Dewey's 24-hour readathon - fall 2013

While I am not reviewing books any more and won't be any time soon, I still read. I have to say it feels so much more relaxing without having the pressure of reviewing everything I read. So I made the right choice :)
But I still like to participate in the readathon! Never heard of the 24-hour readathon? Click here for more info :)

Instead of having a whole pile, I just have these two books. I never finish more than 2 books anyway.
Besides I am not going in for the full 24 hours anyway. I have so many more things I feel like doing, haha. But I am looking forward to reading Alice. Can you believe I never read it before?

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Hour 1:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
From Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? 
Alice in Wonderland. It was time I finally read it!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I have bought grapes, which I will dip in cream cheese!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
This is the first readathon that I will attempt while having a dog!

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 won't read full time. I will keep this nice and simple. Haha. I will only read on Saturday probably. It is 2PM in the afternoon when we start. So I will just read for how long I feel like ;) I like the social aspect of the readathon best so I will check in to see the mini challenges :)

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Hour 2: Read 61 pages in Alice in Wonderland

Mini Challenge:
Choose a song that suits your reading :)

The Unbirthday song from Alice in Wonderland is suiting. No idea which version this is though, can't listen to it because my boyfriend has an important Skype meeting.
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Hour 5: Read until page 91 in Alice in Wonderland, had dinner and watched the first episode of Once Wonderland.
No mini challenges this round, because I am too lazy to puzzle, or do poetry atm ;)
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Hour 7: Finished Alice in Wonderland, but I am not really in the mood for starting my 2nd book. I picked a great day to be in a reading slump. But that is okay, as with all things lately. I just do things for relaxation as long as it feels like fun. So now going to watch TV ;)
And just now I realised why I am too restless to read.. I forgot to take my ADHD meds. Haha. Can't take them this late or else I can't sleep. Oh well ;)
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Hours 8 and beyond.
Watched TV, slept, did some baking this morning because I have a friend over later. So I did a lot, except reading. Yeah.... this is the least productive readathon I had like ever. But I am not going to feel bad about it. It is for relaxation and it is what it is.
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Updates will be here.

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Dewey's Readathon Sunday post

Yes! It is already Sunday morning here and the readathon is still ongoing. We are at hour 19 now as I write this. I slept like a log because I have a meeting in a few hours, but before that I am going to sneak a few hours of reading in ;)

I am now half way through the Age of Miracles and the book is starting to creep up on me. Because it is a kind of thing that really could happen in the near future. It creeps me out, hehe.

I also found out that I won a prize! During hour 11 I was picked! I have chosen a pack of 3YA mystery novels. I read plenty of YA, but mystery books are a bit out of my comfort zone. Therefore it seems fun to be able to try some random titles! Thanks go to I heart Monster for donating this prize!

Anyway, happy read-a-thoning! I will update this post with the end of event survey when I get home from the meeting or so. But first let's get some breakfast and more reading in!

Update Hour 20: Show it off Mini-Challenge:

This is about showing a book or books that you are proud of!

I happen to receive my very first non digital ARC in January of this year. It was a signed copy of Revealing Eden. I just loved that book and because it is my very first signed and so far only ARC, I will keep it forever!

End of Event Meme:

Which hour was most daunting for you? 
None of them. I just went to sleep around midnight because of my meeting the next day.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? 
The Hunger Games Trilogy and Under the Never Sky

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Try to mail the mini challenge hosts a little sooner with the info. Like a week before the thon :)

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? 
I thought the overall atmosphere was really nice.

How many books did you read?
2

What were the names of the books you read? 
The Murderer's Daughters and The Age of Miracles

Which book did you enjoy most? 
The Age of Miracles

Which did you enjoy least? 
Well obviously the Murderer's Daughters then ;)

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?
Count me in!

What role would you be likely to take next time?
I would love to host a mini challenge again! :)

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Readathon Mini Challenge: Readathon Snacks

Welcome all! I am very excited that I get to host this read-a-thon mini challenge! If everything has gone right, it is now hour 3. How are you all doing so far?

