Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)

[chesilbeach]

Chesilbeach, I'm so happy you're enjoying the book, I'm now more confident about having them on my wishlist. Don't you just love the era I've heard that in the books the food and the drinks play a big part, everything's described in detail, is that something you've noticed? Does it make you want to go and order fancy food?

 

There is something about the 20s, isn't there? There is absolutely lots of detailed descriptions that somehow don't seem to interfere with the storytelling. Haven't fancied any of the food yet, but there is a lot of description of fashion, which even though I'm a strictly jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, I absolutely adore to read about historical designs and materials. There's that air of flamboyance yet almost bored decadence of the bright young things, while the poor and working classes aren't sidelined, and so far, I think she's evoked the society of the times quite vividly, while still being an entertaining story too.

Edited June 1, 2013 by chesilbeach

[Janet]

Progress

Reading from 2.00pm to 2.45pm and 3.45pm to 4.30pm

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 15% read

 

I've had a busy day today so I'm quite pleased to have managed that much! 

[chesilbeach]

Just notched up my fourth hour of reading today and have now finished Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates.  Probably won't do much more reading today, but will pick up again in earnest tomorrow.

[poppyshake]

Read Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris  and a touch more of Brick Lane and Death Comes to Pemberley (I'm keeping notes of how many pages etc .. though not how many hours .. I forgot to do that  Have a long evening ahead so will go rootle around to see what takes my fancy.

[dex]

Friday 5 hrs

Saturday 2 + 5 hrs

Sunday 1 1/2 hrs

 

I'm finding Rebus an easier read than Resnick, but the Resnick stories were linked together more.

Not sure if I'll get to the 7 in Beggers Banquet.

 

550 Pages in 13 1/2 hours.

 

During the rest of Sunday I managed to read 128 pages of Target by Simon Kernick.

Edited June 2, 2013 by dex

[Janet]

Progress

 

Reading from 10.45pm to 11.15pm - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 5% read

 

Total of this read = 20%

[Athena]

Nice progress, everyone ! It's a lot of fun to read about how you all get on.

 

@ Janet

I look forward to read your thoughts on Oliver Twist, I've been meaning to read it for a while. It intimidates me! XD

 

My progress:

 

Books read on Friday and Saturday:

 

Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies (this one was almost finished before the read-a-thon started) (read ~40 pages on Friday, 25 mins, rating: *****)

Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (114 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (190 pages, 65 mins, rating *****)

H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (34 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby (137 pages, 1 hour 25 mins, rating: *****)

Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 (544 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

John Boyne - The Dare (102 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum (52 pages (64 if you include preview of other book, I didn't read that part), 30 mins, rating: ****)

 

Books ongoing (Friday and Saturday):

 

Susan R. Lisman and Karla Dougherty - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for Dummies (read 99 pages so far in the read-a-thon, 1 hour read)

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones (read 33 pages so far in the read-a-thon, 30 mins)

 

Total amount of books read (Friday and Saturday): 8 books (2 ongoing, 1 was nearly finished) (note: a lot of these books are quite short, I decided to read some novellas and short stories, because I don't normally read many of those.)

Total pages read (Friday and Saturday): 1243 pages

Total time read (Friday and Saturday): 7 hours 25 mins (445 mins)

 

Genres (including ongoing books):

Information: 2

Fantasy: 1

Children's: 1

Contemporary fiction: 2

Literature: 1

Detective: 1

Manga: 1

Chick-lit: 1

 

I didn't read that long in hours maybe (though it's quite some time imo), at some point having read all of that, my head was kind of full from all the input so I decided to rest instead (I don't want to get too tired while I have uni work to do in the next week etc).

 

Tomorrow (or sometime) I'll post my total statistics (including today). I'll post reviews/thoughts in my topic later.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Athena

[frankie]

There is something about the 20s, isn't there? There is absolutely lots of detailed descriptions that somehow don't seem to interfere with the storytelling. Haven't fancied any of the food yet, but there is a lot of description of fashion, which even though I'm a strictly jeans and t-shirt kind of girl, I absolutely adore to read about historical designs and materials. There's that air of flamboyance yet almost bored decadence of the bright young things, while the poor and working classes aren't sidelined, and so far, I think she's evoked the society of the times quite vividly, while still being an entertaining story too.

