Address Change

I've been thinking about switching over the wordpress for awhile, and so I've been playing around with it. I think I've finally got it in decent working order, although I'll probably keep playing with it for awhile!

Anyway, come on over to A Striped Armchair, v.2 to find out my latest obsession. Also, please update your bookmarks and links: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/. See you there!

Feeling Better

Thanks everyone for the kind comments! I'll be answering them all individually a bit later (computer troubles). I pushed through the feeling this morning by turning to Jane Austen for comfort. :) Then, this afternoon I went to the library!

I realised I was in a YA mood, so that's the majority of this trip's stash: The Looking Glass Wars, Twilight, Ironside, The Wee Free Men, and Wicked Lovely. I also grabbed some challenge read: Sandman, Vol. I for the Reading the Author Challenge, The Master and Commander and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle for the upcoming Nautical Challenge. :)

I plan to just bury myself in books for a little while, hehe. Panic attacks are silly!

Feeling Overwhelmed

You know those moments when you suddenly realise how many great books there are out there? And that there's no way you'll ever be able to read all of them?

That realisation just came crashing down on me.

How do y'all deal with that?

So Many Books, So Little Time (thoughts)

Before I talk about the book, just wanted to announce that Shannon over at Just Another Musing won the second draw! She went with Tithe, so I'll draw another winner shortly. :) Gotta love the read-a-thon! Now, on to a book I read before the read-a-thon, and that I've been meaning to review. :D

I devoured So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson in the night it got in, and when I finally turned the last page, I felt completely satisfied. Sara Nelson and I have only two things in common: we're women, and we love books. But that's part of what makes reading this book so fun; I could see how our joint hobby played out in a very different kind of life. Nelson discusses how events in her life influenced her reading choices and vice versa. Her mix of informal book reviews and personal anecdotes actually felt like reading a great book blog. Soothing, funny, enjoyable...Nelson reminded me that I'm not alone in my reading obsession. If I had found this book before the blogging community, I'm sure it would've blown my mind to find a kindred spirit. As it is, I was just glad to be able to read a whole year's worth of reading experience without bothering with my laptop! Everyone who enjoys reading book blogs will probably enjoy this book!

Favourite Passages

...the busier I've gotten over the years-the more family and work activities, the more friends to keep up with, the more duties of adulthood and parenthood, the more, well life-the more, not the less, I've read, (6)

Reading's ability to beam you up to a different world is a good part of the reason people like me do it in the first place, because dollar for dollar, hour per hour, it's the most expedient way to get from our proscribed little "here" to an imagined, intriguing "there." Part time machine, part Concorde, part ejection seat, books are our salvation. (12)

Explaining the moment of connection between a reader and a book to someone who's never experienced it is like trying to describe sex to a virgin. A friend of mine says that when he meets a book he loves, he starts to shake involuntarily. For me, the feeling comes in a rush: I'm readingalong and suddenly a word or phrase or scene enlarges before my eyes and soon everything around me is just so much fuzzy background. The phone can ring, toast can burn, the child can call out, but to me, they're all in a distant dream. The book-this beautiful creature in my hands!-is everything I've ever wanted, as unexpected and inevitable as love. (33)

I may have come late to passaionte reading, but I caught on pretty early that a book can be the perfect shield against potentially piercing situations. Not only is reading a distraction during difficult times...but it's a highly socially respectable means of social avoidance. You can't tell an obnoxious seatmate on a plane, for example, taht his obstreperous pontificating about the virtues of saccharin over NutraSweet is driving you batty, but you can tell him you're in the middle of A Tale of Two Cities and you simply must get back to it. (39)

Allowing yourself to stop reading a book-at page 25, 50, or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end-is a rite of passage in a reader's life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communiion, the moment at which you can look at yourself and announce: Today I' am an adult. I can make my own decisions. (55)

And in every case, the sun came up the day after I bagged these books. There was no quiz in the morning, no Reading Police at my door. Not the mention that the books themselves went on to greatness and comfortable spots on the bestseller lists. (57)

The idea, I guess, is to turn a book into a media event, but this is a strategy that has major backfire potential. For me-as, I believe for a lot of readers-when a book gets overhyped, we get mad. We're a funny, cliquish group, we book people, and sometimes we resist liking-or even resist opening-the very thing everybody tells us we're supposed to like. (61)

An occasional disagreement over a book's merit should not be a big deal to normal people, but the people I love-and the person I am-are not normal; we're book people. TO us, disagreeing about something we read is as shocking and disruptive as, say, deciding that we hate each other's husbands. (67)

I believe that an unreturned book beween friends is like a deb unpaid. It can linger, fester, throb like a sore wound. THe best preventative medicine is the simplest: Return All Books. (70)

What draws a particular reader to a particular story can be completely idiosyncratic....Reading is highly personal and often revealing. Readers have superstitious preferences and irrational dislikes. (115)

You can't eat pizza while reading The House of Mirth....You have to have long stretches of uninterrupted time to read The House of Mirth. You also have to have quiet. A long, rainy weekend afternoon would work. So would a couple of luxuriously sleepless nights in a well-appointed, comfortable bed. (117)

One of the good things about having a partner who is just a tiny bit oblivious to the links between reading and life is that he doesn't take particular note that the two books you've brought on your three-week family vacation are Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary. (141)

Final Read-a-Thon Post

Whew. I got a lot of sleep since the last post. :) This was a ton of fun, and I highly recommend that everyone who can clear their schedules next year participate! Although I loved the reading, and the prizes, my favourite part was the community building that went on. :D

The first winner of my prize drawing is 3M, so she gets first pick of the books. Once she's picked, I'll draw the next winner!

