A Readathon Mini-Challenge: #CoverFromMemory Halloween Edition

Happy Readathon, everybody! I have a mini-challenge here for you...one that I absolutely adored doing last year, but this time there is a minor (Halloween-y) twist. It's the classic, very funny #CoverFromMemory. Here's more on the challenge:

I don't know about you all, but even before I was a bookseller, I prided myself on how I would remember the covers of books. I'm not completely helpless when a customer comes up to me and says that they don't know the name of the book, but it's blue. But how good would I actually be at reproducing these book covers? It's time to find out.

What I want you to do is think of a book. A creepy, scary, and/or vaguely spooky book... bc Halloween. Now, with no googling or shelf-searching, you need to draw it. You don't need to be an artist! Let's be real, the uglier it is, the better. Imaginary bonus points if you use MS Paint. Here's my example where I drew A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, one of my all-time favorite horror novels.

Drawing probably scarier than the book. God, I was close, though!

Accuracy won't get you the win; just participation! Either post your creation in the comments or share it on social media with the hashtags #Readathon **AND** #CoverFromMemory. The winner will be randomly chosen and will get a $5 Amazon gift card and my Outlandish Lit Weird Ebook Bundle. Good luck and I hope you enjoy this spooky break from reading! The challenge ends at the end of Hour 10.

A Readathon Mini-Challenge: #CoverFromMemory

Happy Readathon, everybody! I'm happy to be here with a ridiculous mini-challenge for you. I don't know about you all, but even before I was a bookseller, I prided myself on how I would remember the covers of books. I'm not completely helpless when a customer comes up to me and says that they don't know the name of the book, but it's blue. But how good would I actually be at reproducing these book covers? It's time to find out.

What I want you to do is think of a book. Now, with no googling or shelf-searching, you need to draw it. You don't need to be an artist! Let's be real, the uglier it is, the funnier it is. Imaginary bonus points if you use MS Paint. Here's my example where I drew Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter.

Oops.

Accuracy won't get you the win; just participation! Either post your creation in the comments or share it on social media with the hashtags #Readathon and #CoverFromMemory. The winner will be randomly chosen and will get to choose a prize from the prize page. Good luck!

The Month-long Weirdathon Begins & The Achievements

IT'S HERE! March, the month of my three year blogiversary, is here and I'm SO ready to celebrate with the Weirdathon! Keep coming back to this page to update your progress on the reading achievements in the Rafflecopter. Every Wednesday there will be a new Weekly Weird-off post. And every Saturday I'll post a link-up for your weekly Weirdathon reading posts! Keep us up to date on what you're reading and have fun!! I'll be posting my reviews and lists of weird books throughout the month.

THE WEIRD READING CHALLENGE

Read as many weird books as you can during March! Once you're signed up you can enter the Rafflecopter below to win a book worth $15 USD or under from Book Depository, as long as you're in a country that gets free shipping. You will then reveal 14 achievements to help guide your reading and give you extra entries in the giveaway! You can't use one book for more than one of the achievements (other than the read 1, read 5, read 10 achievements). So if you read a book that had aliens AND an experimental format, you'll have to choose one achievement to use that book on. Still looking for books to read? Click here to see my lists of weird books.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE BOOKSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

If you're an Instagram lover, now is the time to start hunting for the weirdest book covers you can find. Take a lovely/bizarre photo of what you find, tag it with #weirdathon, and they'll be entered for judging (by me because I'm obviously an expert). Multiple entries encouraged! Show me the weirdest book covers ever! Winner gets a book of choice from Book Depository $15 or under if you're in a country that gets free shipping.

HUNT FOR THE WEIRDEST BOOK

As you're working on your reading challenge, pitch the weirdest books you read in a single tweet with the hashtag #weirdathon. At the end of the month, there will be a vote for the most compelling pitch and the winner gets a weird e-book bundle curated by yours truly! Keep writing pitches for the weird books you read for more chances to win AND to inspire other participants with your recommendations. We WILL find the weirdest book published this March.

