June 2013 ReadaThing: LOG BOOK

As I post this it is just over 2 hours until the start of the ReadaThing!

I missed posting the What will you be reading thread, so if you want to discuss your plans, feel free to post in the Announcement thread. This thread is for what actually happens - what/when/where you read (that's past tense, BTW), and reviews (well, quick notes). I stole most of these questions from LucindaLibre in the last RaT, with my own modifications.

(The questions are worded as if you are posting just after you read, but feel free to post before, during, or after!)

**What book or books did you read?
**Where did you read? Specific or vague is fine. Posting a picture of where you read is encouraged.
**When did you read? How long did you read?
**Doing anything else? Food, music, pets, listening to someone snore, watching the sun rise or set...

Other Important Stuff:
**Is it a GOOD BOOK? Tell us what you thought of it...
**Did it meet or exceed your expectations? **Do you recommend it? **Was it a fast read or a thoughtful read? **Did it make you laugh or cry or "be afraid, be very afraid"? **Was it boring? **Would you read it again? **Are you going to throw it off a cliff into the sea?
We aren't expecting a full review of the book unless you feel like it... just give us a flavor of the book...tempt us into reading it or warn us to keep clear!

Have some fun with your reading! There's going to be a good group of us reading along with you (virtually speaking), and we'll be really quiet, except for the tapping of the keyboards as people check in.

The signup page is here: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/ReadaThingJune2013

The timeline is pretty solidly filled in until Friday, and lots of No Timeline readers as well. Please fill in the timeline indicating when you actually read (doesn't matter if there's already a name there - the more the merrier!) and keep adding on as you feel moved to read throughout the week.

I'm looking forward to following everyone's reading projects . . . when I'm not reading myself!

ETA the link to the Wikipage - http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/ReadaThingJune2013
For your convenience in adding reading times, etc.

Well, my ReadaThing is starting just as usual. I had a pleasant hour-and-a-half of reading (Americashire by Jennifer Richardson, a book someone sent me but I don't know who - not ER) - which is now ending, as the RaT begins. At 1600, when the RaT begins, I have a job (fix a client's computer), then I have to do laundry from my last week's trip and eat dinner with my parents, then another job...I may be able to read again tonight around 2000. Or later. Or not - I still have unpacking to do, not to mention tending my plants. There's nothing like a RaT to keep me too busy to read...

Ah, looks like I got Americashire from BookTrib. At least, they gave it away there, and I usually enter for a couple books - don't really remember this one, but I believe it. Pretty good book, too. Not what I usually enjoy - both people are quite neurotic in the modern self-perception style - but the author passes it off lightly without making it silly, the descriptions, especially of the countryside, are lovely, and the depiction of rural English life rides the fine line between amusing and mockery with great skill and grace. I'm enjoying it so far - hope I get to finish it soon!

I have 3 friends that used to live in the same city that I do, we lived near each other for about 10 years. The 11th year all 3 moved to other states. Each year we get together and the past 5 days have been our 2013 meetup. All 3 are readers (2 librarians) so we spent hours discussing what we have read since we last talked. One of those recommended to me was The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. I ordered it for my Kindle on the spot and completed it just as my flight home was preparing for landing. It's a lovely book, I'm not going to review it here as the positive reviews on LT are what I would say. Besides, I'm tired and ready for sleep!

I'm an unscheduled reader and spent about 4 hours reading today.

I spent two hours reading tonight alternating between Where the Pavement Ends: One Woman's Bicycle Trip Through Mongolia, China & Vietnam and an audio version of Camilla while I was doing laundry. I'm not very far into either of these, but I am losing interest in Where the Pavement Ends. It is very disjointed and it is obvious that the author is a traveler first and a writer second, but she should be getting to China soon and hopefully that will pique my interest again.

I just finished an hour of reading. I started North by Northanger . It's too soon to know whether it's a good book. I'm sitting on a love seat in my breakfast room -- everyone else has gone to bed. That's where I'm headed now.

I finished up reading Skullduggery Pleasant--an enjoyable YA fantasy novel, chock full of sarcastic comments--whilst sitting on my roof, enjoying the sun. I would classify it (and did so on my shelves) as Comic Dark Fantasy.
I have started in on reading The Sight, by David Clement-Davies, as of this evening. So far, so good--I've enjoyed what I've currently read of it.

It had been a very busy day, and sleep wouldn't come to me. So I did a little unplanned way past midnight reading. Since I had already started that, I continued with More Annotated Lovecraft (annotated by S.T. Joshi and Peter Cannon). It's okay-ish, but I'm somewhat disappointed. The stories themselves are well known to me, and the annotation seems superficial to me. Ah well...

I read for my scheduled hour last night and plan to read more under unscheduled time. I'm surprisingly caught up in The Spiritualist by Megan Chance. (To the detriment of my reading of Framley Parsonage.)

I am an " unscheduled " reader ( I hope that I added my name properly)
I was at the point last night where I had to choose my next read- I have read some of the following and want to select one - or I could just dip into what ever book I am in the mood for
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir-I have read about 100 pages-it isn't holding me but do I continue or go on to
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif- I have read a few pages and this might be the one.
The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman- good but very wordy.
The Irregulars Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant- the title is better than the history described so far-107 pages read so far.

