HOUR TWENTY-ONE
Well, I finished one more, a collection of short stories entitled "Leaping Out on Faith" by Rochelle Campbell. There are four stories about women of different ages, coming to terms with difficult situations. The final 3 stories were particularly resonant with me: Chambray Curtains Blowing in the Wind, Knocking at the Door, and All God's Men.
Unfortunately, my body has decided it is time to shut down for a while. And seeing as I have already outlived my father by 5 years (he passed at the age of 47 from heart disease), I have learned that I really need to listen to my body.
But I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Dewey's Read-a-Thon and will sign up early enough next time that I can help spread the word.
Some things I have learned:
1. I can read an entire novel (even one of significant size) in a 24 hour period.
2. I need to have a training program for the next read-a-thon. Not sure exactly what that means yet, but I'm mulling over some ideas.
3. Read-a-thon cheerleaders ROCK HARDER than regular cheerleaders. Take an extra pom-pom out of petty cash :O)
4. Find out about the next read-a-thon more than 8 to 12 hours before the start time.
As soon as I can think clearly again, I'm sure there will be more.
If it is in your heart and your abilities, keep readin' on for 2-3 more hours! ROCK ON, READERS AND CHEERLEADERS AND ORGANIZERS!!!
(See, I told ya - see hr 17 - that I ramble when I get overtired.) Peace out.
HOUR SEVENTEEN
Two hours ago I did not know how I could go on. Maybe it was the self-pep talk I gave myself outside. Maybe it was the attack of the month old puppies who have just had their first semi-solid meal, Maybe it was actually finishing a 2nd book (Designer Dirty Laundry by Diane Vallere - there is a link below ... somewhere).
At least I don't feel like I'm going to explode anymore. Always a plus, right? But I should probably take a break and dispose of the collection of drink cans and bottles, snack wrappers, empty cappucino cup that held orange chicken and rice, and a small plate that was home to two insanely buttered toasted English muffins earlier.
Yes, I'm rambling. I do that at the best of times. I'm just not the kind of gal who will say something in ten words that I can say in 50. *lol* And then top that off with being, oh, a tad fatigued?
K. Now I'm going to try and find where I left the Power of a Praying Woman, the other book I've been reading, and finish that. Unfortunately I put it down somewhere and I don't quite remember where. That strikes me as being funny at the moment.
HOUR THIRTEEN
Damn my blood pressure. To hot and fiery places. Really. Hubby even cooked supper tonight. And he and our oldest took on the task of feeding 8 of our 13 (or so) puppies their first non-mama meal. Oh, BTW, anyone need a puppy? :O)
Up to page 85 of Designer Dirty Laundry, which is almost 1/3 of the way through the book. It's quite interesting so far ... lots of intrigue. But with $100,000 at stake, in a design contest ... it's almost like a reality tv shows with all the double-dealing going on behind the scenes.
Conquered several more chapters in The Power of a Praying Woman. Lots of good quotes and Bible verses to add to my "memorize this" collection.
To answer the questions from the readathon home post:
1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
Well, I kind of had a little rest, thanks to my health. *blah*
2) What have you finished reading?
Just the one short short book: To Capture a Highlander's Heart: The Beginning (see HOUR THREE)
3) What is your favorite read so far?
Umm...all of them?
4) What about your favorite snacks?
Special K Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars
5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!
I've tried to subscribe to as many new blogs as I've found, but it was taking away time from reading, so that's going to be a project for me for next week ... to go back and get ALL the ones I missed this weekend ... and it's a long, long list.
HOUR SEVEN
I've been trying to do some solid reading for the last couple of hours and it has worked, more or less. Why is it, when you get into a challenge like this one, that the crazy parts of your life come out to deter you?
An extended family member (like the wife of my FIL's 2nd cousin or something like that) is having heart issues (BP approx 50/80). We are the closest and most able (due to age/health issues) relatives, so our day has taken a left turn into the "there go our plans for the day" department.
Also, hubby did the madlib/hour seven challenge for me and now wants his monitor back, which was hooked up to my laptap.
Mad-Lib Challenge
Original Paragraph from "Designer Dirty Laundry" by Diane Vallere)
"When you wear fishnet stockings to the grocery store, pleople tend to stare. Women look at you like you're affiliated with the sex trade. Men pretend they're not staring, doing so all the while. It's probably because they're thinking the same thing."
