to continue this Readathon till Monday night.
Non-book activities: Church, 1/2 the day was spent installing new modem and router. If I had not wasted 4 hours doing that I might have finished a book.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 6 1/2 hours

Sunday night update

Books read from: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I am listening to Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Thoughts: I didn't read much this afternoon, but plan on making that up tomorrow. I started reading Detective Inspector Huss for the mystery series read along group here on LT, but will make more progress on it tomorrow.

Non Book Activities: I met a friend for lunch today and spent most of the afternoon with her. I will do my cooking tomorrow. I plan on making a nice size batch of soup and then plan to read most of the afternoon. I spent this evening knitting and watching my Sunday night PBS shows.

Time reading: 1hour
Time posting:
Food: I ate at Panera for lunch today and I simply don't understand why so many people eat at that over-priced tasteless food. I can get the same kind of tomato soup from the Campbell's can for 50 cents a serving and in that badly decorated cafeteria it costs $7.00. Add to that the fact that the seating is uncomfortable and I simply don't get it. I might pay that much for the food if the restaurant was tastefully decorated, but that isn't the case. At least the coffee there if fairly good.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 292
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 800 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Since it is a holiday weekend for me, I plan on reading tomorrow and adding those hours to the weekend social distancing readathon statistics.

I'm still reading To Serve Them All My Days, should have it done in the next few days.

But I managed to read and review some new books that I got for my grandchildren:

1. Birding for Babies: Migrating Birds: A Colors Book
2. Birding for Babies: Backyard Birds: A Numbers Book
3. Somebunny Loves You! - (Early Reviewer)

Monday noon update

Books read from: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I am listening to Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Thoughts: I have a good start on Detective Inspector Huss by the Swedish author Helen Tursten. I agree with others that the translation is a bit rough, but so far it is good and I am getting a sense of who Irene Huss is.
Non Book Activities: I am now headed out to purchase groceries and will be making chicken soup today. It is forecasted to a cold rainy gloomy week so chicken soup will hit the spot.

Time reading: 1hour
Time posting:
Food: Leftovers. nothing spectacular.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 292
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 801 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Monday, mid-day
Today is a holiday so I'm still reading

Books:
Finished The Various Haunts of Men, in the Simon Serrailler British detective series.
I immediately checked out the next one - The Pure in Heart. Discovered these from an LT member tip.
Almost done with Carbonel, a winning J fantasy. And I have the next 2 in the trilogy. Thank you fuzzi!

Sunday dinner was salmon, broccoli, potatoes
Breakfast - oatmeal w/ nuts and cherries.

Other activity:
Have to cook a dish or 2 to take to my neighborhood lunch party tomorrow.
I'm thinking of curried stuffed eggs and/or Russian vegetable salad; I renamed it Polish salad since Russia is out of favor. Poland makes a variation of the same salad.

Sunny, 54 F. (12 C.)

>28 nrmay: 😁😁😁

Monday night update

Books read from: A couple more pages from Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear, but my main book right now is Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I am listening to Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

Book Thoughts: I read 60 pages in Detective Inspector Huss today while still managing to get my chicken soup half cooked and going to yoga class.

Non Book Activities: I am somewhat inconvenienced by the shortage of chicken. I should have made beef stew or lentil stew. I went to two different grocery stores trying to find a plain rotisserie chicken so that I didn't have to cook chicken from scratch. No luck. I had to cook this soup from scratch. I will have to finish the cooking tomorrow night when I get home from work, because it took longer to cook than I thought it would. This is a new recipe so after all this trouble it had better taste good.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Food: didn't eat supper - went to yoga class instead.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 292
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 802 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Late on reporting in: spent the day ferrying the dog to the vet for his blood glucose check in. It includes a literal ferry trip. Also had dinner with an old friend. And, as a final excuse, our network at home was uncooperative.

A brief report:

Continued listening to Christmas at the Island Hotel
Finished The Day the World Came to Town for my RLBG meeting today
Continued Bloodlines for the BAC challenge
Read a bit from The Vikings
Started The Virginia Plan

My main activity was jarring sauerkraut that has been fermenting since October. Also started crocheting a tote bag for myself. It is an advanced pattern and takes a lot of concentration to read the diagram. I am now starting it for the third time.

Holiday weekend wrap-up

Books:
Finished Carbonel.
Started the fantasy Red Sister and
a historical novel The Book of Lost Names

Dinner last night - Crispy Honey-Dijon Pork, potatoes and green beans. Husband cooked. Thank you, Bob.
breakfast - oatmeal w/ cinnamon, pecans and dried cherries.
dinner tonight is Bob's turkey tetrazzini

Other activity:
I had a short shift in our neighborhood library this morning. It's very small, one room in the neighborhood club house. I have my Little Free Library installed out front.
My neighborhood has lots of activities; there's a ladies' lunch party today. My husband made my potluck dish for me - curried stuffed eggs. I'm getting over a cold and much better today but feel like I should skip the luncheon. I'm just going to take my eggs over.

cloudy, rainy. 51 F. (11 C.)

Monday's belated update:

Books read from: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:4:20pm Tuesday
Snacks: Mac n Cheese
Thoughts: Hmm pondering the hype behind TandTandT
Non-book activities: Stop at UPS Store, worked on Shutterfly album

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

>32 nrmay:
Red Sister is a book, and the series, that I want to read. Can't wait to see your updates about it on this thread.

>34 benitastrnad:
Almost 2/3 way through the first in the trilogy. I like it a lot; it's pretty violent but that's intrinsic to the plot.
I love a good fantasy series!

link to next one

https://www.librarything.com/topic/347873

>36 nrmay: Sorry, I thought I'd linked it here.