April 2014 ReadaThing - Drop Everything and Read Day: LOGBOOK

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April 2014 ReadaThing - Drop Everything and Read Day: LOGBOOK

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1jjmcgaffey
apr 5, 2014, 5:00 pm

The RaT begins 3 hours from now!

This is the thread for posting what you are/have been reading. Everything is optional, but it's fun to see what people are up to.

Tell us -

When did you read? Where were you while reading (pictures are nice!)? Who was with you (SO, kids, pets, no one...)? What were you eating or drinking along with your book? And of course the most important question - What were you reading?

Tell us about your book. Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to others? Was it boring, pleasant, exciting, scary? Was it a fast read, or did it make you keep stopping to think? This doesn't need to be a full review - just give us a flavor of the book, whether we should pick it up or run away.

The wiki page is here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/ReadaThingApril2014

We've got lots of No Timeline readers, and quite a few on the schedule as well. If you're in the No Timeline group, please fill in the timeline indicating when you actually read (doesn't matter if there's already a name there - the more the merrier!) and keep adding on as you feel moved to read throughout the week.

For an hour of reading that overlaps, put in the (approximate) time you started and finished - so, if you read from 12:30 to 1:30, put in "yourname (12:30)" in the NOON slot, and "yourname (1:30)" in the 1:00 pm slot. For partial hours...honestly, what I do is collect my 10-minutes-es of reading, and when I've totaled an hour I put it in the most recent slot. Because there are a lot of quick bursts of reading, for me - a RaT guarantees I'll be incredibly busy all week.

I'm looking forward to following everyone's reading projects . . . when I'm not reading myself!

2jjmcgaffey
apr 5, 2014, 7:56 pm

The ReadaThing begins! ...and I'm out shopping...I'll read when I get home, promise!

3LucindaLibri
apr 5, 2014, 8:30 pm

Hi all!
I started reading a bit before RaT things began, and am now about to take a dinner break.

I'm trying to finish Eat, Taste, Heal which is due back at the library. The recipes are less interesting to me than all the information about Ayurvedic Medicine. I'm just starting to learn about it . . . which means I've read enough to be totally confused!! :) Next Saturday I'm going to an Ayurvedic Cooking workshop, so I hope that will make things more clear.

Now off to update the wiki and then to eat dinner (very non-Ayurvedic . . . mostly leftovers).

More reading later.

4sharlenehsmith
apr 5, 2014, 9:35 pm

I read for the first hour. Revealed by PC Cast & Kristin Cast. I started the book this morning before the official start time so today I've read approx 100 pages. I'm gonna get offline now & finish an assignment. If I can get it done tonight, then I'll be back to reading. If not, then I'll be back on Wednesday after it's due :).
Have fun reading everyone!

5LucindaLibri
apr 5, 2014, 9:58 pm

Read for another hour. Finished Eat, Taste, Heal.

Will now read a bit more of Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf which I started on the anniversary of her death (March 28th, 1941). Fascinating example of an early "stream-of-consciousness" style novel. . . . I thought it would be confusing, but it's easier to follow than I would have imagined :)

6crazy4reading
apr 5, 2014, 10:02 pm

I just finished reading My Water Path by Timothy Joseph. I have to say I loved the book. It is the story of a boy who loses his father and becomes an orphan. His struggles and everything he goes through to be with a family that many feel he shouldn't be with. It is set in the 60's in the south. I am so glad I won this book through the ER program on here!!

I will be heading to bed soon. I don't know if I will get any reading done tomorrow because I have a lot I need to get done before going out to dinner with my dad and family. I added my name to the time line for 8 and 9 pm.

7lottpoet
apr 5, 2014, 10:46 pm

I just finished two hours of reading, which was very welcome after spending all day at a genealogical conference (I'm maybe thinking I'll try to start looking at my family tree). I continued my main read from earlier in the day, Sula by Toni Morrison, so now I'm about half-way through. I hope to finish it tomorrow. It started out with some gorgeous writing and eccentric characters, and I was kind of lulled and feeling down home. And then something deeply disturbing happened. Now, I feel highly suspicious of the text. I'm certainly pulling back from it, trying not to be too invested. I'm really concerned about what might be coming.

I also read one of the final stories in Paraspheres, anthology I'm not enjoying at all and haven't been for many months now. But there were a few stellar stories that possibly maybe made it worth wading through?

And, a book I've been nibbling at for a couple of months, I now got a good chunk out of: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I am very interested in the subject matter and the author does a good job of making all the science understandable, yet I get very fidgety when reading it. I suspect it has something to do with how it's structured, the tension between the chronological and the trail of discovery.

8sandstone78
apr 6, 2014, 12:09 am

I spent about an hour reading over dinner earlier- I tried to start the latest Foreigner book, Peacemaker, but found I wasn't quite sure where the previous book had left off, so I am going back to Protector to catch up. I still plan to spend tomorrow afternoon with a paper book, probably a reread of Lord of No Time unless I change my mind again...

9imyril
apr 6, 2014, 4:58 am

Sunday morning curled on the sofa with a chunky blanket, a mug of good coffee and a new Michael Marshall book - lovely. Lots of familiar tropes in We Are Here already, but I didn't realize it was a (loose?) sequel to Bad Things, which I've only read once and don't really remember (plus I suspect the bits I'm recalling are actually from The Intruders, not even Bad Things). It remains to be seen whether this will be a problem - the sudden, unexplained reference to Fingermen and Cornermen suggests I'm lacking some context. Hopefully it will be no more important than having context on the Straw Men was in Killer Move (useful, but not really necessary)!

10Ameise1
apr 6, 2014, 6:22 am

I've finished reading my first two slots from the timeline. I'm currently reading In the Kitchen by Monica Ali. I've to admit that so far it isn't catching reading but also not so bad to drop it.

11majkia
apr 6, 2014, 9:10 am

I read my first hour of the timeline. Reading Perdido Street Station. Will definitely be reading more today. So long as Jim can get to the beach anyway (due to rain forcast). Otherwise he's got the TV going and in the RV there is no privacy to have quiet.

12.Monkey.
apr 6, 2014, 10:47 am

I read 100pgs of IBM and the Holocaust over 2 hours this afternoon :)

13Maya47Bob46
apr 6, 2014, 11:08 am

Just finished my first hour of my first ReadaThing and am now about halfway through the new Donna Leon. Will be signing up for some additional timeslots.

14.Monkey.
apr 6, 2014, 12:05 pm

Another hour read, this time Long Walk to Freedom.

15Peace2
apr 6, 2014, 12:24 pm

I read for two hours first thing this morning and an hour this afternoon from Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn. Quite enjoying the book which is selected from my list of books to be read in 2014 and is the first part of a trilogy. It's set in a feudal Japan and the main character also has a number of 'magical' powers - very useful ones so far! It was nice to be able to come back and spend another hour with it this afternoon - only about 100 pages or so left to read so another hour or two and I should be finished.

