Readathon 2018 Mini Challenge: #CoverFromMemory

Happy 24 Hour Readathon, everybody! I have a mini-challenge here for you...one that I absolutely adore. I was going to try to come up with a new idea, but this one just makes me laugh too much. It's the classic, very funny #CoverFromMemory. You know it, you love it. But if you don't, 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 was never completely helpless when a bookstore customer came up to me and said 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. Maybe an all-time favorite, maybe a book you read two months ago. 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 Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller.

I couldn't find my colored pencils, so I did a sick hand-drawn/photoshop combo. I don't know why I didn't remember that the ghosty thing very explicitly looked like a person. Anyway: YIKE.

Accuracy won't get you the win; just participation! Either post your creation in the comments or share it on social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Litsy, or the comment here) with the hashtags #Readathon **AND** #CoverFromMemory.

At the end of the readathon, one winner will be randomly chosen and will win my Outlandish Lit Weird Ebook Bundle. The ebook bundle has 13 novels and short story collections in it, all DRM free (and legally obtained!!). If you're a fan of weird fiction, strange lyrical poetry, and sci-fi, this is the collection of books for you. It has two of my favorite books in it! Good luck and I hope you enjoy this ridiculous break from reading!

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.

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: October 2017

Hi, book babes! This is my sixth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm as excited as ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - you try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

For the first readathon ever, I don't have to work!! I'm co-hosting the readathon, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 9 pm and 12 am central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog! Oh! And I'm hosting a mini-challenge here on the blog at 2 pm central time. Get in on it, it'll be fun, I promise!!


Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Probably The Doll's Alphabet

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I have some homemade zucchini bread that I remembered to thaw!

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I'm a bookseller and I'm now training to be a used book buyer at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, crafting pretty things, and traveling.

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?
I'm going to take some time to read some books in Japanese!

Hour 7

I've been trying to be a little more "chillaxed" about the readathon than I normally am. And so far so good! Since 7:30 I've been listening to the audiobook of the The Visionist, which I'm really enjoying bc it's sort of about a cult. I took a bath, I sat on the couch, it's been incredible. I also started a tiny little scary book called You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann. I LOVE IT so far. I'm like 30 pages from the end, so once I finish prepping my mini-challenge for Hour 8, I'm going to wrap that bad boy up.

Ten in Ten Challenge
I'll be adding to this as I think of them:

2007 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (which I didn't love, but that's all I've got for 2007 haha)
2008 - Suicide by Edouard Leve
2009 - Light Boxes by Shane Jones
2010 - How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
2011 - Embassytown by China Mieville
2012 - The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
2013 - The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
2014 - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
2015 - A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
2016 - Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
2017 - Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Hour 12

Mid-Event Survey: 
1 // What are you reading right now? 
The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart and Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin Kiernan

2 // How many books have you read so far? 
One!

3 // What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? 
Oh god, I don't know. Maybe Penance by Kanae Minato, because I like to save thrillers for the end.

4 // Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? 
I just kind of audiobook during interruptions if that's possible. Otherwise I just do whatever I need to do and get back to the reading after WITHOUT beating myself up about it.

5 // What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? 
Nothing too surprising!

Hour 19

Well, it just turned Hour 19 here and it's 1 am. I had a great time co-hosting from hours 15-18, but it definitely ate into my reading time. I kept finding myself pausing my audiobook for long periods of time. So here I am now trying to finish up the audiobook I started and I've got probably 20 minutes left in it at double speed. I like this one (The Visionist) quite a bit. The other book I finished earlier was ALSO about a cult, which was kind of confusing when I switched back and forth. Agents of Dreamland had like everything I love in one small book. I definitely need to check out Caitlin Kiernan's other books. Oh, I also read the first 16 pages of Penance by Kanae Minato. I just can't fit everything in!! I'm pretty happy with what I did get to this readathon! Oh, p.s., You Should Have Left is GREAT.
  


TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 602
TOTAL HOURS READ: 13 hours

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!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: April 2017

Hello, bookfrnds! This is my fifth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm as excited as ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - you try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

I work for approximately 4 hours today, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm co-hosting the readathon for a second time now, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 5 pm and 7 pm central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog! Oh! And I'm hosting a mini-challenge here on the blog at 9 am central time. Get in on it, it'll be fun, I promise!!