I'm reading (started yesterday) "The ethical assassin" by David Linn. As wrote, started yesterday night but on italian time, which means (at least) 6 hours before your time...

I'm an unscheduled reader and read a fair bit yesterday.

I am taking a Tolkien's Beyond Middle Earth master's level course as an auditor. Two books I read in were The Annotated Hobbit and the Tolkien Reader for the class.

I also read part of Born to blog by Mark Schaefer and others and Find Your Voice in the Psalms by Elizabeth Canham.

I enjoyed all the books. The Annotated Hobbit has very well written annotations and includes poetry not published elsewhere, this was the second edition. The Tolkien Reader has a variety of good short stories and poetry that only vaguely touch on Middle Earth. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil are included in the Tolkien Reader and some of that includes a little of the people and geography of Middle Earth, both from before the Lord of the Rings and after. Born to blog is proving to be informative for personal blog improvements, even though a good portion is given to business use of blogs. I learned that I'm very high in the teaching and storytelling traits, not so much in the others. Find your voice is a woman priest's treatise on the Psalms as emotional, spiritual, and personal prayers of the Hebrew people. She shares that we can make the Psalms our own through using their structure to make Psalms relative for our world of technology and such, rather than deer and other natural phenomenon.

I also ate meals, did laundry, did some dishes, and got myself ready for the day during my time of reading.

I scheduled myself from 8 to 11 this morning.

I read the second half of Behind a Mask; or, a Woman's Power by Louisa May Alcott, a few short stories from Selected Stories by Nadine Gordimer, and the beginnings of the interview with Stephen Sondheim in The Paris Review Interviews IV.

Among reading, I also reviewed a book, combined some of Louisa May Alcott's author page, and moved my car for some guys working on filling in the in-ground pool at the house. Now I'm off to lunch and getting ready for work.

I 'read' for about an hour this morning while getting ready for and biking to work. The weather people said it was supposed to be a nice morning, and instead I was rained on the whole time : ( But managed to get through 3 chapters of Camilla.

I'm a No-timeline reader, living in The Netherlands and I am currently reading De schim van Roshun by Col Buchanan. The translation of Stands a Shadow.
I have been reading this afternoon for about 2 hours enjoying the sun. I'm going to figure out how to get my name in the Timeline plan.

I am reading The once and future king. Read it years ago and wanted to see if it still was a favorite book.

So, I've started my ReadaThing, too. I'm reading Travels in Elysium by William Azuski. I've won this book from the Early Review May batch. The spelling style is very rich and the reading is like a film, but it's very difficult to get into the story. There a are a lot of loose ends and the different scenes are so lengthened that I've a feeling of never ending.

I'm scheduled for 10 to 11 pm central time, every night except Friday.

Last night, I read from about 9:30 til 11:15. I had the Chicago Cubs game on and, not surprisingly, they were losing again but this was the foggiest ballgame I'm ever seen. The game ended partway through my reading time and I just shut the TV off.

This month, I am trying to read a book in every one of the TIOLI (Take It or Leave It) categories in the 75 books group. With 21 such categories, this is pretty ambitious for me so I've chosen shorter books, where possible.

Last night during my RaT time, I finished my 7th TIOLI category by completing the play Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. I almost never read plays and another LTer has been giving me suggestions. I enjoyed it but suspect that much of the literary and scientific references flew over my head.

After finishing the play, a library book, I picked up my Kindle and started reading Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It. Really enjoying this one, though I got only about 10 percent through it last night.

I've been reading (unscheduled) quite a bit today. And thusly I've finished The Spiritualist. Moving on in Framley Parsonage and adding in Foreigner for a bit of SF.

Hello, I read 8-9pm GMT. I finished the chapter on the school sports day at Llanabba Castle in Decline and Fall, which was interrupted when I was called to give blood earlier on. It went straight into a rather insulting tirade against the Welsh by an unsympathetic character, though clearly Waugh was getting it out of his system after his unhappy time in North Wales. It's a very funny book but these kind of stereotypes don't go down well with me. Then I continued reading Watching the English by Kate Fox, which didn't give me any sense of retribution; she is examining the ways the English make social interaction difficult for themselves in this chapter and it is all done very fairly and with a sympathetic or jovial tone. I read in bed, very comfortable with a cheese baguette for supper and a pint of Earl Grey tea. See you in the morning!

I had a conflict right off the bat and had to read earlier than I was scheduled. I read for 2 1/2 hours at the laundromat. From 9:30-12:00. I am reading the 1st book of a series from a local author that is in a Quaker Artist Group with me. It is called Cast Me Not Away by Patricia Thomas. Published by Lighthouse Christian Publishing in 2011. I am plesantly surprised, I am enjoying the story quite a bit. It reminds me of the Mitford series. Should be back on track tomorrow! My book is here on LT but I don't know how to add the link. Sorry.

I read about 100 pages of Our Lady of Alice Bhatti- quite a sharp satire about life in Pakistan with a comic twist.

During my 10:00-11:00 EDST reading period I started reading Eudora Welty's The Bride of the Innisfallen, and Other Stories. I'm reading this book for the June selection (something related to marriage in the title) of the LibraryThing Random CAT challenge. I read in my favorite reading spot -- my study with my mother's paintings hanging on the walls and dolls my sister designed on display. (I am definitely not an artist like my mother and sister.)

