Readathon Book Sentence Mini-Challenge Hour 8

Hosted by myself and the amazing Fake Steph!

Examples:

The Good Fairies of New York Loop Garden Spells Into the Dark

When She Was Bad, Scarlett Burned Whitethorn Woods.

To be qualified to win, you must link up before the end of the mini-challenge (6pm EST or before the beginning of hour 11).

Readathon: Let the Day Begin!

It's almost here!  And I am going all Carol Ann on this shiz!

You know what I love about Readathon?  It's a chance to let my nerd flag fly. 

I'm on the East Coast, so I'm kicking this off at 8am.  I realize some of you are starting much earlier in the day, or later in the day, or maybe it's already night where you are, but here's a song to get us going nevertheless:

Are you in, midnighters?  Are you ready?  Sorry for the way I am going to BLOW UP YOUR READER AND TWITTER FEED, but hopefully you find my spastic love for books and readathons endearing. I mean, I managed to link Poltergeist, nerd kitties, and an obscure 80's band I love that you've probably never heard of (unless you saw it on a past Readathon post I made) all to Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon.  I also apologize for going all shouty caps at you too, but I'm that excited that lowercase letters just can't convey my feelings.

See ya in an hour, when the readathon shiz will get real and books will be read! 

 (okay, mostly food will get eaten and tweets will be sent, but I'll be listening to an audio book so that totally counts!)

Readathon Pile and General Excitement!

And now for the moment you've waited months to see: 

In my physical pile of books:

Night School by C. J. Daughtery

Drama by Raina Telgemeier

Soulless Vol.1 by Gail Carriger

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Vol. 1 by Stieg Larsson

Amphigorey by Edward Gorey

Mostly a bunch of graphic novels, because I'll be listening to audiobooks while I cheer, tweet, host a mini-challenge at Hour 8, and basically being more social than I've been in a long time.  

Here's the list of audiobooks I'll be choosing from:

Bunnicula Strikes Again! by James Howe

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Game (Jasper Dent #2) by Barry Lyga

In My Dreams by Sarah Addison Allen

Nice Girls Don't Live Forever (Jane Jameson #3) by Molly Harper

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

I'm cheering this year, and I'm Team Owl!  Hoot, Readers!

And here's some Readathon Goodies I've made in the past:

Readathon Ear Worm

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is later this month, but my excitement and anticipation is already HUGE.  I signed up to cheer, and honestly, I think that's what I'm going to focus on.  I always try (and kind of fail) to read.  But the most fun I have during Readathon is the social aspects.  So that's what I'm doing.  I'm going to listen to audio books, cheer and tweet.  Maybe even host a mini-challenge with Fake Steph. 

So I was thinking up cheers, and this song has been in my head since I watched Pitch Perfect.  Here it is, midnighters, my ear worm, which I Readathonized for your pleasure: 

Readathon Update: The End is Nigh!

Hour 20 something and beyond:
Katie went home awhile ago, Kim and Steph have crashed, so it's just me and you!  So of course, I am now wide awake!

Finished:
Halloween Night by R.L. Stine
Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zach Whedon
The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

Currently reading:
The Walking Dead Vol.2 Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn.

Hour 20 Mini-Challenge Show Off by Dead Book Darling Reviews (have to love the name, right?)


This is a recent add to my library.  I got a ARC of the Raven Boys at BEA, but Maggie Stiefvater came to a local book store and not only signed this, but she drew a doodle too!  The Hubs got it for me as part of our 10th Anniversary:

Mini Challenge Hour 19: Book Sentences

Hope everyone's having a wonderful Readathon so far!  Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my challenge.  Here's what you need to do:

Book Sentence Challenge

Take a look at the books you have laying around, and using 3 or more books, use just the titles to create a sentence!  Take a picture of the books and upload it to your blog or Twitter account (or really anything that I can see). Here's some examples of book sentences::

The Good Fairies of New York Loop Garden Spells Into the Dark

When She Was Bad, Scarlett Burned Whitethorn Woods

What you can win: This challenge is open Internationally!  For those in the US you can win a $15.00 Amazon gift card, if the winner is outside of the US they may choose a book from the Book Depository (although you must live in a country where the Book Depository will ship to!) of value up to $14.99.

You must take a picture of the books, ebooks do not count (sorry, I love them too, I own both a Kindle and a Nook, but for this challenge, you need to take a picture of physical books).  You may not add words to the sentences.