I asked hubby to come up with an item of clothing, a location, 2 groups of people, a profession and two verbs. Here is the result:
"When you wear clothing optional to the city, people tend to stare. Women look at you like you're affiliated with the gynecologist. Men pretend they're not often, doing so all the while. It's probably because they're fasting the same thing."
Doesn't sound like his mind is on a reading/writing exercise, does it? :p
I'm on page 34 of the Kindle version of the above book.
HOUR FOUR
Challenge - Spine Poetry
My 5th book, "Power of a Praying Woman" has a picture and link down below. Crap. I can't get a picture of the spines in the time allotted. How 'bout if I type the titles in a list. Can y'all use a little imagination and 'create' the spines around that? :O)
OOOOO[The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery]OOOOO
OOOOO[Crossing Troublesome]OOOOO
OOOOO[Basic Math and Pre-Algebra for Dummies]OOOOO
OOOOO[The Power of a Praying Woman]OOOOO
OOOOO[One Thousand Gifts]OOOOO
HOUR THREE
Why am I posting a new read-a-thon button each time? Because there are so many dang cute ones!
I went looking for something short (Capture certainly fits that bill) and that involved Scotland in some way, shape or form. This is still free on Amazon as of the time of this update.
Reading this short story/book made me want to read more about the characters Grace and Gabriel. Grace is a 21 year old ladies' maid, who has become interested in Gabriel, a widower some years older than herself. She wants to marry him, but there's just one problem; he doesn't know she exists. By the end of the story, he knows she exists, and he'd like the two of them to exist in closer proximity.
Did not do so well with this hour's challenge. I only got two of them. I'm going to go back in the coming days and figure them all out (without peeking), but for now, I want to concentrate on reading, blogging and tweeting, self-appointed cheerleading, eating, snacking, and #hashtagging (get it? *lol*) with those other people who are hanging around the room where my computer is.
HOUR TWO
Well, I started out reading "The Power of a Praying Woman" by Stormie Omartian. It's been sitting on my desk for quite a while. I go back and forth with myself on whether to read straight through this type of book or to work through it chapter by chapter for a day or a week or whatever. THANKS SO MUCH to Dewey's Read-a-thon for giving me an excuse to go cover to cover and not feel guilty!
I'm only on page 27 so far, and not making an excuse, but the rural mail carrier ran out of gas in front of our house and our dogs were going bat crazy, so we filled up her car with what was left in our 5-gallon can that we use for the lawnmower. A few minutes later, she returned the can, so the dogs went off again. They're not mean, just curious, but we don't want them that close to the road.
I got TweetDeck set up on my computer and made a column for #readathon posts. It's going almost as fast as my "activity" column. Also saw Sharlene's comments, so responded to those, and played TweetTag with some #readathon buddies.
Now that I'm apparently parked at my computer for a little bit, I'm going to switch gears to an e-reader and find me something short to read. :O)
I have been trying to beef up my prayer life of late, so this seemed like a good book to dive into. My song to go with it? Patsy Cline singing Amazing Grace:
And a capella! *shivers* I'm going to need a truckload of grace to stay up for 24 hours!
(Someone cue the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey)
I'm figuring on putting all my updates here so I don't spam my subscribers with lots and lots and lots of emails.
Hour One Intro Meme
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I am reading from the rural area between Crab Orchard and Dog Walk, Kentucky, USA.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Well, most of my books will be from my Kindle app. There are only 4 physical books in any sort of stack on my desk, and they were there before I even knew of the challenge's existence. Two are Appalachian cook books and two of them are devotionals.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
The Read-a-thon came on my radar late last night when I was poking around
Faith, Hope and CherryTea. So I haven't really had time to think about snacks. Thank goodness hubby loaded me up on Coke Zero yesterday at the store. And he got this bag of little salted and spiced bread bits in varying sizes and shapes that I think he meant to use for his clam chowder to which I could do some serious damage.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I turned 52 a week ago Wednesday. We homeschool our children. I recently returned to college to work on a 2nd degree to lead me to the grad school program of my choice - writing! (Go figure, right?) :O)
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, thanks to various web-based reading challenges, I have read more "for pleasure" this year than I have in many years past combined. I'm also having a private challenge with myself to see if I can maintain my usually sweet, angelic nature throughout the entire 24 hours without my family wanting to spike my sweet tea with something to make me sleep.
Sending serious good reading karma out to sister and brother challengers, serious good karma brownie points to the cheerleading squad, and serious thumbs up to the hourly challenge captains.
Read on!