I'll keep my list of books finished here:

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can now find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Borne by Jeff Vandermeer!!! Also tbh some nonfiction books about gardening, because I have SO MUCH to learn.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
God, I never do enough snack prep. I have like 5 stroopwaffels left, but that's kind of all. I have some banana chips too.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I'm a bookseller and I'm now training to be a used book buyer at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, crafting pretty things, studying Japanese, and traveling.

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?
I really would like to challenge myself to read 1,000 pages. I'm normally super low key and don't like putting any pressure on myself. But like... 1,000 would be cool haha. I know that's nothing for a lot of readathoners, but I'm bad at focusing. I'd ALSO like if some of my friends stopped by my place for ~communal reading~ but I haven't officially organized anything sooooo.

Hour 8

Well, because I had work in the morning I've only been reading for two hours now. But that's better than nothing!!

I've been spending most of my time listening to an audiobook: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. It was very necessary as I was getting ready for work in the morning then sorting out my life when I got home from work. I started reading Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel, the sequel to Sleeping Giants, because I felt like I wanted to stop listening to things and hold a book. I got 30 pages in and am having fun reading it so far, but my eyes are already tired from work and waking up so early. Back to the audio book now and closing my eyes for a bit.

Hour 12

1. What are you reading right now?
Still listening to The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

2. How many books have you read so far?
0! haha

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I'd like to check out The Goddesses

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Wooooork and other things. I kind of just had to do those things.

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How I'm so amazing at not focusing!!


Hour 18

I finished my first book during hour 17!! It was the audiobook of The Fishermen. I really liked the narration, but, I don't know, I just didn't love this book. Everybody else was obsessed with it when it came out and I thought it was fine. I'm just not sure what I missed.

I'm halfway through Waking Gods right now and I think I can finish it before I head to bed (I must, because I work tomorrow morning). It is just a breeze to read. Did I want to read more than this? Yes. Did work actually take 5 hours and was I super tired after? Also yes. So no hard feelings, me. I'm settling in with my chai tea now and I hope everyone has a great late evening/early morning of reading!

Hour 24

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? 
Hour 9 or 10, because I was asleep af.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a reader engaged for next year?
The Themis Files trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel is perfect for readathon. Most of it is written in interview format, so it's super fast to read. And it's ACTION PACKED.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?
72 hour readathon
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? 
The youtube video I found with noises of being on a train haha
5. How many books did you read? 
2! And they were both like 300 pages, proud of me.
6. What were the names of the books you read? 
The Fishermen, Waking Gods
7. Which book did you enjoy most? 
Waking Gods!! It was just a lot of fun. V good for what it was.
8. Which did you enjoy least? 
The Fishermen. I'm not sure why there was SO MUCH crazy hype. It was good, but I wasn't blown away.
9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? 
~forever co-host~

TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 584
TOTAL HOURS READ: 12 hours

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon :: October 2016

Hello, super-readers! This is my fourth time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm ready to go hard. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out that link to sign up. It's exactly what it sounds like - try to read for 24 hours. And there are prizes!

My stack of to-read books may be out of hand (the books on the left in the photo are the ones I'm already halfway through), but I ain't got time to judge myself. I work for approximately 4 hours today, but that's nothing. This time around I'm going to be co-hosting the readathon, so be sure to say hi on the Readathon Twitter between 10pm and midnight central time. Also look out for my posts on the Readathon blog!

I'll keep my list of books finished here:

Zero K by Don DeLillo
Saga Volume 6 by Brian K. Vaughan
The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky


Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter, instagram, and you can now find me on Litsy as OutlandishLit! But I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I'm super stoked about Fish in Exile and The Mothers.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I haven't put that much thought into snacks this year, because I discovered I have brie cheese and Mike's Hard Strawberry Lemonade in the fridge already. I clearly love myself.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a spooky gal who likes to read weird books. I sell books and take photos at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis. I like forests, intersectional feminism, horror movies, reality tv, propagating succulents, making pretty things, studying Japanese, and traveling.

