Hour 24

I had a blast! Thanks very much to the organizers and everyone who participated!

End of Event Meme:

Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 10 was midnight here, so I went to sleep. I might have held on until 2 or 3am but from experience I know that I would have been too tired the next day to do anything.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Well, I recommend reading stuff that interests you most or perhaps trying out a genre or book that you’re curious about but haven’t tried before. Or try short stories.

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

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I was too busy reading to actually participate much but as far as I know, everything worked well.

How many books did you read?
I finished only one short story collection. I’m a slow reader so I expected that from previous years. However, I read a significant chunk from 2 other books and finished 2 comic book collections.

What were the names of the books you read?
Dark Side of the Sun, (a Farscape novel) around 100 pages
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia, around 50 pages
Starship Vectors edited by Stephen Baxter, the three last short stories
Excalibur Classic volumes 3 and 4

Which book did you enjoy most?
The Excalibur comics. They’re an old favorite so it was great to reread them.

Which did you enjoy least?
None. All were interesting and I’m going to finish them.
If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
No I wasn’t.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
If I have the time, I’d be happy to participate again. Reader, most likely.

 

Hour 20

I’m back to reading and I’m answering a mini-challenge:
The challenge for the hour is to share some of your best from your reading year and why. The idea is to pick at least 3 of the categories below and share your favorites and why. Hopefully, everyone will discover a new author..book…or maybe even genre.

I went a bit overboard: 🙂

Best Romance Book of Your Reading Year
Lois McMaster Bujold: A Civil Campaing
Miles Vorkosigan has finally met his lady love.

Best Mystery Book of Your Reading Year
Greenwood: Trick or Treat
I love Greenwood’s characters

Best Sci-Fi Book of Your Reading Year
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
A cerebral SF book.

Best Fantasy Book of Your Reading Year
Terry Pratchett: Night Watch
Commander Vimes is transported back in time and he has to whip into shape another City Guard.

Best Setting of Your Reading Year
The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffiths
A steampunk world with very dangerous vampires.

Best Indie Author of Your Reading Year
MeiLin Miranda: The Machine God
Quite different storyline and interesting setting and characters.

 

Hour 10

Things are going pretty good. I’m nearly finished with Starship Vectors, I’ve read over 50 pages of Dark Side of the Sun, and from Ekaterin Sedia’s book, and finished Excalibur Classic vol 3. In fact, I’ve been so busy reading that I haven’t had time to take part in any mini-challenges.

So, I’m joining the Book Spine Poetry challenge. Here’s my entry:

The Scent of Shadows
In the Night Garden
Unbound
A Fury Scorned.

It’s past midnight here, so I’m going to sleep. Happy reading for others!

 

24-hour-read-a-thon starting questions

24-Hour-Readathon is starting soon!

The opening questions are up already:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Finland

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
One-Eyed Jack by Elizabeth Bear

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Ice cream, as usual.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I’m an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, and comic. Avengers: Age of Ultron premiered here on Wednesday and I saw it yesterday!

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?
No, I didn’t participate last time but I have joined a couple of times. I’m reading more comics this year because of Marvel Unlimited (I think the free month offer is still up). I’m also going to sleep normally rather than trying to stay up all night. (The event starts 3 pm here.)

 

Hour 24: end of the event meme

1, Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 9. It was past 11 pm here and I went to sleep.

2, Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Light and easy to read. Mysteries, fantasy, whatever you’re interested in.

3, Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
No, everything was great.

4, What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
The Mini challenges.

5, How many books did you read?
I completed two books I started to read before the read-a-thon and read completely one graphic novel.
Also, I started two books.

6, What were the names of the books you read?
Batman: Time and the Batman, The Stepsister Scheme, and Con & Conjure.

Started books: Lord of the Sands of Time and Working Stiff.

7, Which book did you enjoy most?
Hmmm. They were all good. Perhaps Con&Conjure was best because it’s the fourth in a series and I’ve already become quite attached to the characters.

8, Which did you enjoy least?
Batman

9, If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Thanks to all Cheerleaders!

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 have the time, I’ll participate, probably as a reader.

 

Hour 22

I’ve finished all of my goals:
Finished Con & Conjure
Finished listening the Stepsister Scheme
Read Batman: Time and the Batman.

I’ve started reading The Lord of the Sands of time and started listening Working Stiff.

Nisaba Be Praised hosts the MadLibs mini challenge:

Here’s what you’re gonna do:
1) pick a paragraph (not too long) from the book you’re reading
2) remove some/most of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and either
3a) get a friend (in person, over the phone, over the internet–whatever!) to fill in the words for you mad-libs style or
3b) fill them in yourself from the spoiler-texted word list below
4) post your hilarious paragraph on your blog and link us to it or leave it in a comment here!

From my Lord of the Sands of Time:

“It’s a library ship,” enthused Alexandr. “They’ve got hundreds of thousands of volumes dating to the twenty-first century and even earlier. Can you believe it? Books made of paper. It’s astounding that they survived all the fighting.”

(of course I had to pick that paragraph :))
becomes:

“It’s a Read-a-thon,” grooved Alexandr. “They’ve got hundreds of thousands of cookies reading to the bookish tricycle and even earlier. Can you slump it? Band-aids made of cupboards. It smacks astounding that they flinged all the fighting.”

 

Hour 18

I’m up again and reading!

Or rather participating in mini challenges.

Stacey’s Books hosts a mini challenge about covers. Here’s my list:

1, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
2, Aviator’s Wife
3, The Homicide Hustle (great title, too)
4, Bake It Like You Mean It (I love chocolate)
5, The Secret of Happy Ever After
6, From the Kitchen of Half Truth
7, Dark Triumph (although the bug looks terrifying, too)
8, Walking Disaster
9, Fly Away

 

Hour 9

It’s past 11 pm here so I’m off to sleep.

The mini challenge with Yoga looked very interesting but I’m way too tired to do it now.

I’ve made good headway into my next book: the Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa, translated from Japanese. I’ve read 40 pages so far and it’s very interesting alternate history SF.

 

Hour 4

It’s hour 4 and I’ve already listened The Stepsister Scheme for an hour and finished Con & Conjure. Next up is Batman and chocolate cookies.

Geeky Blogger’s minichallenge looks really fun:

Take your current read or the one you just finished.
ReTitle it with something clever
Post to your blog, twitter, facebook, or goodreads with your snazzy new title!

I just finished Con & Conjure. Retitled: Raine Benares dodging assassins, evil elves, enraged goblins and werecrabs.

 

Read-a-thon Hour 1

The read-a-thon has started!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I’m in Finland.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Con & Conjure by Lisa Shearin because I only have 49 more pages to go!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Chocolate cookies, which I’m going to bake in just a few moments.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
This time I’ve made my whole TBR the reading pool. I have so many books I’m itching to read.

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’ve participate in a few read-a-thons. This time I’m going to have modest goals:

finish Con & Conjure
listen the Stepsister Scheme for two hours
read Batman: Time and the Batman.