THE WEEKLY WEIRD-OFFS

The debates have begun! Every Wednesday you'll see two of your favorite book bloggers going head to head. They've each chosen a weird book and will argue to the death about which book is weirder. It's informative, it's intense, and it's pretty funny. Check back every week to see what book you should read next! Winner of the debate receives a weird e-book bundle I've curated.



There's still time to sign up HERE! The challenge ends March 31. Be sure to show us your TBR book stack by using the #weirdathon hashtag and posting your link HERE. 

LET'S GET WEIRD.

Month-Long Weirdathon: What I'm Going To Read

The Month-long Weirdathon starts on March 1, which is in TWO DAYS. I am so excited I can hardly contain it. My favorite part of reading challenges is going through my bookshelves and figuring out what I want to read. And if you've ever watched me take part in a challenge or a readathon, you'll know that I have some problems with "reality."

I don't necessarily expect to read all of these. I just like to have options, ok?? And this is after I painfully narrowed it down. I still weep for the 3 books or so that I put back. I think the first book I'm going to read will be The Vegetarian by Han Kang. I have March 1 off, so I'll probably finish it up in a day.

I think the book that I'm most excited to read is The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector, because apparently it has a huge "what the fuck" ending. But I'm also super pumped for The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks. THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD.

SIGN UP

If you haven't signed up yet, OR if you don't know what I'm talking about, CLICK HERE to learn more and sign up. If you are NOT signed up on the Linky by March 5th, you will not be eligible to win book money! Need some suggestions of weird books? HERE is my list of lists and reviews.

Show us your TBR stack!

Link to your post (blog, twitter, instagram, facebook, or otherwise) listing what you want to read this month! And be sure to use #weirdathon on your post!

Month-Long Weirdathon: Sign-Up

March is my three year blogiversary and so far I have never done anything for it. But THAT'S ABOUT TO CHANGE. At the end of last year, I struggled through a lot of stale books. It's easy to get into a reading rut. The solution? Get weird. Join me in this month-long reading challenge to expand your reading horizons and find the strangest books you can, with MULTIPLE ways to win book money!!

UPDATE: Sign ups have been reopened until March 15

THE WEIRD READING CHALLENGE

Read as many weird books as you can during march! You can set your goal low or high, it's completely self-directed. To help you along, there will be achievements to give you more giveaway entries. Every week there will be an optional link-up for your progress.

What counts as weird? Anything that's weird to you. Maybe that's aliens. But for others maybe it's bizarro fiction written in a created dialect starring a talking fruit. Click here to see my lists of weird books for inspiration and TBR padding!

THE BOOKSTAGRAM CHALLENGE

Love Instagram as much as I do? Search your shelves or bookstores for the weirdest book covers you can find. Tag them with #weirdathon and they'll be entered for judging (by me). Weirdest cover gets a prize!

HUNT FOR THE WEIRDEST BOOK

As you're working on your reading challenge, pitch the weirdest books you read in a single tweet with the hashtag #weirdathon. At the end of the month, there will be a vote for the most compelling pitch and the winner gets a prize. Keep searching for the strangest books you can find, so you can win!

SIGN UP

This reading challenge runs from March 1 to March 31. You have until March 15th to sign up! All you have to do is 1. post about your intention to join the #weirdathon on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Facebook, or Youtube. Then 2. post a link to that in the linky below. Feel free to use the official weirdathon image below and at the top of the post, and please link back to this post!

If you want to tweet, you can use this convenient pre-written message (or change it however you like):

Use the direct link to your sign up post/status in the linky below and you're golden! If you need any help with that or have questions, leave a comment below.

All signed up?? Enter the giveaway HERE.

Be sure to show us your TBR book stack and use #weirdathon! LET'S GET WEIRD.