This challenge will be open for 3 hours.  Once the winner is picked, it will be announced on here and on the Readathon site. Please leave your name, link and email address in the comments below, winner will be picked at random!

Readathon Midway Update

I am loving the new Dewey's Readathon pictures!  How's everyone doing?  I did take a wee nap a few hours ago, since I have to stay up late and host the mini-challenge for Hour 19 (which is 2 am my time).  So far I've only finished 1 book, but I am halfway through book 2.  I still have all the graphic novels to read too!  But I will save those for the later hours.

I have not done any mini-challenges except the first one, but only because I really am trying to read this time.  I've done a bit of cheering, and I'm about to do more.  

Soooo much food has been eaten!  And I'm having a blast with Kim, Katie and Steph.  

Update Hour 18.5

Books Read:
Halloween Night by R.L. Stine
Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Zach Whedon

Currently Reading:
The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

Dewey's Readathon- Let's Get It On!

It's time to start!  I'm not quite sure how often I will be updating, but I'll probably use this post for several hours. Starting challenge:

Hour 1

Introductory Questionnaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Virginia!  Hanging out with three of my friends, Kim from On The Wings of Books, Steph from The Fake Steph and Katie from KT's Reading Rainbow.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Seed by Ania Ahlborn and all the graphic novels!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Kim's oreo brownies!!!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I like big books, and I cannot lie!
I love Halloween and fall, so October's Readathon is my favorite one of all!

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?
This is my 7th Readathon!  The major difference this time around I'm doing readathon with 3 of my friends (who are also book bloggers), and I probably won't do as many mini challenges as I've done previously.  I'm also cheering and hosting the Book Sentence Challenge at Hour 19, so come on back then!

UPDATE #1

Books Finished:
Halloween Night by R.L. Stine (182 pages)

Currently Reading:
The Innocents by  Lili Peloquin

Readathon Book Piles! Bring it!

 Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is this Saturday!  I am so excited!!  I tell this story every readathon, but I would not be a book blogger if it weren't for Dewey's event, I'm just sad that I didn't start blogging until after Dewey had passed away.  I am so glad that I am a part of her legacy though.  This will be my 7th time participating in Dewey's Readathon!  This time around I get to do Readathon with 3 other book bloggers!  Kim from On The Wings Of Books is hosting at her house, Steph from The Fake Steph will be joining us for our 2nd official Readathon (unofficially our 3rd) and our friend and newbie book blogger, Katie from KT's Reading Rainbow will be doing her first ever Readathon!!

I'll be cheerleading again, which is always a blast!  Please though, I beg you, turn off CAPTCHA and comment approval, at least for 24 hours!  If you aren't sure what I'm talking about by CAPTCHA (word verification), just leave me a link to your blog and I'll tell you if you have it on your blog or not. ;)  Trust me, it'll attract a lot more comments and cheers if you make it easy for everyone to stop by!

And now for my favorite part or pre-Readathon prep: Building the pile o'books!!  This may surprise some of you that expected me to say that my favorite part of Readathon was the snack prep, and I am by no means underestimating my love of binging during Readathon (really, Kim, perhaps building a vomitorium would mean more brownies and Coke, and less healthy shiz?), but it is the piles of books that bring this chick to the yard.  Ohh...milkshakes...

Here's my Pile O'Books:

Top to Bottom:

Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams

Halloween Night by R.L. Stine

The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Seed by Ania Ahlhorn

Soulless Vol. 1 (manga) by Gail Carriger

Dollhouse: Epitaphs (graphic novel) by Joss Whedon

Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories by Joss Whedon and Co.

The Walking Dead Vol. 2 Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

A Game of Thrones: A Graphic Novel Vol. 1 by George R.R. Martin

and LOTS of books on my Kindle

also I'll probably have an audio book or two to listen to while I cheer.

Lots of graphic novels this time around, but I personally get discouraged if I can't check off a book from my pile early on.  That's what works for me. 

So what books are on your Readathon Pile?  Add your post to the linky below, and be sure to check out what everyone is reading this Saturday!

Readathon is Over, and I'm Overtired

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 21, it was almost 6am here and we all had agreed to crash at 6am... so of course I was instantly exhausted!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
My actual reading was pretty pitiful, but The Invention of Hugo Cabret was a good Readathon book, and so was the Lisa Gardner thriller.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Well, next time around I think I need to volunteer to do more of the harder jobs (instead just hosting a challenge and cheering, more helping to orginize), but I'd like to see more communication and pre-Read-a-thon activity to get people excited.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Twitter and the Hour 20 commercial that was posted- that woke me up!