Touchstone fairy -
Skullduggery Pleasant
Cast Me Not Away
The Bride of the Innisfallen and other stories

To make a touchstone, put the book's title into square brackets. If a book refuses to come up as a touchstone (as Cast Me Not Away did), you can force it by finding the book and getting the number from its URL (the URL is http://www.librarything.com/work/13937085 ; the work number is 13937085). Put the number inside the square brackets first, then two colons, then the title. So to get the touchstone above I entered [13937085::Cast Me Not Away]. Just FYI.

I haven't read as much as I had planned today (busy with a--now finished--sewing project), but got at least a few hours in on The Sight, two hours on Wuthering Heights, and a few minutes on Firebird (as my tea was brewing) between my last post and now.
Ah, yes--and I am a no-timeline reader.

Thanks for posting on how to force a touchstone.

Last night, I read from 9:30 pm to 11:30. I read a graphic baseball biography, Hutch: Baseball's Fred Hutchinson and a Legacy of Courage by Mike Shannon. I won this book in ER but it never showed up. I still wanted to read it so I tracked down a copy.

I thought it was a regular biography but it turned out to be a graphic. OK, but nothing to write home about.

Well my Read-a-thing got off to a bit of a rocky start with an inability to concentrate but have since been able to flop down in my recliner and read away. Started Bob Shepherd's The Infidel at the beginning of the Read-a-thing and tonight finished it off. Review posted, but the short of it is that I preferred Mr Shepherd's non fiction work on Afghanistan vs this fiction novel.

I've been reading Warm Bodies, which is really good.
Last night I finished The Da Vinci Code. One of the best books ever! I loved it! I went to bed with a smile on my face after finishing it.

Had two hours or reading time this morning (my time zone) and devoted it to Alice in Orchestralia, an attempt to explain to children how a symphonic orchestra works in a somewhat Alice in Wonderland like setting. It's okay, just too didactic and not enough whimsy.

I've also been quite active with Lewis Carroll's Library today, but (shameless plug) that's for a new Legacy Library and not really reading (almost every book mentioned has to be Googled, etc.) so I won't list that time for the log.

Yesterday I read half-an-hour at lunch time and about the same at bedtime, working on Shades of Milk and Honey, a fantasy of manners. Will do the same today.

Have been reading The Cloud by Matt Richtel the past few nights. Hopefully didn't mess things up trying to add my name to the unscheduled readers list. I read when I'm able and not able to schedule that, but read every day anyway. :)

Read The French Lieutenants Woman for a couple of hours - interesting and I hope I'll be able to finish it tomorrow.

On my early-morning shift I was feeling like a change and read the first chapter of Muriel Spark's The Comforters which seems witty and fun; though I am prepared for it not to go anywhere, according to reviewers. After I finished my chapter of Watching the English I just felt in the mood for dipping into Pictures at a Revolution. I had put this book aside for a couple of weeks as I wanted more portable books while I was away from home and then I borrowed a lot of books from the library on which I've been concentrating. Having picked it up again it has had my attention for most of the day, it's a brilliant book for a film fan; it covers the five year period up to Oscar night 1968 and the making of the five varied films that were nominated for Best Picture. I find the rapid coming together of hard-working writers, directors, actors, composers and producers to create something new and exciting truly inspirational. The making of Doctor Dolittle however, is a reminder of the stale, flabby side of Hollywood, the profit-led side which will always blunder more expensively.

Apart from the early reading session, conducted in silence but for the birdsong, I generally listen to a Radio 3 "Through the Night" online as it is not too distracting while I'm reading (unless the emotion of the piece really sends me) and there are few interruptions for chat.

I signed on yesterday and have been setting aside the hour before dinner (6-7 EST) for reading The Translator by Leila Aboulelah and various magazines and journals. The Translator is fairly interesting; it's set in Scotland, and the main character is a young African widow who was so devastated by the death of her husband (who was also her cousin) that she sent their son to live with his mother. Now, several years later, she wants to bring Amir to Edinburgh. There's a love story lurking as well, but I suspect it will be a doomed affair.

I read from 2:45 to 4 today on my porch enjoying this beautiful day. I am still reading Cast Me Not Away. Cast Me Not Away It is a mystery so it is keeping my attention. I also became involved with the Quaker community here so the area she writes about is interesting to me too. I'm up to pg 114.

Thank you. I put the Touchstone on my post for today.

I read for somewhere over an hour this evening. It is a wonderfully cool evening so perfect reading weather. I'm reading The Search by Nora Roberts. It is not a challenging read, but fun and slightly predictable. I'm too tired and too busy with other stuff to want a challenging read.

A light reading day yesterday, but I got my ReadaThing started on Tuesday evening, re-visiting Against a Dark Background in honor of Iain M. Banks. I remembered this as relentlessly dark, and I'd forgotten how anarchically entertaining it is (at least to begin with). I hope to get a couple of solid hours in today, especially as the weather is so grey here!

(I'm in scheduled, but I'll add my accomplished read times into the grid later).

30> Looks fine.