 

Oh yes, the fashion of the 20s... Gorgeous! Very well said, about the era, I could never have put it that way... I wonder if it was really as much fun back in the day as it is in writing.

 

 

Read Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris  and a touch more of Brick Lane and Death Comes to Pemberley (I'm keeping notes of how many pages etc .. though not how many hours .. I forgot to do that  Have a long evening ahead so will go rootle around to see what takes my fancy.

 

Did you just pick up the Harris book because of chesil's recommendation or did you already own a copy?

 

Athena, great statistics, it'll be interesting to see where you'll get to by the end of the read-a-thon! One thing I've noticed, going by you and Ben's notes, is that you two are fast readers, or then I'm just generally a slow reader

 

 

I've kept notes of my hours but I haven't done the sums up yet. I did finish Valley of the Dolls yesterday, what a cracking read! I picked up French Children Don't Throw Food on a whim, just before bed time, not really knowing if I was up for it, but then I couldn't get to sleep, so I got to page 98.

[Kylie]

Great progress everyone. I'm off to a rather slow start. I slept in till nearly lunch time, but I guess that wasn't enough sleep because I then kept dozing off during my reading. I was afraid that would happen! So far I've only read the first chapter of Groucho Marx's autobiography, Groucho and Me, and the first chapter of Tove Jansson's Comet in Moominland.

[bobblybear]

I haven't actively participated, though I intend to read as much as possible today. I did manage to finish Pure this morning, so that's good. I just need to turn the computer off so I can concentrate. If I leave it on, I just end up aimlessly surfing the net.

[chesilbeach]

Read Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris  and a touch more of Brick Lane and Death Comes to Pemberley (I'm keeping notes of how many pages etc .. though not how many hours .. I forgot to do that  Have a long evening ahead so will go rootle around to see what takes my fancy.

 

I hope you enjoyed Mrs Harris Goes to Paris as much as me, Kay. Have you got the Bloomsbury edition with Mrs Harris Goes to New York too? I started Death Comes To Pemberley last year, and I was pleasantly surprised with it, but it was a hardback copy a friend had lent me, so I couldn't be bothered to carry it around with me, and I never quite got back to it. Must rectify that at some point! 

 

 

Great progress everyone. I'm off to a rather slow start. I slept in till nearly lunch time, but I guess that wasn't enough sleep because I then kept dozing off during my reading. I was afraid that would happen! So far I've only read the first chapter of Groucho Marx's autobiography, Groucho and Me, and the first chapter of Tove Jansson's Comet in Moominland.

 

Although I'm not often a reader of biographies, I'll be interested in your thoughts on Groucho and Me, Kylie. I love the Marx brothers films, and the one liners from Groucho are brilliant.

 

 

In my own update for the read-a-thon, I did manage to sneak in another hours reading last night, and read the first chapter of Can Anyone Hear Me? by Peter Baxter which is about his times touring with the England cricket team as producer of Test Match Special. Think this will be a dip and out of book, so when I settle dwn to my reading this morning, will probably start a new novel.

[Kylie]

Chesil, the Groucho autobio is off to a great, if typically unorthodox, start so far.

 

I forgot to mention that I have also started The Gruen Transfer, which is a non-fiction book about the advertising industry.

[Talisman]

I got off to a bit of a slow start too - there always seems so much to do on my weekends off. Yesterday morning though I downloaded The Magpies by Mark Edwards, (431 pages) having seen it on the Amazon best sellers list. I started to read it at lunchtime, after Coran and I had got home, and kept on reading it for most of the afternoon. I didn't even intend to participate that much in this read a thon, but this one was so good I didn't want to put it down. I finished it just before 11pm last night, with a break of just a couple of hours in the afternoon. This is only the third book in my whole life that I have ever read in one day, so I would be very surprised if I get more than halfway through another book today. I might though be wrong.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Talisman

[Janet]

 @ Janet

I look forward to read your thoughts on Oliver Twist, I've been meaning to read it for a while. It intimidates me! XD

Great stats there, Athena. 

 

I don't know how many pages of Oliver Twist I've read.  I'm reading on a Kindle.  My paper copy only has 415 (I think) pages - I've seen versions on Amazon with far more than this! The print is small, which is why I chose to read it on the Kindle.  

