Thanksgiving Readathon - Social Distancing #141 - November 23 - 28

Welcome to the Thanksgiving readathon!

Tell us what you're doing for Thanksgiving this year, and also what you would normally be doing in a non-covid year. Share you're favorite recipe if you want.

We'll run from now (Wednesday) through Sunday or Monday, however long you want.

Here are some things to track, 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

Wow a five day read-a-thon! I'm visiting friends in Florida but add me in. I'm sure there will be some down time
Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate

I'm sick which is greatly affecting my ability to read. I spent all day yesterday in bed. Fever is down today, but I'm sure I'll be spending quite a bit of time resting. I can't say that I feel like reading right now, but perhaps by later in the weekend I'll feel more like reading and/or listening to books. My goal for this morning is to make the cornbread for the dressing. I should have made it yesterday to give it time to dry out, but I was unable to stay up long enough to do that. I'm thinking I'll make it closer to lunch-time which will give me time to rest between now and then. I ate nothing all day yesterday, but I'm eating toast (without butter) for breakfast. I may try soup at lunch. Not sure if I'll be able to add cornbread to it as was my original plan or not, but since I won't have to butter it, I might be okay.

I'm in! I need to finish Keeper of the Lost Cities for D12's homework assignment. 🤣😂 I am also needing to finish To Shape a Dragon's Breath before I need to return it.

I'm in! I finished Blair Braverman's Small Game last night, so I'm not sure what I'll read next. I might see if I can pull a few shorter items from my TBR.

As I’m not American I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
But this weekend is the first of Advent so I’ll be putting decorations up and doing some baking. Hopefully finding some time to read, too.

I'm in although I don't celebrate American Thanksgiving.

I am traveling tomorrow, but I have packed one chunkster to read along the way. I will report in at some point over the long holiday weekend.

Thanksgiving break update

Books read from: I packed three books to take with me and I have started reading Name of All Things the second installment in a fantasy series by Jenn Lyons. I am already 120 pages into the story. I have started Women Talking by Miriam Toews but have only read 20 pages. I will get to it later in the week. I am listening to Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon:

Book Thoughts: I love taking a chunkster with me on a trip. It keeps me sane in all kinds of waiting situations.

Non Book Activities: Work - but since my work is in a library it was still with books.

Time reading: 1 hour while at lunch
Time posting:
Food: leftovers.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 284
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 764 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

I'm in! I decided not to travel, so I'll have time for reading since I have several days off.

Books read from: Too Many Cooks
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: dinner was hummus, raw cauliflower, and cooked collards
Thoughts: I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already!
Non-book activities: laundry, took trash to dump, picked up a couple things at the grocery store, took Adrian on a couple of walks, baked yeast rolls, cooked collards

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: ?

I bought food to cook at home tomorrow, but last night a friend invited me to her family's dinner. They had all the food planned already, so asked me to bring rolls. Since I didn't have to cook anything else, I decided to bake yeast rolls today instead of taking store-bought rolls. It's probably been 20 years since I made yeast rolls, and I really enjoyed it. I'll have to do this more often! I did sample one small roll since I used a recipe I haven't made before. It was hard to stop at one.

I still have food that I'll need to cook this weekend, but I can spread it out. I'll make the cranberry sauce tomorrow and freeze it for our community potluck. I have a slew of sweet potatoes so I'll need to do something with those, too.

I'm in! I'm pretty frazzled today (& will be tomorrow until everybody goes home) because I'm hosting Thanksgiving and had to do a lot of cooking today, in and amongst work and a physical therapy appointment.

I’m in.
Spending Thanksgiving at my sister’s house in the woods. Here till Saturday. Brought a book and a spare along, plus the ebooks on my phone.

Books:
I started reading Peace, Love, Goats of Anarchy
My spare is Winter Solstice, a good holiday read, l hope.
Still reading The Book of Lost Friends
Audio book is Memory Man

Sunny, 35 F. (2 C. )

Everybody has left my house so Thanksgiving is officially over for me! Whew! I hosted my mom, my sister, and 2 of my niblings. Lots of different dietary restriction and preferences to think about when planning the menu, but I think I did pretty well. I'm trying to remember the compliments & good things people said about my efforts rather than the snipes and complaints of my mom. This was our first time coming together for Thanksgiving since the pandemic started. The first year we didn't have a shared meal because there was no vaccine and we were cautious. The second year, me and my sister liked not having to negotiate food and the calculus of whose turn it was to host and how that should look, so we stayed separate again. But, I decided this year that I wanted us to be together so I offered to host and didn't share the menu with anyone so there was no negotiating.

