Saturday, December 3, 2011

A smaller 24 hour read-a-thon

This post will be updated throughout the day. Scroll down for the latest updates!

It's time for the 24 hour read-a-thon being hosted by Dead White Guys and The Souls of Thought! It's bright and early here in Winnipeg (well, not bright, since it's 7:00am in Winnipeg in December). I just came down with a bit of a cold yesterday, and need to recover at least partially by Monday when I have to go to the dentist (dentist + cough = awful), so I'll be taking it kinda easy today. Not that reading all day is really strenuous, or anything. I'll try to stay up the whole time, but no promises if my sickness worsens.

So here are my plans for the day.

Snacks I've got lined up:
  • fruit salad
  • tortilla chips and hummus
  • sour cream and onion chips
  • this salad thing that is mostly tomatoes and big chunks of cheese (Safeway deli, you have such wonderful and strange salads)
  • Pull 'n Peels
  • a single energy drink for late in the game
Books I've got lined up:
  • Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  • 12 Favorite Christmas Stories by various authors
Umm, that's actually it. I didn't plan as well this time around, so if I finish both those books, which I'm sure I will, I don't know what else I'll read. I have hundreds of books to choose from on my tbr pile, so I'm sure I'll figure something out. (My library books are currently all non-fiction, and I discovered in my last read-a-thon that non-fiction sucks for read-a-thons.)

I'll probably update every 2 hours or so throughout the day. So, without further ado, let's read!

8:00 Central Time (2 hours down):
What I'm reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
How I'm liking it: It is very good in a terrifying 1984 type way. Other than the problematic language around trans* people and whatnot. That is not so great.
Pages read these hours: 67
Pages read so far: 67 (duh)
Food consumed these hours: None. I am starving. I got up at exactly 6:00 and went straight to reading and my stomach is like "where is breakfast what is this". I think I'll go grab some cereal now.
Anything else interesting?: I am reading curled up in my brand new unbelievably soft blanket and it is awesome. It's one of those ones that are on sale at Chapters right now if you spend $50, which is all too easy to do.

10:00 Central Time (4 hours down):
What I'm reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
How I'm liking it: It's pretty awesome. It might make me paranoid, though.
Pages read these hours: 60
Pages read so far: 127
Food consumed these hours: A bowl of Mini Wheats and a Pull 'n Peel, which my stomach did not like after not enough sleep.
Anything else interesting?: I went to read in my bed and miraculously stayed awake. It made my headache go away and improved my mood immensely. Also, I'm posting this update slightly early because at 10:00 tickets for the Hanson concert go on sale! I'm a total 90s nerd so this is very exciting!

12:00 Central Time (6 hours down):
What I'm reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (it's a bit longer than my usual read-a-thon picks)
How I'm liking it: It is wonderful and terrifying in an omg-the-government-could-get-even-scarier-than-Harper-already-makes-it! kind of way. At least Canada doesn't have a Department of Homeland Security. We don't, right?
Pages read these hours: 49 (how am I this slow a reader?)
Pages read so far: 176
Food consumed these hours: Some of my strange tomato-and-cheese salad thingy.
Anything else interesting?: I got my sister and I fairly decent tickets for the Hanson concert, though when I meant to get us seats across the table from each other, I accidentally got seats at two tables across the aisle from each other so our backs will kind of be to each other. Whoops. Also, I'm watching this video because it never fails to put in an amazing mood. Be forewarned: it will not leave your head, ever.

2:00 Central Time (8 hours down):
What I'm reading: still Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
How I'm liking it: I am loving it and it makes me angry a lot (but at the bad guys, so it's ok).
Pages read these hours: 77
Pages read so far: 253
Food consumed these hours: A Pull 'n Peel and a glass of eggnog. It's weird how just getting up a few hours early and having slightly different activities during the day can completely change my eating habits, in a way that makes my stomach kind of queasy.
Anything else interesting?: Not really. I'm annoyed with the baseboard heaters in my apartment, because they click all the time, and I don't really notice it until I'm reading for hours in the quiet living room. It is infuriating.