2015 Reading Stats & Challenge Update

2015 was a year of more reading surprises than I could have reasonably been prepared for. Half of my reading veered toward sequential art out of nowhere, and at the second half of the year reading slowed really really dramatically. Regardless, I got some pretty interesting numbers out of it all. Especially because at the beginning of the year I started low key keeping track of every single book I acquired. And boy are the results scary. Check it out.

GENRE

Unsurprisingly to anybody who has watched my reading, but surprisingly to me, comics took up 47% of my books read. Baby 2014 Julianne would have never guessed!! Something that's disturbing to me: the sci-fi number. I apparently only read 3 straight science fiction novels in 2015. I definitely felt myself falling into the self-inflicted "must read currently acclaimed literary fiction" feelings every once in a while and probably disliking books more than I would have normally (looking at you Fates & Furies). I'll be posting about reading goals/resolutions tomorrow and this has an influence on some of my 2016 plans.

SOURCE

I read 74 books from the library! What!! This has something to do with me wanting to "test out" comics in their volumes before putting them on my pull list. But I'm also just a holds monster.

BOOKS ACQUIRED

I'll save you the math. At the bottom there? I acquired 187 books this year. I thought it was kind of weird that I'm almost out of bookshelf space despite having received two big new bookshelves this year. That's a new book in the apartment every other day of the year. EVERY OTHER DAY. Some of them are ebooks, but still. This is a problem. Nobody needs that many books (is what I've been told). This is another thing that will be covered in my resolutions tomorrow.



And now...

CHALLENGES

I failed the TBR Challenge. Ok, moving on.

I finished Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas Challenge! It got dramatic and suspenseful at the end there. I annoyed my friends and family by desperately trying to finish two books on my birthday, but it was all worth it in the end. Here's what I read:

1. // Bitch Planet, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick

2. // You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

3. // Descender, Vol. 1 by Jeff Lemire

4. // The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho (audiobook!)

5. // ODY-C, Vol. 1 by Matt Fraction

6. // Slade House by David Mitchell

7. // Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

8. // The Hunt for Vulcan by Thomas Levenson

9. // Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson (another audiobook!)

10. // Revival, Vol. 5 by Tim Seeley

11. // Moon Knight, Vol. 1 by Warren Ellis

12. // Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville

Thanks for hosting the challenge, Shaina! #12forXmas kind of showed me how useful audiobooks are and I'm going to try to integrate them more into my life. It was a good time.

Did you have any reading surprises this year?

 

A Readathon: Bout of Books 14!

It's that time of year again! Bout of Books is a pretty relaxed week-long readathon with a bunch of fun challenges, opportunities to win books, and Twitter chats to meets new bookish people. I've met some of my best internet friends through this event, so I'm always happy to participate. And it's saved me from a number of book slumps. I have this super fun habit right now of starting books and not finishing them, so I'm hoping this readathon will get me focused enough on reading to finish some shit up. It starts Monday the 17th. Here are the specifics if you'd like to join in:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 17th and runs through Sunday, August 23rd in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 14 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I'm going to be posting all of my updates here, so be sure to check back! I'll also be talking all about this on Twitter and posting visual updates on Instagram, so check me out there and say hi! And leave a comment if you're participating too, so I can see what you're up to.
READING YES.

BOOKS TO READ

• The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin
• The Familiar, Vol. 1 by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
• Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital

UPDATES

MONDAY
Number of pages read today: 147
Books read from today: 2
Total number of books finished: 1
#todayinsixwords: Head really hurt, read graphic novels.

Being in this hotel is not quite the reading incubator I expected it to be. But maybe the novelty will wear off tomorrow and I'll be able to focus. After participating in the (great) twitter chat, I finally sat myself down to read for the day. But my head was actually killing me, so I couldn't handle anything too dense. First I started Ghosted, Vol. 1 by Joshua Williamson. I threw it aside after 19 pages of bad dialogue and a weird offhand misogynistic comment was thrown out to sound cool?? Idk, but I was too exhausted with it to take the time to find out if it was serious or not. Just didn't care. So I moved onto Revival, Vol. 2 by Tim Seeley, which was SO GOOD. And there are interesting female characters, which took the bad taste out of my mouth. No heavy reading done today, but here's hoping I'll feel better tomorrow!


