Social Distancing Readathon #57 - April 16 - 18

Welcome to another readathon!

We generally run from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at midnight in whatever time zone you choose, but feel free to start earlier on Friday and wrap up overnight Sunday/Monday, if that's what you want to do.

Here are some things to track throughout the weekend, if you choose:

Books read from:
Books finished:
Time reading:
Time posting:
Snacks:
Thoughts:
Non-book activities:

Total books finished:
Total read from:
Total time reading:

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA
2. Susanna (susanna.fraser) -- Seattle, Washington, USA
3. Cyrel (torontoc) -- Toronto, Canada
4. Dee (Deedledee) -- Nova Scotia, Canada
5. Mary (bell7) -- Massachusetts, USA
6. Benita (benitastrnad) -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA
7. Nancy (nrmay) -- North Carolina, USA
8. Suzanne (Chatterbox) -- Rhode Island, USA
9. Lynda (Carmenere) -- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
10. Anne (AnneDC) -- Washington DC, USA
11. Carrie (cbl_tn) -- Seymour, Tennessee, USA
12. Paul (PaulCranswick) -- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
13. Luci (elkiedee) -- London, UK

In again. My second Pfizer vaccine is scheduled for next Wednesday, but I figure I'll stick with the readathons as long as you keep them going and/or till whatever point my office returns to in-person work.

I'm reading three books this weekend! ( Or parts)

I lost track of these for a few weeks. I'd love to take part again.

This weekend should be a quiet one, so I'm hoping to join in and read a bunch!

I have a busy weekend planned but I will report in when I can. I hope to finish one of these behemoth books I am reading right now.

I'll be reading here in Charlotte, NC
where it is currently clear and 59 F. (15 C.) at 11pm.

Finally finished Night of Miracles, Elizabeth Berg.
Next up will be The Grace Year, Kim Liggett.

OK, I'm back. though I've got a giant stinking cold, so I don't know how much posting I'll do, and will mostly be consuming audiobooks.

I'm in, simply because I like these readathons. One of the bright spots in a year of loss, fear, isolation and helplessness. Now there's light at the end of the tunnel (although, I've got to say, the second dose hit me hard. All better now) I want to say thanks for continuing these weekly readathons.

I'll be reading from My Name is Red, E is for Evidence, Anxious People and Return of the God Hypothesis.

I've taken a couple of weeks off but would love to participate this weekend. Also, it's a 3-day weekend for me because today is Emancipation Day in DC, so I will start early.

Friday, early evening

Books:
Decided to read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson ahead of The Grace Year because others are waiting for it at the library.
Listening to Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre again after a break.

dinner will be leftover chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli.

other activity:
We've been watching an odd British tv series called "Dr. Foster."
Tending to 3 cats - mine and my sister's.
Planted a tomato and basil in a big pot.
Watching birds, squirrels, rabbits in my yard.

sunny, 66 F. (14 C.)

I'm in! I don't have much on my schedule for the weekend. I'd like to finish The Dark Vineyard tonight and then move on to Murder at the Mena House.

I'm reading The Slaughterman's Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits I have mixed feelings about this book so far.( a hefty 500 pages and I am at page 263) ) I am trying to figure out the point of the story- I'll check back later this weekend. My book club is discussing the book in two weeks.

I'm in Silver.

Already finished off The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers this weekend and I am into Saturday already.

I have on the go now this weekend after finishing this one, I have slipped into bad habits and gotten 4 books on the go:

New Grub Street by George Gissing - Queen Vic Challenge / 1001 Books

Leo the African by Amin Maalouf - Around the World Challenge / 52 Book Club Challenge (set before 17th Century)

The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham - 2nd in my Series Pair for April

Fifteen Decisive Battles by Edward Shepherd Creasey - Queen Vic Challenge / British Historians



I won't get them all finished this weekend, but I hope to manage at least two of them.