I also listened to Labyrinth by Kate Mosse for an hour this morning and an hour this afternoon, while ironing, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. This is also the first in a trilogy, this time set in the Languedoc region of France. It jumps between the modern day in which an archaeological dig uncovers some dead bodies and various intrigues ensue and the past at the time of the conflicts between the Catholic church and the Cathars. There's a lot more of this one to go - not sure I'll finish it during the ReadaThing week as it's a 17 tape tome and even though I started it on Friday, I've only made it as far as the end of tape 5.

16tardis
Redigeret: apr 6, 2014, 1:51 pm

Finished off The Cretan Counterfeit by Katharine Farrer this morning. A 1950s procedural, somewhat dated in parts but in other ways seemed quite modern.

17Maya47Bob46
apr 6, 2014, 1:16 pm

I read this a long time ago. Maybe I should re-read it.

18LucindaLibri
apr 6, 2014, 1:28 pm

>7 lottpoet:
Yes, Toni Morrison sure knows how to pull the rug out from under you . . . I've read several of her novels, but not recently. My memory of my reactions is that each of them seemed important, but disturbing . . . definitely no light reads amongst them . . . but I'm glad to have let myself experience them.

19Peace2
apr 6, 2014, 3:42 pm

Squeezed in another two hours and finished off Across the Nightingale Floor and a little of Thud! by Terry Pratchett

20.Monkey.
apr 6, 2014, 5:07 pm

Couple more hours for me also while I let my ratties play, continued with Mandela.

21March-Hare
apr 6, 2014, 6:08 pm

Finished Lectures on Russian Literature. Highly recommended, it was a joy, a reverie, really.

22bertilak
apr 6, 2014, 7:10 pm

I don't want to time my reading, but I think I totalled over one hour today. I started off with The Intellectual Devotional, a book of secular daily readings. I have all 5 volumes in the series, so I read one page from each.

Later in the day, I read from The Word on the Street by Rob Lacey, which is a rendition of the Bible into modern Brit slang. Think of it as the Bible as it might be interpreted by Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. This is the most lively Bible since Lord Buckley's hipster monologue "The Nazz".

Finally, I read part of The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: selections from the Iliad (Menelaus versus Paris) and the The Odyssey (Polyphemus). It's good these were short selections. The spiral ham didn't need attention, but I had to keep breaking to stir the savory kale with cranberries.

23Merryann
apr 6, 2014, 8:35 pm

I almost forgot it was Read a Thing time and went to bed (gasp!) just before my midnight time slot. But I remembered (whew!) and went to choose my book via my method of closing my eyes, sticking my hand into a box of books, and picking the seventh one down.

For some reason, I started thinking about the Goosebumps horror series for kids. I don't read horror books. But because of {insert the story here, now I'm taking it out because it's making this post long and boring} I temporarily have a lot of Goosebumps books.

Anyway, I'm counting down to the seventh book. I can feel they're paperbacks. I start chanting, "Don't be a Goosebump. Don't be a Goosebump."

And I pull out Night of the Living Dummy II. It's a Goosebumps book with a particularly creepy looking cover.

So much for 'random chance'. I tried again and got a children's Pony Pals book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then I read some miscellaneous fiction until the hour was up.

Still a little creeped out by the Goosebumps cover, I did tonight's Read a Thing reading between seven and eight instead of staying up 'til midnight, and read another Pony Pal and some random fiction. :)

24LucindaLibri
apr 6, 2014, 11:04 pm

>23 Merryann:
Sounds like those Goosebumps books might be too scary to read late at night :)

I read two more hours this evening . . . catching up on Dante's Inferno. Got through several Cantos. They are relatively short (around 140 verses each) but I'm reading two different translations (Longfellow and Sayers) along with commentaries, so it's taking a while.

25clue
Redigeret: apr 6, 2014, 11:14 pm

I'm such a yoyo I forgot about ReadaThing. I'll be reading an hour or so still tonight and then will add myself to the wiki tomorrow for the other days. I have several books going but read the first 20 or so pages in The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry this morning although I didn't mean to, and it really grabbed me. That's probably what I'll be reading the next couple of days.

26sandstone78
apr 7, 2014, 12:04 am

I read a bit this afternoon, a little bit more of Protector and the first half of Lord of No Time, which is, hmm, as I remembered.

Tarod is just an awful person in this version of the story. (Just one choice excerpt: "Tarod leaned forward. 'Keredil - have you ever had a woman become a millstone around your neck? Always following, always watching, always wanting to know where you are going and where you have been? An adoring, mindless, fawning pet!' he ended in disgust.") I recall him being much more sympathetic in the revised/expanded version, the Time Master trilogy, and his enemies much less sympathetic- it will be interesting to compare them as I move ahead in my read/reread of the series this year.

>23 Merryann: I never read any of the Goosebumps books (odd now that I think about it, given how ubiquitous they were when I was a kid), but I have had it in mind to start a reread of the Animorphs books...

27imyril
Redigeret: apr 7, 2014, 5:25 am

Another hour this morning, waiting for deliveries to arrive (complicated, as there's currently no way to get to our front door, and I need to catch them before they give up!) - reading We Are Here. This doesn't seem to really rely on any detail from Bad Things, hurray, as I've been given reminders of who John Henderson is and I've now had the Cornermen explained. So it's making precisely as much sense as it's meant to ;) Ah, paranoia thrillers. Going to pick up again now until the deliveries actually get here!

28.Monkey.
apr 7, 2014, 6:32 am

An hour this morning for me, about 45mins Mandela and 15 IBM. Reading Mandela's autobio gives me even more respect for him than I already had, if that's even possible. He was such an incredible person, I had no idea all this stuff about his background. The world needs more like him.

29sangreal
apr 7, 2014, 8:22 am

Haven't been able to post over the weekend, so doing a quick update now. Didn't read much on Saturday, as it was my birthday, and the family kept me really busy! Did get in an hour from 10pm - 11pm, and another couple hours on Sunday, 2pm - 4pm.

I'm reading Dr. Sleep - Stephen King. I started with the Audiobook before the ReadaThing started, but realized that I hated the narrator's voice, and the pacing was way too slow for me. So last Friday night I bought the e-book, and started over from the beginning. Really enjoying it now that I'm not distracted by the narrator's voice. I like that it started pretty much right where The Shining left off, and did a bit of catching up before getting to the main part of the story. Hoping to read some more after work today.

30majkia
apr 7, 2014, 8:23 am

I got to read quite a bit yesterday. Both Perdido Street Station and listening to The Bat. We'll see how much quiet I get today what with thunderstorms on the way so that will keep Jim inside the RV with me. He isn't a reader or an introvert so I expect there will be little quietude for reading.