TUESDAY
Number of pages read today: An impressive 10
Books read from today: 1
Total number of books finished: 1
#todayinsixwords: Too tired to do anything really.

Today I probably should've gone for a graphic novel, but I tried reading more of The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating. I got ten pages read. I do like it and it's starting to get weird, I just had a long day at work and then I went out shopping in the evening. So it just didn't really leave a lot of time for reading. Oh well. Tomorrow will be better, because I'll have have two hour car ride with nothing else to do.


WEDNESDAY
Number of pages read today:128
Books read from today: 1
Total number of books finished: 2
#todayinsixwords: Reading is hard, more graphic novels.

Participated in the MASH challenge today and it went pretty well, all things considered.

Anyway, reading is still a struggle so I just spent my time in Nailbiter Vol. 2, Bloody Hands by Joshua Williamson. It seems amazing to me that this is the same writer that did Ghosted (considering I threw that aside days ago). Nailbiter is significantly better. I mean, this volume wasn't amazing. But it was good. Doing my best over here.



THURSDAY
Number of pages read today: 72
Books read from today: 3 (but they were all single issue comics)
Total number of books finished: 2 (see note above)
#todayinsixwords: Went to the comic book store.

Wow, even Bout of Books isn't helping the slump. I went to the comic book store and picked up my pull for the first time!! I got Invader Zim #2, Trees #12, and Harrow County #4. All were good except for Trees, which has been super boring. But Invader Zim was a complete delight.

FRIDAY
Number of pages read today: 124
Books read from today: 2
Total number of books finished: 3
#todayinsixwords: One real book, one not as.

Today I went to Half Price Books and it completely rejuvenated my book love. I finally found Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. Which I look for every single time I go there. I had some fun flipping through it, reading essays related to my life (40-50 pages), and having a miniature cry. You guys, this book is just as good as people say it is. I can't wait to read all of it in one sitting tomorrow (probably). It was nice to read a book that isn't due back at the library immediately or from a publisher. But I also did read Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart, a graphic novel from the library. It was pretty good. Kind of Memento-y. Over all, not the worst day.

SATURDAY
Number of pages read today: 0
Books read from today: 0
Total number of books finished: 3
#todayinsixwords: Oops oops oops oops oops oops.

Can I just say oops?


SUNDAY
Number of pages read today: 30
Books read from today: 1
Total number of books finished: 3
#todayinsixwords: Made a little progress sort of.

I delved a little bit into The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating and I'm going to be real, I don't really know what's going on right now. It feels sort of like we're still in the exposition despite being almost halfway done, so when strange plot things happen I'm not sure what the basis of it is. Ok, I'm rambling. I'm just bad at focusing. But I'm glad I read more than yesterday!

The #24in48 Readathon!

I love nothing more than a good readathon. #24in48 allows you to spend this Saturday and Sunday reading for a total of 24 hours. Learn more and sign up here!

I'm normally pretty lax about keeping track of how much I actually read during readathons, but this time I'm going to use my phone's stop watch to only record when I'm actively reading. I really want to hit an actual 24 hours. But also I'm lazy so we'll see what happens. Updates will be going on this post throughout the two days, so keep checking back!

Obviously I don't intend to read ALL of these books, but I like to have options. And I just grabbed two single issue comics, so I think I'll speed through those as well.

Let me know if you're participating! It's not too late! I'll be on twitter, instagram, AND my shiny new facebook page with more active updates. I'll be using the hashtag #24in48. HERE WE GO.


// UPDATES

DAY 1. 11:00 AM. HOUR 11.

Uh oh, I just woke up. TO BE FAIR, I got woken up at 4 then couldn't fall asleep until 7. Perhaps I should have read then, but I was too busy saying "why" over and over again in my head. Around midnight I read the single issue comic of Trees (#10). Sooo that was a solid 7 minutes. COOL. Onwards.