I've added a link to the wiki page to the first post here - for those who want to put in their reading time, or who need to add themselves to the scheduled or unscheduled reading lists.

Matters continue, for me - I've been sick enough (with nothing in particular in the way of symptoms) to be asleep all day, and too dozy to read in my rare intervals of wakefulness. Hopefully my Thursday will turn out better and I can actually get in some reading...

I spent a couple hours today finishing up reading The Sight--which was a fairly enjoyable, though dark, novel. It reminds me strongly of a couple other, similar, novels, including Watership Down. About half of the time, I spent on the roof.
And in the evening, I re-read Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln child (approx. four hours)

Even though I knew this would be a busy week, I am still surprized to see how little time I actually have been reading so far.
Like always, I have about half an hour Well, before going to sleep. At the moment I'm reading De Daisy Sisters then.
For day time reading (in the morning at breakfast when I'm alone at the table, I have read and am now finished with Bel Canto which I liked a lot! I now started in The Night Circus, but have no opinion on that one yet.

I hope to have more reading time today or tomorrow. Saturday won't work since we're having a birthday then. ;-( Well, the birthday is nice of course, but this little reading time sure isn't!

Most of my reading so far hasn't been in hour long segments. where it has been I am filling in the timeline:)

So far I have finished Wide Open by Nicola Barker which I had started before the Readathing. Strange book, still not entirely sure what I think about it but I definitely want to read more of her work. I also read Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths the fifth in the Ruth Galloway series - I liked it better than some of the others I have read but, so far, none of them have had the positive impact that The Crossing Places had for me.

I am also reading The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford fascinating but I am only reading a chapter or two per day. For fiction I started Sunshine by Robin Mckinley last night and I liked it enough to carry on reading past my usual lights out time:)

Yesterday I was visiting my brother. I go there every week on Wednesday evening. The first few times I went to see him, he was trying to teach me things about the Computer (That was some 25 years ago). It grew into a nice tradition. We now watch Game of thrones and all kinds of talentseeking series.: X factor, SYTYCD and things like that. He moved to another town but I still visite him. And I have some traveling time/reading time: bus and train + waiting on platforms.
So I read Alles is zoals het zou moeten zijn by Daphne Deckers while travelling .
When I arrived home again I read for another hour: De schim van Roshun by Col Buchanan

I started The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin last night for this month's bookclub read. I read an hour so I didn't get too far into it. I should be able to get a couple of hours in later today.

I had an unusual reading shift last night. I thought my Chicago Blackhawks game would be over by 10 pm. It wasn't. It went into triple overtime and didn't end til midnight.

I read A River Runs Through It during the intermissions, of which there were five.

Finished a lovely little collection of short stories by William Trevor this morning: Bodily Secrets.

I am reading Les Miserable. Today I read over an hour to the end of Volume I "Fantine". Fantine just died and was buried in a pauper grave.

Finally got in some reading! Last night I read a little more of Americashire and, for no particular reason except I wanted something good, started A Point of Honor - an old favorite. Today I finished off Americashire. I'm not sure what I think of it - it's just a bit pointless. The descriptions are good, the setting is interesting, the characters (the author and her husband, etc) are...mildly interesting at best and rather too self-absorbed. And it starts out talking about their decision to have children, and ends up with a firm decision not to (thank goodness, it would have been a very bad reason). And starts with them wanting to settle into English rural life, and apparently they didn't stick that either... Not unenjoyable, but as I said a bit pointless.

Goody, now I can dive into A Point of Honor. Wonderful near-future SF, with virtual reality woven neatly into "real" life - I'm an SCA member, so I greatly enjoy the depiction of what VR can/could add to it. And (much further on than I've gotten, but I have the book practically memorized), the absolute best avowal-of-love scene I've ever read - extremely real, reasonable, and yet romantic. Love it. And not a word spoken.

I'm just about to finish The Journeyer by Gary Jennings -- 1058 pages of very small print. Seems as if I've been reading it forever. ;-} It's historical fiction about Marco Polo and has been very interesting. I imagine the parts about him are mostly fiction, but there is some good historical background about the Mongols and others of that time, as well as information about religious and cultural beliefs of the different populations.

I do most of my reading while using a nebulizer, as reading keeps me from being bored. I do read some at other times, though, and have music on at times but no other activity. When I'm reading, I wand to read and even hate for the telephone to ring.

I just updated my times on the timeline. I've been reading quite a bit (just got back from vacation yesterday), but not necessarily in hour-long chunks.

I read for an hour on Tues, 9-10 pm CDT (after the young niece & nephew were asleep). I read a bit of The Sea by John Banville whie curled up on the couch at Mum's cabin in Northern Wisconsin. The book was lovely, but not good vacation reading as too much family-time meant no ability to focus.

Weds. I read on the plane back home from 5:45-6:30 EDT. I started, but did not read as much as I should have of, Dangling Man by Saul Bellow as I should have.

I got about two hours of reading in today... right now, that's a lot for me. I'm almost done with The Search and I don't know what I'm going to read next. I've got to be careful. If I pull the wrong book, Mt. TBR might avalanche.

I read early for 1 hour this morning and then my assigned 3:00 to 4:00. Same book Cast Me Not Away Page 198.