 

Athena - I chose to read Oliver Twist because I've seen the 2005 film version of it (the one with Ben Kingsley as Fagin) and I thought it would help to make my first full-length Dickens read one I was vaguely familiar with.  Up to now I've only read A Christmas Carol.  I am really enjoying it.   

 

Obviously some of the language is archaic and some of the slang might be a bit hard to follow but your command of the English language is excellent - maybe you could download it as a Word document from somewhere like Project Gutenberg if you don't already have a copy - and see what you think of it that way?

 

I'm enjoying reading everyone's progress.  Some of you are really fast readers.  I'm rather slow, unfortunately!

 

I've not long been in from work so I haven't started reading yet.  I'm going to have a shower and a cup of coffee and then get on with some more reading. 

[chesilbeach]

I'm upto chapter four of Moon Over Soho and delighted to discover there's jazz involved in the storyline, so to complement it, just put on to some Matthew Halsall to listen to while reading.  Books + Jazz = a very happy read-a-thon-er!

Edited June 2, 2013 by chesilbeach

[Ben]

Really enjoying reading everyone's progress on here - it's so cool to see we're all really getting stuck into some good books. Keep it up for today, everyone! This has been great fun.

 

For me, another (*sigh*) sleepless night got me through The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari last night and I'm disappointed I've left his books for so long. I need to remember to dip into a crime/thriller/'whodunnit' now and again, because if they're done right its great fun.

 

3. The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari.

Time spent reading: 7 hours (roughly).

Pages: 533.

Time spent reading (total): 16 hours, 45mins (roughly).

Pages (total): 1175.

 

Mini-review

 

The Rosary Girls introduces us to veteran cop Kevin Byrne and his new partner Jessica Balzano; the first book in a series that has already spanned six books and has a seventh coming in July with The Stolen Ones. This is good news, as the two have an instant and easy-going camaraderie. Recently split from her husband Vincent, Jessica must juggle her three year old daughter Sophie with her job. A job that from day one apparently isn't going to be easy - they've found a girl dead in an abandoned house, and with the circumstances that surround it, the death is the least of their problems.

 

There is a serial killer on the loose. Cold, calculating, logical, he's taunting Homicide with each move, leaving the bodies of young, Catholic girls in his path. A rosary on each of the dead girls, mysterious clues such as a Dante painting and a lamb's leg - teasing the department, always one step ahead. Kevin, at the same time, faces his own demons of the past; forced to take pills just to ease the pain and banish the visions. One thing is for certain: Jessica, Kevin and the rest of the detectives on the case are running out of time to catch this cold-blooded killer before he kills again.

 

Montanari's strength is in keeping you guessing as the plot moves at a furious pace. Throughout the novel, clues begin to unravel, hints are dropped - even if they're just clues that we get, not the detectives. You scrutinise every character, believe nobody, question all motives and explanations. No wonder this is a real page-turner of a thriller - like any good reveal, the answers lay in the novels final pages, when you think you have already solved the mysteries.

 

The Rosary Girls is dark always, and at times particularly gruesome. The author keeps you utterly hooked in your quest for answers, and he flips and twists the narrative expertly as he goes. It has all the elements of a good thriller, and the main characters are likeable. With this, it seems very likely that I'll pick up another of Montanari's books in the near future.

 

★★★★☆.

[Talisman]

I have read a little bit more today - Coran and I went for a long walk around Box Hill and sat on the grass for a couple of hours. I am about 18 percent through The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.   

[Janet]

Progress

 

Reading from 12.15pm to 12.45pm - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 6% read

 

Total read = 26%

 

then

 

Reading from 3.00pm to 4.45pm - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - 16% read

 

Total read = 42%

 

I'm enjoying this book! 

 

 

Although I'm not really liking the characterisation of Fagin

 

[chesilbeach]

Really enjoying Moon Over Soho.  Have managed another two and a half hours reading this afternoon, and I'm up to chapter nine now.

[tunn300]

I have read a little bit more today - Coran and I went for a long walk around Box Hill and sat on the grass for a couple of hours. I am about 18 percent through The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.

I picked this up the other day when out shopping. Will be interested to hear what you think of it.