Next to reading I am also very much into food. Therefore planning what to eat during events like the read-a-thon, is serious business here ;) Not only in terms of easy meals so that I don't have to spend too much time in the kitchen instead of reading but also what kind of snacks I want to eat during the event.

Read-a-thon snacks from April

The challenge is easy! Show us what you are snacking on during the read-a-thon! Make a picture, post it on your blog and link that post below. If you don't have a blog, just post your picture on facebook, twitter, or whatever works for you and put it in the comments. The linky list is just easier for me and other readers to keep track and visit you :)

This challenge will stay open for 3 hours and will close at hour 6 of the read-a-thon. If you enter this challenge, you can win a foodie book of your choice (up to $10) from the book depository. (if the book depository ships to you). Only people who are participating in the read-a-thon can enter the challenge.

Challenge is now closed! Winner is Gabby Likes Books! Thanks all! I will try to find some time to visit the entries :)

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Dewey's 24-hour readathon!

I will be joining the read-a-thon again! This is a 24-hour read-a-thon that happens twice a year. For more information go to the website :)

Normally I would read from Saturday 2PM till Sunday 2PM because the starting time is the same for all over the world and it just happens to spread over 2 days here in the Netherlands. However, I have a meeting on Sunday that I can't miss, so I will only join partually this time around. I will cheat a bit and probably start to read a little earlier on Saturday, so I can get many reading hours in.

I will have a lot of books to choose from this time around. Mainly library books. I can probably only finish one book this time around but I need to see which one I will pick. These are my options anyway and I just love presenting a pile here instead of one lonely book ;)

These are:
When she woke by Hillary Jordan
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Sapphire Blue by Kirstin Gier
But I might be picking out a different book all together from my library pile ;)

I will edit this post throughout Saturday with several mini challenges, pictures and progress updates.

Hour 1:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
I am from the Netherlands, Europe.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? 
That one is difficult because I picked those books out of my huge library stack already. So these are the titles I am most looking forward to ;)
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 
I have grapes <3 :=":" all="all" and="and" dipping="dipping" for="for" hummus="hummus" in="in" kinds="kinds" of="of" p="p" potato="potato" stuff="stuff" sweet="sweet">4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
As always, I am sure I will be piled with cats as soon as I sit down on my spot on the couch. I also will be hosting a mini-challenge in hour 3, so make sure you stop by :)
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?
Well this is the first time I can't participate for the full event. So I will be getting as much reading in as I can and just have fun. Also: take regular breaks to socialize.

I have no idea what blogger did to question 3. Tried to fix it... but no matter what I try, it doesn't go away. And I don't want to spend my reading time, fixing it ;) So grapes and sweet potato hummus ;)

Update hour 6:
I have finished the Murderer's Daughters, which I hoped to finish before the thon started.
I had fun hosting my own challenge but it does take away from my reading time. Still, it was so much fun to do!

Update hour 9:
Began in the age of miracles and reading happily away. it is the perfect readathon book. Interesting but not too heavy or slow paced. Going to move to the bedroom now and I will probably read on until hour 11 or so, before I will go to sleep. I will probably catch some more hours in the morning before my meeting.

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The Readathon Continues

And the 24-hour read-a-thon continues. Well actually only for about 3 more hours ;) But I have been reading in bed from about 9AM this morning.

My progress so far is:
Hester Day - Finished
The Resistance - Finished
Shiver - 60 pages in.

I read from 2PM till 10PM yesterday and from 9AM till 11AM this morning. This makes 10 hours in total. I hope to read more till 2PM but I doubt I will finish Shiver today.

My progress from yesterday can be found here. I did more mini challenges but mainly the ones that required only a little bit of my time. I felt more like reading this time around. And on another note, I won't be posting a personal update this week because of the read-a-thon. But I might capture some stuff from this week into the next update.

