End of Hour 15

well I had intended to finish the Troost this past hour but he kept describing food and I suddenly realized that the meager bowl of oatmeal that I had consumed a couple of hours ago would not suffice.  So I cooked up my Sunday morning artery clogging special - bacon, fried potatoes and onions with scrambled eggs.  I made a small pot of Tazo Passion tea and I'm ready to eat and finish this book.



Hourly tally:  Pages read: 23 (aarrgghh....)

CONSUMED: nothing (ok . I cheated and half a slice of bacon)

End of Hour 14

So Troost has made it through Lhasa and much of Tibet and makes it sound so much more appealing than the rest of China. He manages to catch a train, read some Dan Brown, and end up in the most polluted city in the world, Lanzhou.  He journey is dwindling down but he still thinks he would like to raise his children in China, if only for a while.

This hour's mini-challenege has to do with books not living up to their blurbs or covers and since I rely more on book reviews than covers to sell me a book, I can't think of one (yet) that has disappointed me in this way.  Besides, I would rather finish reading Troost's adventures in China

HOURLY TALLY:
Pages read: 46
Ate: 1 Hershey's kiss

End of Hour 13

So Troost has decided to take his friend to the outer  reaches of China - away from the polluted cities, towards the Himalayas.  They stop in Dali where they notice an unusually large number of hippie Westerners and learn about reefer madness in China thanks to a Lonely Planet mention. After declining to partake, Troost observes "One thing I will not do is smoke weed in a country with mobile execution trucks".   And this is why I love his writing, just the hint of humor encased in a dark truth as he goes on to explain the efficiency with which capital punishment is now administered in China.

I'm passing on the hour's mini-challenge because I had never heard of any of the books whose titles I bothered to unscramble

Hourly tally:
Pages read: 46

Ate: Cinnamon oatmeal with a handful of craisins

End of Hour 12 (for me)

Halfway through the readathon and I'm enjoying myself. Troost has managed to make the eating of live squid seem possible and delicious (note to self: do not eat the live squid in Yeongdeok)  He has now joined up with a longtime friend and is getting an economics lesson in Guangzhou.  This trip was made in 2007 when China was recovering from the SARS scare and apparently he and his friend visited the ground zero of SARS, a market in Guangzhou.  If anyone can make a trip to SARS Ground Zero be both funny and interesting, Troost can.

Mid-Event Survey:

1. What are you reading right now?  Lost on Planet China

2. How many books have you read so far? Finished 1, halfway through 2

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The Pirates!

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? No - just need to remember to prepare for my class

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Err.. other than that two hour nap?

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?  Just how tired I was at the beginning - note to self: take a nap before the next one

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope - this is always a great activity

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? Get my sleep in advance and not have a class scheduled at the end

9. Are you getting tired yet? Yeah, but my nap took care of that

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?  I just went up on the roof of my building for an early morning stretch - getting in a little exercise is always good

HOURLY TALLY

Pages read: 57
Ate: 2 more bon bons (time for breakfast)
Drank: 1 cup of coffee

End of Hour 11

well I slept - I can't help it since the readathon starts so late for me

Here is my total tally at the end of hour 11

BOOKS COMPLETED: 1

PAGES READ: 259 (UH OH better get reading)

ATE:  6 bon bons, 1 bag potato snacks , 1 snack cake

DRANK: 2 cups coffee, 2 cups tea, 1 glass of raspberry iced tea

BACK TO THE BOOKS!

End of Hour 8

I managed a few pages and then felt the pull of sleep

TALLY
Read 25 pages

End of hour 7

Definitely bleary-eyed and I may need an intense nap (it's 3am here) I have managed to only read 36 pages in the last hour.  I'm loving the Troost book but also thinking mightily that a nice snooze would be in order.