Books read from: 1
Books finished: The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting:
Food: Iftar made up of two chapati with spicy minced beef / tea and water (now fasting)
Thoughts: In the holy month of Ramadan we can reflect on the gift of life and remember those gone
Non-book activities: Work this morning unfortunately

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1
Total time reading : 2 hours

Books read from: 1
Books finished: Anxious People
Time reading: 1 1/2 hours
Time posting:
Food: Tikka Masala with Veggies
Thoughts: Anxious People is such a clever novel
Non-book activities: A phone call from a long time friend and exchanged covid vaccine stories

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1
Total time reading : 1 1/2 hours

Friday night following a warm day in Seattle--it got up to 79F, which for this time of year is almost a heat wave.

Books read from: Conventionally Yours
Books finished: Conventionally Yours
Time reading: 4 hours
Food: Tomato soup and mac & cheese for dinner
Thoughts: This was such a lovely escapist read to start my weekend.
Non-book activities: Work, laundry, birdwatching

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1

Saturday morning 10.10 am report on Friday evening's reading

Books read from: 6
Claudia Renton, Those Wild Wyndhams - FINISHED 16.05.21
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass - FINISHED 16.05.21
Ciara Geraghty, This is Now
Ambrose Parry, The Way of All Flesh
Polly Samson, The Kindness
Barbara Comyns, Sisters by a River
Sydney Taylor, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family
Philip Kerr, A German Requiem

Books finished: 2
Pages read: 111
Book-related activities: LT updates
Non-book activities: Social media, Bejeweled Blitz

Total books read from: 6
Total books finished: 2
Total pages read: 111

Report on Friday reading:

Books read from: Faro's Daughter, SPQR, Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 2 hours reading, 8 hours and 45 minutes listening
Pages read: 378
Time posting: none
Dinner: Chicken with cherry tomato sauce, and an assortment of roasted vegetables
Thoughts: Got my first COVID-19 shot today and my arm hurts.
Non-book activities: Driving an hour and a half out of the city to get a vaccine appointment, doing some necessary work on a day off, delivering a bag of excess produce to my daughter (I get a box weekly and the beets, radishes, and sweet potatoes are really piling up), clearing out the refrigerator

Total books finished: 1 Faro's Daughter
Total read from: 4 Faro's Daughter, SPQR, Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer
Total time reading: 2 hours reading, 8 hours and 45 minutes listening
Pages read: 378

Saturday afternoon update:

Books read from: The Dark Vineyard, Just William, Murder at the Mena House
Books finished: The Dark Vineyard
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: ice cream sundae with iced lemon cookie ice cream
Thoughts: It's dogwood winter here so it's chilly. It was cloudy and dreary earlier but the sun has finally come out. :-)
Non-book activities: Took trash to dump, picked up medicine at vets, picked up groceries, laundry, cleaned car, hair appiontment

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ?

I needed to clean out my car. I wasn't planning to do it today, but then Adrian threw up between the seats, so...

Saturday afternoon update:

Books read from: A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Books finished: 0
Snacks: Lunch was a turkey sandwich and cottage cheese
Thoughts: I'm tired and have a sore throat today, but I think it's side effects from my first shot (second should be fun...)
Non-book activities: binge-watching This is Us to get caught up while I have TV access, walking the dogs I'm watching, knitting a baby blanket

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1

I have not been at all productive today, but the book I'm reading is for my book club on Wednesday so it was good to make some progress. I'm going to take a break (so I don't finish it too early) and start a couple of new books today.

Saturday afternoon update

Books read from: Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer, How Democracies Die, How Music Works
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 hours
Pages read: 105
Time posting: 10 minutes
Lunch: Vietnamese noodle salad from farmer's market, apple
Thoughts: A friend brought me lilacs from her garden and I can smell them all over the house. They always remind me of the lilac tree in my grandmother's yard.
Non-book activities: Farmer's market, zoom yoga, grocery list, ate lunch with my daughter in the backyard.

