Dewey's Readathon: Check-Ins

Hour 5

I've finished my first book - Gulliver's Travels. It means I've only read 58 pages, but man are they dense! I've also taken a 40-min nap (power naps are very effective for me!), drank one coffee, had dinner of spaghetti with pesto and olives and snacked on 2 bananas and some bake rolls. Now I'm switching to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and we'll see how this one goes!

Hour 8

I've had camembert and grapes for snacks and read about 60 pages of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - and I'm still wondering how it could have won Hugo. It reads as an amateurish fiction at best, with a lot of wordy, pointless dialogues and a LOT of explaining (mansplaining included). And yes, don't even get me started on how it treats women - it's horrific. So I think I'll switch to something else for now - maybe A Short History of Nearly Everything? It's a pretty easy read, science notwithstanding. Done some yoga stretches, so feeling good in general, but might have to rest my eyes sometime soon.

Hour 12: Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now?

Spent a couple of ours having fun with A Short History of Nearly Everything but now am getting sleepy so am switching to comics - Saga 7, here I come!

2. How many books have you read so far?

Finished one, been reading three in total.

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

Saga 7!! Love-love-love it to bits

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

Just for food, for a short nap and for yoga - I'm shunning any social interactions that may sway me from reading :)

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

How easy it is to stay motivated when you're doing something you really love :)

Finish Line and Closing Survey

I've made it! I slept from 3.30 am to 7.30 am and then read until the finish line at 2 pm before dropping asleep)

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

The last one, because the effect of morning coffee was ending, and 4-hour sleep catching up with me

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a reader engaged for next year?

Saga comics! I left it for the night to keep me from falling asleep and OMG it did...

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

I liked how fun and crowded it was on Twitter :)

5. How many books did you read?

I've finished three books and made a dent in 2 more

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - finished!

Saga 7 by Brian K. Vaughan - finished!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling - finished!

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein - meh

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - fun!

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
Saga! Have I mentioned I love it? Love it! Although it breaks my heart with every volume, and this time more than ever...

8. Which did you enjoy least?

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein - 100 pages in and will somebody please explain to me how the hell is it Hugo-worthy?

9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

YES!! The role of ever-munching red-eyed sofa reader :)

Dewey's Readathon Opening Survey

It's here!!! I'm so excited!

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

Brno, Czech Republic. It's 2 p.m. to 2 p.m. in this place, so I definitely plan to nap a bit at night!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Finishing Gulliver's Travels! I like finishing things.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

I found blueberries on discount today, and I LOVE them! I'll keep them for the night, to brighten the most difficult hours if the readathon!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I'm a Ph.D. student of computer science and weirdly enough also an enthusiastic fiction reader. I love fantasy, sci-fi and classics, but try to read from a wide range of genres.

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 was very happy with my 4-hour sleeping last time which allowed me to finish strong. I'm planning to do the same this time) Also, I'm planning to do yoga stretches every two hours to avoid back pain.

Good luck to everybody!

My Dewey's Readathon TBR Pile

No plans for the weekend, so I hope I'll be able to read for the whole duration of the Readathon, unless I fall asleep, of course :) Here's the pile I will be choosing from:

The only reason it's so big is because there's no telling what mood will hit me, so I have all sorts of things there :) Hopefully, I'll have enough concentration to finish Gulliver's Travels, which is a TWEM title and long due. In that case, I'll be able to start Pride and Prejudice which simply can't go wrong :) A Short History of Nearly Everything is borrowed, so I'd like to make a dent in it too. The battered thing on the top is my e-reader, which hosts The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which I have started but which is yet to impress me enough so that I believe it has really earned its Hugo. Well, and Fantastic Beasts will be for those night hours when I struggle to even keep my eyes open!

I'll be posting on Twitter and maybe several updates here.

Good luck to everybody participating, and let's have fun!