How are you getting on?

Edit:
End of Event meme: I am not going to write a different post for it because not that much has changed since I updated above :)

Which hour was most daunting for you?
None of them because I slept in between, like I normally would.
Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Books that are fast paced and keep you alert!
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Post more updates beforehand, because of the last update before the read-a-thon started was from March, I was in doubt if it was still happening.
What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Somehow I found it less organized than previous read-a-thons. However I still enjoyed it. The strength is the interaction and twitter really helps.
How many books did you read?
2.5
What were the names of the books you read?
See above in this post ;)
Which book did you enjoy most?
The Resistance
Which did you enjoy least?
So far, Shiver.
How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?
I'll be there :)
What role would you be likely to take next time?
Not sure. I wasn't feeling so social this time around and I just wanted to read and read. It will depend on my mood. However hosting a mini challenge seems like fun :)

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24-hour Read-a-thon start post! :)

It’s time to start the 24 Hour Read-a-thon again! More than 300 book lovers all over the world will be reading as much as they can within 24 hours. Everyone starts at the same time, 8am EST, which is 2pm for me here in the Netherlands. This is my 3rd time participating and I am planning to have a lot of fun!

Before the Read-a-thon starts I am planning to do some baking and write a Read-a-thon related Weekend Cooking post! Look on my other blog She Likes Bento for that later!

This is what I am planning to read:

The Potential Hazards of Hester Day: A Novel by Mercedes Helnwein
The Resistance by Gemma Malley
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Other than that I will also be reading in a book about the painter Hundertwasser for school. The book has to go back to the library soon and I want to finish it before that time. But it is a book, so it counts :D

I will be updating this post during the day with mini challenges and related things :) I hope that everyone will have a lot of fun during the Read-a-thon! PS: I am also on twitter: Uniflame, come and find me :)

Edit: Mini challenge Hour 1 - Introduction:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? 
The Netherlands - Europe
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The resistance, because I loved the first book from that series!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 
I have made Cauliflower Pizza Bites. (Recipe here), but I also have some cookies and other nice snacks. Also looking forward to Smoothies!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! 
I will be having company from 4 cats during my reading, as soon as I am on the couch one or two will lay themselves down with me (or on me!). My BF is very kind to cook today so I can spend all the time reading. However because of my poor health I will be sleeping during the night.
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 just roll with it :)

Edit: Hour 6
I finished the Hester Day book and am now about halfway through the Resistance.

And here are some relevant pictures from today:

My reading spot before I started the readathon.

How my cat stole my spot! =O

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Readathon Continued + Wrap Up

So I am back after a good night sleep for more reading and cheering. I will be updating my progress during the day :)

Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now?
The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
2. How many books have you read so far?
Two
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Cheering the people on who still haven't slept :) 
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
Yup! It turned out that many friends wanted to meet up with me on this day, so I really had to keep my calender free. 
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
I just slept for 8 hours, but that was my only interruption. It was wonderful <3
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
The amount of spam in the #readathon hashtag line. Not cool! 
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
More promotion beforehand :) And please... because it is a global event and you promote it as such, make all prizes international. It is no fun to be excluded.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
I liked what I did this year as a reader, I picked easy books :) I would like to host a mini challenge next time :)
9. Are you getting tired yet?
Nope! Just woke up and well rested.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?
Personal comments go a long way :) That way you show people that you are really interested in their progress.

Pet challenge
My cats always curl up with me when I go sit in my comfy chair. It doesn't matter if it is for reading or watching TV, when I go sit there it takes about 2 minutes before one of my 4 cats have found me. 1 cat isn't really a problem, but sometimes they come with 2 or even all 4!

Here are two cats hindering me while reading. My BF took this picture. I am on the left of the cats and they are laying on my outstretched legs.