5. How many books did you read?
I finished 2 half read books, 1 manga and 1 full book.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Finished Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich and The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner, read House of Odd manga, and read all of The Invention of Hugo Cabret... and 27 pages of Meet Your Match, Cupid Delaney... didn't really live up to my tween memories of it. :(

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
House of Odd, since it featured my literary boyfriend Odd Thomas.  But the ending of The Perfect Husband was really edge of my seat... and Plum Lucky had me laughing even though I don't enjoy the in-between-the-number books as much... okay, I'll go with House of Odd.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
Meet Your Match, Cupid Delaney... sometimes you can't go back again when it comes to childhood favorite reads...

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Just prepare some cheers ahead of time, but make sure you're connecting on some personal level before you post your cheer.  Also be prepared to be frustrated by bloggers who use word verification.  Yes, it's a pain in the rear, but I'm just going with the assumption that some bloggers aren't even aware that it's on their comments and that they're not actually trying to torment me.


10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I am 100% likely to participate, I take off work and cancel any plans that might interfere.  I am a fan of Readathon.  I plan on stepping up and taking on a larger role.  I guess I've  been a bit afraid of taking on anything larger than cheering or hosting a mini-challenge, but I realize that it's time to step up and help out the event that I love so much.  Dewey's Readathon is what got me started in book blogging, and it's time to honor that.

April Readathon Hours 9-17

 Okay, I'll actually be updating this after Hour 13, but I needed a place to put my Hour 11 mini challenge post.


So Steph is hosting this challenge (and actually sitting on the couch next to me), so I can't actually win, but we're all participating in each other's challenges.  For this challenge we have to write about an anti-hero:


My anti-hero is Driver from the book Drive by James Sallis.

 Ryan Gosling


Driver is a, big surprise, driver for anyone that's needs it- mostly bad guys robbing banks and stuff.  He also is a stunt man.  He gets involved with his neighbor (not sexually but emotionally, and not as deeply as in the movie... which is awesome) and ends up involved in her recently out of jail husband.  Driver only drives, he doesn't like to get involved in shiz, but he gets double crossed, so he goes up against the bad guys, but mostly to get revenge and not because he's trying to be a hero.  He is awesome, and Ryan Gosling plays him in the movie.  And I know I've posted this before, but once more:

Title of book(s) read since last update: 
Finished The Perfect Husband (which was a partial read from before Readathon)
House of Odd *manga
Meet You Match, Cupid Delaney- actually only read 27 pages, but I doubt strongly that I'll be coming back to this book but I wanted to mention it. 
 


Thoughts on current read:
Currently I'm reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which is really good but now I just want to watch the movie!

Number of books read since you started:
Finished 2 half read books, and a manga, half way done through my current read.

Pages read since last update: 
593, but Kim thinks I shouldn't be able to count all that since over half those pages were manga or drawings in Hugo Cabret, but I think she's just jealous.  ;)

Running total of pages read since you started:
709

Snacks Devoured:
I don't want to talk about it.  Why did vomitoriums go out of style?

I'm not tracking websites right now, mostly because if I'm not reading, I'm talking to Kim and Steph.  Now I'm off to cheer!

April Readathon Hours 5-8

 One of my old headers (which is a October Readathon Pile)

Title of book(s) read since last update: 
Still reading The Perfect Husband... I is failing at reading!

Thoughts on current read:
Getting really intense!

Number of books read since you started:
Finished a half read book, working on finishing another

Pages read since last update:
A measly 33 pages!

Running total of pages read since you started:
116... boo hiss


Snacks Devoured:
nut mix, another brownie, a pretzel rod, and some chips and dip that Steph made. 

Mini-challenges completed:
No new ones

Other participants you’ve visited (running list from start to finish - this way I can easily find my way back to all the new blogs!):
 Fail!

Book Staging Mini Challenge

Okay, Readathoners, it's hour 8 and you should still be feeling pretty pumped up!  Don't waste that energy on just reading, come take part in my challenge!

Book Staging Mini Challenge

Description:  You know how real estate agents will stage an apartment to attract potential buyers?  Well, that's what you're going to do to a book!

Rules:  Take a picture of a book you're reading today, or any book you have lying around.  In the picture you should have the book in a setting, or surrounded by items, that represent the book.  It can mimic the cover, or represent characters/events/etc from the story.  Basically, make us want to read the book based on picture alone.