4:00 Central Time (10 hours down):
What I'm reading: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (at this speed it should be another two or three hours)
How I'm liking it: Still a lot. I'm sorry these updates are boring.
Pages read these hours: 34 (umm, what? OK, I know I talked to my mom on the phone for like 20 minutes and also dozed off for what I think was only a few minutes, but 34?)
Pages read so far: 287
Food consumed these hours: I'm just starting in on the sour cream and onion chips.
Anything else interesting?: Umm, I talked to my mom and apparently took a tiny nap. :) Anywho, I'm happy with my progress so far, because even if I only finished Little Brother this would be a huge jump on the reading I've got planned for December. So yay me!

6:00 Central Time (half done!):
What I'm reading: I finished Little Brother and am about to start 14 Favorite [sic] Christmas Stories
How I'm liking it: It was awesome. My review will be up in a week or two (I'm a bit behind with the reviews at the moment!).
Pages read these hours: 86
Pages read so far: 373
Food consumed these hours: Some chips and a can of Ginger Ale.
Anything else interesting?: Jonathon (Mr. Towering Pile) got home from work and has been mildly distracting. I may take a break in a bit to watch Charmed with him. Also: Reading Little Brother today means that I've already fulfilled my Read Your OWN Library! Challenge for December!

8:00 Central Time (14 hours down):
What I'm reading: 14 Favorite Christmas Stories by various authors
How I'm liking it: It is somewhat mediocre.
Pages read these hours: 22 (I also watched an episode of Charmed...)
Pages read so far: 395
Food consumed these hours: The rest of my tomato and cheese salad, and some fruit salad.
Anything else interesting?: The break for Charmed was nice. It might happen again this evening...

10:00 Central Time (16 hours down):
What I'm reading: 14 Favorite Christmas Stories
How I'm liking it: I'm not, really. It's kind of boring, and I'm not easily impressed by short stories to begin with.
Pages read these hours: 45 (boring book + some distractions)
Pages read so far: 440
Food consumed these hours: A mug of hot chocolate and some Pull 'n Peels... These read-a-thons really aren't good for my health. :P
Anything else interesting?: No, not really. Just reading.

12:00 Central Time (18 hours down):
What I'm reading: 14 Favorite Christmas Stories
How I'm liking it: There have been a couple stories that are kind of nice, but mostly they make me fall asleep.
Pages read these hours: 52
Pages read so far: 492
Food consumed these hours: None.
Anything else interesting?: I think I'm gonna head off to bed right away. I'll still read in bed like usual, so I'll do one last update in the morning, but I just know if I stayed up all night my cold would come back in full force, so I'm gonna choose sleep. Goodnight everyone, and enjoy the rest of the read-a-thon!

Next Morning Update:
How much longer I read: 45 mins.
What I was reading: 14 Favorite Christmas Stories
Pages read since last update: 21

Total pages read: 513

5 comments:

  1. Greetings fellow readathon-er! And one from Winnipeg, my hometown!
    Happy reading.

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  2. Yah, crazy dark (I'm in Toronto), but the books were beckoning. I've never read a Cory Doctorow novel, but I've been thinking of putting one on my Must-Reads list for 2012. Every time I pick one up, it sounds great!

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  3. @Suzanne: Hey, a fellow Winnipegger! Happy reading to you too!

    @Buried in Print: This is my first Cory Doctorow novel, and I'll definitely be checking out his other ones. Very much enjoying it!

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  4. The radiators in here have been popping all day too: bizarre. And I know what you mean about thinking your page count is somehow defective when you look back at certain hours...weird what happens to your brain, when you *thought* you were reading for 60 minutes, or almost 60, or something. Heh. Hope the rest of your read-a-thon is fun!

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  5. It's so weird. I'll have two updates in a row where I feel like I did about the same amount of reading, and one will have double the number of pages of the other, reading the same book. It makes no sense!

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