31imyril
apr 7, 2014, 9:36 am

An hour for lunch (broccoli and stilton soup, and a bagel with smoked ham - yum), with a couple of really obvious things finally falling into place for me (the mysterious shadowy people refer to each other as friends - it's not an affectation, it's what they are. Our childhood invisible friends. Of course). Deary me, my brain is slow these days! I'm keen to burn through and finish now, but my gregarious houseguest will be home soon so I'm unlikely to do much more reading today :)

32lottpoet
apr 7, 2014, 10:01 am

I picked up Finnegans Wake this morning. The introduction had me feeling maybe it would all be OK. Because it was so early in the morning and there were all these references to sleeping and dreaming, I had a 20-minute snooze towards the end of the introduction where I had half-dreams of Finnegan dreaming. I'm awake now and started reading the actual text. I read the first page and couldn't even make out what was going on syntactically (how the parts of the sentences relate to each other). I went online and found an audio version, thinking it might help to listen to it. It didn't help really: more like listening to a foreign tongue with every now and then a clear English phrase bursting through. Hmmm. I'll have to figure out how to tackle this one. I won't give up so soon.

33LucindaLibri
apr 7, 2014, 10:31 am

>31 imyril:
Thanks for the mention of what you were eating . . . sounds yummy . . . and reminds me that it's fun to post info about where we are reading and what foods and/or beverages accompany us! Will try to do that when I read later . . . but now I must do my taxes :(

34.Monkey.
apr 7, 2014, 11:09 am

Two more hours, this time reading Shock because I get antsy when I go more than a week w/o finishing a book (since I'm in the middle of several longer ones) :P and wanted to pick up something quick. It's interesting, but while only from 2001 it seems quite dated on the technological aspects (they're using a phone cord that they switch from phone to computer for internet, the one "added to Favorites" the website of this medical place (woo IE terminology nobody has used for years already!), etc); fortunately they're only small things and not any kind of main focus, so it's no big deal, but it's a minor nuisance. And now it's time to go get started with dinner!

35tardis
apr 7, 2014, 12:31 pm

Powered through Midnight Riot (aka Rivers of London last night. It was a re-read for a book discussion and I only meant to read chapter 1, but got sucked in again. Must go back to wiki and figure out when I was reading and add name.

36seasonsoflove
apr 7, 2014, 12:55 pm

Yesterday I finished reading The Innocence Game by Michael Harvey-ended up reading far longer before bed than I'd meant to because I was so caught up in the book. After that, I read a little more of The Cat Who Moved a Mountain. Today I started my re-read of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn-read on the walk to walk and the subsequent train ride, and some during my lunch break when I wasn't answering work e-mails or getting set up for my morning class.

37lottpoet
apr 7, 2014, 1:08 pm

Taking a break from Finnegans Wake, I read Dark Harbor by Mark Strand. There were some nice glimmers, but the poem mostly didn't click with me. Now I'm off to work. I'll get a couple more hours of reading this evening.

38karenb
apr 7, 2014, 1:50 pm

Some of Rachel Bach's Fortune's pawn and also
A stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar.

39jjmcgaffey
apr 7, 2014, 2:06 pm

I managed a bit - not a full hour, I don't think - between 11:30 pm and 12:30 am last night. Reading Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs - I'd started it months ago, had to return it to the library, and just got it back. Interesting stories - most of them (so far) seem to be very good ERB pastiches; one...well, I haven't actually read the Venus stories yet. I really really hope the author was doing an extreme parody, because if that's what the Carter of Venus series is really like, I ain't reading them. Yuck. Silliness, coincidence, and quick switches of "true love"... all of which do show up in ERB's writing, but not _that_ way. Closer to The Eye of Argon than ERB's stuff.

Today...I'm hopeful, though I've got a job, chores, and a project with my sister. We'll see.

40Merryann
apr 7, 2014, 2:34 pm

I had to take myself out of the 7:00 P.M. Eastern Time slot for today, leaving it empty. Sorry. Maybe someone else will read this and be able to pick it up.

I'll do my hour at some point today, or in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.

>29 sangreal: Happy (belated) Birthday, sangreal!

41sandstone78
apr 7, 2014, 2:35 pm

I'm back at work, so snatching a few minutes here and there with The Initiate on my ereader and snacking on chocolate-covered raisins when I have to wait for things to load or run- I doubt I'll make enough time to record until this evening, though. There's a lot more shown on-screen than in Lord of No Time, and the Order vs Chaos themes are much more explicit (up to and including a prologue that outlines pretty much completely what's going to happen)- I hadn't really thought about it, but in Lord of No Time there are no gods of Order, and the figures that haunt Tarod aren't even explicitly gods of Chaos at least through the first half of the story.

Given that we start off from the perspective of Tarod's mother, who resents him because she gave up her privileged social status to keep him as her own son instead of giving him up for adoption and is more than a little creeped out by him, I suspect my memory is right in thinking that other characters are more unlikeable to make him more likeable by contrast.

>38 karenb: Ooh, I have been wanting to read both of those. How are you liking them?

42sangreal
apr 7, 2014, 2:37 pm

>40 Merryann: Thanks Merryann!

43sandragon
apr 7, 2014, 6:06 pm

We had our nephew over for dinner Saturday night, as his wife had kicked him out of the house while she hosted the first meeting of her book club. My husband cooked up an awesome meal, which included bison-stuffed Portobello mushrooms and a lime hollandaise sauce. I was iffy about the lime hollandaise, but it turned out really well. After our nephew went home, I read an hour of Lost Lake.

Sunday night we hosted a potluck party for multiple birthdays. I offered up pinto beans with tomatoes, fresh sage and anchovies cooked in the slow cooker. Once everyone went home and all was tidied, I managed to stay up for two hours to finish Lost Lake. It was a comfy cozy book, with much of what I've come to expect from Sarah Addison Allen: a little romance, a little magic, gentle hauntings, and lots of friendship.

44.Monkey.
apr 7, 2014, 6:31 pm

I read Shock for a few more hours while my rats played around me. Still irritated by the outdated techno-talk, and by some rash non-thinking behavior that sometimes goes on, but for the most part it's pretty enjoyable.

45March-Hare
apr 7, 2014, 7:10 pm

Woot! I filled the empty 9:00 PM eastern slot for yesterday night. I was drinking tea, iced.

46LucindaLibri
apr 7, 2014, 10:59 pm

I read a few more chapters of Jacob's Room . . . sitting in bed with my cat and a cup of (mostly decaf) coconut-milk latte. Now time for bed.

47Peace2
apr 7, 2014, 11:12 pm

I managed a couple of sessions yesterday. I listened to more Labyrinth while getting ready for work in the morning and in the evening while doing my Pilates exercises and a little bit of cleaning.

I read another chapter of Big Planet by Jack Vance and one of Merlin and the Discovery of Avalon in the New World by Graham Phillips - I also skim read over yesterday's chapter of this one as well and made some notes - people and place names and such to try and build a better picture in my mind of where his research is leading of and of things I might want to look up elsewhere. It's too soon to offer up an opinion so far on either book.

I'd hoped to get through another hour of reading from Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins but ended up falling asleep instead. Hopefully Tuesday will offer up some time.