Where I do most of my reading:


I signed up for the 3:00 P.M. slots throughout and also for the 'unscheduled' reading slot timeline.
I began Monday with the reading of 3 children's books by Maurice Sendak:
Alligators All Around,
Chicken Soup With Rice and
Pierre.
All three were quaint little Sendaks and I enjoyed them greatly. Then I moved on to Tom's Midnight Garden, a Y.A. and the 1958 Carnegie Medal winner. This is a wonderfully, whimsical, magical story of a young lad who finds a garden only available to him in the middle of the night. I thought the book quite lovely. I completed this during my reading slot on Tuesday.
For the remainder of my Tuesday time slot, my Wednesday & Thursday time slot plus all of my unscheduled time I have been reading Wolf Hall.

I have been reading on and off - as always - and put in two hours of scheduled reading yesterday.

I had hoped to finish The French Lieutenant's Woman but still have 30-something pages to go. I'm very much on the fench with this one. There are definitely som interesting charachters in it, and as a historian I'm very interested in the thorough description of the Victorian age. I'm not sure, however, whether I like the very explicit role of the author or not. Of course a novel is a work of fiction, but it still seems to take something away from the reading-experience when that fact is continually showed in your face.

Got in another hour of reading, stretched over 2 and a bit hours. I'm counting it as running from 10 pm to 11 pm my time, though I didn't actually stop until 1230 - there were a lot of interruptions in the middle. Finished A Point of Honor, which is as wonderful as usual. No idea what I'll pick up next - well, I'm already in the middle of Terry Pratchett's Truckers, and Diane Duane's A Wizard Abroad (one new to me, one an old favorite). So I'll probably finish those two next, in some order.

I started two new books today: Five Odd Honors by Jane Lindskold--a contemporary fantasy with a chinios theme--for maybe an hour and a half; and The House on Darrow Street by Galen Beckett--the sequel to The Magicians and Mr. Quent (I believe that was the title)--which is a fairly good piece of Gothic Fantasy, in a world with some unusual rules (albeit very parallel to Victorian England and surrounding countries)--for maybe five hours.
@54--I was contemplating picking up one in Diane Duane's series as well.

Yesterday and today I finished Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif and In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut.
Hanif wrote both a satire and a tragedy about life in Pakistan.
Galgut's writing was more expressionistic. I liked the third part of his novel the best.

I've been reading in bits and pieces - so much to do right now that I haven't been able to sit down and really enjoy it. Working on The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett, which is really good, but it has been so long since I read the first two books in the series that it took be a bit to get into it. Hoping to finish it today at lunch.

Yesterday was abysmal, but at least I made it through my work day without blowing my top and I think I did okay on the final exam from my night class. I only read a few minutes before bed. Today has already started better and I read Camilla for an hour while getting ready for and biking to work. I hope to finish The Master of Ballantrae over my lunch hour and get a fair amount of reading in tonight.

I was tired last night due to the triple overtime hockey game the night before, so I did my hour's reading a bit early.

I finished A River Runs Through It and started a cozy mystery, Buried in a Bog.

I'm not signed up for an hour tonight because I'm going to a concert so I won't report back tonight.

I read more in Wolf Hall when I went to bed last night and again this morning. I should have this monster completed in a day or so.
We are heading out in the A.M. on a road trip so will see how the reading goes. I don't read well in a moving vehicle so my timed slot may vary but just on traveling days & I can make it up in the evenings.
cheerio and read on maties,

I managed about an hour last night with a member giveaway Tell Me by Lisa Jackson. Not far enough into it yet to give an opinion. I also managed about 30 min. at work on another member giveaway Death of a Coupon Clipper by Lee Hollis. Since I've only just started both of these books, I'm kind of waiting for them to get going.

I read for almost two hours in the garden in the afternoon and I finished De schim van Roshun by Col Buchanan and started in Het ongeluk by Linwood Barclay.

I've been reading off and on this week ... trying to manage at least 45 minutes to an hour a day. On Monday, My dentist saw me reading Tobie Lolness (my second attempt at it, and it's going much better this time) while I was waiting for my checkup and told me he would rather undergo the dentist's drill than read in French! I believe he used the word "torture" as well. :)

I've been reading off and on yesterday and today. Mostly Framley Parsonage but also some of Foreigner. No worries getting those two story lines confused!

I want to read. Have a few more hours before that can happen, tho. :( Work is getting in the way.

Got another hour of reading in - finished Truckers. It's actually pretty good - some really deep ideas buried in the cute little children's story! Now I want the sequels.

55> She's actually released them in a new edition - the New Millennium Edition - as ebooks straight from her website. There are minor technology fixes, and (she says, I haven't noticed them yet) major timeline fixes. I want to compare them in detail, but first I want to read all the way through (which I hadn't accomplished before - never read War or Mars yet). It's fun, in any case.

ETA typo

I have been reading some Jane Austen this year (both works by her and about her) and enjoyed reading from The Poetry of Jane Austen and the Austen Family this afternoon. Although I much prefer her novels to her poetry, it was fun reading some of the word games in poetry which she and her family played. Am going to go back to the book in a few minutes. Once again, I was reading in my favorite chair in my study.

Finished Warm Bodies. Defintely not your usual zombie book. Plus have been reading random books about autism throughout the day.