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?
I'm not going to force myself to stick with a book if I'm not really feeling it. I think I'll be bummed by staying focused but reading very little. If I find something I'm excited about, I'll be happy. But, at the same time, I reaaaaally want to finish some of my half-read books.

Hour 5

Hey, everybody! I'm checking in now after a very relaxing morning of audiobook reading. I didn't wake up at 7 am, because I accidentally went to bed at 1 am (thanks, Twin Peaks). But I woke up at 8 and began audiobooking immediately. And it's 11am now and I just finished! It was Zero K by Don DeLillo, which I had started listening to a number of days ago. I had a physical copy, but for whatever reason I was finding it so hard to get myself to read it. I'm glad I did the audio. I think I liked it for the most part, and I got a bit of knitting done. Did the math and I read the equivalent of 162 pages. Now I'm going to move on to another unfinished book - Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Hopefully it's good.

Hour 7

I finished another one! Granted, it was a bit easier. After reading 10 pages of Hex, I switched to Saga volume 6, which was such a delight. I just ate lunch and let the boyf distract me with youtube videos for a while, but it's time for me to get back into reading. I'm very curious about Fish in Exile, so I think I might just go for it.

Hour 11

Well, I have to go to work now. I'll be back in a few hours, though. And I should be able to audiobook a bit during some of it. I read 14 pages of Fish in Exile, then swapped it out for The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky. It. Is. AMAZING. I didn't think I'd like it that much, but I love it. I'm halfway through and can't wait to come back and finish it. For the past 45 minutes I've been listening to the audiobook of The Sisters Brothers just because I was tired of reading with my eyes and it's also quite good. See you all again soon.

Hour 20

Oh my, I didn't mean to not check in here for so many hours! Work went well - I got to audiobook while at the bookstore, then I had a great time photographing Mark Frost. After that I enjoyed some pad thai and reading before hosting on twitter for two hours. I've got to tell you, that shit takes ALL your focus. After the first hour, I let my Sisters Brothers audiobook play. I think I'm halfway through that. And I just finished The Red Car which did not let me down at all. It's 100% one of my favorite books of the year. I know a ton of people I need to push this book on pronto. Ah, the joys of readathon.

Hour 21

It's 3:30am now and I think it's time for me to hit the hay. Did a little more of The Sisters Brothers then jumped over to HEX which I don't really hate anymore. Or, at least, there hasn't been bad dialogue in a while. I feel good about how much I read considering I had 5 hours of working and I also have work tomorrow morning so I need SOME sleep. This was SO much fun and I feel my reading-love renewed.



TOTAL BOOKS READ: 3
TOTAL PAGES READ: 771
TOTAL HOURS READ: 13 hours, 30 minutes

A Readathon: Bout of Books 17!

I've been looking forward to Bout of Books all week long. I desperately need some incentive to get myself out of this reading slump. And you should join me! 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. Here are the specifics if you'd like to get in on it:

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 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th 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 17 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. My work schedule is kind of horrible and not super conducive to readathoning, but oh well. I'll also be chatting and updating more frequently on Twitter, complaining w/ weird filters on Snapchat (uulianne), and posting pretty book photos on Instagram. Follow me there and say hi! And be sure to leave a comment if you're participating, so I can see what you're up to!

BOOKS TO READ

I don't actually wholly know what I want to read this week. I kind of just want to ~go with the flow~. But here are some I've had my eye on or am halfway through and need to finish.

• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

• UFOs by Leslie Kean

• The Swan Book by Alexis Wright

• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

• Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn 

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

• Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard 

• Riverine by Angela Palm

• Neon Green by Margaret Wappler
• How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball
• Moonstone by Sjon
• Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• The Devourers by Indra Das

UPDATES

MONDAY
Number of pages read today: 10
Books read from today: The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
Total number of books finished: 0

Starting with a bang, day one!!! I sort of expected not to read much, but I did have four hours between my two different work shifts. I was hyped and ready to read. But then my grandpa wanted to get lunch. And not just any lunch: Thai food. How could I say no? So that just sort of threw everything off. Still not completely into The Natural Way of Things, but I want to give it more of a chance.


TUESDAY
Number of pages read today: 50!!
Books read from today: The Natural Way of Things
Total number of books finished: 0!

