Read-a-Thon - Final wrap-up

I made it 15 hours and went 1 hour past my usual bedtime (which is quite amazing for me). I have some health issues at the moment that hinder me from staying up for 24 hours - but I hope to do it one day. Here's my final official summary:

Total Pages: 934 pages
Books Read: 2 1/2

I finished The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson and Spinning Forward by Terri Dulong and got half way through Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan.

It was fun - I'd like to thank all the coordinators and also the wonderful cheerleaders for all you did. Congrats to all of you who made it 24 hours!

Read-a-Thon Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now?

Getting ready to start Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan

2. How many books have you read so far?

I've finished 2 books

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

Maze of Bones

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

No - I have done other things through the day for the kids and DH - I think next year I will make special arrangements. I lucked up though and DS#1 spent the night with a friend and didn't come home until 6pm so there was no fighting most of the day.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

I've had the usual - I just dealt with them. Didn't worry and went with the flow.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

That I haven't read more books.

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Nope - I think it's great

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

Make plans for the kids and DH.

9. Are you getting tired yet?

Yep - I probably won't make it 24 hours - I have to have sleep, though I am hoping to push my bedtime a little bit.

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?

Not that I can think of - I've had fun but I don't think I've done anything new. I am thankful for the cheerleaders that have posted - I've enjoyed reading the comments and the cheering.

Read-a-Thon - 12 hour update

So 12 hours have passed and I'm still having a blast. I've sat outside on our porch swing, in DH's comfy rocking chair and in my usual chair in our living room. I did take a small break in the middle of the day but I've been back at it a few hours. I'll probably stretch my bedtime by a little bit tonight but won't make the full 24 hours. What I have done has been fun. Here's my summary:

Total Pages:820 pages
Books Read: 1 (almost 2)

I'll probably do one more update, either tonight before bed or in the morning.

Read-a-Thon: 4-Hour Update

So 4 hours have passed and I'm having a blast. I'm sitting outside on our porch swing reading away. Here's my summary:

8-9am - 70 pages on The Adoration of Jenna Fox; completed mini-challenge #1
9-10am - 66 pages total on The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Love Your Body, Love Your Life
10am-11am - talked on phone and with DH, read 39 pages on The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Love Your Body, Love Your Life
11am-12pm - 70 pages on The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Love Your Body, Love Your Life.

Total Pages: 245 pages
Books Read: 0

I'll update again in four hours on the blog and tweet my hourly totals. Off to check out the read-a-thon blog for hour 5 and then a quick lunch!

Read-a-thon Mini-challenge #1

Our first mini-challenge for you is the Hour 1 meme that Darcy wrote up a few read-a-thons ago.

Where are you reading from today? Coastal NC where it's warm and cloudy and I'm heading out to the porch swing in a few minutes.

3 facts about me … I'm 35; I have two boys who love to read; I will read just about anything

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? Around 20

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)? No not really - just want to read, post, read blogs and have a good time.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? It's my first time so no advice yet.

Go here to see more answers to this meme!

Read-a-thon starting post

Okay - it's 8am and I'm ready to start. I have a plan and the plan is this:

• 1 chapter of a non-fiction book per hour
• The rest of the hour is devoted to whatever fiction book I'm reading at the moment.
• Tweetdeck is running and I'll keep up with updates there
• I will also spend about 10 minutes per hour blog-surfing
• I'll update on twitter hourly
• I'll blog from time-to-time
  

Other than that I have no rules for myself - just read, snack, blog and enjoy.

I'm starting with The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Book choices for the Readathon

As a pre-readathon (it's less than 12 hours away) post. I thought I would show my stacks of books I'm choosing from for the read-a-thon. No I don't think I can read all of these, not even near this number but I wanted a lot to choose from. They are all residing on my dining room table and I am sure when DH gets home from hunting in a little while he'll think I got them all in the mail today (I just received one book today and it's not in these piles). So here goes.

First my to-be-reviewed pile - these all have review dates soon, so I need to be working on these:
Next is my to-be-reviewed soon, but not immediately.
Next are books that are due back to the library (Take One - Karen Kingsbury, Maze of Bones - Rick Riordan, The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Hard Eight)
A couple of books for filler - Dairy Queen and The Clique
A few more books for filler - I love booksfree and these are the recent young adult selections from there.

That's it - I won't swear I won't find other books to read, but this is my pile right now. Now to decide what to start with in the morning.

See you at 8am EDT!