Here's Dewey's final survey.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour Sixteen...I experienced a serious energy slump and felt really loopy. Fortunately, the hot chocolate perked me back up.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Kitchen Boy, Marked, Tithe, Gods in Alabama

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I enjoyed this one a lot; I didn't really think anything was lacking!

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I loved the mini-challenges and the cheerleaders. It all went very smoothly!

5. How many books did you read? 7, plus parts of two more (2,014 pages)

6. What were the names of the books you read? I completed: Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith, The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston I read from: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrless

7. Which book did you enjoy most? Three Way Tie: Marked, The Kitchen Boy, The Children of Green Knowe

8. Which did you enjoy least? The Sunday Philosophy Club

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn't a cheerleader. :)

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? If I can, I'd love to participate in next year's read-a-thon. I'd probably be a reader again!

And then there were fourteen...

*this is a sticky, it'll be changed as people go to bed or get up*

Well, I really like trying to visit every reader at least once every other hour. But, I was sick of weeding through the long blogroll. So here're the people who have updated in the last three-ish hours or sooner...

Newest additions: Joy Story, So Many Books,Bonnie's Books New additions:SMS Reviews (I didn't see Callista's posts beneath her stickies. Bad Eva!), Nothing of Importance (Debi's back from her nap!), Jason Erik Lundberg (who's decided to keep reading!) Original List: So Many Books, So Little Time, Read From A to Z, Life, Dog's Eye View, Becky's Books, Bebo Author, One More Chapter, A Patchwork of Books, Dewey (of course! our fearless leader), and me!

(this should be helpful for the current mini-challenge over at Deweys)

Hour Twenty-Four

Mugs of Hot Tea: 4
Mugs of Hot Chocolate: 2
Glasses of Iced Tea: 3
Cans of Diet Pepsi: 1

Reading over 2,000 pages in 24 hours: Priceless!


Wrap Up Time!

Pages Read (cum.): 2014
Books Completed: 7 (Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith, The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston)
Books Partially Completed: 1 (Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett)
Stories Read: 2 ("The Death of a Government Clerk" and "The Sly Little Boy" by Anton Chekhov)
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 15

That works out to about 84 pages an hour, which certainly isn't bad. Especially since I also managed to visit every active reader at least once every other hour. :) I had a ton of fun with this whole experience, and I feel very indebted to Dewey for running the whole thing and to the cheerleaders who came out and supported me (both official and unofficial). On twenty-three posts, I've had 77 comments not made by me! That's a whole lot of comments for one day. :D

So, I'd like to give back a little. First off, I'll be sending two bookmooch points Dewey's way (gotta love the new booksmooches); it's a drop in the bucket compared to all of the work she's done, but hopefully she'll appreciate it! Alternatively, Dewey, you can pick two of these books that I read over the last twenty-four hours: Tithe, Marked, The Kitchen Boy, Gods in Alabama. Next, I'm planning on having four drawings: one for each of the above books (or a bookmooch point, if Dewey wants one or two of them). Everyone will be entered however many times they've commented on the my read-a-thon posts (not including this one). I figure first draw will get first pick, etc. I'll do the drawing either late today or tomorrow!

And that's all, folks. :)

Hour Twenty-Three

I think I'm read out. I haven't laughed out loud once yet at Good Omens, which is unheard of. However, I did love rereading Green Knowe-I think everyone should read it at least once! My only goal for the last hour is to break 2000 pages. Originally, I wanted to finish Good Omens as well, but that's not going to happen! Honestly, my perkiness has run away; I'm utterly exhausted. I only got about three hours of sleep Friday night, and I've calculated that of the last forty-eight hours, I've been awake thirty-six of them. Whew. Only one post left to go!

Books Read (this hour): The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Pages Read (cum.): 1942
Books Completed: 7 (Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith, The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston)
Stories Read: 2 ("The Death of a Government Clerk" and "The Sly Little Boy" by Anton Chekhov)
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 15

Hour Twenty-Two

Time flies! I abandoned the Chesterton on seeing the small print, and instead I went with L.M. Boston's The Children of Green Knowe, by far one of my favourite childhood books. I reread it every couple years, and it's always just magical! I'm about two-thirds of the way through it, and I really want to get back to it.

So here's my mini-challenge offering:


Books Read (this hour): The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
Pages Read (cum.): 1838
Books Completed: 6 (Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith)
Stories Read: 2 ("The Death of a Government Clerk" and "The Sly Little Boy" by Anton Chekhov)
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 15

Hour Twenty-One

We're so close now that we can taste it. :) This has been a really productive reading hour for me; I just decided I wanted to finish The Sunday Philosophy Club, and I did! While I'm happy for that, I did sacrifice visiting blogs, which makes me unhappy. So this hour I'm visiting everyone still up again. :) Then I'm thinking about breaking out some Chesterton, and hopefully finishing up with Good Omens.

Mini Challenge:
Joy Story is clashing swords with that Spanish hero Don Quixote. ;) Love the haiku!
Jason Lundberg is breaking out another graphic novel, which looks quite interesting.

ETA: I won another one of the drawings! Dewey is being generous enough to offer future books. :)

Books Read (this hour): The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Pages Read (cum.): 1731
Books Completed: 6 (Tithe by Holly Black, The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander, The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith)
Stories Read: 2 ("The Death of a Government Clerk" and "The Sly Little Boy" by Anton Chekhov)
Mini-Challenges Participated In: 14