 

I am very impressed with all the efforts of everyone on the read-a-thon. Would have loved to have joined in but with a very active 7 month old I just wouldn't be able to dedicate any serious amount of time. Hopefully there will be another in the future?

Edited June 2, 2013 by tunn300

[poppyshake]

Everyone is doing brilliantly .. well done

Did you just pick up the Harris book because of chesil's recommendation or did you already own a copy?

I bought a lot of the Bloomsbury books at Hay when I went in 2011 and this one was among them .. it's the only one on the 1001 I think so I've killed two birds so to speak

 

I hope you enjoyed Mrs Harris Goes to Paris as much as me, Kay. Have you got the Bloomsbury edition with Mrs Harris Goes to New York too? I started Death Comes To Pemberley last year, and I was pleasantly surprised with it, but it was a hardback copy a friend had lent me, so I couldn't be bothered to carry it around with me, and I never quite got back to it. Must rectify that at some point! 
 

Yes it's the same edition as yours Claire .. I haven't read about her exploits in New York yet though. I started Death Comes to Pemberley at the beginning of last year .. Alan and I were reading it to each other when out cat died .. and then we set it down. We didn't pick it up again until last week. When I first started reading it I liked it but it got wearisome and I thought the plot was thin. Both of us worked out 'whodunnit' long before the end. Plus she kept on re-iterating large chunks of P&P (oh Lord .. she even casually wrote in Sir Walter Elliot as a background figure) .. I felt like Jane had written half of this book and as such should get half of the money  A lot of people have enjoyed it though so I'm probably in the minority .. I'm not good with sequels/prequels anyway .. I hated Mrs DeWinter (yet love Susan Hill normally).

 

Yesterday, as well as Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, I read Danuta de Rhodes Little White Car (come on Dan .. I know its you so fess up! )

Today I'm reading George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Also I've listened to five chapters of Welcome to Rosie Hopkin's Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan .. and this was definitely from Claire's recommendation (but what a co-incidence that Little White Car should have a quote from Jenny on the cover) .. but then I don't know whether to count it or not as this is a READ-a-thon and not a listen-a-phon. Still I was baking and ironing and generally housewifing .. and you can't always read and do that

[Athena]

I don't know how many pages of Oliver Twist I've read.  I'm reading on a Kindle.  My paper copy only has 415 (I think) pages - I've seen versions on Amazon with far more than this! The print is small, which is why I chose to read it on the Kindle.  

 

Athena - I chose to read Oliver Twist because I've seen the 2005 film version of it (the one with Ben Kingsley as Fagin) and I thought it would help to make my first full-length Dickens read one I was vaguely familiar with.  Up to now I've only read A Christmas Carol.  I am really enjoying it.   

x

I bought it a while ago on a book fair for cheap. I think the print is small, which is not ideal, but it has a nice cover and I got it for cheap so I don't mind it too much I think . I've seen a children's musical of it, so I know bits of the story (I couldn't recall much atm though).

x

I am very impressed with all the efforts of everyone on the read-a-thon. Would have loved to have joined in but with a very active 7 month old I just wouldn't be able to dedicate any serious amount of time. Hopefully there will be another in the future?

x

I would like to have another! I think I'm not the only one ? We can all reflect on it and if a few or more people are interested, we could have another one (I mean, why not?). Then, we'd have to think of how far into the future we'd want to have it. Summer is coming up and some people may be going on holidays, etc (or we could wait until September or later). It's also possible to change the dates to be during the week or whatever/whenever we fancy.

 

Today my mind was still a bit full from all the input from yesterday (I read a lot), so I couldn't do as much reading as I'd wanted to do. I read for about 3 hours today in total and read 3 books (422 pages).

