Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

It’s the beginning of the spring read-a-thon, and I’ve written this post in advance so I don’t have to worry about my typing at 6 in the morning (although it’s not bad after downing a cup of coffee). This is going to be my starting post, and the one that I’ll keep updating throughout the day with my progress. I expect I’ll post a few more times for surveys and possibly mini-challenges, but all my stats and such will be kept here. And then, when I’m ready to give up, I’ll do a concluding post summing up everything. I’m writing part of that in advance, too, because I don’t have much confidence in my coherence after more than 12 hours of reading.

Also, because I can never seem to get up the energy to write proper reviews for books read during a read-a-thon, I’m going to try and write mini ones after finishing a book. Tiny ones, ones that won’t take up too much time but will still convey whatever I want to convey about a book, in a succinct manner. (Can I even be succinct? This might be harder than I originally thought…)

So! Let’s start.

Other important posts: The Prep Post | Fall 2009′s 24HRAT stat post (for comparison)

Note: all times are MST. Last updated: 1:15am

Reading stats

Start time: 6am! Yay.
End time: 1:07am
# of books read: 7
Total hours read: ~14h31m
Total pages read: 1,501

Reading Log

Time: 6:00am
Book: Bombos VS Everything Vol. 1
Food: Coffee
Notes: Extremely stylish little graphic novel that has a lot of potential, I think. I wasn’t necessarily wowed byt he plot, which is basically “dude wants to be a great fighter,” but the art and world are fascinating and I definitely want to read the next volume (if there is one).
Rating:
192pp/20min

Time: 6:30am
Book: Spy High: Mission One
Food: Coffee (reheated)
Notes: It’s on the edge of too much spoof/cliches (red-headed jokester character, blond bombshell character, Asian martial artist, etc) and not enough new stuff–I mean, c’mon, a baddie whose name is Frankenstein and he makes mutants?– but it was exciting and watching the team grow closer was fun. It’s a little bit better than the CUPID books, actually. I liked the futuristic sci-fi stuff, especially (reminded me of The Supernaturalist).
Rating:
196pp/1hr36min

Time: 8:30am
Book: Earthlight Vol. 1
Food: Bagel with cream cheese
Notes: Started off kind of slow, but the end was such a cliffhanger that I definitely feel the urge to read the next series. It’s set in the future on a space station, which is interesting, but I’m more interested in the characters and what their lives are like up there. We got a little bit of an idea of what the station (and future Earth) is like, but the characters were introduced so quickly I never really got to know them as much as I wanted to. And I think too that too many subplots were crammed in there all at once– they could have been spread out a bit more and that would’ve made them more effective. But hopefully with the second volume that’ll change, and I’ll find out more about the three main characters.
Rating:
192pp/22min

Time: 9am
Book: The Club of Queer Trades
Food: Tea (African red bush), slice of lemon loaf cake
Notes: The intro says this isn’t one of Chesterton’s best books, but I suppose it’s as good an intro as any. It’s absurd, a detective story with an insane detective who solves crimes that aren’t really, and it’s hilarious. I had a lot of fun with it, though at least two of the stories were somewhat boring, and I look forward to reading more of Mr Chesterton’s books later on.
Rating:
146pp/2hrs10min

Time: 11:40am
Book: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Food: Cheerios, macaroni salad, banana, glass of water
Notes: A truly excellent book, with a fantastically lovable and quirky protagonist. I do so love my lady scientists! Especially ones in Texas, in the year 1899, when everything in the scientific world is so new and interesting. And I loved how it really felt like a Texas book, especially in the dialogue, which never resorted to dialect (which I hate). Great stuff!
Rating:
338pp/3hrs12min

Time: 4:20pm
Book: Perloo the Bold
Food: orange, coffee, chocolate truffles, supremely delicious dinner provided by my mother (bacon!!)
Notes: A surprisingly sweet book with rabbit-ish creatures and a moral that I can’t quite figure out, but I think it’s something like “fighting is bad, be true to yourself, your enemies are really more like you than you think, and people who scratch themselves a lot are bad news.” I’d like to read more books set in this world, because it’s highly entertaining (Avi’s books generally are).
Rating:
225pp/1hrs51min

Time: 8:00pm
Book: Bertie and the Tinman
Food: frozen lemonade, Smarties, tea, cheese + crackers
Notes: Funny, fun, and supremely enjoyable. It read like a behind-the-scenes look at the real Victorian society, where people had affairs all over the place and the Queen was terribly frightening and so on. Plus, excellent mystery! It was a great read, one that shouldn’t take nearly as long as it did for me to read it.
Rating:
212pp/~4hrs25min

Notes

4/9/2010 9pm: I’m not at all sure about my reading choices, now. I can’t help but think I need more variety. Maybe I have some more books hidden away somewhere? Also, my mom went to the grocery store today, so now we have lots of things to snack on. Including BANANAS! It’ll be hard sleeping tonight, I can tell you that for sure. I’m already all sorts of excited.