I'm too tired to try the book puzzle challenge although it combines some of my favorite things together

TALLY:
Pages read 36
Ate: 1 snack cake (chocolate of course!)
Drank: another cup of instant coffee (I'm out of milk so tea is out until I can get to the store)

End of hour 6 (I think)

so my nap was spread across hours 5 and 6 but I am somewhat refreshed.  I've made it through the first 7 chapters of "Lost on Planet China" and every time I think Troost should come to South Korea, he describes something in China which could have been written while visiting my charming little town.

This hours challenge is to create a puzzle based on a book title but honestly, it's now 2am here and I don't think I have the brain power

TALLY:

Pages read: 28
Drank: 1 cup of Lipton Yellow Label tea

Napping time: ?????????

End of hour 5

time for a short nap and a stretch ...


the challenge for this hour is show our books

Tally
32 pages read

I should add that I have at one time had as many as 50,000 books in storage...

End of Hour 4

I am the slowest reader in the universe but I did manage to read 36 more pages in "Lost on Planet China" - I just love it although it doesn't have as much of zaniness that I found in Troost's earlier works.

The mini-challenge for this hour is to post a pic of a book that was published by an independent publisher.  Next in my pile is Rick Steve's "Travel as a Political Act" and since it was published by Nation Books, it counts. 


TALLY:

Pages read: 36
Ate: 3 more bonbons
Drank: 1 cup of lovely Lipton Yellow Label tea

End of Hour 3

So I finished up "Cheap" and I have to say it opened my eyes.  I can't say that I will ever look at Ikea in the same light.  I also gained some new insight into what is going on in China.  This is the perfect lead-in to Book number 2, J. Maarten Troost's "Lost on Planet China".  Troost is a most delightful writer and I have already devoured the first chapter.  I highly recommend all of his books and hope that this one is as entertaining and informative as "Sex Lives of Cannibals" and "Getting Stoned with Savages"

The Third hour mini-challenge is a six word celebration of Dewey's Readathon so here goes:  fulfilling Dewey's book-elicious legacy of reading!  (sorry, I made up a word)


TALLY for the last hour
Pages read: 67
Consumed: last of the E-mart Potato Snacks (really quite disgusting but addictive)

End of Hour 2

so I got distracted by the good news from Chile and the fascinating stuff going on for Oct 10 and only read 10 pages - still working on "Cheap" and reading about the fabulous work going on at Wegmans grocery stores.

This hours mini-challenge was to take a stroll down childhood reading memory lane.  My favorites were "Wind in the Willows" and "Alice in Wonderland".  How about you?

Pages read this hour : 10
Ate: nothing
Drank: Lipton Raspberry Iced Tea

End of Hour 1

Now down to the business of first hour traditions:

I am reading from the comfort of my lovely apartment overlooking the rice paddies and pepper plants of lovely Yeongyang, South Korea.  If it warms up later in the morning I will either got up to the roof or sit out on my little balcony and watch the sun come up.

Three facts about me:
1) Prior to re-inventing myself as an English teacher in South Korea a little over a year ago, I was primarily a librarian or used book dealer in the US.  Along the way I've also worked as a college instructor, pizza delivery expert, actor, management consultant, organic lawn care provider, professional test grader and probably a lot of other things that I have forgotten.

2)While I thoroughly enjoy many types of music and completely non-musical and considered truly tone-deaf

3)I make the best damn cheesecake in the world

I have a great many books available to me to read over the next 24 hours but I plan on finishing "Cheap"  and then I have two travel books to read - J. Maarten Troost's "Lost on Planet China" (should be good after reading Cheap) and Rick Steves' "Travel as a Political Act".  For fiction I have 3 novels to choose from: Michael Chabon's "Gentlemen of the Road", Paul Auster's "Timbuktu" and Gideon Defoe's "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab/In an Adventure with Scientists"  which I picked up last weekend on my visit to Daegu and Buy the Book

My only goal is to complete the readathon - .I am shooting for 1000 pages but who knows - it depends on whether or not I can actually stay awake (it's 9:20pm right now)

My advice for newbies - keep it light and varied - drink lots of water or tea and make sure you have fun - this is about the joy of reading!