Total books finished: 1 (Faro's Daughter)
Total read from: 6 (Faro's Daughter, SPQR, Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer, How Democracies Die, How Music Works)
Total time reading: 5 hours reading, 8 hours and 45 minutes listening
Pages read: 483

Books read from: 2, The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB by Milton Bearden & James Risen and e-galley of Triple Cross by Tom Bradby
Books finished: 1, the Bearden/Risen book. A bit dated, but interesting in its reflections on how easy it is for someone (the British, twice; the Soviet Union, the USA) to get into Afghanistan, and how tricky to extricate. Timely, therefore. Though the authors repeat a lot of small details, which is annoying. I opted for this because it was co-written by Risen, whose work I admire, but it was only OK.

Time reading: About 12 hours in the last 24 hours, the vast majority of it listening
Time posting: nada
Food: Just ate some mac & cheese
Thoughts: Having a bad cold in the midst of a pandemic just feels silly.
Non-book activities: Not much. Worrying about where a check has gone. Wishing I felt well enough to read (can't sleep due to congestion). Watched a bit of the royal funeral, and the best part was the music.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 2
Total time reading : 12 hours

Saturday evening after another warm sunny day in Seattle--80F for a high, over 20 degrees above normal!

Books read from: Jesus and John Wayne
Books finished: none
Time reading: 3 hours
Food: tacos
Thoughts: In relation to some of the 20th century history in my current book, I'm getting a better perspective on the continuity of recent history. I'm realizing that I see the 60's as history, as this distant time mostly in black-and-white, while the 70's seem ever so much more recent...all because I was born in 1971 and therefore have personal memories from the decade. Doing the math, for my 17-year-old son, who was born in 2004, the September 11th attacks are to him as the MLK and RFK assassinations are to me.
Non-book activities: Errands, birdwatching

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 2

Saturday night check-in:

Books read from: Murder at the Mena House
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: dinner was broccoli & rice casserole, pear & cheese, tea; pretzels
Thoughts: I am too tired to think!
Non-book activities: cooking, laundry, TV

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ?

Sunday morning update

Books read from: Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer, SPQR, True History of the Kelly Gang
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 2 hours
Pages read: 98
Time posting: 5 minutes
Dinner: Shrimp with coconut curry and rice, radish salad
Thoughts: Today I'm dreading catching up on health insurance paperwork I have to file before my plan year ends at the end of the month. I expect it will take even longer than I think.
Non-book activities: cooking, dishes, watching the final seasons of The Americans (late), skipping zoom church.

Total books finished: 1 (Faro's Daughter)
Total read from: 7 (Faro's Daughter, SPQR, Girl, Woman, Other, Transfer, How Democracies Die, How Music Works, True History of the Kelly Gang)
Total time reading: 2 hours reading, 8 hours and 45 minutes listening
Pages read: 581

Still reading The Slaughterman's Daughter I think that this author needed a better editor. The book is 500 pages +. But I am still reading a section that goes away from the main plot to describe a too detailed back history of one of the characters. Actually that also describes another book ( 400 pages +) that I have stopped reading for a while as I don't like any of the main characters. And....I have no patience with their actions. It is amazing what a pandemic can do in terms of accepting certain behaviours.

I made a white bean salad for lunch.

Sunday midday, weather still unseasonably gorgeous:

Books read from: Jesus and John Wayne
Books finished: Jesus and John Wayne
Time reading: 2 hours
Food: cereal for lunch because we're low on leftovers and I didn't feel like cooking anything
Thoughts: I should try to do something productive this afternoon.
Non-book activities: YouTube church, went for a walk in the woods (where woods=a little patch of protected wetlands in the form of a creek and pond running through my North Seattle neighborhood)

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 2

Sunday, early evening

Books: Finsihed Nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson
Now reading the grace year, Kim Liggett
Picked up the slaughterman's daughter and read the beginning.