Ok, this is much better! I know 50 pages isn't wildly impressive, but I'm finally enthralled in this book and really enjoying reading. Tonight was my big night to read, BUT I had a surprise visit by a friend who insisted on arguing about politics for a couple hours. Then we watched Bob Ross. SO MESMERIZING, I had never seen a full episode of his show. I almost took more time away from reading to see if I could become a master painter in 30 minutes, but I controlled myself. Next week I will paint.


WEDNESDAY
Number of pages read today: 6
Books read from today: The Natural Way of Things
Total number of books finished: 0

I worked 12 hour! Nope!


THURSDAY
Number of pages read today: 25
Books read from today: The Natural Way of Things
Total number of books finished: 0

It felt like I had read a lot today, but I was wrong. Tomorrow and Saturday are my days to fix this very slow Bout of Books.


FRIDAY
Number of pages read today: 86
Books read from today: The Natural Way of Things, Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Total number of books finished: 1

There we go!! I finally finished a book. And read more than 50 pages. Unfortunately, I have really mixed feelings about The Natural Way of Things. I don't know if I liked it or not. There are PARTS I liked. But I think I went in with too high of expectations, because at no point did it blow my mind. I'd rate it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. I hate to say this, but it might be another 3.5 in the streak of 3.5s I've read. I really have to mix it up right now. I grabbed Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone, because it's a collection of weird short stories. But I feel like I might have to even stray from my stack because nothing there is really exciting me. I need to find a book that excites me back into reading this week!



SATURDAY
Number of pages read today: 107
Books read from today: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Vertigo by Joanna Walsh
Total number of books finished: 0

My best reading day yet! I was out in the middle of nowhere for most of the day and I had little more to do than read. And yet I wasn't especially feeling it. But I started reading a random book, Vertigo by Joanna Walsh, which is just a beautiful little collection of lyrical vignettes. Do I entirely know what's going on in them? Not really. Am I enchanted by the language? Mostly, yeah. I could've finished it last night (80 pages in, with 30 to go), but I was too tired and fell asleep. Oh well. Oh and I read 25 pages of The Underground Railroad, which is pretty hard to rip through. I'm on edge most of the time while reading it.


SUNDAY
Number of pages read today: 43
Books read from today: Vertigo by Joanna Walsh, Intimations by Alexandra Kleeman
Total number of books finished: 1

I finished a second book! Vertigo was pretty beautiful and I really enjoyed reading it. And then I had to go to work. AT work, however, I discovered that my coworker left the new Alexandra Kleeman for me!!! I read 10 pages of it during break and it's so great. And then I got home at 10:30 and fell asleep! Didn't end Bout of Books with a bang, but at least I ended on a couple high notes.

Dewey's Readathon MiniChallenge :: #WeirdCoverHunt!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Welcome to the HOUR FIFTEEN 24 Hour Readathon Mini Challenge! This one is open to international participants!

There's nothing I love more than a good bookshelf scavenger hunt. And if you've visited Outlandish Lit before, you also know I can't resist a really strange book cover. I LOVE THEM.

More book photos on my Instagram!

More book photos on my Instagram!

So what I'd like you to do for this challenge is dig through your bookshelves/bookpiles and find the weirdest book cover that you have. Take a photo of it and share it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, or your blog! Be sure to tag it with #WeirdCoverHunt and #Readathon. If you post on your blog or Goodreads, just post your link in the comments so I can see it!

You have until Hour 18 to post your weird book and then I'll choose 4 random winners!

This giveaway is open to international participants, because the prize is my bundle of weird, DRM-free ebooks (legally purchased). 13 amazing books are featured in this bundle, and I have exquisite taste. So you won't be disappointed. PROMISE. If you already won my bundle during my March #Weirdathon event, I'll give you a NEW bundle. So you actually have incentive to participate.

Happy reading, everybody!

Update: YOUR WINNERS!

While I highly suggest checking out the hashtag #weirdcoverhunt on twitter and instagram for a WEALTH of nonsense, here are the four random winners!!

#WeirdCoverHunt @readathon challenge 15 pic.twitter.com/Mm43SqPQlA

— natalia miron (@NatyMA97) April 24, 2016

A photo posted by Meg (@glitteryotters) on Apr 23, 2016 at 7:46pm PDT

Yvonne D's post from Facebook 

 AND Ahavah's SUPERBABY photo, which is at the top of the comments below!!