Wednesday

Books read from: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ? not much
Snacks: Lucky Charms (not supposed to have it because of sugar & corn syrup), my current go-to stress food; Swedish Fish; banana; roasted cashews; bacon
Thoughts: Too exhausted to have thoughts
Non-book activities: work, PT appointment, cooking ahead for Thanksgiving (crock pot applesauce without cinnamon, chocolate cups to fill with ice cream (but they didn't turn out--walls too fragile; back to the drawing board), bacon for bacon crumbles for the baked potato bar), lots of dishes to wash, cleaning

Thanksgiving night update:

Books read from: Grimms' Tales for Young and Old, Too Many Cooks
Books finished: Too Many Cooks
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: Traditional Thanksgiving fare - turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yeast rolls, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, chocolate pie, French coconut pie
Thoughts: I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my neighbor's family.
Non-book activities: Walked the dog, watched the dog show, visited with friends, watched football, played dominoes, ate too much.

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

I am rereading The Art of Leaving by Ayelet Tsabari for my book club.

Thanksgiving evening:

Books read from: The Consuming Fire
Books finished: none
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 8:40 PM
Snacks: Bourbon chocolate pecan pie
Thoughts: We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving with just the three of us, but one of these years I'd like to do a big family and/or Friendsgiving meal again.
Non-book activities: Made pie and stuffing, napped

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 2 hours

Thursday

Books read from: On Basilisk Station by David Weber, We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride, The Beast by Katee Robert
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ?
Snacks: Lucky Charms, Swedish Fish, banana, roasted cashews; Thanksgiving was turkey thighs in the crockpot, St. Louis ribs in the oven, homemade applesauce from the crockpot from yesterday, baked potato bar (mine was half of one because I'm not supposed to have potatoes, had with coconut oil, salt, bacon crumbles), watermelon, blackberry Izze, ice cream (mine was chocolate truffle made with cashew milk)
Thoughts: I won't have to host Thanksgiving for a few years now. Hooray! Also, my first pain-free day since I got the steroid injection for the pinched nerve in my neck.
Non-book activities: PT exercises, cooking for Thanksgiving, last-minute cleaning, lots of dishes to wash, laughing and talking with my family over good food (if I do say so myself), Two Dots, Quordle

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: ?

Friday evening:

Books read from: Rivers of London Vol. 10
Books finished: Rivers of London Vol. 10
Time reading: 1 hour
Time posting: 5:25 PM
Snacks: Apple
Thoughts: I wish we had more four-day weekends.
Non-book activities: Online Christmas shopping, writing, groceries

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 3 hours

Friday night update:

Books read from: Grimms' Tales for Young and Old, The Question of Red, Shakespeare Basics for Grown-Ups
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: dinner was leftover veggies (carrots, collards, green beans) and a small peanut butter & jelly sandwich
Thoughts: Today feels like a Saturday.
Non-book activities: shopping, cleaning up kitchen, walks with Adrian, errands, talking to family and friends on the phone and on Zoom

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: ?

I'm spending time in Florida with friends and fam: so since Thursday: listened to The Christmas Train on the plane - reading Project Hail Mary by the pool.
Prob 6 hrs total.

Thanksgiving break update: Saturday

Books read from: I have read half of Name of All Things the second installment in a fantasy series by Jenn Lyons. 325 pages. I have made no progress in Women Talking by Miriam Toews but have only read 20 pages. I will get to it later in the week. On the way to the airport I listened to more of Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon:

Book Thoughts: I am really liking Name of All Things but have been busy enough that I haven’t done that much reading.

Non Book Activities: I flew out to Bozeman, MT. On Thanksgiving Day. I got up at 2 AM and drove to Birmingham. Flights all went well. Airports not to crowded and wonder of wonders I had an entire row of empty seats in the plane from Atlanta to Bozeman. Oh Joy! I can guarantee that it won’t be that way on the way back to Birmingham.

Time reading: 1 hour last night before dead.
Time posting:
Food: had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner when I arrived in Bozeman. It was cooked by my brother-in-law and the turkey was a spatchcocked bird. It was very good.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 284
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 765 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Friday

Books read from: We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 1 hr., 13 min.
Snacks: banana, roasted cashews, leftover ribs, watermelon, Swedish fish, Siete cookies (chocolate, cinnamon shortbread), salted caramel non-dairy ice cream in one of my non-optimal chocolate cups
Thoughts: I'm hoping I can start stepping down the one strong med I'm still on. My follow-up doctor appointment is Wednesday. I should try to get transportation (friends to drive me). I can tell I feel a lot better because it's really hard to remember to take my meds. I forgot the bedtime one and woke up at 4 in the morning, achy & having trouble getting back to sleep. I had to google what I should do because this med is powerful and finicky. I took it then and was able to get back to sleep. I will say I was distracted at bedtime because I had to press the smoke alarm button so that it wouldn't wake me up in the middle of the night again. It starts beeping every eight hours so I felt like the clock started ticking as I ran to get into bed knowing that beeping would be my alarm the next morning. It was disappointing that maintenance didn't get to it on Friday.
Non-book activities: PT exercises, morning phone meeting, got quarters from the bank for laundry, returned library books, yoga, ordered lunch at a greasy spoon, picked up my prescriptions, went for a walk on the greenway, still lots of dishes to wash, talked to my sister on the phone (learned about the tv show Atlanta and the podcast Sounds Like a Cult from her--added them to my list), had my first holiday tea break (I have a different tea everyday between Thanksgiving and Christmas or New Years depending on how many flavors of tea I manage to gather & take a break from the holiday madness): organic chamomile that wasn't that impressive and catching up on my paper book journal, Two Dots, Quordle, watching the Mandalorian (in the second season now)