Good eats:
blueberry pancakes for breakfast
take-out turkey dinner from local family restaurant. Portions are enormous so plenty left for dinner too.
Sipping a G & T for happy hour.

other activity:
my niece and I visited my mom at her memory care residence. Very sad; she didn't wake up enough to know we were there. She only barely roused to tell us to go away. This year of isolation has been terrible for her.
FaceTime with the little granddaughters.
watching birds and squirrels in the yard.
Finished watching Dr. Foster tv series. meh . . no admirable characters; they deserved what they got.
Listening to Golden Oldies while I post.

sunny, 70 F. (21 C.) at 7p

Sunday night after midnight - Saturday and Sunday reading

Books read from: 9
J Courtney Sullivan, Friends and Strangers
Ciara Geraghty, This is Now
Ambrose Parry, The Way of All Flesh
Polly Samson, The Kindness
Barbara Comyns, Sisters by a River - FINISHED 18.04.21
Sydney Taylor, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family
Philip Kerr, A German Requiem
Elizabeth Fremantle, Watch the Lady - STARTED 17.04.21
Sigrid Nunez, The Friend - STARTED 17.04.21

Books finished: 1
Pages read: 406
Book-related activities: LT and Goodreads updates
Non-book activities: Social media, Bejeweled Blitz

Total books finished: 3
Total pages read: 517
Total read from: 11

Sunday night check-in
Books read from: River Horse by William Least-Heat Moon and Route 66 A.D. by Tony Perrottet. My recorded book is Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.

Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3 Hours
Time posting:
supper: Left over Fatoush - a middle eastern style salad

Thoughts: I am within 100 pages of finishing River Horse and it has been a really good book to read. I have been without Internet for 3 days at home. I got a new hotspot and somehow my computer doesn't recognize the hotspot so I have been working on and off with Tech Support to get it working and so far it has been a no-go. I had to go to Starbucks tonight in order to get to the Internet.

Non-book activities: Met with my other book group on Zoom at Starbucks and the noise from the traffic is really bad.

Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 117
Total read from: 124
Total time reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 353 hours since April 2020.

Sunday update 8:40pm

Books read from: 3
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting:
Food: Tortilla chips with all the tasty fixing atop of them
Thoughts: I don't recall thinking about anything much today

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading : 4 1/2 hours
I did not read at all on Saturday

Sunday early evening:

Books read from: That Can Be Arranged
Books finished: That Can Be Arranged
Time reading: 1 hour
Food: awaiting a delivery dinner of pasta
Thoughts: Two days in a row of 80F in April in Seattle??
Non-book activities: Wrote, sorted through a box of random office supplies, spotted a goldfinch at my bird feeder

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 8 hours, I think?

Sunday night check-in:

Books read from: A Burning by Megha Majumdar and The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Bradbery
Books finished: 0
Snacks: Dinner was takeout - a turkey BLT and ice cream
Thoughts: I read less than I thought I would this weekend, though I made good progress in both and should finish A Burning comfortably tomorrow, in plenty of time for book club.
Non-book activities: taking care of dogs and cats, watching sports, knitting

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 2

Sunday evening check-in:

Books read from: Just William, Murder at the Mena House
Books finished: Murder at the Mena House
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: meatloaf for dinner
Thoughts: I didn't post much, but I managed to finish two books so it was a successful readathon for me!
Non-book activities: cooking, laundry, walking the dog, Hallmark mysteries on TV

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ?

I need to call it a day. I have an early appointment tomorrow for my second Covid shot. :-)

Monday morning follow-up with late-night reading:

Books read from: Walk in Love: Episcopal Beliefs and Practices, Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
Books finished: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
Time reading: 1 hour
Food: breakfast cereal
Thoughts: Another Monday in work-from-home land
Non-book activities: Sleep

Total books finished: 4
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 9 hours

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/331635