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
It was hour 12 or 13. I was sick the whole day, but then I started to feel bad, so went to sleep.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Dystopia books can be really good. I really like Matched by Ally Condie. 
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
See the mid-event meme ;) 
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
That the cheer squads were sorted by letters of readers and not by hours. 
5. How many books did you read?
Three
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams and The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I actually all gave them 4 stars for different reasons. But I think the Chosen One.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
I enjoyed them all.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Personal comments go a long way. Like I said before ;) I am not the cheery kind of cheerleader but I like to check in on people and react to what they are doing :) 
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Sure! I am in! Probably doing both again, and hosting a mini challenge sounds like fun too. 

Total reading time: about 12 hours
Total cheering time + challenges: about 2 hours

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Readathon Starting Post

I am participating in Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon. This is my only post for today which I will update as I am participating in more mini-challenges. To read more about the readathon and to see what books I will be reading, you can go to my post here.

Tell a bit about yourself:
1)Where are you reading from today?
From the Netherlands, Europe.
2)Three random facts about me…
Loves cookies, cupcakes and chocolate, I will sleep at some point during the read-a-thon, cats will probably accompany me. 
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
7, but I won't nearly finish those ;)
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
Nope, just have fun! 
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
Pick out books that speak to you, if you struggle with a book, let it go.

Character Photo Mini Challenge
Post a photo that represents a character in your current book.
I am reading Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine and the main character has Aspergers.

Book Sentence Challenge

Flipped Luna altered hollow fields

It was pretty hard to make a decent sentence out of my books. This is mostly because I don't even own that many books and about half of those are in Dutch... And it had to be somewhat creepy too because I really want to win the Night Circus! Making a scary sentence is really hard when you don't read thrillers or horrors!

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Readathon Fall 2011 Edition

In April I participated in Dewey's Readathon for the first time and I had a lot of fun! Tomorrow the fall edition will start and for me that is at 2PM. I won't be reading the full 24 hours, because I have chronic fatigue that would be a bad idea, but I will read as much as I can! Next to that I will also be a cheerleader, encouraging others who also participate.

This is a pile of books that I can choose from. I put some books on hold at my library and they all came through at the same time.

These are:
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (starting book)
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
The Pledge by Kimberly Derting (e-book, not on picture)
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

I won't nearly finish them all and I should be happy if I finish two of them. But this will be what I will be reading within the next few weeks anyway ;)

In the morning I will prepare my readathon snack in the form of muffins ;) So... to all my fellow participants, happy reading! And to the rest... sorry for the readathon related spam ;)

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Readathon still ongoing!

Dewey's readathon is still ongoing. We are in hour 19 now and I just woke up. I managed to do some more reading in bed in hour 11 and fell asleep somewhere during hour 12.

Hour 19 (8 AM)
I am on official cheerleading duty now. So that will be less reading, more cheering for me in these last hours! I will do some blog hopping soon :) I also participated in some mini challenges that were still running. One of them is to tell people about a character crush. Now I have to be honest and tell you that I don't really have a crush on book characters. I can't really explain why that is, but it just is. However.... if I had to choose.... it has to be Gerry from PS I love you. Just because that is the sweetest thing to do, leaving letters after you die and even planning a trip for your wife and her friends. Yes, it has to be him :)

Hour 20 (9 AM)
I didn't get any reading done, but I have been cheering! I also got to pick a price from the pricelist! I chose Moonface by Angela Bakita. It has been on my wishlist since January, and it was the only book from the list that I had on my current wishlist, so a great opportunity to read it :) I am also participating in some mini challenges again :)

Hour 21 (10 AM)
I really should get back to reading myself. But the mini challenges and the cheering is so much fun! There are people who have been awake for the whole time! And it is awesome to cheer them on!

Picturrific Mini challenge: 
Post a picture that has to do something with the book you are currently reading:

Picture by FreakingNews.com

I am currently reading Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. I find this piggy really weird, of course, but I am also kind of fascinated by it.