48kimallyn
apr 7, 2014, 11:15 pm

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was not what I intended to read today but was a lovely audiobook for a long car ride. It feels like reading a biography, only with very exciting content. I am not hooked in by the plot or the overcoming of an obstacle, because that's not a strong point and not the lure. I do look forward to hearing how real historical fact will be reinterpreted to fit the book's premise.

It was interesting to be driving in Illinois which is the setting of this part of the book.

49Merryann
apr 8, 2014, 12:55 am

Read art history out loud to my daughter for an hour and a half...then went to a wonderful soak in the tub with A. LaFaye's Worth, a very well-written and heart-touching story of a Nebraska boy whose family adopts an orphan from the Orphan Train.

I needed to drag out the moment before the end of the book a little longer. So much to ponder. So many vivid personalities, and such anger, and swamping futility, and yet the edges of this lovely hope are starting to slip into place....

Okay, now I'm going back to finish it. It'll run, I'm guessing, until about quarter after one, which will make up for the time I spent here typing this. (I've got it finishing in the midnight to one time slot.)

50.Monkey.
apr 8, 2014, 6:10 am

Two hours of reading at my desk this morning, and Shock is finished. I don't think Cook is the most brilliant writer, but he comes up with interesting medical-related thrillers, so I overlook the smaller flaws in view of the larger picture. And this was an intriguing plot with some nice twists. 4★

51lottpoet
apr 8, 2014, 8:38 am

Finnegans Wake went a bit better yesterday when I read it out loud. That made it easier to hear the sort-of homophone stuff that was happening. I also became more aware of lots of silly word-play, including a lisped sentence, German and French phrases written with English words, and at some points an Irish accent approximated with English words. But it's pretty slow going to read it out loud--a bit of an overwhelming task--so I've put it on the back burner.

This morning I read for an hour, starting Heartsick by Chelsea Cain. I'll be back reading later this afternoon and this evening.

52LucindaLibri
apr 8, 2014, 1:06 pm

Read a chapter of Radical Acceptance early this morning, but not clear on the time (it was very early :) so not entering it on the timeline. Going to tackle a bit of my Second Sex project over the noon hour (now).

53sandstone78
Redigeret: apr 8, 2014, 1:08 pm

I stole an extra half-hour of reading time before getting out of bed this morning... and discovered another change in The Initiate from Lord of No Time: The Initiate has gray, golden-eyed telepathic messenger cats, while Lord of No Time does not. However, The Initiate has taken the middle-aged sorceress Themila Gan Lin, the most learned woman of the (gender-segregated in the earlier work, seemingly no longer so in the later) Circle and a respected colleague and equal of Tarod in Lord of No Time who he seeks out for advice, and made her a much more typical (and less interesting) teacher and substitute mother figure for him instead- also a third-rank sorcerer to his seventh-rank.

54majkia
apr 8, 2014, 2:48 pm

I read a few hours this morning and finished off The Bat which I wasn't particularly impressed with. Now attempting to concentrate on Perdido Street Station, and will start listening to The Polish Officer when I get a chance.

55aliciamay
Redigeret: apr 8, 2014, 3:53 pm

I listened to The Luminaries during my commute yesterday and finished this morning. I was loving the book, but the ending was a tad weak from what I was expecting. I'll be starting There But For The on the afternoon ride home.

Yesterday evening I spent some time reading Cockroaches and will finish that first thing when I get home. I have The Redbreast needing to be picked up at the library and I'm really hoping to be wowed by that, otherwise I might call it quits on the Harry Hole series.

56Peace2
apr 8, 2014, 5:20 pm

So much to do today, I haven't had time to sit down - thank goodness for audio books or I'd not have managed anything since the early hours of this morning! I've listened as I've driven today, as I've done Pilates and as I baked cakes for the school fair tomorrow - so Jamrach's Menagerie and Labyrinth have both made progress

57seasonsoflove
apr 8, 2014, 9:29 pm

On my commute to and from work, and for a little bit before I get ready for bed, read another 70ish pages of Dark Places-a re-read for me of one of my favorite books ever. Once I crawl into bed, I'm planning to read the next section in Devil and Sherlock Holmes-another re-read of a favorite for me.

58LucindaLibri
Redigeret: apr 8, 2014, 10:57 pm

I read a couple more hours this evening: a few more Cantos from Dante's Inferno, so I'm finally caught up with the read going on at the Paris Review (through Canto 24). I had planned on reading more in The Second Sex but my cat wanted to sit with me and that book is too heavy to hold in one hand, so I read a few more chapters in Jacob's Room instead.

For the last hour I had the Cubs/Pirates ballgame on the radio in the background. A little distracting, but plenty of time to read between innings :) Exciting game . . . tied in the 8th, but now the Pirates have the bases loaded . . . not good for my Cubbies.

Edited to correct the inning . . . we're only in the 8th! not the 9th.

59lottpoet
apr 8, 2014, 11:19 pm

After thinking about Heartsick throughout the work day, I was able to get back to it this evening and get comfortably settled in it. I'm about 100 pages in and brainstorming wacky scenarios for why things are the way they are in this book. I think my ideas are too out there, but I do hope the true revelation is not blah.

I also read a bit from Spells of Enchantment and another chunk of The Emperor of All Maladies. Tomorrow will be a big reading day for me as I only have to work a half-day.

60imyril
apr 9, 2014, 4:56 am

I finished up We Are Here between a train ride yesterday morning and a focused read at bedtime. I didn't think the climax lived up to the build-up - it felt hasty and unfinished; arguably more 'real' (how often do we get proper closure in the real world?), but I can't help but think that there will be another John Henderson book in the future, and that I might not bother reading it.

I really enjoy Michael Marshall Smith, and I enjoyed the Straw Men trilogy - his more recent work (short stories aside) has been more hit and miss for me. I'd score this a glancing hit, as it did succeed in making me irrationally guilty for having forgotten about my childhood invisible friend, Peter. This is the sort of thing that I love MMS for - the fine line between reality and bonkers, and his ability to make bonkers feel emotionally feasible. But I never got into the characters in We Are Here, so unless any follow-up focuses on the friends, I probably won't bother.

Next up: Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation.

61Maya47Bob46
Redigeret: apr 9, 2014, 8:11 am

I forgot to post yesterday after I read at 3 pm. I finished Donna Leon's by its cover. I had been reading in bits and pieces since Sunday morning. Lovely book. Started the beautiful struggle and autobiography by Ta-Nehisi Coates about growing up in Baltimore. I found it a little tough going as it is filled with references to black culture, some of which I didn't understand, and street slang but I am just sledding over those parts and the rest is very interesting. Forgot to say I almost always read on my sofa with lots of pillows behind me and my feet up. Often I have a cat sleeping across my legs.

62sangreal
apr 9, 2014, 11:26 am

Still making my way through Doctor Sleep. Somehow, this is turning out to be my busiest week at work! Got very little reading done yesterday - just an hour between 4 - 5 pm, and nothing at all as yet today. Couldn't read on my commute this morning, because I had to use the time to prep for an unexpected meeting delegated to me. Hopefully I'll have some time later today.