Thank you all so much for participating! It was a lot of fun!

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon :: April 2016

This is my THIRD time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm so excited! I have to wake up really early to teach a class far away, but after that I have the rest of the day to myself. We'll see how much reading I'm able to get in, though I will be taking breaks to study Japanese. FOR NO REASON. But, then again, I read a book when studying Kanji, so that counts. Right??

This time I'm hosting a minichallenge, so check back here at 10 PM Eastern!!

The books in my stack in the order I should probably read them:

Crystal Eaters by Shane Jones
Tender by Belinda McKeon
I Will Rot Without You by Danger Slater
The Dark Will End the Dark by Darrin Doyle
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Zero K by Don DeLillo
Genius, Vol. 1 by Marc Barnardin
I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Changing by Lily Hoang
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Nitro Mountain by Lee Clay Johnson
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe


I really really really like options. I also have a stack of unread single issue comics I might dig into, as well as the audiobook of The Census-Taker by China Mieville.


Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter and instagram, but I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating! LET'S READ A MILLION BOOKS!!

UPDATES

Hour 0

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota!

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
My answer should be Zero K, but it's definite Three Body Problem

3// Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I really did not prepare any sort of snack situation for myself today. It's a bummer. I guess I could make a smoothie?

4// Tell us a little something about yourself!
I read and blog about weird books. I'm a bookseller and *newly* an Instagram person for Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis.

5// If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what's one thing you'll do differently today?
I'm going to ease up a little bit. Why do I need to add pressure on the most fun day(s) of the year??


Hour 12

1// What are you reading right now?
Supremacist by David Shapiro. I totally didn't mean to read it at all today, but I picked it up yesterday and had a really good time. So here I am!

2// How many books have you read so far?
Hahahaha we don't have to talk about it.

3// What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I'm not really feeling any of my potential books right now which I realize is so bad for today!! I think I'll try Three Body Problem.

4// Have you had any interruptions? How did you deal with those?
I worked from 7 until 2. Then fell asleep promptly after... Oops. I'll just go hard now that my sleep schedule is fucked.

5// What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How bad I am at it this year! Oh well.

Hour 19

Well, readers, this was officially my least successful readathon, but THAT'S OK. Today I had to wake up super early, commute two hours to work, come home and nap, then struggle to get into any books. But I did finish Genius, Vol. 1, which was pretty good. And after book hopping like 10 times, I finally found myself really into Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. Which I sort of knew I wanted to read from the very beginning, but I didn't let myself. I should have trusted myself, everybody!! Despite not really reading, I had a great time talking to people online and running my very first mini challenge! So I'm not mad at myself. Goodnight, everybody!

TOTAL BOOKS READ: 1
TOTAL HOURS READ: 3

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.

#24in48 Readathon [Jan 16-17, 2016]

You guys! it's time for another readathon. And I couldn't be more excited for this one. #24in48 allows you to spend this Saturday and Sunday reading for a total of 24 hours. So basically it's like Dewey's 24 hour readathon, but for people who like to sleep. Learn more and sign up here!

I'm using my phone's stop watch to only record when I'm actively reading, in the hopes of actually hitting 24 hours like I did last time. But, more important than that, I really just want to read more pages. I got a bit over 1,000 last time around and I think I can totally do better than that if I focus. Updates will be going on this post throughout the two days, so keep checking back!

Ok, ok, my pile is a little bit ambitious. I just really like the idea of being able to jump around in my reading. A lot of them are library books that I keep renewing over and over again and need to actually read. I also have a pile of single issue comics that I might switch to when I'm feeling burnt out.

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


// UPDATES

DAY 1. 2:00 AM. HOUR 2.
CURRENTLY READING: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

This readathon is going to reveal to everybody that I am sometimes a very slow reader. I was up after midnight anyway, so I decided to get a little bit of reading in. I had already began this book of short stories and essays before the readathon, so I'm just trying to finish it up so I can move onto shiny new books (or maybe another book I'm 25 pages into). BUT for now I must sleep. Happy #24in48!!

