Final Hour

down to the last hour of Dewey's Fall Readathon and time to fill out the survey

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? the one where I fell asleep - Hour 4

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I just started Alexander McCall Smith's "44 Scotland Street" and may just stay up reading it - it comes in small chunks and really grabs you - wonderful writer

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
I really don't know - this is my second readathon and for me it is was so different but then I missed the 6 hours when I was asleep

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Great cheerleaders and lots of small, easy mini-challenegs

5. How many books did you read? 3

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Pride and Prejudice
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
44 Scotland Street

7. Which book did you enjoy most? 44 Scotland Street- hard to put down

8. Which did you enjoy least? What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - it was okay and I'm glad I read it - Carver is considered a modern master and I don't remember reading anything of his before

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? n/a

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I would definteitely read again as long as it fits into my schedule

2 down

Just finished Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" so my total is 2 books and 376 pages....a lot less than last readathon but then I was here for the whole 24 hours and didn't fall asleep after three hours

time to start Alexander McCall Smith's "44 Scotland Street" which I picked up this summer when in Edinburgh.

1 book down...

Just finished "Pride and Prejudice" for the readathon and wonder why it took me so long to finally get around to reading Austen. What fun... must do more some other time.

So my pathetic total so far is 1 book, 217 pages...would have been a lot more but I fell asleep about three hours into the readathon


Next up...Raymond Carver's "What we talk about when we talk about love"

oh, and that would be me just now sitting on the balcony, reading

Kiva

My "charity" as such for the Readathon is Kiva which is a microlending organization. I like the microlending principle and would much rather invest in people instead of just giving a handout. It's also very good because it cuts out the administrative waste that you find in so many charities. I'm starting with a base of $100 but will increase it by $10 for every comment that gets posted here. Thanks for reading

Mini-challenges for the readathon

first we had to get up and dance to something on our music player - I chose Virtual Insanity because we used it during the silent rave at Denver's Union Station. I like to use it to get motivated t do housework.

Next we had to list 5 childrens books

easy one for me

Alice in Wonderland
The Wind in the Willows
I am Papa Snap and these are my favorite No-such stories
The Old Woman Who Named Things
Kidnapped


I could go on and on but I really need to finish Pride and Prejudice

Dewey and the Readathon

I never knew Dewey but have heard about her from many bloggers. This readathon has been carried on in her memory by so many of those online friends of hers. This is such a great idea and I only wish that I could have introduced her and her friends to my book friends, Gorpies, which was an offshoot of the old Books & Literature chatroom on Yahoo. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?

Music to read by

Another challenge involves posting the lyrics to songs that you like to read by. The only one that quickly comes to mind is by Carole King but I prefer Rod Stewart's version - I'm humming now and need to get back to reading

So Far Away


So far away
Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore
It will be so fine to see your face at my door
And it doesn't help to know that your just time away
Long ago I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
Oh how I wish I could
but you're so far away

One more song about moving along the highway
I can't say much of anything that's new
But if I could only work this life out my way
I'd rather spend it being close to you
but you're so far away
Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore
It will be so fine to see your face at my door
And it doesn't help to know you're so far away
So far away, yeah you're so far away

Traveling around sure get's me down and lonely
Nothing else to do but close my mind
And I sure hope the road don't get to own me
There's so many dreams that I've yet to find
But you're so far away
Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore
It will be so fine to see your face at my door
And it doesn't help to know
you're so far away, you're so far away
You're so far away, you're so far away
Oh I need to get in touch with ya baby
You're so very, very, very far away
You're so, so far away

Yoga break

Time to take a mini-challenge break that involves yoga. After looking at Jehara's blog I decided to try the legs-up-to-the-wall pose she first suggested. Wow...I had no idea I could still do stuff like that. Next I tried the downward-facing-dog and really felt the stretching. Finally I did the corpse pose and really felt rejuvenated. Now to finish Pride and Prejudice

Halfway through?????

