June 8, 2009 @ 7:39 am | Filed under: Books
For me, the 48 hours officially ended at 7 this morning. Practically speaking, that meant it ended about 11:45 last night when I fell asleep halfway through Genesis by Bernard Beckett. I found a couple of nice chunks of reading time yesterday, bringing my total up to 8 hours and 13 minutes, plus about an hour of networking time. Finished Catching Fire: wow. More on everything later but wanted to squeak this in under the deadline and now I must dive into my busy day. Visit MotherReader for the roundup!
Total reading time: 8 hrs 13 min
Networking/blog time: 1 hr 10 min
TOTAL: 9 hrs 23 min
Books read:
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr (read 2nd half during Challenge)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Genesis by Bernard Beckett (first half)
Comments:
Fun, fun, fun. I knew going into this that I wouldn’t be able to drop everything all weekend long and read—couldn’t have even if we hadn’t had a birthday in the family yesterday. But when that unexpected bout of early-morning reading-in-bed presented itself on Saturday morning, I decided to join the Challenge just for fun. And it was fun. I really enjoyed checking in with other participants via Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.
I squeezed in more reading time than I get in a normal weekend by: ignoring my garden (hello, army of weeds), reading during baby naps instead of cleaning, shopping, or Harvest Mooning, ignoring my Google Reader (except for Challenge-participant blogs), and (at one point) standing in the kitchen glued to Catching Fire while Jane’s birthday cake was baking. (Note: this means I left all the baking dishes for Scott to deal with. He gets major props.) I also made no attempt to inch forward on the quilt blocks I’m making for my virtual quilting bee. (But I’m getting there, ladies, I promise.)
The irony, of course, is that I’d have probably been glued to Catching Fire during every available moment this weekend anyway, Challenge or no. That’s what happened with Hunger Games, for sure. I’ll be writing more about them in days to come—but I don’t want to say too much about Catching Fire yet, since it doesn’t pub until September. No spoilers here. I’ll say this much right now: I think it’s even better than the first one.
Hearty congratulations to all the other Challenge participants, especially those who managed to clock upwards of 20 hours of reading time!
June 6, 2009 @ 7:36 pm | Filed under: Books
Well, the arrival of the Catching Fire ARC played right into my hankering to jump into the Challenge. Instead of gardening, running errands, and cleaning house during the baby’s naps today, I read. Clocked a little more than 4 hours of reading time since 7 a.m. You know how in every runners’ marathon there’s a weathered, smiling, sunvisored gal trailing way behind the pack, fast-walking instead of jogging, knowing she’s going to come in last but just doggone happy to be there? That’s me.
Total reading time so far: 4 hrs 17 min
Books read:
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr (had already begun)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (about halfway through)
June 5, 2009 @ 3:22 pm | Filed under: Books
It starts today. I soooo want to participate. But, um, hello, Huck! And Rilla and Wonderboy. Sure, my three older girls would be totally into the idea of a super-duper reading marathon for the weekend, but my little ones have other ideas. Besides, we’ve got a birthday to celebrate on Sunday. Happy 14th, Jane my love! Would you mind babysitting all day so I can read?
So, okay, not my season of life. Maybe next year. (:::laughs uproariously:::)
But lots of people are participating and it’s not too late for you to join in the fun yourself. Hop over to MotherReader and read all about it. I’ll be here on the sidelines, cheering away. Woot woot woot!
UPDATED SATURDAY MORNING: Well, now I don’t know. The kids got up and watched cartoons, and Scott took the baby out to his bouncy chair (oh man, remind me to post the video of Huck in his bouncy chair—he WORKS that thing), and I got to lie in bed reading until, gasp, 9 a.m. So maybe I’ll join the Challenge after all—although it’s entirely possible that this blissful two hours will wind up being my entire tally for the weekend. Even as I type this, Beanie is firing up the Wii and Jane is grinning at me, because the girls have just announced they’d rather watch me play Harvest Moon than watch cartoons. I have a very strange family—most wonderful wonderful, out of all hooping.
