Labor Day Readathon - Social Distancing #232 - August 30 - September 2

Welcome to another readathon!

It's Labor Day in the United States so we'll be reading through Monday.

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 hope everyone has a wonderful reading weekend!

Family time this holiday weekend with my sis and her husband here and a cookout at my niece’s on Sunday.
But l’ll be reading when the chance arises.
Starting now before my sister arrives.
I’m reading London Rules by M Herron in the Slough House series.

Hot and sunny here just before noon -
87F/31C

I will be traveling on Monday - Labor Day, but I will be taking time to read the rest of the weekend. I hope to get a couple of short books finished this weekend.

I'm in again - no plans for the holiday, so I hope to get some good reading in. Currently reading Orbitsville by Bob Shaw and The Killing of a President by Robert J. Groden.

All my holiday festivities will be on Friday & Saturday so Sunday and Monday will be reading days while I kitty sit for my son.

Saturday startup

Books read from: English Creek by Ivan Doig. Meet Me At The Bamboo Table: Everyday Meals Everywhere by A. V. Crofts. Soul of the Sky: Exploring the Human Side of Weather edited by C. Ralph Adler. I am listening to Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and finished listening to Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers.

Books finished: Record of a Space Born Few by Becky Chambers

Book Thoughts: I liked the first two of the Wayfarers series that I listened to and so thought that Record of a Space Born Few would be good entertainment while I spent long hours on the road again this week. It wasn't. It was totally boring. It had to many different story lines that went in different directions. About three quarters of the way through the book I thought the stories were going to come together again - and then, they didn't. The novel just didn't come together in a way that made sense for me. I then started to listen to Big Lies in a Little Town and it caught my attention immediately. I will be driving on Monday and this book is going to entertain me all the way to Peoria, IL. I can tell already that it will be a good one. I also have started English Creek by Ivan Doig and know that I am going to like this one. It is the first in the McCaskill trilogy. I am going to read the trilogy this fall and I think this is going to be a good choice for my reading. I am spending most of my reading time with Soul of the Sky and it is entertaining and interesting reading.

Non-Book Activities: I have the Munden Alumni Association supper tonight and I know it will be a small gathering, but I am looking forward to it. Munden is one of those hundreds of western towns that is slowly dyeing because the only people living here are elderly retirees like me, but they are good and interesting people so I can't wait to meet some of them. It will be a sad weekend in many ways. My cousin came and got my iron bed last night. It is the bed I have slept in since 1983 and it was sad to see it go out of the house. However, it was my cousin Ruth's bed when she was growing up and now it is going to her niece who is also named Ruth. I like that continuity.

Reading Time Today: 1 hours
Time Reading this weekend: 1 hours
Time listening: 1 hours
Time posting:
Food: I made a wonderful tomato salad with lots of cherry and pear tomatoes from generous neighbors. I also made a sweet corn pudding that is delicious cold with the tomato salad. Good garden eating right now.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 453
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1357 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-

Media read from:

Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges 22 minutes
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami 23 minutes
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, by Jaclyn Moriarty 20 minutes
Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan 47 minutes
Mr Ballen Podcast 73 minutes
Desmond Cole and the Scary Library Shusher, by Andres Miedoso 34 minutes

Media finished:

Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
Desmond Cole and the Scary Library Shusher, by Andres Miedoso

Time reading: 219 minutes

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 6
Total time reading: 219 minutes

Media read from:

The Week: The New Brand 25 minutes
Behave, by Robert Sapolsky 76 minutes
Minecraft Woodsword: Night of the Bats, by Nick Eliopulos 41 minutes

Media finished: none

Time reading: 142 minutes

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 9
Total time reading: 361 minutes

Sunday morning

Books:
Halfway through London Rules
Need to move on to my book club selection for meeting next week - The Stars Are Fire, A Shreve.
Finished 8 books in August.
Read the Sunday papers. Our local paper gets skinnier and skinnier and will go down to 3 issues a week in mid-Sep. l’ve added apps on my phone for objective news sources.

Toast & coffee so far today.

Other activity:
Family dinner here last night - Chinese takeout. My sister and I did jigsaw puzzles and played Scrabble.
Watched a hawk sitting on my garden frame till a feisty squirrel climbed up and challenged him. The hawk flew off.

>10 nrmay:
I read Stars Are Fire and liked it. It was one of few books by Anita Shreve that I have liked.

Sunday report

Books read from: English Creek by Ivan Doig. Meet Me At The Bamboo Table: Everyday Meals Everywhere by A. V. Crofts. Soul of the Sky: Exploring the Human Side of Weather edited by C. Ralph Adler. I am listening to Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain.