TIME READ: 1 hour.
PAGES READ: 65


DAY 1. 6:00 AM. HOUR 6.
(I wasn't actually awake at this time, but I'm doing the hour 6 challenge late.)

Intro Survey!

1. // Where in the world are you reading from this weekend?
        Minneapolis, Minnesota!
2. // Have you done the 24in48 readathon before?
        Yes, I participated in the last one.
3. // Where did you hear about the readathon?
        Twitter, probably. Who can say?
4. // What book are you most excited about reading this weekend?
        Oh jeez, my stack is pretty enormous. Maybe Eileen. Maybe The Forever War. Hard to say.
5. // Tell us something about yourself.
        I work at a bookstore! And I'll be working there for 5 hours tomorrow unfortunately.
6. // Remind us where to find you online this weekend.
       Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!

 
DAY 1. 2:00 PM. HOUR 14.
CURRENTLY READING: Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen

Alarmingly, I only have two hours of reading done so far. Not quite sure how it's already hour 14. I had to go to the doctor this morning which sort of ate up a lot of time. I'm home reading now and will be for the rest of the day, though! I just finished up What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, which was super great. Now onto another book that I'd barely started and need to finish up!

TIME READ: 2 hours.
PAGES READ: 130
BOOKS FINISHED: 1


DAY 1. 6:00 PM. HOUR 18.
CURRENTLY READING: Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen, The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

This afternoon I started to lose a bit of energy. Maybe it's because I had blood drawn at the doctor, maybe it's because I'm a sleepy person. WHO KNOWS. I made a significant amount of progress with Not Dark Yet and got halfway through. Then when reading became too difficult for my eyes, I switched to my audiobook: The Library at Mount Char. It's endlessly entertaining and just the kind of book for this (though it is long). I ended up taking a nap, but I'm back to the audiobook now while I clean up for my impending reading party!!

TIME READ: 4 hours, 55 minutes.
PAGES READ: 245
BOOKS FINISHED: 1


DAY 2. 1:00 AM. HOUR 25.
CURRENTLY READING: Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

My reading party was a great success at three participants. We snacked hard and we sat quietly reading hard. It definitely helped me focus on my book, because everybody else was doing the same thing (for the vast majority of the time). It got much harder at the very end of the night to focus, but it was a good time. I finished Not Dark Yet, which was ok, but pretty slow. Then I started Flatland and quickly realized that it was way too smart for me to fully comprehend at midnight after having read for like 8 hours. So I switched to the Invader Zim comics I hadn't gotten to yet, which was much much easier for my mush brain. I did the math and because I work tomorrow I definitely won't get to 24 hours of reading. So I'm just going to push myself to read 500+ pages tomorrow. There will be book hopping.

TIME READ: 10 hours
PAGES READ: 442
BOOKS FINISHED: 2 + 2 single issue comics


DAY 2. 11:00 AM. HOUR 35.
CURRENTLY READING: Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott, Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

I have to leave for work soon and it's breaking my heart. At 8 I woke up and tried to read Flatland, but it made me start falling asleep again. It's good, don't get me wrong, but it's not a thrilling read. So I moved onto Eileen after spending way too much time reading Flatland very slowly. And it's really good so far. First person narrative, so I'm finding it much quicker. I'll be at work until 5 today, so good luck everybody on their reading!! Be back in a bit. But first, here's my shelfie.

TIME READ: 11 hours, 30 minutes
PAGES READ: 492
BOOKS FINISHED: 2 + 2 single issue comics


DAY 2. 10:00 PM. HOUR 46.
CURRENTLY READING: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Well, it's almost the end of our glorious readathon and I'm not going to hit my hour goal or my page goal. But that's ok!! I'm probably happier than I was yesterday, because I stopped pushing myself to read absolutely nonstop and I'm 100% enjoying everything I'm reading. And if I'm not, I'm switching to something else. What a novel (HAHA) concept, right? I finished listening to the audiobook of The Library at Mount Char which was SO solid. I laughed, I cried, I was all sorts of excited throughout. Absolutely the perfect choice for the readathon. For no real reason, I switched books to Head Full of Ghosts because I've had it recommended and re-recommended to me by like 3 people this weekend, so I took it as a sign. And I am loving it. Hoping to race through it in these next two hours!