Hour 22 (11 AM)
I managed to read two more chapters in Flipped, but I already know that I won't finish this now. Which is fine. I thought I would pick a light read but it is so light that it can't really hold my interest for long. All though I do love Juli as a character.

Hour 23 (12 PM)
I am on page 70 of Flipped. While I did get enough sleep, I am still pretty tired. It is hard for me to focus on such long ends, so I might have asked too much from my brain, but only 2 hours left!

Hour 24 (1 PM) 
I switched from Flipped to Tiny Sunbirds Far Away. I read 43 pages in that book. It is way too long to finish now, but at least it is interesting :)

End of event survey:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 11 or so. I tried to stay awake, but I knew I had to get my sleep in anyhow.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Well the book I am currently reading: Tiny Sunbirds Far Away is really interesting!

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
More information for the cheerleaders :)

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
The rest... I mean the hourly updates were great and all the twitter interaction :)

5. How many books did you read?
1 and then 70 pages on Flipped and now started a new book (43 pages)

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Dewey by Vicki Myron
Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I enjoyed Dewey as a light read, but Tiny Sunbirds is really promising.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
Flipped. It was too light to hold my attention.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
We need more cheerleaders for the final hours! Also an updated blog list would be nice because being in the final hour group, I "wasted" lots of time visiting blogs from people who had already finished. A challenge to check in after hour 18, would be helpful so we has cheerleaders can go from there and see who needs the cheering still.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will be there next time. I am not sure yet if I will do both again, but we will see :)

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It's Readathon time!

Finally my startup post for the readathon!

Dewey's Readathon is a 24 hour readathon and more than 400 bookbloggers all over the world are participating. We all start at the same time and for the Netherlands this is 2PM. There are also mini challenges and prizes to be won. It is my first time participating and I am very excited about it.

Now due to my chronic fatigue I won't be reading the full 24 hours and I will just get 8 hours of sleep like usual. But I will try to read as much as I can in the 24 hours. However I will also be spending a good amount of time online because I will be blogging and I am a cheerleader in the readathon, which means that I will visit blogs and encourage people to keep going :) I will be mostly doing this through twitter (@Uniflame). This is good for me because I already know that I have the attention span of a goldfish ;) So I need some time online too ;)

So what will I be reading? Honestly I don't know yet... other than that I started on Dewey by Vicki Myron and hopefully I will be able to finish that. I do have a lot to choose from so here is a pile of possibilities :)

Next to these I also have a lot of E-books, but I am not sure if I will attempt that because it gives me headaches sooner. But we will see :) Of course there has to be something to snack as well. I choose to snack on some veggies and vegetarian snackballs for dipping.

Hour 1 (2PM)

1)Where are you reading from today?
From Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2)Three random facts about me…

- I have 4 cats to keep me company
- I am wearing a t-shirt with an angry owl
- I will be doing part of my reading on the balcony

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I have loads to choose from, but I will be happy to finish 1 or 2.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
Not really. I am a cheerleader too and I will be spending a good time blogging as well :)

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I am a newbie!~

Hour 7 (8PM)
I can't believe that I managed to read as much as I did already! I am 60 pages away from finishing Dewey by Vicki Myron :) Also I won a book on twitter! Writer Sarah McCoy was giving away signed copies of her book: The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico and she was happy to send it to me even though I live in the Netherlands!

Hour 9 (10PM)
Finished my first book!

Hour 10 (11PM)
I have been participating in several mini challenges today. For the recreate the cover challenge, I had to use some things that I had laying around to transform a book cover. The book is Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen, which I will probably reading next. Which I decorated with my owl mirror and some lucky stars.

And with that I am going to bed. I am taking this book with me but I probably won't be checking in until 8 or 9 AM. I asked a lot of focus today of my ADHD brain so I will need to recover. But I already knew that I wouldn't be stay awake for the full 24 hours. It is hard to let go though ;)

For the other participants, happy reading and for the rest... sorry for the readathon spam that is coming up ;)

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