Books finished: Record of a Space Born Few by Becky Chambers

Book Thoughts: I didn't get much reading done today because I was packing for the return trip to Alabama and had church activities as well. I did read a bit of Soul of the Sky over lunch. I will make up for my slacker ways tomorrow as I will be listening to Big Lies in a Small Town all day and should complete it tomorrow.

Non-Book Activities: Church and then a long conversation with a cousin about her sons first year of college. I then spent some time packing and getting ready to go back to Alabama. I paid bills and got the paperwork together that I will need to transfer the title for the car and get insurance on it.

Reading Time Today: 1 hours
Time Reading this weekend: 2 hours
Time listening: 1 hours
Time posting:
Food: I didn't do much cooking at all this week. I was busy doing other things.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 453
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1358 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon starting in April of 2020.

>11 benitastrnad:
Yes, Benita, l think l will like it too.
Only other one of hers l read was The Pilot’s Wife which l remember as fair to middlin’.
Safe trip today. I hope you don’t have too much traffic this being the end of the holiday weeekend..

Media read from:

The Week: The New Brand 29 minutes
New Scientist: Eradicating Dementia 35 minutes
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, by Jaclyn Moriarty 68 minutes
Minecraft: Night of the Bats, by Nick Eliopulos 41 minutes

Media finished:

Minecraft: Night of the Bats, by Nick Eliopulos

Time reading: 173 minutes

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 12
Total time reading: 534 minutes

winding up

Books:
Third of the way through The Stars Are Fire for book club this week.
Then I'll be reading The Latecomer (J Korelitz) for book club #2 the week after.
8 books read in Aug
61 for the year

Dinner last night - leftover Chinese

Other activity:
Cleared off the patio for the painter coming to paint the front porch and patio today.
There's always laundry . .

Cooler days at last!
sunny, 65F/19 C.

Weekend wrapup:

Books finished:
James by Percival Everett - 5 stars!
Books started or continued:
Held by Anne Michaels
One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Dinner: Leftovers from breakfast out - pancakes - egg and cheese wrap

Weekend Shenanigans: watched my son's kittens while he and his girlfriend attended a wedding
attended the 1st birthday party of my cousin's son.
enjoyed gin and tonics with my neighbors

Weekend summary:

Books read from: Orbitsville by Bob Shaw, The Killing of a President by Robert J. Groden, An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson, Hard Trail to Follow by Elmer Kelton
Books finished: Orbitsville and An Obvious Fact
Pages read: 550-ish

Non-reading activities: Had a 3 generation "boys day" with my with my 2 sons & 15 y/o grandson, who taught us a somewhat complicated board game called "Scythe". He beat us all handily, but it was fun - I look forward to trying it again now that I understand it better.

Weekend Wrapup

Books read from: English Creek by Ivan Doig. Meet Me At The Bamboo Table: Everyday Meals Everywhere by A. V. Crofts. Soul of the Sky: Exploring the Human Side of Weather edited by C. Ralph Adler. I am finished listening to Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and started Martian by Andy Weir.

Books finished: Record of a Space Born Few by Becky Chambers. Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain.

Book Thoughts: I finished reading Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and liked this historical fiction novel. It is not great literature but Chamberlain tells a really good story. She captured my attention early in the novel and kept it. I listened to this book on a long road trip and it kept me interested almost the entire trip. I was also amused because it is set in Edenton, North Carolina. So are the Outlander books. It is also a town that is mentioned often in the PBS series "A Chef's Life." It does have a long and exalted history and this novel does it justice.

Non-Book Activities: Driving. I am now back in Alabama and hope to be here until my stuff is moved out. I spent 12 hours driving yesterday. I learned a great deal from this trip. I drove from my house in Kansas to a friends house in Macomb, IL and spent Labor Day evening and night with her. The next day I drove from Macomb to Tuscaloosa. Oh boy did I underestimate the amount of time that I would spend driving through Illinois, or how rural Illinois really is. There was no easy route to get from Macomb to Springfield or to Interstate 57 so I drove for almost 4 hours on old fashioned two lane roads that wound around through small towns that made me slow down quite often. Once I got on I57 the trip started to go faster. Of course, the Infrastructure money that is being spent on new bridges and road repair came into play and for long stretches of Interstate highway it was one lane, but I like having nice wide highways were I can travel at high speeds so I am not going to complain about the road repairs. I enjoyed myself immensely with my friend in Macomb and can see why she likes it there and is reluctant to retire yet. With the job that she has she would have to move so as not to be considered to be interfering with any things, so she is not going to retire for a few years. She also has a cute little house that she doesn't want to give up.

Reading Time Today: 1 hours
Time Reading this weekend: 3 hours
Time listening: 22 hours
Time posting:
Food: Sonic, MacDonald's, and Starbucks whenever I could find them.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 454
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1380 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon starting in April of 2020.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/363159