This must be a picture YOU take and upload.  Simply stage the book, and upload a picture to your blog, Twitter or Goodreads account. If you don't have any of these, than you can post your picture on my blog's Facebook page.

Here's a book I've staged just to give you an idea:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline- full of 80's awesomeness, so I added an Atari logo, some leg warmers and some movies mentioned in the book.  (Honestly, this book is so amazeballs!)


This challenge is open to everyone.  In the US, the winner will receive a $15.00 Amazon gift card through their email, and International winners can pick a book up to $15.00 through the Book Depository and I'll buy it and ship it to you.

Just comment with your link below!

April Readathon Hours 1-4

Title of book(s) read since last update:

I finished Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich

Thoughts on current read:
I'm finishing up The Perfect Husband by Lisa Gardner.  I normally love her books,  but I'm not really feeling the main characters in this one, although the story is super compelling and it's a page turner for sure!

Number of books read since you started:
Finished 1.

Pages read since last update:  
83

Running total of pages read since you started:
83... I know, it's fail, but I did listen to about 45 mins of audio book this morning before Readathon started, so let's count that, shall we? 

Snacks Eaten:
Mini quiche, coffee, coke (the drink, not the drug... that'll be later when I need to stay awake), and a mint brownie that Kim made (totally worth the loss of sleep it cost her to make, btw), and a handful of a nut mix.


Mini-challenges completed:
Hour 3
Hour 5
Other participants you’ve visited (running list from start to finish - this way I can easily find my way back to all the new blogs!):
One Librarian's Book Reviews

Mini Challenge Hour 3 Book Puzzle:

Mini Challenge Hour 5: Book Sentence Challenge:

The Good Fairies of New York Loop Garden Spells Into the Dark.

Readathon Starting Post!

 I can't believe it's actually time for Readathon!  I'm so excited!  Off to a late start this morning, but I'm ready to roll!

Starting Meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Richmond, VA with Kim and Steph.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The new Odd Thomas manga and Hugo.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Kim's brownie's that she worked so hard on!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I am awesome!

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?
This time I'm doing Readathon with two other bloggers, so that's a huge change! I'm so excited about it, and between the snacks, conversations and awesome books, I think this well be the best Readathon ever! 

See ya'll in a few hours when I post my first update!

Readathon- Let the Day Begin!

This is one of my all time favorite songs, it just energizes me and makes me feel like I can do anything once I wake up.


Right now I'm gathering my Readathon pile and supplies and snacks and heading over to Kim's house to hang out with her and Steph for the next 24 hours (plus some, because I will totally be crashing at her house for a few hours on Sunday before I attempt the drive home).


So if you're an early riser, or you just need a little pumping up, give this song a listen. The Call never really made it big (although a cover of one of their songs I Still Believe is on the soundtrack to Lost Boys... God, I am really old, aren't I? Too old to be reading for 24 hours straight? Nope, not yet!), but they're one of my favorites.


See you at the starting line, can't wait to get reading!

Readathon Pile O'Books and a Hey Girl

First, a little pre-Readathon treat to all:

Sigh.  

So, now that's out of the way, here's the pile RG carried around for me:

From the Top:

The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley

House of Odd by Dean Koontz and Landry Q. Walker (illustrated by Queenie Chan)

Meet Your Match, Cupid Delaney by Ellen Leroe

Fade by Lisa McMann

Envy by Gregg Olsen

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick 

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

Will I get to all these books?  Probably not.  Especially considering that I'm also going to be with two of my fellow friends and bloggers, Kim and Steph.  Hopefully I'll be able to pry Why We Broke Up away from Kim, and I Hunt Serial Killers from Steph.  

Also, I have a lot of books awaiting me on my Kindle, so if none of these books are doing it for me, I'll read something from there.  Or just spend the whole Readathon finishing the third book in the Game of Thrones series.  

Besides reading (and eating!), I'll be cheering and hosting a mini-challenge during Hour 8.  I'm really excited to be doing Readathon with friends, especially bookish friends whose books I can steal borrow. 

What are you plans, bloggers?  Have you built your Readathon piles yet?  I know mine seems a bit ridiculous, but I believe in lots of choices (also graphic novels, mangas, and middle school readers).  Please, share your pile pictures, it's pretty much my favorite part of Readathon.

I can't wait for Saturday!