TIME READ: 7 minutes.
PAGES READ: ~30

DAY 1. 4:00 PM. HOUR 16.

I had a late start, but I've been pretty good at focusing on reading. I'm trying to read as hard as I can now so I'm not super behind tomorrow. Finished these two comic books and I'm a third of the way through each novel. Bitch Planet was SO GOOD. And The Room is SO FUNNY. I thought When We Were Animals was going to be a horror novel, but like... it's not really. So I'm leaving it alone for now.

TIME READ: 4 hours, 10 minutes.
PAGES READ: 230
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1.


DAY 2. 2:00 AM. HOUR 26.

I've been jumping around in books A LOT. And some friends forced me to leave the house, so that cut into some reading time. Finished The Room, which was great. Finished When We Were Animals, which was not. I read a little bit of The Keep by Jennifer Egan, but I wasn't feeling it that much, so I stopped. Nothing's really calling to me right now, so hopefully I can find an exciting book tomorrow.

TIME READ: 11 hours, 10 minutes.
PAGES READ: 597
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord. 


DAY 2. 1:20 PM. HOUR 37.

Oh my god, my book hopping is out of control. I started Ticknor by Sheila Heti then stopped after 11 pages. Then I started The Animals by Christian Kiefer, which I like. But THEN my boyfriend came home with the continuation of the Invader Zim series in comic form, so obviously I had to read that immediately (and it was perfect). I'm back on The Animals now and I'm going to read outside to try to become less brain dead. So there's a lot of jumping and a lot of very slow tired reading. I'm trying so hard to hit 24, you guys.

TIME READ: 14 hours, 35 minutes.
PAGES READ: 695
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, Invader Zim #1.  


DAY 2. 9:30 PM. HOUR 46.

My reading has slowed down very significantly. Some of it's the overwhelming, muggy weather. Some of it's my brain is mush. I think what I've learned is that my attention span is way too short for marathon reading. There's been a lot of reading sentences several times. But I'm going to try to finish ONE MORE BOOK, because I'm crazy. I don't even know what it's about (The Blue Fox by Sjon), but it's tiny, it's square, and it's 115 pages. THE FINAL SPRINT, HERE I GO.

TIME READ: 22 hours, 30 minutes.
PAGES READ: 912
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, The Animals by Christian Kiefer.



DAY 2. 11:05 PM. HOUR 48.

I DID IT! I read for a full 24 hour! I mean I only read 1,027 pages so clearly not all of that time was speedy or very productive, but I still DID IT! 3 comics and 4 books. Most of them were animal themed for some reason? That was unplanned. Finished on the bizarre and delightful little book, The Blue Fox which was perfect for my delirious state. Time to sleep forever. Thanks to everyone who read along this weekend!

TIME READ: 24 hours!
PAGES READ: 1027
BOOKS READ: Trees #10, Bitch Planet #1, The Room by Jonas Karlsson, When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord, The Animals by Christian Kiefer, The Blue Fox by Sjon.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 22, 2015]

So last night a dream of mine came true. I saw Modest Mouse live! For free! They played Rock the Garden in Minneapolis and it was incredible. I don't want to say that I immediately started crying when they started with "The World at Large." Oh man, the whole set got me in the feelings.

Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 also played. If you don't know who they are, Seun Kuti is the son of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. So seeing them live while finishing up Lagoon which is set in sci-fi Lagos, Nigeria was pretty fucking magical.

Side note: I'm also doing Books on the Nightstand bingo! It started Memorial Day and it ends Labor Day. I've kind of bullied everybody I know into doing it with me. Here's my card! If you want one, go here and you'll get a randomly generated card! It's a good time, I promise. Show me your cards!

So basically I want to do all of them except presidential biography.

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

CURRENTLY READING:

My work week was so crazy, that I didn't get very far into The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara. I'm going camping this week, though and this is one of the books I'm bringing with me! I think I also need to find something creepy and forest-based. Anybody have any suggestions?

