Social Distancing Readathon #149 - January 20 - 22

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 am definitely in!

I'm in.

I am definitely participating and anticipate a better track record than last week as I am dog sitting at someone else's house. I will be watching tennis in the late evenings and early mornings but otherwise have the day open.

I'm in! >4 witchyrichy: I will be dog sitting at my house starting Saturday night.

Count me in! I'll be reading and hopefully finishing The Rosie Project.

I will be reading this weekend and will join in. I will be knitting as well, so will have less reading time, but I hope to finish the book I am currently reading.

I'm in!

I'm in!

Fri evening -
Spent the evening house-hunting online in the Chapel Hill area where my sister lives; thinking of moving but it's such a chore!
Now I'm being tempted to catch up on TV series, All Creatures Great and Small.

Books:
I did read earlier today; I'm close to finishing Red Sister
Still listening to Memory Man. Had to order an adapter from Amazon when my old, cheap, comfortable earphones with a round plug would not fit in my new IPhone. Now I can listen again while I walk.

Count me in, hope to finish Barnaby Rudge and begin The Elephant Keeper's Daughter.

Books read from: Daughter of the Morning Star, The Belton Estate
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: supper was pulled pork barbecue, slaw, and sweet potato chips
Thoughts: I'm glad it's Friday!
Non-book activities: watched The Absent-Minded Professor

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: ?

Friday night update:

Books read from: The Rosie Project
Books finished:
Time reading: 2.5 hours
Time posting: 10:30pm
Snacks: dinner - eggplant lasagna with salad and cinnamon roll for dessert
Thoughts:
Non-book activities: planning summer vacation-watched Virgin River on Netflix

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 2.5 hours

Book read from Morgenthau Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Family- I am on page 321- it is a fascinating story.
Dinner- chicken and onion pie, yam kugel, and tomato and avocado salad.

Friday Night Update:

Books read from: Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll, Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, Petty Treasons by Victoria Goddard, The War Against the Jews by Lucy S. Dawidowicz, and The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Books finished: 2, Palace Walk and Petty Treasons
Time reading: ~4.9 hours

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 7
Total time reading: ~4.9 hours

I am very behind on my January reading, so hopefully the readathons remaining in the month will help to catch me up!

Friday 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:

Book Thoughts: I am about 100 pages from finishing Detective Inspector Huss and am enjoying this first installment in this series.

Non Book Activities: I will be going to a knitting class tomorrow and I am excited about it. It will be two hours of listening to recorded books, and three hours of knitting and tea drinking. Can't wait.

Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting:
Food: ate supper at Red Lobster with friends. enjoyed the food, even if it was expensive, but didn't enjoy the conversation. One person was just plain contrary and it kinda ruined the evening for me.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 292
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 803 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Saturday morning update:

Books read from:

Bible (NASB)
Morning by Morning by Charles H. Spurgeon
Evening by Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon
God Sees Her by Our Daily Bread Ministries
Embroidering Her Truth by Clare Hunter
Wound Up in Murder by Betty Hechtman
Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten

Books finished: None yet

Snacks: Wasn't feeling good last night so I didn't really snack; Breakfast was cereal this morning (Cranberry Almond Crunch)

Thoughts:

Non-book activities: Cat petting, cross stitch, FlossTube

Total books finished: None yet

Total read from: 7

Saturday afternoon update:

Books read from: The Belton Estate
Books finished: The Belton Estate
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lunch was leftover pulled pork, slaw, & sweet potato chips, plus tangerines
Thoughts: It's a beautiful day out but still colder than I like it to be.
Non-book activities: hair appointment, grocery shopping, laundry, walking the dog

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

I have a few things I need to do around the house this afternoon - more laundry, clean out the fridge and freezer, take the trash to the dump, clean the bathrooms, & vacuum. I can listen to an audiobook except while I'm vacuuming. I just started Daughter of the Morning Star yesterday. Once the chores are done, I'll move on to The Eagle of the Ninth in Libby.

Spent most of the afternoon finishing Babel, Or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang

Saturday night update:

Books read from: The Rosie Project
Books finished:
Time reading: 2.5 hours
Time posting: 9:30pm
Snacks: dinner -leftover eggplant lasagna - strawberry pop tart for dessert
Thoughts: I will finish this book tomorrow
Non-book activities: planning summer vacation- finished season 4 of Virgin River on Netflix - washed laundry

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

I'm not going to do all the usual details this weekend because turns out being 6 days or so out from surgery still means being VERY TIRED, but so far I've finished The Plain Janes and am reading Ship Wrecked and An Illustrated Guide to London 1800.

Saturday Night Update:

Books read from: Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll, Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, The War Against the Jews by Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The Sway of the Grand Saloon by John Malcolm Brinnin, History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart and The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Books finished: None
Time reading: ~4.25 hours

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: ~9.15 hours

Saturday 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 and The Winners by Fredrik Backman.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer

Book Thoughts: I finished Falcon Thief and for the most part enjoyed it, but the narrator had a bad habit of dropping the volume of his reading at the end of sentences or paragraphs in key places, that I had to spend a great deal of time replaying and turning up the volume just to figure out what he was saying.

Non Book Activities: I went to my knitting class and had a really good time. The teacher had just come back from a two week trip to Egypt and I really enjoyed listening to her stories about the trip. It is a long way to go for a knitting class (100 miles) but I enjoy myself so much when I am there that it is worth the time and effort to do so. I will be able to go during the week after I am retired and I will enjoy that very much as well. They were having a sale of yarn in the shop and so naturally, I had to buy some. I also bought three different kinds of tea to take home for Mom and me. That will be a lovely experience.