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 1 hr., 13 min. +

Saturday evening:

Books read from: The Consuming Fire
Books finished: The Consuming Fire
Time reading: 3 hours
Time posting: 5:25 PM
Snacks: chips & salsa
Thoughts: I hope Auburn does a better job hiring a head coach this time around.
Non-book activities: Errands, watched the first half of the Iron Bowl but decided I didn't need to torture myself with the rest

Total books finished: 2
Total read from: 2
Total time reading: 6 hours

Saturday

Books read from: We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride, The Beast by Katee Robert, Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Books finished: We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride
Time reading: 4 hrs., 11 min.
Snacks: roasted cashews, leftover ribs, watermelon, Siete cookies (cinnamon shortbread), salted caramel non-dairy ice cream in one of my non-optimal chocolate cups, homemade chocolate blackberry cake, homemade applesauce, unsalted pistachios
Thoughts: I think I missed the deadline for the When in Romance Podcast holiday recommendations show(s), but I'll still enjoy listening to them recommending books for others.
Non-book activities: PT exercises, washed dishes, talked to my friend on the phone for 3 hours before bedtime, had my second holiday tea break (calm chamomile tea that's ok and catching up on my paper book journal (I have written pages about Bullshit Jobs and I still have more to say), Two Dots, Quordle, baked chocolate blackberry cake

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 5 hrs., 25 min. +

Sunday afternoon update:

Books read from: Grimms' Tales for Young and Old, Shakespeare Basics for Grown-Ups, The Question of Red
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: lunch was half a club sandwich, sweet potato fries, an orange, and tea
Thoughts: It's been an enjoyable holiday weekend!
Non-book activities: laundry, cleaning, walks with Adrian, shopping with a friend, dinner with a friend, church

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: ?

Thanksgiving Monday morning update

Books read from: I have 200 pages to read in Name of All Things the second installment in a fantasy series by Jenn Lyons. I have made no progress in Women Talking by Miriam Toews but have only read 20 pages. I will get to it later in the week. Since I am not in my car I am not listening to more of Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon:

Book Thoughts: I am really liking Name of All Things but have been busy enough that I haven’t done that much reading.

Non Book Activities: I spent Friday lounging with my sister and friends at the Norris Hot Springs spa. This is an old fashioned local hangout that is simplistic and rustic. Outdoors. In Montana in the winter in a hot springs pool. Had my first experience using a pot-a-potty. On Saturday we went Christmas shopping and I got the cutest toys to give as gifts to my little cousins and others. Now I will have to find books to go along with them. The toys were on sale for half off. Also went book shopping at the Country Bookshelf in downtown Bozeman. I purchased the last two of the Sean Stranahan series by Keith McCafferty along with 8 other books. I was surprised at the number of Montana authors that the bookstore had. There is lots of literature about this state. Downtown Bozeman is very rustic. Of course, Bozeman, itself is a small town - 30,000 in population. It is all the year-round tourists that are making it so big. It has snowed a bit here everyday. That is great for the skiing.

Time reading: 1 hour last night before bed
Time posting:
Food: Had ho-hum pup grub at Ted Turner’s hotel in Bozeman yesterday, but had coffee (actually I had a spicy chi latte) at Wild Joe’s coffee shop. This is the coffee shop where Keith McCafferty does some of his writing. His table is right in the front window. Today I am going out to Wheat, Montana to see the Blue Horses and eat biscuits and gravy at the home store. Then I will go to The Museum of the Rockies and see the dinosaurs and whatever else is on exhibit.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 284
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 767

Sunday

Books read from: If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 2 hrs., 14 min.
Snacks: turkey burger, Siete non-dairy nacho grain-free chips, salted caramel non-dairy ice cream in one of my non-optimal chocolate cups, homemade chocolate blackberry cake, homemade applesauce, unsalted pistachios
Non-book activities: PT exercises, washed dishes, afternoon phone meeting, had my third holiday tea break (cinnamon apple tea that's ok and catching up on my paper book journal), Two Dots, Quordle, evening phone meeting, watched a few episodes of Fruits Basket

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 7 hrs., 39 min. +

Forgot to post, but I did read one book, Betrayer by CJ Cherryh, part of the Foreigner series.

Wrap -up

Didn't read much with all the family holiday activity.

Books:
Put aside Peace, Love, Goats of Anarchy; I couldn't read the sad parts about mistreated animals. . :
Still reading The Book of Lost Friends
Audio book is Memory Man
Winter Solstice is waiting in the wings.

Fiinished 5 books in Nov, 96 for the year.

Family fun over Thanksgiving -
jigsaw puzzles, walks, farmer's market, brunch out, new Spielburg movie, great food.

sunny, 60 F. (16 C.)

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346201