So this tiny weirdness is apparently surreal and poetic, so I think I need it. Light Boxes by Shane Jones is only 175 pages and it's about a small town that's dealing with a perpetual February. And February is like a god? Children are going missing. Shit's going down. And the town is going to fight back against February. After a slow reading week, I need some instant gratification. And its format is kind of experimental, so I'm down.

What are you reading this week?

 

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge Wrap Up

I told you guys I'd do it! I read six library books this month for the challenge AND I'm partway through a seventh. I know you were all placing bets. I had so much fun doing this and ended up reading three books I hadn't intended to read this month at all. I'm sad it's over, but thanks to Caught Read Handed and Read What I Like for starting such a great event!


How much money I've saved on books read:

In total, I've saved $143!

The last challenge is to tell you how often I visit my library. Normally I go once every one or two weeks. Basically whenever I have a hold book in. This month I've gone once or twice a week. It's been pretty great. I don't normally take the time to browse the books unless I know that something's there after looking into it online. I'm a child of the internet, what can I say. Doing this challenge (and especially the scavenger hunt) has definitely discouraged this kind of behavior, and I intend to try to start a new habit of wandering a little!

 

I loved participating in this challenge! How many library books did you read this month? How often do you visit?

 

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon - April 2015

This is my first time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm beyond excited! It might be a little tough, because I have work 12:30-5:30 and then a party to go to in the evening, but I'm going to do everything in my power to read as much as I can! That includes shirking my duties while at work. Above is the stack of books I'll be reading from, excluding Ghost World (which I just grabbed) and a couple sci-fi/horror e-novellas.

I'll be posting updates here throughout the day and I'll also be on twitter. I know this event is about reading, buuuuuut I want to talk to everyone. So I'll probably spend a lot of time doing that. Let me know if you're participating! Now LET'S READ A BUNCH OF SHIT.

UPDATES

Hour 1
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Chicago, IL!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Honestly I'm excited for all of them haha. Maybe Dept. of Speculation and Wallcreeper if I really have to choose.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Oreooooosssss.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Oh jeez, uhhh. It is too early for this. I'm a book blogger who really likes weird books!  I'm about to be graduating from film school in a few weeks here, so I should REALLY be doing other things. I am just really good about prioritizing books even when I shouldn't.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This is my first readathon! I know I should be excited for the books, which I am, but I'm especially excited to meet a bunch of new bookish people!
 
Hour 4
Well, it's 10 am and hour 4 just began. I finally finished my first book of the day: The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. It was only 129 pages, but it was SO POWERFUL. I definitely cried. Wow, what a great start to the day. Something I've learned: I am SUPER fidgety when I read. I need to figure out something to do with my hand that isn't holding the book while I read. I also get very distracted by the internet. Not sure what I'll read next. Either The Wallcreeper or Dept. of Speculation. For now I'm going to go do a mini challenge! My next update will be from work in a couple hours.
  
Hour 7

It's 1:21pm now. I'm only 50 pages into The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink. To be fair, I had to take a shower (equally important, but it seems somehow less relevant to my life today), get ready to leave for work, then get my ass to work, then be at work for a bit. Things have kind of died down here, so I'm back to reading nonstop. Shirking my responsibilities and whatnot. I've probably read a total of 3-4 hours so far. If that. Hard to tell. BUT I've managed to participate in every mini-challenge, which is kind of crazy. Ok, back to reading this very funny, strange book. 



Hour 11
Holy shit, how is the time flying by this quickly?? It's 5:04pm, so hour 11 just started. I finished The Wallcreeper moments ago. I probably have been reading for almost 3 hours straight. I'm finding out that I am NOT a fast reader when compared to other book bloggers haha. I kind of have mixed feelings, but it was so well written and funny. I really liked it a lot. Now I've moved onto a graphic novel, because my next novel pick was about ANOTHER unhappy housewife. I need a break! Luckily work has been completely dead, so reading as much as I have been hasn't gotten me yelled at.