 

My progress:

 

Books read:

 

Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies (read ~40 pages, 25 mins, rating: *****)

Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (114 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (190 pages, 65 mins, rating *****)

H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (34 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby (137 pages, 1 hour 25 mins, rating: *****)

Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 (544 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

John Boyne - The Dare (102 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum (52 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince (109 pages, 50 mins, rating: ****)

Cathy Glass - My Dad's a Policeman (98 pages, 40 mins, rating: ****)

Iain M. Banks - Culture 4: The State of the Art (215 pages, 2 hours 25 mins, rating: ****)

 

Books ongoing:

 

Susan R. Lisman and Karla Dougherty - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for Dummies (read 99 pages, 1 hour read)

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones (read 33 pages, 30 mins)

 

Total amount of books read (Friday and Saturday): 11 books (2 ongoing, 1 was nearly finished)

Total pages read (Friday and Saturday): 1665 pages

Total time read (Friday and Saturday): 11 hours 20 mins (680 mins)

 

Genres (including ongoing books):

Information: 2

Fantasy: 1

Children's: 1

Contemporary fiction: 2

Literature: 2

Detective: 1

Manga: 1 (romance / chick-lit / YA)

Chick-lit: 1

Biography / Contemporary fiction: 1 (based on a true story)

Science-fiction: 1

 

Overall reflection:

 

Due to my condition/disability I couldn't read as much as I'd liked, on Friday (tired from the week of university work) and Sunday (tired from input on Saturday and before). So a read-a-thon that lasts a week I couldn't fully participate in, maybe I could participate on some days but not others. However, I enjoyed myself immensely! Especially on Saturday, it reminded me of the days when I was a child and I'd read for most of the day. It has inspired me to do more reading and be less distracted by things such as the internet. It was great to read some books that I don't normally read that often, such as short stories, novellas and a manga, I also read a Dutch detective and two literature novellas.

 

I also strangely enjoyed recording / writing these statistics. Although it made me feel slightly less relaxed about reading, knowing that every time I started to read or took a break I had to note down the time, I thought it was rather interesting in the end to see how much reading I did and how many pages I read etc.

 

I'll write reviews in my thread tomorrow most likely!

Edited June 2, 2013 by Athena

[Janet]

.My progress:

 

Books read:

 

Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies (read ~40 pages, 25 mins, rating: *****)

Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (114 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (190 pages, 65 mins, rating *****)

H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (34 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby (137 pages, 1 hour 25 mins, rating: *****)

Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 (544 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****)

John Boyne - The Dare (102 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum (52 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince (109 pages, 50 mins, rating: ****)

Cathy Glass - My Dad's a Policeman (98 pages, 40 mins, rating: ****)

Iain M. Banks - Culture 4: The State of the Art (215 pages, 2 hours 25 mins, rating: ****)

  You read 1,577 pages in a little over 8 hours?  

 

544 pages in 45 minutes!    Wow - that is amazing!

 

Puts my pathetic effort to shame!   Well done! 

[Ben]

Blimey Athena, I know you feel like you haven't read as much as you could have this weekend, but I hardly think that total is to scoff at. Congratulations to everyone that's participated in this - I've had oodles of fun and Athena's reminiscing of 'reading all day as a kid' is the same feeling I've had this weekend. It's been nice to just abandon myself to the world of literature for an extended period of time, and we should definitely do this again - soon.

 

My own reading totals as follows (with a possible hour or so left of reading a bit later).

 

1. Inconceivable by Ben Elton.

Time spent reading: 4 hours, 30mins (roughly).

Pages: 272.

 

2. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker.

Time spent reading: 5 hours, 15mins (roughly).

Pages: 370.

 

3. The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari.

Time spent reading: 7 hours (roughly).

Pages: 533.

 

4. Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

Time spent reading: 3 hours, 15mins (roughly).

Pages: 272.

 

Time spent reading (total): 20 hours. (Perhaps a tiny bit more).

Pages (total): 1447.

 

In terms of progress, I'm quite happy. I could have got much more reading in if I'd have sat down and committed myself during the day-time, but the insomnia kept me rattling on nicely in terms of numbers. More important than statistics though (I know.. bear with me!) is the fact that it's really helped me rediscover a bit of lost motivation and has helped me relax this weekend (hopefully a good prospect for tracking down this rapidly-escaping 100 total).

 

So, thanks Athena for organising this - can't wait until we can all do this again soon.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Ben

[Alexi]

J - with regards your spoiler about Oliver Twist, that was the biggest difference I noticed from the film to the book. Obviously there are some additional plot threads too, but in terms of things that appeared in both I mean!

 

I've recently acquired Mrs 'Arris Goes To Paris from the library, so really good to see some positive reviews!

 

Well done everyone, some amazing progress being made!