I haven't had time to read during the week for long periods of time until today. I actually just finished Breaking Point by C.J. Box. I really enjoyed it. Now I am reading All Together dead by Charlaine Harris.

Happy Reading all!

I finished two good, not great, books today...The Master of Ballantrae over lunch and Where the Pavement Ends this evening. My evening read was made better by having a dozing lab in my lap for most of the time.

Spent several hours on the same books as yesterday, reading Five Odd Honors more than the other. I spent most of the day finding and reading some research papers.

@66 Interesting--I had not noticed any inconsistencies before, but neither does that mean too much. Although it seems that I am missing the 7th book (and the last two)--not sure how that happened.

I spend an hour reading in bed this morning. In bed I prefer reading on my Kobo. I am reading Alles is zoals het zou moeten zijn by Daphne Deckers. She is the wife of the only Dutch Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek. That was back in 1996. She is a wellknown model and still is doing lots of things on tv. Daphne writes columns for all kind of magazines and newspapers. But this is her first roman, or rather a chicklit. Its a very hilarious book which has me laughing out loud.

I'm going to fill my time-slot now.

finished reading Dangling Man while running errands yesterday. Luckily it's an epistolary novel (written as diary entries), so it can be read in bits and pieces while running errands.

Picked up Buddenbrooks again, which was too big to go on vacation, and read for 90 minutes before bed. The only bad thing about this book is that the cat & it cannot be in my lap at the same time, so she kept interrupting my reading trying to squeeze in.

I am getting further on with The once and future king - finished The sword in the stone and The queen of air and darkness which has been retitled as The witch in the wood. Am almost finished with the 3rd book, The ill-made knight. In between I've been reading articles from my new issues of Piecework and Sampler & antique needlework quarterly.

Managed about an hour of reading Death of a Coupon Clipper last night. Hoping for more time tonight.

I have been reading for three hours this afternoon.

The weather was nice with sun enough, so I decided to enjoy it

I just finished a 2 hour run of reading about 80 pages On the Edge by Jenny Pitman. I'm kind of frustrated with this book but I'm determined to finish it. Part of my time was spent chronicling the numerous unnecessary characters that just pop up to confuse things. I also hoped this book would be more about riding and training horses instead of drama.
The nice part of my reading time was being on my couch with my little dogs to keep me company, and listening to my ipod.

I just finished my 4 pm to 5 pm Eastern time slot, on my living room couch while drinking iced tea, in Falls Church VA. I am reading Proust's "Sodom and Gomorrah" which is the fourth book in the "In Search of Lost Time" translation (aka "Cities of the Plain" in the "Remembrance of Things Past" translation).

My favorite part from this hour was: "That great game of hide and seek which is played in our memory when we seek to recapture a name does not entail a series of gradual approximations. We see nothing, then suddenly the correct name appears and is very different from what we thought we were guessing." Those are rather short sentences for Proust!

Failed today :( missed my assigned time. My oldest daughter and boyfriend are visiting from Chicago and we stayed up way to late last night and I could not get up at 8 am and keep my eyes open. I had to put it off untill after 1:00. Should have finished book by now but needed to not be rude, LOLWill finish my book tomorrow.

Awww. Well, things happen. That's why I usually sign up in No Timeline - I'm awful at keeping a schedule! Glad you got to read, though.

Oh! I did read today, I forgot. The Fred Factor - an interesting motivational book. I like the idea - I think I'm a bit of a Fred already, but I'll try to spread it around some more. I read from about 3:30 pm until 4:30 pm (close enough to the half-hour that I'm going to try skittles' thing with the times after my name).

I don't know about my times today, as I tend to not read in large blocks (unless the book is particularly engrossing), and can't remember what pages I started on (so that I can estimate).
I finished reading The House on Darrow Street and Five Odd Honors, and started Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (which I am currently about half way through). Somewhere between four and six hours total.

Yesterdayevening I read for another hour or so. I waited until my husband went to bed, so I could turn the lights down and read in silence. And this morning I read for more than an hour in bed with tea and the sun peeping through te curtains.
Its now almost 1.00 pm on sunday and its Fathers day over here.

Managed to read a couple of hours yesterday. In the morning I read Små dyr (Small Animals) a collection of graphic short stories while my wife was out swimming. In the evening my daughter had a couple of friends over, but at ten they were off to sleep in the tent in the garden, so I could start af new novel: Industry of Souls by Martin Booth. As usual I did most of my reading on the couch!

Read for an hour or so last night - started In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen.

Spent most of Saturday and stayed up late to finish The woodcutter by Reginald Hill. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I finished The Irregulars by Jennet Conant yesterday. I had been reading it on and off for about a week. I then read the very satisfactory Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel and the interesting The Tale of the 1000nd Night by Joseph Roth

I just finished Het ongeluk by Linwood Barclay. I really loved this book.
I've picked a new book to read for the rest of the afternoon. Een storm van smaragden by Michael J. Sullivan. So of to the garden!

>80 theeccentriclady: I got you covered

Yesterday I continued reading Buddenbrooks, 2.5 hours from 8-11 am (the half hour missed was 9:50-10:20 or so). Then, after a busy day stole some quiet time at night to continue plugging away, 8-10pm. Nice way to, ahem, bookend my day!