63Dilara86
apr 9, 2014, 11:39 am

I finished The Princess Bride on the 6th. I found it slightly disappointing. I thought it would be more clever and postmodern than it was... Then I read The Nella Larsen Collection: Quicksand, Passing, Freedom, The Wrong Man, Sanctuary (skipping Passing, which I'd already read recently). I absolutely adored Quicksand.

On the 7th, I read The Gate to Women's Country. I don't know what to think of it. I enjoyed the story, and liked the characterisation, but found the politics - especially the eugenics - iffy. I could not see anywhere that the author was aware of how unpleasant and unlikely to succeed her utopia (basically a benevolent matriarcal oligarchy) was.

On the 8th, I read Du thé d'hiver pour Pékin by Xinglong Liu. It seems only two Librarythingers have read him - in French - but his Wikipedia page has an English title for this novella: Carrying A Load of Tea Go To Beijing (sic). The book is about a village chief who is ordered to pick tea in winter, after the first snow, so that his superiors can present a government official with a special gift : a few pounds of fragrant "winter tea". The only problem is that only new leaves are picked for the best teas, and leaves don't generally grow in winter. And none of the peasants want to risk killing their revered tea bushes by cutting off bits of them in sub-zero temperatures... It's bitter-sweet and funny, and very earthy. I liked it!

64Peace2
apr 9, 2014, 2:53 pm

While commuting, packing shopping away, doing work related paperwork and exercising, I've been listening to Jamrach's Menagerie. I'm not enjoying it and have reached the point of just wanting to finish. Half an hour left timewise and am thinking of turning off the CD and just trying to speed read to the end of the actual book as there's only about 80 pages left.

65.Monkey.
apr 9, 2014, 6:13 pm

Spent a few hours sitting with the rats reading Mandela after finishing dinner. Such an amazing and difficult life he led.

66crazy4reading
apr 9, 2014, 9:48 pm

I have been reading Montana Bride by Joan Johnston tonight. I also started reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Heading upstairs to my bedroom and plan to read a little more before going to bed.

67sallylou61
apr 9, 2014, 9:50 pm

I have not reported on my Read-a-thing time for Monday and Tuesday. Monday at 11:00 a.m.-noon I was feeling very sad since we learned from our vet that it will probably be only a matter of days or possibly weeks before we will need to put one of our cats to sleep. He is having both kidney failure and kidney cancer, and is failing quite rapidly. Therefore, I decided to read from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, which I remembered loving as a child. Although I recognized a few favorites which I enjoyed again now, I was surprised to find how didactic the collection is; there are many poems it seems which tell what good children should or should not do.

Monday evening at 9:00 to after 10:00 p.m. I continued reading the novel Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. I am enjoying the novel although it paints a terrifying picture of what could happen to the children who were sent away from New York City to be adopted in the Midwest.

Tuesday evening I had the 10:00 p.m. slot, and continued reading Orphan Train; I finished it by midnight, and gave more of my feelings about it in my personal challenge at http://www.librarything.com/topic/163295.

Tonight I am also slotted to begin reading at 10:00 p.m. but will only be reading for that hour or a bit longer. I will be reading from The Nearest Poem Anthology edited by Sofia M. Starnes, which I'm reading for the April Random CAT challenge. In this anthology various readers from around Virginia tell why a particular poem is especially meaningful to them; the text of the poem immediately precedes the reaction. The editor is the current Poet Laureate of Virginia. I purchased this anthology at the Virginia Book Festival several weeks ago; the editor was one of the members of a poetry panel which I listened to.

68lottpoet
apr 9, 2014, 10:41 pm

I had all morning and evening to read. I started and got a bit over half-way through Silas Marner by George Eliot. It's my first George Eliot and I'm not really enjoying it. I feel strangely distanced from the narrative. I also read another portion of The Emperor of All Maladies. I've already read so much of it, but it's still only 1/3 done. Reading it tonight made me feel hypochondriacal. I read a bit of Bring Up the Bodies which I really enjoyed for the first time since I started it months ago. I think I finally got into the rhythm of this book, which is different from Wolf Hall, even if I haven't quite articulated yet what the difference is. Oh, and I read the first couple of stories in Black Juice by Margo Lanagan.

69Dilara86
apr 10, 2014, 5:50 am

Yesterday evening, I read Une enfance en Corée, known in English as Yalu Flows: A Korean Childhood. It's a short "autobiographical" novel (it's written in the first person, the narrator and the author have the same name, but the facts in the author's biography and in the novel itself don't always match). I learnt a lot about family life and culture in Korea at the beginning of the twentieth century, and about the Japanese occupation of Korea. Loved it.

70LGOYY675
apr 10, 2014, 6:21 am

Denne bruger er blevet fjernet som værende spam.

71fuzzi
Redigeret: apr 10, 2014, 8:35 am

Every night since 4/2/14 I have been reading Port Eternity. Last night I finally finished it, and gave it .

Port Eternity by CJ Cherryh
This is a short novel about what happens when a ship gets lost in between galaxies, in a 'no man's land', and is unable to escape. The characterizations of the engineered servants and the "born" owners is interesting, and develops as the story progresses. I found myself sucked in and wondering how it was all going to turn out. I dropped it 1/2 a star for a less than satisfying ending, not typical of this author. Recommended.

72majkia
apr 10, 2014, 10:26 am

I read sporadically throughout yesterday, listening to The Polish Officer, and reading Perdido Street Station. Enjoying them both, but PSS is dense - but then it's Mieville...

73Peace2
apr 10, 2014, 3:42 pm

Spent a bit longer than I intended yesterday reading in order to get to the end of Jamrach's Menagerie - I'm glad to have that behind me and so today have focussed mostly on things I can be more certain of enjoying!

In the car, I've got The Liberator Chronicles Volume 2 and have listened to the whole of the first disc and started on the second (a little over an hour).

At home, I listened to about 45 minutes of Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and read a couple of chapters of Big Planet by Jack Vance. I have a bunch of stuff to do before bed, but if I get time I would like to get through either another chapter or two in BP or a bit more of Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins which I haven't touched in a couple of days.

74.Monkey.
apr 10, 2014, 3:51 pm

Finally finished IBM and the Holocaust, woo! And only 100pgs left of Mandela, too. :D

75crazy4reading
apr 10, 2014, 5:13 pm

I have been reading Montana Bride A bitter creek novel by Joan Johnston. I am enjoying it. I will be adding my name to the time line. I have read for 2 hours. I hope to get some more reading in tonight.

76LucindaLibri
apr 10, 2014, 8:30 pm

I've been doing my taxes the past few days, so not much reading . . . But I'm going to try to do an early "Drop Everything and Read" Day tomorrow (because I'm at a workshop on April 12) . . .

I'm enjoying reading about the wide variety of books people are reading and listening to . . .

