BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report
Book reviews posted this week:
Still Alice by Lisa Genova (this post includes a guest review from my sister)
Next reviews scheduled:
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman (ARC from the publisher)
for me, from the “biography and memoir” section:
Notes from the Underwire: Adventures from My Awkward and Lovely Life, by Quinn Cummings
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, by Michael Chabon
New additions to the Wishlist*:
The Life You Longed For, by Maribeth Fischer
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City, by David Lebovitz
Trouble: A Novel, by Kate Christensen
BOOKMARKS: Reading-related Reading
This probably isn’t the last word regarding the FTC guidelines and review disclosures, but it does help clarify a lot of the questions book bloggers have raised recently
If you find weeding out your bookcases a challenge, try weeding out an entire library
For a town not really known as a literary hot spot, it’s exciting that four Los Angeles bookstores are among the “10 Most Popular Bookstores on Twitter”! (And I need to add three of them to my “follow” list…)
Read-a-thon Wrap-up!
This is my fourth and final update.
Estimated total time spent reading since 5 AM: 14 hours (reading only – I didn’t count Twitter/blog update/commenting time toward my Read-a-thon total. If that’s added, the total is probably somewhere between 16 and 17 hours.)
Total Pages read: 952 (2 books finished, 1 75% completed)
Books completed: Love the One You’re With, by Emily Giffin
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Book almost finished, but couldn’t stay awake (to be finished later today):
Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
What’s next?
- Finish Catching Fire and make notes for review!
- Write reviews of three books read during Read-a-thon and schedule for posting over the next couple of weeks
- Return visits to commenters/cheerleaders and respond to blog comments here. Thanks so much to everyone who dropped by to cheer, both here and on Twitter, where my updates were more frequent.
Read-a-thon Reflections:
- I am seriously impressed by those who were able to make the rounds of participants as Cheerleaders and still get some reading of their own done! I was pretty sure I couldn’t manage both, so I chose to focus on the reading…and that leaves me feeling that I missed out a bit on some of the social/community fun of Read-a-thon. I did pop in on Twitter pretty regularly, but I decided to limit my blog time to updating and visiting between books, and since I only finished two of them, I just didn’t get so much of that done!
- I completely blew off the mini-challenges and didn’t do a single one. I didn’t even think about checking in to see what they were, to be honest – I kind of forgot about them! I definitely missed a community opportunity there.
- Having said that, I have few regrets about how I did spend my Read-a-thon time! I really liked blocking out a day to read, with minimal computer activity (by my standards), and I’m pleased with the reading I accomplished. I wish I’d finished Catching Fire and made it to at least one more book, but I’m not losing sleep over it (pun intended, since I didn’t last the entire 24 hours!)
- I’m really glad to have experienced my first Read-a-thon, and I’m thinking about scheduling “reading days” for myself on occasional weekends going forward…but at this point, I’m not sure I’ll participate in the next Read-a-thon itself. It did disrupt my family’s weekend, and that’s about the only thing I do regret about it – and I hope they know that I truly appreciate their going along with the plan!
How was your Read-a-thon experience?
I'm so impressed with everyone's work both readers and cheerleaders. I was doing a bit of both but nothing officially. I'm definitely in for next year!Hope you enjoy the end of Catching Fire!
My read-a-thon experience was great. I was cheerleading, and had signed up for 12 hours, which I managed to fulfill and I am quite satisfied with that. I am looking so much forward to read your reviews of Hunger Games and Catching Fire (to me, they would've been excellent books for a read-a-thon should I have decided to be in it as a reader).
You did great! Congratulations on a successful read-a-thon! I did my best reading when I was just reading by myself before the read-a-thon officially started. It's so easy to get distracted by all the community stuff going on but then that's what makes it fun too. It's hard to find the right balance, at least it is for me.
I'm going to have to pick up Catching Fire soon to see what happens next.
14 hours reading is pretty darn impressive…great job!!
I'm glad you had so much fun! I haven't done the read-a-thons for the same reason you mention – Saturday's the one day Carl and I spend all day together having fun.
I need to work on my Sunday Salon post. It'll probably go up late today, if I manage to get to it. :-S
Thank you for the links! I follow many of the L.A. bookstores too. 🙂
Congratulations on completing the read-a-thon. You did a great job, Florinda. From all the posts that went up yesterday, it sounds like everyone was having a great time.
I really like the idea of having "reading days" and, now that I think about it, I do have those occasionally, especially on the weekends.
I hope you have a great week!
Pam – This is the first time I haven't had a scheduling conflict on Read-a-thon weekend, so who knows if doing the next one will even be an option? Maybe I'll do it unofficially, too :-).
Louise – They were great Read-a-thon picks; fast-moving, easy to follow, hard to put down, and fully engaging. And you did a great cheerleading job – thank you!
Tanabata – It's definitely hard to balance it, but I'm glad I focused on the reading this time. Maybe next time I'll take a cheerleading stint and be an "unofficial" reader.
You may have heard this before, but consider waiting to read Catching Fire until you can follow it with the third book (cliffhanger alert!(.
Jill (Softdrink) – Thanks! I'm not unhappy with it, but I wish I'd been hadn't quit with an unfinished book. My sleepy eyes had other ideas, though :-)!
Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I remember your mentioning that last time…and it's a big reason I'm waffling about doing it again (or secretly hoping for another schedule conflict, so the decision is made for me!)
Wendy (Literary Feline) – The fact that I have the post in draft all week long helps get it done :-).
I've noticed that you do those weekend "reading days" sometimes, and I like the idea. I need to figure out a way to work them in for myself every now and then!
Congratulations on a terrific read-a-thon. I felt like I found a good balance this time around between reading, blogging, mini challenges and visiting other bloggers. It has taken me several events to actually get organized enough to not feel overwhelmed *laughs*
Wendy – This was my first Readathon, and I actually lasted longer than I expected to, but I can imagine that it would take a few times to find a good balance among all the activities! I wish I'd done a couple of the mini-challenges.
Glad you had a great Readathon!
Looks like you had fun! Congratulations 🙂 I intended to be a cheerleader, but circumstances placed me away from a computer for the full 24 hours so unfortunately I wasn't able to participate. Ah well, there's always next year…
I think you did great! I read the same book the entire time and didn't finish it, but I still had fun. I didn't last the full 24 hours either, and while I participated in a few mini-challenges, I mostly stayed away from the computer because I didn't want to get too distracted.
I don't think it was too much of a disruption for my family because my daughter participated, we hung out with friends and hubby was able to watch movies and play video games. But it really cut into my weekend nap times! LOL
–Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
Fern (Booktrash) – There's six months from now, actually :-). Hope you get to join in then! I'm not committing yet, but I'm glad I did this one.
Anna – I popped in on Twitter fairly often, but otherwise was only on the computer when I finished a book (and I only finished two, so there you go!) – like you said, I didn't want to get too distracted from the reading.
I suggested that my husband and the kids join in, but they went out for the day instead, and that was OK too :-).
I hope you have recovered by now. It was fun, but I paid for it from sleep deprivation LOL
Diane – I took the day off from work on Monday for additional recovery time, although I'm still kind of tired. Thank goodness this only happens twice a year :-)!
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are SO good can't wait for book 3 and the movie XD
Eric – I wasn't sure if it was going to be a movie, but unless they really do a bad job of casting it, I can see it being a pretty good one.