Hour 12 - Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now?
The graphic novel, Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. I haven't made any progress since hour 11, because I had to close up at work then my ride back home with a coworker took 45 minutes! Didn't want to be rude and read... 
2. How many books have you read so far?
Two! 
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. Maybe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, because it seems like a good time. I'm trying not to be TOO over ambitious! I have to leave for a party in 3-4 hours. UGH I wish I could just stay and read. 
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Lots, yes! Having to work today didn't help, despite it not being too busy. Getting ready and commuting and talking to people cut a lot into reading time. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? 
How many people are involved! It's amazing! But also my capacity to sit still and read for prolonged periods of time haha. I didn't expect that. I'm not going to get as much done as I hoped, but how much progress I've made is still pretty crazy to me. 

Hour 15

This is probably going to be my last post for a while, guys. So far I've finished 3 books. Ghost World was so great. I've moved onto Dept. of Speculation, which I've been meaning to read forever. I'm really hoping I finish this one tonight so I get 4 books done. It's 9pm here and I have to leave for the party at like 9:30 or so. I'm kind of bummed, but it's fine. I'll be reading on the bus over. I might read a little horror e-novella on my phone while drunk at the party. I may not even get drunk. WHO KNOWS. But I won't be back home for a long while. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to stay up the whole 24 hours in my drunken stupor! Good luck out there, guys. Make me proud.

Hour 23

Oh my. It's 5 am. I am home now from a very strange party. I didn't have time to smash any appliances, but I watched my friends sledgehammer some tvs. I also did not have the patience to wait in line to have my fortune told. And somehow I didn't pick up any of the free margaritas?? Now I'm wondering if I actually went to this party at all. Ok, I did. It was pretty good. I did not really get drunk, but I did get mad sleepy. I read a little more of Dept. of Speculation on the bus and I intend to fall asleep with it in my arms now. But, if we are ignoring the few pages I'll read before my drool wipes all traces of ink away, here are my final stats:

BOOKS: 3 and a little bit of a 4th!
PAGES: 439
HOURS READ: Almost impossible to figure out, but close to 7-9

Thanks so much for reading along as I participated in my first ever readathon! I didn't have any set goals for myself, but I'm very pleased with the amount I was able to read considering how I didn't have that much time alone in my house. AND almost staying up the whole time is pretty cool, despite how bad at reading I am right now. Can't wait for the next one! 
    
END OF EVENT SURVEY
1.Which hour was most daunting for you?
Probably Hour 9, because I felt like I would never finish The Wallcreeper or Hour 23 when I really just wanted to sleep.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Ghost World by Daniel Clowes and/or The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka! Or, I didn't read this during readathon, but I know Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer would be perfect.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Noooope, I thought it was pretty solid haha.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
All of the different twitter hosts were great. And all of the mini-challenges.
5. How many books did you read?
3! And a little bit of another! (it counts)
6. What were the names of the books you read?
The Buddha in the Attic, The Wallcreeper, and Ghost World.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
Oh, god. I don't know, I loved them all. Maybe Ghost World, just because reading a graphic novel was a delight. And it actually mimicked me and my life and my relationships.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
Maybe The Wallcreeper only because it was weird and I had to think about it. But it was still really good! Just not easy to get through necessarily.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
I wasn't, but maybe I will be next time.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
100%. I want to do everything! I had such a great time.

 

#ReadingMyLibrary Challenge: Scavenger Hunt!

I am so into scavenger hunts where I don't have to be on a team or talk to anybody. Give me a list and let me cross things off of it PLEASE. For the #ReadingMyLibrary Challenge, apart from trying to read books from the library, you're encouraged to spend time in and explore your local library. I thought I knew my library well, but this scavenger hunt introduced me to a whole slew of cool, new things. It was a lot of fun!

The list of things I was supposed to find is here and I got ten of them! Well, I got a couple more than that, but they were pretty boring pictures. So I spared you. You're welcome.