77tardis
apr 10, 2014, 8:46 pm

I've had a busy few days with only snippets of time to read, so I haven't added myself to the timeline anywhere. Just finished off Summertide, which was excellent, and am going to Mt. TBR to find a new selection :)

78sallylou61
apr 11, 2014, 12:14 am

This morning (Thursday), 9:00-10:30, I did some more reading from The Nearest Poem Anthology, which I also was reading last night. I'm enjoying some of the poems much more than others, which is probably natural for an anthology in which many different people with many different tastes select one poem each.

This evening I read during the 10:00-1100 slot again, and this time I was reading We Rode the Orphan Trains by Andrea Warren. This is a children's non-fiction book telling true stories of children who rode the orphan trains. All the people whose stories were told were still living when the author wrote the book, which was published in 2001 although they were elderly. This book was recommended by another LT member who read my description of the novel Orphan Train (post 67 here) in my personal challenge. I have read slightly over half of We Rode the Orphan Train, and so far it is much more positive than the novel which emphasizes what could go wrong in the life of the main character (and has the adult agents in the train as being very demanding and unpleasant).

79sangreal
apr 11, 2014, 7:36 am

Managed two hours last evening (5 - 7pm) and another hour this morning (6 - 7am). Still on Doctor Sleep. It's very slow going, even though it's interesting. I keep feeling that if I read any faster, I'm going to miss something important. Hopefully I'll be able to get through a lot of it tomorrow.

80lottpoet
Redigeret: apr 11, 2014, 8:03 am

I forgot to check in yesterday before bed. I read for a couple of hours in the morning and a few in the evening. I finished Silas Marner which greatly improved in the final third, such that I might be willing to consider another George Eliot book.

I also read more of The Emperor of All Maladies, the part where they were convinced that cancer was caused by a virus, and also a part talking about ultra-radical mastectomies. The part where they talk about breast cancer treatments was very interesting to me because I used to work in health care research and I was the local data analyst for a breast cancer study from Harvard Medical School (but with Minnesota data). It's good to get more background on how we got to the point of the sorts of recommendations our study was analyzing.

Today is another half-day of work, so lots of reading planned. I've just started The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

81sandstone78
apr 11, 2014, 12:30 pm

Nothing yesterday, but I managed roughly a half hour today with The Initiate at the dentist's office, waiting for the dentist and then waiting for the Novocaine...

The section I read greatly benefited from the expansion, spacing things out on a longer timescale that makes Tarod's desperate actions make more sense. Elements are also introduced earlier in the story- the Marble Hall, and Cyllan(!) both. I've realized that Themila's function in the shorter story has been divided into the new Themila and the nun and dream-interpreter Kael Amion- I will be curious to see where that goes.

Tarod is not at all a horrible misogynist so far in the expanded version, but he does self-medicate with wine. The character who was the girlfriend he used and threw away in Lord of No Time will still be making her appearance later in this volume though I believe, much changed. I only remember a little of what happens with her...

82aliciamay
apr 11, 2014, 12:58 pm

I read There But For The yesterday for an hour in the afternoon and some snippets in the evening and finished it this morning on my ride to work. I liked it better than others in the 1001 group. I'll be starting Everything is Illuminated this afternoon.

Sadly I don't know how much reading I will get done tomorrow, as I have a few things planned.

83LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 1:49 pm

>80 lottpoet:

Everyone should read Middlemarch . . . even if it takes an entire summer (which it did for me) . . . or check out Rebecca Mead's exploration of it: My Life in Middlemarch (which I have yet to read, but have heard several interviews about: http://www.studio360.org/story/rebecca-mead-lives-in-middlemarch/
and
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2014/03/a-life-in-middlemarch-a-writers-company-conversa...

84LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 1:57 pm

I've been reading on-and-off this morning. First, some more of Radical Acceptance and later more of The Second Sex.

I also decided it's time for some ReadaThing Selfies, so I will try to figure out to include a few pictures below . . . (I always forget how this works, so pardon me if it takes a few tries):

First, me in my LT shirt:


Next, Marvel, my cat . . . who would much rather I play with her than sit and read:


My two reading locations today:




85imyril
apr 11, 2014, 2:18 pm

>84 LucindaLibri: brilliant - hello to you and Marvel :)

I've just had an hour tucked up with Annihilation, some Earl Grey tea and an incredibly rich dark chocolate brownie (om nom).

Annihilation is a physically beautiful book, and an odd read - the characters are investigating mysterious Area X, but have been told not to share too much with each other and were 'stripped of their names' during training prior to insertion into Area X. The book is essentially the record kept by the team's biologist, and both the tone of voice / narrative style and the lack of names makes it feel quite stilted and awkward. It makes me feel very distanced from the characters and the action and makes me more conscious that all this is the biologist's account, instantly making me distrust her as a narrator, which is interesting.

I've ripped through nearly half the book in just over an hour, so I might try and finish it tonight. It reminds me of The Andromeda Strain a little (distrustful scientists on a mysterious semi-informed mission), and is an intriguing set-up, but that narrative distance is stopping me getting too involved, which I don't like. I'd rather get sucked in!

86LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 2:21 pm

And I just have to share one bit from The Second Sex. In the History section, de Beauvoir traces the status of women through the ages, mostly in Europe. Near the end of Chapter 4 she lists several books in praise of women and others about women's evils . . . including "A Discourse on Women, Shewing Their Imperfections Alphabetically" by Jacques Olivier (1662). According to Olivier, their/our imperfections range from "Avarice" to "Zeal of Jealousie" . . .
You can see/read the entire text at:
http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:ziv877buf#page/10/mode/2up

87LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 2:25 pm

>85 imyril:
Annihilation sounds insteresting . . . I love a good scientists vs. government tale :)

88March-Hare
apr 11, 2014, 2:51 pm

>84 LucindaLibri: Wait, there's t-shirts?

89Merryann
apr 11, 2014, 4:37 pm

>84 LucindaLibri:, Nice pictures. Such comfy reading spots!

90fuzzi
apr 11, 2014, 4:40 pm

Last night I decided to not pick up my latest CJ Cherryh, as I knew I'd be up too late reading, so I chose to open my latest Early Reviewer book, The Bambino and Me, which was a lot of fun.

That didn't take an hour, so I then started a Frieda Friedman I'd not read before, but found at the local library, The Janitor's Girl. I'll review later, but it was definitely worth reading, about a family in the 1960s who move from the Bronx to Manhattan. I finished it about midnight...so much for going to bed early!

91Merryann
apr 11, 2014, 4:41 pm

I finished The Trolley Car Family early this morning. What a cheerful, upbeat story of a family! Dad loses his job when the trolley cars stop running in lieu of the new busses. The company gives him the trolley he drove for years instead of severance pay. Since they won't have a home anymore, due to Dad having no job (until he finds a new one), the family moves into the trolley.

Sounds depressing, doesn't it? But I smiled and felt good throughout this entire book. The attitude of the entire family is great as they make lemonade out of lemons, and convince the reader that it's the best lemonade ever. Yet they did not come off as cloying overly-good martyr-like people.