Read Grace's Pictures by Cindy Thomson all 405 pages! finishing it last nite. Wrote the review and posted , completed and ready to move on to my next... not sure which it will be but sky is clouding over, so it will be a fine reading day ;) ...

I've chosen Ripples Along the Shore by Mona Hodgson at 168 pgs giving myself an eye break!

Read about an hour last night in bed, then a chapter so far today. It's laundry day at the laundromat, so I expect to get a couple more hours in this afternoon.

Finished A Wizard Abroad last night, on my phone. Trying to pick a new book - I tried two and both were awful, not at all what I was in the mood for. So I picked Reboots by Mercedes Lackey and Martin Cody - interesting pair of stories, meant to introduce us to a new author that Misty and others think is really good. Zombies, werewolves, and vampires - in space. And the zombies are the heros. I'm still reading Cody's prequel story, haven't gotten to Misty's yet.

I've read during all my time slots and some more hours Travels in Elysium and was really disappointed. Now I'm reading The Chameleon's Shadow.

I managed to read quite a bit yesterday. Went for a 3 hour bike ride and listened to more Camilla. And then in the afternoon I started The Pilot's Wife. I would've liked to have read this in the hammock, but the neighbors were having a party, so I had to settle for the couch.

Today I have been indulgently lazy and spent my time reading in bed finishing The Pilot's Wife. I think I picked up this copy because Anita Shreve was a big deal and I wanted to see if what all the fuss was about. I must admit I wanted to abandon the book several times but I had to find out what happened.

Not sure what I'll be reading the rest of the day...

I finished The Journeyer by Gary Jennings and am 175 pages into A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir. I had read some of her nonfiction and liked it so decided to try her historical fiction. This book is about Lady Katherine Grey, younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, and also about Katherine Plantagenet, this one being the illegitimate daughter of Richard III. Katherine Plantagenet can refer to several Katherines and both Katherines in this book are sometimes spelled with a 'C'. Richard's daughter is referred to as 'Katherine' in this book, and Lady Katherine is referred to as 'Kate'. The plot alternates chapters about each girl/woman. The book is very interesting and makes me glad I was not born a woman during that time. It is said that a book should catch your attention with its first sentence, and this one certainly did.

"I can never forget the day they brought me the news that my sister's head had been cut off. I was not yet thirteen…"

I'm not reading as much as usual for various unforeseen reasons but am still managing some everyday.

I read for about an hour this afternoon. I'm reading the Call the Midwife Trilogy but not in chronological order since I borrowed the books from the library and am sharing them with my mother. She read parts of all of the books, but is reading in the first volume now. The books are a series of stories about the people Jennifer Worth meets and works with. The stories are easy to read, but the subject matter can be difficult because it is so real. Life is not always easy, but the book is good.

I finished my book today Cast Me Not Away I posted my review in LibraryThing. I am starting my May early reviewers book The Butterfly Sister by Amy Gail Hansen. the Butterfly Sister

A little clarification, in case anyone else is confused - the RaT goes until midnight GMT Monday, so it stops at the same time it started. Still some 23 hours in which to read, at this point! (23:15, to be precise. And hopefully, accurate).

I need to update my ReadaThing reading. Although joining as soon as I learnt of the event, I haven't touched on my reads throughout.

The BLossom Sisters 10.6.13 {drivel}

Glamorous Illusions book 1 Grand Tour series Lisa T Bergren 10-12.13
Grave Consequences book 2 of the Grand Tour series Lisa T Bergren 12-13.6.1
liked book 1 the best so far, but interest definitely piqued at ending of book 2 for book 3 due Oct 1st..

Grace's Pictures by Cindy Thomson as noted in earlier comment read 14-15.6.13
Grace is a 19 yr old Irish immigrant - Add to this very interesting story the invention of Kodak's Brownie and people's reactions as invasion of privacy and some suspenseful scenes ensue..

Finished Ripples Along the Shore eNovella #3 Quilted Hearts series , + posted review 16.6.13
A lovely series of women post civil war uniting in support and encouragement over a weekly quilt group as they piece their lives back together and their hopes/dreams for future..

plus read Cupcakes ebook by Daniel Kelley a LibraryThing win. 16.6.13 short well written familial eNovella

ok -my reading list should now be current and will carry on after posting for
It's Monday! What Are You Reading? at bookjourney....

I'll be mentioning ReadaThing for future participants' interest..

Thanks for the clarification on reading Monday ..

I've read 4 hours the last couple of days and I'm about 60% through The Aviator's Wife which I think is rather boring. Hopefully the story will pick up in the 2nd half.

#77 Connie, your garden is beautiful and oh, those chairs look so comfy, so perfet for an afternoon of reading!

Wondering if it's ok to post the button on our blogs with link to main event info page?
thanks!

102> I don't see why not. A visitor won't be able to post here unless they have or create an account, but they can read the thread just fine.

Booking in my time for tomorrow, the last day of the readathing. (just in time!)
I plan to read while littlest is having his sleep about 10am (NZ time) start time, and am smack dab in the middle of The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, which I am loving. It has really grabbed me this one.
Looking forward to coming good on my commitment tomorrow!

> 101: Clue! Thanks, And you are so right about the chairs.