So the readthon is officially at the halfway point and a survey has been posted, so here goes

1. What are you reading right now? Still reading Pride and Prejudice

2. How many books have you read so far? this is my first - I fell asleep - aarrgghh!!!

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? 44 Scotland Street - I picked it up in Edinburgh this summer and haven't had a chance to start it

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Nope - this is my one day off this week

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I fell asleep shortly after midnight and missed a big chunk of reading time - fortunately it left me refreshed to jump in for the rest of the day

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? The number of folks participating

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? This is such a fun event and I enjoy the diversity of activites - I think you all are doing a fabulous job

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I would definitely pick out a lot of short tiles and get lots of rest before starting - I had to work and had just come back from a two-day trip - no wonder I fell asleep

9. Are you getting tired yet? no any more

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? pace the food and drink and eat lots of healthy stuff not so much junk food

RIF challenge

one of the current challenges from the Readathon is to post something that appeals to the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) campaign. I treasure this picture of my son Chris (now 25) reading Hop on Pop from our time in Omaha.

Thanks to my friend Debbie I have a copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish that I use with one of my favorite first graders here in Korea. I tell the other teachers that I learned to read courtesy of Dr. Seuss and there is no reason that Korean children can't enjoy him too.

Well...that was interesting

Yikes...I fell asleep sometime after midnight and just woke up...I missed a lot of reading time but I did get my location in the great collective map so I need to gear up and finish "Pride and Prejudice so I can fix breakfast

happy reading

Hour 2

I'm well into Pride and Prejudice and really enjoying it. The challenge for this hour involves tweeting with the hashtag #readathon and I have done my duty. A screenshot will be added in a bit. During the first hour I managed a cup of tea and three lovely Crown "Coffee tea & charming" cookies - you have to understand that in Korea things are packaged in unusual ways with "interesting" English used sometimes at random.
Here are the questions from the website

Where are you reading from today?

I'm starting with "Pride and Prejudice"... not really sure after that

3 facts about me …

I've been a librarian and bookseller but now I teach English in South Korea
My best friends online are a bunch of chatters from the old Books & Lit room in Yahoo chat - we first chatted in 1996 and have our own group now called "Gorpies"
Before I sold off everything that I owned, I estimated that I have 50,000 books in storage leftover from my used bookstore

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I have about 10 and assorted e-books

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I only hope to complete the 24 hours - not sure if I can because it starts so late for me

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I did this last Spring for the first time - just sit back, relax, have lots of tea and enjoy the read - don't stress over how many pages you actually read and keep a stack of easy stuff for the last couple of hours

First Hour

It's evening here in Yeongyang and I am somewhat tired. A long day of teaching English to indifferent students coming on the heels of a two-day trip to the South coast of Korea with the other teachers at my school. I'm not sure how I will do in this readathon but I'm sure going to try and make it through. Last Spring I did all 24 hours but it started early in the morning as I then lived in Denver. As I recall we have a Spring snowstorm and I was glad to have a reason to huddle under the covers.

When I landed here in August all I brought with me was two suitcases with clothes and a few books. Thankfully my predecessor left behind a few books in the apartment and I have chosen one as my first book. It may come as a shock to some of my book-loving friends, but I am about to confess publicly that I have never read any Jane Austen novel (that I can remember). It's not that I don't love her style and haven't seen just about every tv or film version of her books, but for some reason she is on my list of famous writers I am pretty sure I have never read. So, I am picking up "Pride and Prejudice" to start the readathon. The copy in the apartment is a slightly abridged version with a Korean translation so I have downloaded the original and will read it on my laptop. I'll be back in an hour with a page count and food update.

Cheers...and happy reading

Read-a-thon

blowing off the blog dust and gearing up for Dewey's Read-a-thon which starts tonight. I moved to South Korea at the end of August and have been too busy starting a new job teaching English to bother with the blog. Now that I have too much free time, I need to get busy writing again