I plan to read more by this author of children's books.

92fuzzi
apr 11, 2014, 4:47 pm

>91 Merryann: Now I know why the author's name sounded familiar: I used to have her book of "funny poems", some which I still can recite...

...another BB, thanks... :)

93sallylou61
apr 11, 2014, 5:22 pm

This morning I finished reading We Rode the Orphan Trains, which I started last night (no. 78). This afternoon I started reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, which I'm reading for a book club discussion next week, and read some more poems from The Nearest Poem Anthology. In this anthology, residents of Virginia say what poem means the most to them and why; their explanations follow the poem itself. After I read each poem and the discussion of it, I look up the poet and the reader in the back of the anthology to learn a bit more about them.

94LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 7:13 pm

>88 March-Hare:
You can find the t-shirts here: http://www.librarything.com/more/store

(I didn't buy one especially for this ReadaThing . . . I got it a while back and just thought to wear it today :)

95LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 7:21 pm

>93 sallylou61:
I just noticed that there are several books about orphans in the posts above . . . I think I recently read a review of Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline . . . I'm going to have to go read your review.

Late today I finally finished The Wisdom of Menopause by Christiane Northrup which I started back in February (because I was having hot flashes and night sweats). There's an overwhelming amount of information in the book, but a bit too much "suggestive selling" of products and supplements for my taste. I also was put off by her assumption that most women (or at least anyone reading this book) spend their lives taking care of husbands and children and then need to blossom into their true selves at menopause . . . That just doesn't apply to me at all, so I skimmed much of the mumbo-jumbo related to that. (BTW, while I was struggling to get through this book, I found (through another source) a yoga routine designed for menopause symptoms which has totally eliminated my hot flashes and night sweats. Yippee!!)

96crazy4reading
apr 11, 2014, 9:55 pm

LucindaLibri I love the pictures. I have that same t-shirt! It is great to wear when you go to an LT meetup. Well I have been reading since about 3 pm. I read for about 30 minutes while I waited for my daughter to pick me up from work. Then I read from 5 pm - 9:30 pm off and on (I had to take some bathroom breaks for myself and my dog.) I finished my ER book Montana Bride: A bitter Creek Novel by Joan Johnston.

I really enjoyed the book and just realized that this is #12 in a series. This is the first book I read by Joan Johnston. I have found a new fave author. I will add myself to the timeline.

97LucindaLibri
apr 11, 2014, 11:30 pm

Read for another hour this evening . . . The Ayurveda Bible in preparation for a workshop on Ayurvedic Cooking that I'm going to tomorrow.

We're now in the last 24 hours of the ReadaThing . . .
I've enjoyed it . . . I never read as much as I hope to, but still feel good about how much I've read.

98jjmcgaffey
apr 12, 2014, 2:35 am

My reading has been awful. I think I managed about an hour and a half over the whole week - the RaT upped its game, it used to be that I'd squeeze out a day for reading if it ran a week! And it's now 11:30 pm, and I have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow to head out for an all-day conference...maybe I can steal a few minutes at the conference? (probably not). Sigh. But it's been a good week otherwise - lots of jobs, and other work done. Just no reading time, even at the table (what table? It's been mostly snatched meals on the run...).

Lucinda, if I recall correctly that your workshop tomorrow ends before the RaT - can I ask you to make the final announcement? I'll miss it by a couple hours before I'm home. Thanks.

99imyril
apr 12, 2014, 5:27 am

An hour in bed late last night and an hour over breakfast this morning (citrus-fresh Ethiopian coffee and fresh bread - happy Saturday!) and I have finished Annihilation. I have twin impulses with this one: a familiar frustration that I feel with opaque (often literary) novels where you are left with more questions than closure or clarity, and a genuine admiration for what is a very accomplished book.

I'll stick with my description of it as old-school scifi - this is a novel of ideas not plot or action (although there is some of both), and I look forward to rereading it on that basis in future, and reading the sequel when it comes out; I'm curious to see how these ideas are explored further. I feel I was right to distrust the narrative - not so much because the biologist narrator is unreliable (she is), but because the themes of identity, perception and our ability to understand the truth inevitably mean that she can't rely on her own account either. By the end you do feel closer to her, and while the intellectual/rational part of me was frustrated by her choice at the end (I wanted to know), the emotional part was well satisfied.

A good way to start the day!

100Peace2
apr 12, 2014, 9:14 am

Listened to more of Labyrinth yesterday and also another hour of The Liberator Chronicles Volume 2.

Today, I've finished the latter and am about to take the tape player out into the garden so that I can pull weeds while continuing to listen to Labyrinth. I'll hopefully get another hour in at least that way before I head out babysitting.

101LucindaLibri
apr 12, 2014, 9:59 am

Just checking in to remind everyone that today (April 12th where I am) is DROP EVERYTHING AND READ DAY! in honor of Beverly Cleary's birthday.

I'll be gone at a workshop so I celebrated DEAR yesterday, but I'll be back in time to close out the ReadaThing in 10 hours.

So you all have 10 hours left to do all the reading you had hoped to do this week :) . . . try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone.

102Henrik_Madsen
apr 12, 2014, 12:22 pm

I signed up as a No-Timeline reader a couple of weeks ago, then got totally blindsided by work, so I hardly noticed the actual beginning of the Read-A-Thing.

So much for good intentions...

I finally got a little reading done today. I have started Waverley by Walter Scott. So far it's a slow read. Lot's of description, little action and dialogue. I hope it will pick up pace a little. I enjoy 18th century English politics as much as the next person, but I do like to see plotlines unfold as well.

103lottpoet
apr 12, 2014, 12:40 pm

>83 LucindaLibri: Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered Middlemarch from the library. I think I picked the wrong George Eliot to start with.

Yesterday, I read about 100 pages of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm really enjoying it, but I decided to put it on pause while I finish up The Emperor of All Maladies which is due at the library soon (no more renewals). So, I've been focusing on that, and this morning I started my first Sandman graphic novel: The Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman. I know it's not the first one; I'm not sure why this is the one I bought. It's a gorgeous book. I have a few more hours of reading and then it's off to work.

104.Monkey.
apr 12, 2014, 3:59 pm

I finished Sweet Thursday earlier this evening (read this morning with the rats for a bit, and this evening at my desk), which was a little slow to start so made me nervous (I jumped right in to Cannery Row) but once it got going was excellent, and then after dinner read with the rats again, starting my ER book Song of the Vikings, which is pretty interesting so far.

105imyril
apr 12, 2014, 3:59 pm

Over the course of the rest of today I have polished off The Rabbit Back Literature Society, which is an endearing little oddity of a novel. From its unlikely opening with the doctored Dostoevsky through to the semi-surreal climax in Winter's garden, the tale and its small town setting feel mythic and slightly surreal. The final grace note seals this as another novel about perception, conscience, and the art of storytelling. I've read a lot of those recently, and this one was a lot of fun. Highly recommended.