I finished up reading Pawn of Prophecy before going to sleep this morning (maybe 1.5 hours), read Flinx’s Folly by Alan Dean Foster (2.5?)—one of the few Sci-fi authors I regularly enjoy, and a series I have been re-reading my way through for a while now.
Flipped a coin to decide on the next book (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), and have read maybe an hour there.

In summer time I prefer to read somewhere in nature. My favorites books is adventure ones with fantasy or scifi elements like Hunger games.

Now with pleasure I read Digital mind jail by Gojim Oavin about couple hours a day in my hammock.

Making the most of the final day, sneaking in a few pages wherever I can. The week proved busier and more distracting than I expected, so I haven't got through anywhere near as much of Against A Dark Background as I was expecting, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Oddly, although I don't really recall any of the characters or plot (I last read it 9 years ago - I found an old train ticket that I was using as a bookmark tucked inside!), (some of) the place names resonate with such familiarity that had I heard them without context, I would assume they were either real places or places that featured prominently in one of my favourite scifi shows / movies. Odd how that happens.

About to jump on a train for half an hour, so I shall continue the odyssey aboard before going to see Neil Gaiman talk about myth, magic, childhood and his new novel.

I have been reading on and off for a few hours today. And monday is almost over here. Two more hours to go. I don't know if I will be reading tonight. I am rather tired.

I just finished the last book of The once and future king, The candle in the wind. The book was slower reading than I remembered. I have a habit of looking up words I do not know in dictionaries, checking maps and looking in the encyclopedia for events and names which added to the total time. But it was well worth it!

During my reading time this afternoon, I continued to read some of Jane Austen's lesser known works -- this time Sanditon.

sallylou61 Do you join the blogs involved in reading Austen in August ?

I read several more bits, but didn't settle down for a long reading session at any point. I did finish Reboots - Misty's part is better, but yeah, I'd like to see more of Cody. And Misty pretty much ignored the zombies - Skinny Jim didn't show up until literally the last couple pages. And I started The Map That Changed The World by Simon Winchester - interesting, but it's definitely going to be a table book (read one chapter at a time, as I eat).

And the ReadaThing is now over! Hope you enjoyed it; keep posting, if you like, to record what you read.

I'm going to create a Hiss and Purr thread - tell me what worked and what didn't. I've got a few Hisses to record, for future reference...

I read from 6:30 to 8:00 this evening on my porch again working on my Early Readers book the Butterfly Sister. It has been fun except that I had my daughter in from Chicago and that messed me up a couple of times. I will do it again!

And to finish up my ReadaThing log--I spent a couple hours and finished Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, which I enjoyed thoroughly (you should always read a YA occasionally); and got maybe an hour and a half in on The Dark Tower an engrossing, gritty novel by Stephen King.

Love reading about others enjoying their scheduled reading!
I faithfully hit the couch, after putting the little one to bed early (thankfully he complied). I did my full time, believe me, it was no chore!, and then finished off The Accidental Tourist this evening. Great day for reading as cold outside and the fire was roaring, blanketed up on the couch.

My stats for the ReadaThing:
- Read 122 pages of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman and 83 pages of Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie for a total of 205 pages.
- Read eveyday but didn't really count for how long (sorry).
- Read mostly on the couch and in bed.

I had a lot of fun participating!

Last night I finished The Industry of Souls which didn't really move me. Not a waste of time, but nothing special either.

I enjoyed participating, and I will definitely take part again the next time, even if is sometimes difficult to find the time to read for a full hour - and especially to predict when it might happen!

That is why the no timeline is so easy. Just fill in your slot afterwards.;-))

There's still the fractional hours. Though I collect them up and when I've read (about) an hour, I say I read for the previous hour. It's more or less true...

I finished Death of a Coupon Clipper by Lee Hollis and read a bit of Contagious Optimism, an ER book. Probably all told, it was about 3 hrs worth yesterday. Haven't decided what's up next, yet.

I'm reading about samurai Ganryu's ogi fan (p.142) in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite: An Anecdotal History of Elegant Delights by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins. It's...delightful. :)

I was able to complete the 3 1/2*ed Wolf Hall and after that I read a great book entitled Honour by Elif Shafak. (unable to find the proper touchstone for that one) But what a terrific book; a 4 1/2* read for me.
Then I read Kenny's Window by Maurice Sendak; (5*), & The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, (Author), Fiona Waters, (Author), Fabian Negrin, (Illustrator) (5*).
Also I read part of Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories by Virginia Woolf which reads like poetry to me and part of Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge edited by Paul Zakrzewski which is a wonderful grouping of Jewish short stories.
I read part of anything: the prayer that unlocked my God and my Soul by Jennie Allen which my ladies online Bible Study is doing for the summer and I had time to begin A Different Sky by Meira Chand but did not get far as we were by then on the road again.

Thank you jjmcgaffey for hosting this ReadaThing. I enjoyed taking part in it and also enjoyed seeing everyone's reading picks and comments plus it spurred me on to keep reading even though we were very busy visiting & traveling. So hats off to you.

Most welcome! It wasn't particularly hard, either - though I missed a few steps. It was fun, and I'll probably do it again sometime. And definitely will join in if someone else runs a RaT, too!