Time reading: 1 hour at supper
Time posting:
Food: ate supper at a local Chinese restaurant and read. It was raining outside, and that good hot filling food and a book was a perfect end to the day.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 293
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 804 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Sunday morning update:

Books read from: The Eagle of the Ninth
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: Kind dark chocolate almond coconut bar & tea
Thoughts: I need more sleep.
Non-book activities: Saturday evening I made carrot salad, watched a Disney movie, and knitted while chatting with friends on Zoom
Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ?

I read Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld and had a good laugh. I really like his point of view.

Sunday afternoonupdate

Books read from: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten. I am listening to The Winners by Fredrik Backman.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird by Joshua Hammer. Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten

Book Thoughts: I finished reading Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten and enjoyed the book. It is the first book in a series of 8 books about Irene Huss, so that means that I have started another series. I seem to start as many series as I finish reading. It is not as introspective as I thought it might be, but it was well done. Even though it is Swedish Noir, it had a whole different feel to it than has the other books by Swedish authors I have read. It is not as dark and depressing as are many of the other Swedish Noir books I have read. I like that. I don't really like reading about sick psychotic killers and I don't like reading gory details. This book has none of either of those things, so I like it.

Non Book Activities: I spent 2 hours reading today. It is a dank gloomy day. Almost dark enough for the street lights to be on and it seemed like a sit in the chair in front of the TV and knit or sit in the chair and read kind of day. I did some knitting today on a cabled headband and will continue that tonight when I spend the evening watching my PBS shows. I am going to get started on baking a cranberry nut bundt cake and later this afternoon I am going to go to my office and start taking down my post cards. I have just over a month before I retire and I need to get those postcards off the walls and into boxes. After 30 years, I have a rather large collection on the wall.

Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: Indian food
Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 294
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 806 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon back in April of 2020.

Sunday Night Update:

Books read from: Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll, The Sway of the Grand Saloon by John Malcolm Brinnin, History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart and The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Books finished: 2, The Sway of the Grand Saloon and The Goblin Emperor
Time reading: 6 hours

Total books finished: 4
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: ~15.15 hours

>27 alcottacre:
I remember liking The Goblen Emperor. I'd like to go back to it and finish the trilogy.

>26 benitastrnad: Your description of Sunday fit mine perfectly as well: cold, rainy, and perfect for sitting by the woodstove and reading and crocheting.

I was dog sitting for a friend this weekend and mostly offline. Watched tennis early and late while I crocheted, entertained the dogs with walks and ball games and snuggled with the three of them (a BIG lab, a medium sized mutt, and a pug) on the couch and happily read.

I only officially finished one book: Book Lovers by Emily Henry. It was a fun, very self-aware romance in which the villainous literary agent (who knows she is the villain) ends up in the small town (although it isn't quite as adorable as it might seem) and eventually falls for the guy she thinks is arrogant and cold-hearted (just like her). I laughed out loud and didn't mind the torrid sex scenes. My only complaint is that it seemed to drag towards the end. Since we knew the outcome, it took just a couple chapters too many to get there, and I was a little relieved when I got to the Epilogue. This wasn't my typical reading but I picked it off an Amazon Best of 2022 list as part of the current Kindle challenge.

I read about 60 pages of The Book of Joy featuring the Dalai Lama and Archibishop Desmond Tutu talking about how to experience lasting happiness. I'll be picking it up again when I finish LT threads. I am reading it as part of the Random KIT challenge: it is a great book that has been gathering dust or whatever digital books gather in my Kindle library.

Classics CAT is all about adventure classics and I picked The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. I am about 2/3rds of the way through and enjoying it despite my 21st century sensibilities over comments about Jews and the lack of women. It is what it is and Pyle's writing is beautiful, almost poetic. I even read some of it aloud to the dogs: lots of detailed descriptions that put you right in the setting along with alliteration and sentences that flow. Seems funny to praise an adventure book for its prose but it is a wonderfully written book.

I am listening to Friends in High Places by Donna Leon. Since I don't drive much or very far any more and that along with dog walks was my audio book time, I have begun incorporating it into other parts of the day such as cooking and cleaning. Makes the chores go faster.

P.S. You may note that I am involved in several challenges. I didn't plan this but am finding that these various challenges have led to some reading I wouldn't have otherwise done and I am grateful for that.

Thanks, as always, for these readathons. I am already planning ahead to next weekend.

Sunday night update:

Books read from: The Rosie Project
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 10:25am Monday
Snacks: dinner - pasta with sauteed zucchini
Thoughts:
Non-book activities: planning summer vacation- watched cincy vs buffalo game - watched Joy Luck Club through Hoopla

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 7 hours

weekend wrap-up

Books:
Finished the fantasy Red Sister, 7th book for the year.
Now reading another fantasy, Uncanny Times.

Sunday dinner - I had Christmas turkey in the freezer so made turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and broccoli. Repeat tonight with leftovers!
brunch this morning - sausage and eggs.

Other activity:
Watched a couple episodes All Creatures Great and Small. I am a hopeless anglophile.
postcrossing, and a 2-hr shift in our clubhouse library.

Mostly sunny, 50 F. (10 C.)

Monday morning update: Yesterday I finished Ship Wrecked, continued to read from An Illustrated Guide to London 1800, and started On the Clock.

I'm hoping I can join the next one?

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348078