My Library Scavenger Hunt Finds:

First things first, I'm the realest/here's my library card. It's not one of the fancier new ones, but that's fine. Also my name always always always rubs off. Any tips, librarians? 

Right away I really wanted to find an author with my initials, JQ. I didn't think it would happen, because my initials are super weird. But then it did! I found Julia Quinn here, who writes historical romance books. I didn't expect that from my name soulmate, but good for her.

Next I found a book with 8+ words in the title. So I have I Am Sorry to Think I Have Raised a Timid Son, which I just started reading and is also an amazing title. 

Then I had to look for a book with a number in the title. It would've been easy to go for Janet Evanovich, but I wanted a numeral. I have no idea what Galatea 2.2 is, but that cover's pretty fucking cool.

I found a travel book about Barcelona for a book with someplace I want to go on the cover. 

While I was looking for a green book, I found a book with a girl with a dress on the cover! Wondering if that's her braid or somebody else's. But I wasn't wondering enough to check out the book.

I found a picture book about a topic that interests me very, very deeply. 

I also found a set of encyclopedias. All about animals! I would have absolutely loved going through all of these as a kid. Or like right now. 

Then I started discovering parts of the library I really didn't know about. Like I knew there were encyclopedias and travel books, I just didn't know where. But I had no idea there were all of these physical audiobooks. There were two shelves-worth! 

And I didn't know we had graphic novels! They're strangely sorted into nonfiction, a land I rarely visit. I found Ghost World, and I took it home with me! It's been too long since I've read comics.

This wasn't for the scavenger hunt, but while I was in the nonfiction section I looked for and found Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman, as per Monika's recommendation on her post about tracking diversity and cisgender privilege. "Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives." Yes, please.

Have you made any cool discoveries in your library? Go explore!

 

#ReadingMyLibrary: Week Three Update

Ok, I'm going to pull my sneaky shit again and say I finished a book this week, just because I'm ALMOST finished. I would definitely be done with Burial Rites today, but it's for a book club so that's not allowed. UGH.

I also started Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin, which I am really into. It's only 200 pages, so it's going to be a fast read. I know so far I only have 2 library books under my belt and maybe technically April is almost over, but I'm still very certain I'm going to read 6 books by the end of this month. Just watch me.


How much money I've saved on books read:

Adding Burial Rites, which is a $26 hardcover, this month I've saved $56!

The challenge for this week is to tell you why I love libraries or why I love being a librarian. I am not a librarian, so I can't tell you why I love it (even though I TOTALLY WOULD). So I'll tell you about why I love libraries.

Obviously, I always went to the library as a kid from preschool to jr. high. My mom taught us a certain respect for books at a young age and going to the hushed library was always the best time of my life. Honestly, picking out books was almost better than reading them. As I got older, I'd end up just grabbing a bunch of stuff that looked interesting, never reading them, and returning them. I guess having access to free books was exciting, I don't know.

When I went to college, I had some trouble adjusting. I mean, I was fine, but I just hated my living situation and didn't really know what to do with myself. My school doesn't have a typical campus with typical activities. I was just kind of in the city of Chicago with a lot of free time on my hands between easy classes. So I ended up wandering over to the enormous, beautiful nine floor library after a few years of hardly reading outside of school.

On the first floor they have the "popular library" which is just new releases and dvds and whatnot. At the time, I didn't know anything about new books, so I just found myself wandering around. I picked up Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and a few others with covers and premises that interested me. And that was where my love affair with books slowly began again. I was just so happy to be excited about something again. I knew I loved words, because I was interested in linguistics. I had just forgotten my love of words in stories. SOMEHOW I found book blogs after that, but I can't piece together the chronology of that discovery at all.

Anyway, libraries are amazing places to be. They inspire you to learn some new shit and just be still for a while. It's thanks to the library that I am here talking to you lovely people today. And let's not forget: FREE BOOKS!

 

Why do you love libraries? Or, if you are one, why do you love being a librarian?