TIME READ: 17 hours
PAGES READ: 605
BOOKS FINISHED: 3 + 2 single issue comics


DAY 2. 12:00 AM. HOUR 48.
CURRENTLY READING: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

The readathon is over!! It was a lot of fun and I honestly got more reading done than I expected to. Normally it feels like I always fall into slow novellas that I think I'll race through, but that actually take me hours upon hours to read. Luckily I did not fall into that trap this time (mostly). I'm on page 115 of A Head Full of Ghosts and I am LOVING IT. OH MY GOD. So creepy, so startling, so clever. I want to keep reading, but sleep is probably a good idea at this point. Goodnight, sweet book nerds.

TIME READ: 19 hours
PAGES READ: 730ish
BOOKS FINISHED: 3 + 2 single issue comics

A Readathon: Bout of Books 15!

This readathon completely snuck up on me, but I'm so excited! 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 have a whole bunch of library books to get through, single issue comics that have piled up the past few months, books I started but didn't finish last year, and some of my own books that I'm dying to start. So BRING ON THE READING. Here are the specifics if you'd like to join:

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, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th 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 15 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 chatting and giving more frequent updates on Twitter, and posting pretty book photos on Instagram. Follow me there and say hi! And be sure to leave a comment if you're participating, so I can see what you're up to!

BOOKS TO READ

• A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin 

• I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir 

• Octavia's Brood by Walidah Imarisha 

• Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian 

• Spectacle by Susan Steinberg 

• The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin 

• Crystal Eaters by Shane Jones 

• Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen 

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 

• Moonshot by Hope Nicholson

UPDATES

MONDAY
Number of pages read today: 105
Books read from today: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Total number of books finished: 0

Oh my god, this book of short stories is so so good. Like startlingly good. Like get chills and goosebumps and teary eyed and think "this may have been the best story I've ever read" while you're sitting in Best Buy reading. I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted, because it sort of turned into an errands day. Tomorrow won't be great either because I'm working, but I'm going to try to spend the evening reading. It's sort of a race against the clock to finish this one, because it's definitely overdue at the library.


TUESDAY
Number of pages read today: 30
Books read from today: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Total number of books finished: 0
I got to read a good amount while I was in a waiting room, waiting. But once I got home there were people in my apartment!! So, you know, of course I had to socialize. And then it was 1 am. So I didn't get as much reading done as I had planned and the book is going to be overdue another day, but I've just kind of resigned myself to these steep library fines. Berlin's stories are still as amazing as ever. I made one of my guests read a story, because I know how to be a social human clearly. Whatever, he liked it.


WEDNESDAY
Number of pages read today: 140
Books read from today: A Manual for Cleaning Women, Venus #1, Rat Queens #11-14
Total number of books finished: 5 (but they were all single issue comics)
I had all sorts of things to do today, so I only got to read 40 pages of A Manual for Cleaning Women and honestly I don't mind savoring it. After every story I have to stop and say "wow" to myself and reflect before moving on. But, anyway, I thought my reading was done for the night because a friend came over. But LUCKILY she wanted to have a comic book reading party, so we set up camp and gushed about Rat Queens together. It was a good time.

THURSDAY
Number of pages read today: 140
Books read from today: A Manual for Cleaning Women, Paper Girls #1, Trees #13
Total number of books finished: 7 (single issue comic books)
Challenge: Villain mash up. Since I read a lot of literary fiction, "villain" is a strong word. But I guess I'd have Sauron from LoTR and the goth kids in The Ritual fight, because it might be funny for a second before it's over.

By accident I'm updating this the day after Thursday and for some reason I can't even remember how I spent my time yesterday?? Well, I sort of can. I went to work and I got my new DSLR (!!) so not a ton of reading happened. But I read like 100 pages of A Manual for Cleaning Women, so one day I'll finish this book.

FRIDAY
Number of pages read today: 155
Books read from today: A Manual for Cleaning Women, Negative Space #1-2, Not Dark Yet
Total number of books finished: 1 real book & 9 comic books!

Finally got focused and finished up A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin! And oh was it beautiful. These last stories really got to me. There were all sorts of tears. Very impressive writing. I think I might need to own this collection to go back to throughout my life. Checked out Negative Space, which I liked enough to put on my pull list. Then I started a novella, Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen, so maybe I have a chance of finishing two books this readathon!