4/10/2010 8:57am: I’ve been trying to start reading my books at quarter intervals, because it makes it easier for me to keep track of how long I’ve been reading something. Doesn’t leave me a lot of time to update this post, though!

11:14am: Taking a small break from reading because I’m starting to get a headache. Will probably spend it visiting other ‘thonners and playing on Twitter.

2:56pm: Starting to slow down a bit. Also, I’m ravenously hungry, which is strange. I need to make up some more snacks and have them at the ready for my next book.

11:23pm: SO. TIRED. But I won a prize! I’m excited and yet want desperately to go to bed. But I JUST gotta finish this book first (80 pages left to go!).

Under the jump are some memes I decided to do! Continue reading »

I have no idea what hour we’re on, but the newest post at the readathon website is for Hour 14, so I’m guessing that’s it! Luckily I’m not too late to do the survey for Hour 13, the halfway point of the readathon.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?
I just started Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes. It’s really long (about 600 mass market paperback pages), and I’m not entirely sure I’ll stick with it (should I have gone for one of the cozy mysteries instead?), but I need something cheerful and I love Marian Keyes.

2. How many books have you read so far?
I’ve read three total. I’m aiming for four.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Actually, I’m really looking forward to reading The Boggart by Susan Cooper– I’ve been wanting to read something of her’s that’s not The Dark is Rising sequence– so maybe I’ll sneak that in somewhere during Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
Nope, I just told my parents it was the readathon and they figured out what to do themselves: keep me provided with food and cheer me on when I’ve finished another book.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Nothing that I couldn’t handle, and it was mostly an interesting movie that came on TV. It’s near Halloween, and so all those great kids movies are being played and I can’t resist them (Hocus Pocus! The Addams Family!). They’re probably why my reading’s slowed down since this morning, haha.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How many cheerleaders there are! Much more than last time, I think. Or it just seems like it.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Morning wake-up call? No idea.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
a) wake up earlier
b) keep the TV off
c) check the website every hour to see what activities are going on (instead of every three hours)
d) drink more water
e) do yoga?

9. Are you getting tired yet?
Nope, but I am getting a crick in my neck!

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?
Do one main post and keep updating that instead of doing individual update posts. It’s much faster, and it’s much more handy for keeping track of things, I think. (I did the individual posts thing last time, and I got really tired of making a new one every three hours. I’m doing one post today, and I’m enjoying updating my progress much more.)

Did you do the survey? Leave a link in the comments and I’ll try to check it out tomorrow!

Last Sunday I talked about getting ready for the 24 Hour Readathon this Saturday. I decided to do things a little differently than the last 24HRAT, mostly because updating my blog every three hours was a) driving me insane and b) driving everyone else insane (probably). So instead I’m just going to be updating one post throughout the day, probably once each time I finish a book. I may also do special individual posts if I can remember to check out the activities. I’ll also do a wrap-up post on Sunday.

If this 24HRAT is anything like the last 24HRAT, I’m probably going to be haunting Twitter and updating loads there. You can follow me if you want: I’m @anniebody.

And I know I said I wasn’t going to have a specific set of books, but then I remembered that last time I was running around trying to find books I wanted to read and I don’t want to do that again. So, here’s what I’ve got stacked up:

From the bottom up, they are: Little Lord Fauntleroy, Poison, Twenties Girl, Dawn Wind, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, The Boggart, Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials, The Purple Emperor, The Picts & the Martyrs, The Big Six (actually, I’ve read that one already. Whoops.), Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, The Ghost and Mrs McClure, One For the Money, The Chocolate Cat Caper, and Dragonfly.

(I apologize for the crappy Photobooth photo, but I’ve misplaced my fancy digital camera. Time to clean my room, I think– but after the readathon.)

I may add some other small murder mysteries (I’ve got some Val McDermid books I need to read), and possibly my fancy new Pictures for Sad Children book that came in the mail yesterday, but this is pretty much it. Oh, wait, maybe I’ll add in the Last Apprentice book number 4 (I think I have it, at least). But then that’s really it.

Do you have a plan for the 24HRAT?