106lottpoet
apr 12, 2014, 4:31 pm

Over the last few hours, I read half of The Sandman: Brief Lives and I love it! Delirium and Morpheus are great together.

This is it for me for the ReadaThing as I'm off to work. I had a great time, reconnecting with books that had been languishing (The Emperor of All Maladies, Bring Up the Bodies) and starting great new ones (The Tipping Point, The Sandman: Brief Lives, HeartSick).

See you all next time.

107crazy4reading
apr 12, 2014, 5:18 pm

I plan to read until the end of the ReadaThing. I am reading Perfect Pitch by Mindy Klasky and Love Story, with Murders by Harry Bingham. I will also start reading Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

108jjmcgaffey
Redigeret: apr 12, 2014, 7:07 pm

I squeezed in just about an hour of reading during a presentation that didn't interest me much - made progress on Wizards at War by Diane Duane. Reading on my phone in a dim auditorium (with a lot of other screens going, taking notes).

And very good Wi-Fi here, not surprisingly.

109jjmcgaffey
Redigeret: apr 12, 2014, 7:10 pm

And that's the end of the ReadaThing!

No it isn't, another hour to go. We're in the last hour, that's what I meant... :)

I didn't get much reading done, but it was fun seeing what others were up to.

110sallylou61
apr 12, 2014, 7:45 pm

Late last night from midnight to 1:00, I caught up on reading some newspapers -- we subscribe to both The Washington Post and our local Charlottesville paper, The Daily Progress -- both seven days a week. During this ReadAThing I was concentrating on reading for pleasure.

Today during my reading for ReadAThing, I read more poetry -- Stones for Words by Sara M. Robinson, a friend of mine whose poetry class I have taken through OLLI, an adult education program sponsored by many universities around the country. I always enjoy Sara's poems; they flow nicely, and she writes about many topics which are familiar to me such as places and people around Charlottesville, and growing up in a small town in Virginia, similar to the small town I grew up in in Pennsylvania. When I read poems, I always read them at least twice unless they are just too long or too uninteresting -- something which is not true with Sara's poetry. This book counts in the April Random CAT challenge.

111LucindaLibri
apr 12, 2014, 8:08 pm

I got a phone call so missed the final moment of the ReadaThing . . . but it is now officially closed!

112LucindaLibri
apr 12, 2014, 8:11 pm

And after I posted the pics above, it occurred to me that for a ReadaThing we should do "Shelfies" rather than "Selfies" . . . so here's my view from one of my reading spots:



Feel free to continue posting your reflections even now that the RaT is over . . . (or do we usually start a separate thread for post-RaT rehashing?)

113fuzzi
apr 12, 2014, 9:59 pm

Next to my bed:



All the books on the left are waiting TBR. On the right you can see my favorite series.

114aliciamay
apr 12, 2014, 11:40 pm

I love pictures of other people's bookshelves and it's always the first thing I scope out in someone's home.

My plans today changed, so I was able to read from the time I woke up until the end of the RaT. I got about half way through The Redbreast and am enjoying it more than the previous Harry Hole books. I listed to some of Everything is Illuminated while I made bagels and worked in the yard. Just got home from dinner with friends and will finish the night off reading...a good day!

115jjmcgaffey
apr 13, 2014, 12:42 am

Eh, let's keep the Logbook going. It's simpler.

These are old pictures, but it hasn't changed much...individual books yes, but overall about the same.


Living room, next to the sofa (it's just out of sight to the left). Mixed stuff - mystery, animal books, craft books, graphic novels/strip archives, science, cookbooks, etc.


Bedroom - SF, mostly. And stacks of books waiting to have their covers scanned.

116jjmcgaffey
apr 13, 2014, 12:46 am

We got a lot of reading done, collectively! A few gaps midweek...ah well. It was fun, even though I barely got to read myself.

117jjmcgaffey
apr 13, 2014, 12:57 am

Actually, I am going to make a new thread, for Hiss and Purr. Please come over and comment - what you liked, what didn't work for you, suggestions for when or a theme for the next RaT...

http://www.librarything.com/topic/172735

118.Monkey.
apr 13, 2014, 3:15 am

Yay shelf pics! I could take one, but monitors and paper-holding things on desks obscure a bunch...

119crazy4reading
apr 13, 2014, 7:50 am

I love the shelf pictures. Most of my books are in boxes right now.

120March-Hare
apr 13, 2014, 9:44 am

121jjmcgaffey
apr 13, 2014, 12:01 pm

4891 books in Your Library, and therefore in my house (give or take a couple borrowed books - to me or from). I've got lots in boxes, too - in the house, but not on shelves. It would be nice to have so many books - if I had more time to read, more energy to read (rather than rereading), and if they were better organized so I could _find_ the one(s) I want to read when I want to. Right now I'm kind of frustrated with my shelves and shelves (and boxes and boxes) of books...

122fuzzi
apr 13, 2014, 2:01 pm

We need to have a shelving party...all gather at your place and organize those boxes of books for you.

What fun!!! (I know, I am weird like that)

123.Monkey.
apr 13, 2014, 2:48 pm

I'd go! I hate cleaning, but I'm totally anal about organizing, I love to sort stuff! :D

124fuzzi
apr 13, 2014, 3:00 pm

125Peace2
apr 13, 2014, 3:14 pm

Can I join in? I love organizing books... *sigh* It sounds like fun!

126crazy4reading
apr 13, 2014, 9:00 pm

I love to organize books too! I need to organize mine...

127jjmcgaffey
apr 14, 2014, 2:08 am

I love organizing too (though books are hard, I keep stopping to read!). What I'm lacking is mostly the time to do it. My home business has been exploding a bit the last...well, all this year so far. Which is really nice (more money! Doing fun stuff (fixing other people's computers)) and really rotten (no time to do anything _else_, like organize books...or read, or make cheese, or sew, or any of the dozens of other things I like to do...). I have the organizing all planned out - I know where they're going once I clean out the space, and how I'll label them, and how I'll stack them so I can get at them...but haven't had the time to actually do it. Someday.

128fuzzi
apr 15, 2014, 12:34 pm

We should organize (ahhhh, that word...) a book-sorting for each of us.

We meet at one member's place to help sort the books, then go to the next person's place and do theirs....think barn-raising!

129jjmcgaffey
apr 15, 2014, 1:57 pm

Remember flash-mobs for LT cataloging? That sort of faded away, and all of them were on the East Coast so I didn't manage to do any. Though I did help my parents - a three-person not-so-flash mob...

Yeah, a book-raising sounds good to me!

130crazy4reading
apr 16, 2014, 1:30 pm

Jjmcgaffey that happens to me too when organizing my books. I find a book and start reading it or just looking at the cover and then decide to look for more books like it. I will be moving at some point and I think that is what keeps preventing me from organizing my books. Afraid of getting them the way I want to and then moving and then not having the space in my new place to organize them the same way.

Book-raising sounds like a good idea!!