SATURDAY
Number of pages read today: 55
Books read from today: Moonshot, Octavia's Brood, Not Dark Yet
Total number of books finished: Still 1 book, 9 comic books

Ok, today was a slow day. A book hopping day. Everything is sort of paling in comparison to Lucia Berlin right now and I'm not really being grabbed by anything. So Moonshot is pretty perfect, because it's a collection of short comics. I did most of my reading in that. Here's hoping I can finish one more book tomorrow!


SUNDAY
Number of pages read today: 450
Books read from today: Moonshot, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Between the World and Me, Cursed Pirate Girl
Total number of books finished: 4 books, 9 comic books

I embraced the book hopping today more than I normally do. I finished up the comics collection Moonshot, which I really enjoyed. I read all of Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which was really powerful. I read the graphic novel, Cursed Pirate Girl which was beyond delightful. And I read the first story in Nathan Englander's collecterion What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. So I actually got some stuff done! And I'm feeling good! Maybe next time I'll read this much each day. But probably not.

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - October 2015

This is my second time participating in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I'm super pumped! To be honest, I hadn't even planned on actually doing it until like...yesterday. But my book slump has been way too real for my tastes, so I want to force myself into reading for as close to 24 hours as I can get. I work from 3 to 7 at the bookstore which oddly is not super fond of you reading while on the clock. So that makes it more like a 19-Hour Readathon for me. It'll do.

The books in my stack in the order I should probably read them:

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville
Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan
Revival Vol. 4 by Tim Seeley
Locke & Key Vol. 2 by Joe Hill
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Rat Queens #11 and #12 by Kurtis J. Wiebe

Most of my real-time, v exciting updates will be posted on twitter and instagram, but I'll be using this post every few hours to update as well. Let me know if you're participating! LET'S READ A MILLION BOOKS!!

UPDATES

Hour 1

1 // What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Minneapolis, Minnesota!

2 // Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Probably Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville or Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan, because I was super hyped about reading both when they came out but for some reason put them off.

3 // Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Cheez-its. Always Cheez-its.

4 // Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a book blogger who really likes weird books! I'm also a bookseller at Minneapolis indie bookstore Magers & Quinn. I've been in a book slump for the past like two months, but I'm working on it and trying to embrace that sometimes I really just need to read books with pictures in them.

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?
One thing I'll do differently... if my eyes start to hurt, I might give myself a break. Don't want to burn out and create a new book slump.

Hour 7

So I managed to wake up in time to start the readathon with the rest of the world, but a few hours in I got a little bit distracted. I just hit page 300 in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which I'm not loving as much as everybody else in the world. I'd go ahead and just finish it, but I'm reading it with somebody so I guess I'll ask permission to complete the book so it feels like I'll have made more progress. Moving onto some comics then Fates and Furies before I go to work in 2.5 hours!


Hour 14

I'm off of work, yay!!! Before heading to work I finished Saga, Vol. 5. Then right after work I headed to a pizza place to use a coupon I'd forgotten about. On my one person pizza date, I spent a little time with Fates and Furies. Honestly, I am really over Lotto. Need to get to the good part already.


Hour 24

I toooootally fell asleep at 10pm while reading Fates and Furies. Perhaps not a good sign. I really should've invested in some Rockstar, because I did NOT get a lot of reading done this readathon. Onto the closing survey.

1 // Which hour was most daunting for you?
16, as I started to feel reeeeeal drowsy.

2 // Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
I would recommend No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July or Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee by Megan Boyle. The titles are basically longer than the books are.

3 // Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Can we have some irl Readathon slumber parties? That would be ideal.

4 // What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Everything was beautiful <3

5 // How many books did you read?
Two. I don't want to talk about it haha.

6 // What were the names of the books you read?
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and Saga, Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan

7 // Which book did you enjoy most?
Saga, obviously. 

8 // Which did you enjoy least?
I really didn't love Oscar Wao. I realize that's an unpopular opinion.

9 // How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?
SO LIKELY. Can we do one next weekend?


TOTAL BOOKS READ: 2
TOTAL PAGES READ: 395
TOTAL HOURS READ: 8-ish