STATS :

Read: 25 pages (late start into the hour)
Ate: 3 Garoto Many bonbons (gotta eat bonbons and they are the closest thing to Reese's Peanut Butter cups that I could find)
Drank: 1 cup of lovely Korean instant coffee mocha

Readathon - early start

Well my plans to go to Ulsan fell through for oh so many reasons and after a brief nap I am ready to start the readathon. This is my third readathon and I am ready with copious amounts of junk food supplemented with some more nutritious intake and complimented with a lots of tea, coffee and juice. I am starting an hour earlier because the last hour of the readathon conflicts with an English class that I host in my apartment.  I know, I know, I must be crazy for committing to reading for 24 hours and then teach a class at the end of it but it should be ok and I can always sign off early and take another nap.  Anyway to kick things off I am finishing up Ellen Ruppel Shell's "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture"  which my friend Robert graciously loaned to me a couple of weeks ago.  Let the reading begin!

Read-a-thon

It's time for the semi-annual Dewey's Read-a-thon and I am on the horns of a dilemma.  Friends want to go to Ulsan for the World Music Festival although that is uncertain as of this writing.  I've been meaning to get over there ever since I got to Korea and at the last minute (welcome to Korea) our regularly schedules Saturday classes have been canceled. 

Unfortunately Alycia (group organizer par excellance) found out at the last minute (once again, welcome to Korea) that she has to work on Saturday at her school for one hour.  Since getting anywhere from here is a major expedition and the weather for today indicates probable rain, I'm debating whether to trek on my own or stay home and read for 24 hours.  Decisions, decisions.....

Final Tally

This is the end of my third readathon and here are my stats
READ - Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante  515 pages
              Waking up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson 308 pages
               TOTAL 2 Books 823 pages - I think I need to set a goal of 1000 pages next time
               both books were from the pile that I won in last Fall's readathon

CONSUMED:  5 cups of tea
                         1 CapriSun Orange Mango drink
                         1 bowl homemade rice pudding
                      *  2 bowls of homemade chili
                          1 bowl of Korean Special K cereal with milk
                          3 large sugar cookies
                      *  1 package Lemon Plank cookies
                          1 small container of strawberry yogurt
                       * 1 package of sour jelly beans
                          1 container of pizza flavored Pringles chips


                        * from Mallie's care package

celebrating with a fresh strawberry shake - yum  - cheers and happy reading folks

Hour 24

Lots of questions to answer for the final hour
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  that would have been around Hour 7 when I apparently fell asleep
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I'm reading "Waking Up In Eden" which is non-fiction with fairly short chapters - I think books with small chunks of information are good for the readathon
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I think it's great with the cheerleaders and the challenges
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?  the mini-challeneges were really fun and quite do-able
5. How many books did you read? 2
6. What were the names of the books you read? "Silent Scream" and "Waking Up In Eden"
7. Which book did you enjoy most? one was a novel and the other a memoir - really too hard to compare them
8. Which did you enjoy least?  see number 7
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? As long as it works in my schedule, I will be there

Hour 23

Lucinda Fleeson has included a fitting quote from Isabella Bird  in her book "Waking Up in Eden"

I still vote civilization a nuisance, society a humbug and all conventionality a crime

guess I'm in good company


only one a half hours to go - should be able to finish this book

Hour 22

I'm up to Part 4 of  "Waking Up In Eden" and just love it - Fleeson is a wonderful writer and I can so identify with her stage in life.  If only I were somewhere a little more exotic than South Korea

Oh well on to Part 4 which is entitled "Living Well Is The Best Revenge".....hmmmmm...I can't wait

Hour 21

I reached part three of "Waking Up in Eden" which seemed like a good point to take a break.  I was streaming old episodes of Bob Edwards Weekend and I got engrossed in his interview with singer/songwriter Joe Pug.  I was enthralled.  How often do you hear of young people who truly have an epiphany and follow their heart?  Visit his website, listen to his tunes, think a little harder about life.......

back to the book......