Merry Wanderer of the Night:
october readathon

I ended up falling asleep during the readathon last night, which I was fully expecting. I was looking forward to getting a chance to just read as much as I wanted, but because of my stress level I knew staying up 24 hours was probably not a really good idea for me right now. I still got almost halfway into The Book Thief

and finished all of Splendor

, so I am pretty pleased with the results. I read 691 pages yesterday for a total of $20.73 raised for The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is an organization that provides resources for LGBTQ teens, one of which is a suicide/help hotline teens can call 24/7. Because of all the recent suicides I thought that would be a good organization to donate to. Suicide, in general, is a horrible thing and I come from a place where a lot of suicides have occurred. I've seen the effects of suicide several times, though never experienced them personally. I can't imagine what it would be like for a parent or friend to lose a loved one due to suicide.

Onto a happier note, I posted my 100th book review on Wednesday! The 100th book I reviewed was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The review came at a pretty nifty time as well, because my one year anniversary is here in about a week! The first book I ever reviewed on here was And Only To Deceive by Tasha Alexander. It's a very sad review, only two paragraphs long. I must say I think I've come quite a long way since that first review.

And I'll I've got left is a plea for you to check out my new podcast!

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I don't know about all of you but I'm starting to drag a little bit. I'm enjoying The Book Thief but it's intimidating me by its length alone. I have 400 pages left in the book. I'm considering switching over to something else for awhile, but I haven't decided yet.

Pages Read: 545
Books Read: 1
Money raised for Trevor Project: $16.35
Food consumed: Omelette, hashbrowns, orange, and toast (my mom made me breakfast). Pudding and gummy worms. Turkey club sandwich. Popcorn.
Time spent reading: 11 hours

How are all of you? Still awake?

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Are we really halfway done already? That seems so hard to believe. In the last four hours I finally got some solid reading done, and it looks like I will finish my book in the next hour. Finally!

Pages Read:216
Books Read: 0
Money raised for Trevor Project: $9.57
Food consumed: Omelette, hashbrowns, orange, and toast (my mom made me breakfast). Pudding and gummy worms. Turkey club sandwich.
Time spent reading: 5 hours

This time around I did the audiobook mini-challenge and I'm posting the mid-event survey.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? I'm finishing up Splendor by Anna Godbersen.
2. How many books have you read so far? Almost finished one.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? After listening to the audiobook sample of The Book Thief I am really excited to read it!
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? No.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I've had interruptions for eating mostly, but I've taken them in stride. After several readathons you realize that there is no way you'll get through it without interruptions.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I'm surprised by how hungry I've been, I think I've ate more during this readathon than any other.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? More "active" mini-challenges that get you up moving for awhile.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I would probably start with a shorter book first, although I knew that going into this.
9. Are you getting tired yet? No chance!
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? Don't be afraid to take a mini nap in the middle of that day, it helps keep you going into the wee hours.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

I'm a little early with this post but I just arrived in Iowa City from Des Moines before I go out to lunch so I thought I'd give you all an update and do some mini-challenges. So far I still haven't gotten quite as much reading done as I would like but after I eat some lunch I should be set to read for quite awhile.

The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader is hosting a mini-challenge about armchair traveling. As someone who reads a lot of travel books I get quite a bit of armchair travel in through that, but there is really nothing like a good historical fiction novel to take you to someplace you've never been before. I began reading The Luxe series at the beginning of this year and after I read the first book my family went to New York City for a vacation. Through The Luxe series I learned that today's Manhattan used to be called New Amsterdam because it was settled by the Dutch. The Luxe series talks about the wealthy Dutch people who lived there. This is really interesting for me because my family is Dutch and some of the names in the book are similar to names in my family or people I know. Going to Manhattan was really interesting for me because I saw it in a way I never would have if I didn't know that information from the books. Through the Luxe series I've also gotten to travel to California, Florida, and Cuba all in the early 1900's. Very exciting!

*I'll come back later to update my stats!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Well I woke up later than I meant to this morning, but I am 1/4 of the way into Splendor and I must say it's the perfect book to start my day with because I'm picking up in the middle of one of my favorite book series. I've been at my parent's house in Des Moines all morning because I unexpectedly had to come back yesterday, but shortly after I put this up I will ride back to Iowa City-- a one and half hour drive. Since I'm not driving though hopefully I will get a little bit of reading in.

Pages Read: 94
Books Read: 0
Money raised for Trevor Project: $2.82
Food consumed: Omelette, hashbrowns, orange, and toast (my mom made me breakfast)
Time spent reading: 2 hours

I plan to post more about the Trevor Project later, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to Thomas at My Porch who has decided to join me in donating to the Trevor Project. For every page he reads he will donate 5 cents and for every page I read he will donate another 5 cents-- so I better get reading!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 9, is the Dewey Readathon! I think this is the fourth readathon I have participated in-- which is kind of amazing because A year ago I'd never done any readathon before ever. I probably won't really shoot to read 24 hours tomorrow, in the past I've reached close to 20 and that's good enough for me. I think I will just read as much as I can and take some homework breaks in between. I'm going to be with my parents tomorrow so hopefully that means my mom will cook me lots of food to eat while I'm reading.

Usually I try to read several short books for readathons because it makes me feel extremely accomplished, but this time around I'm going to read three YA books that have been in my TBR pile for quite awhile. My first priority is to read Splendor and finish the Luxe series for good. I started the series at the beginning of 2010 and it's been a constant for me all year, but I'm ready to find out how it ends. Next is The Book Thief

, which is quite long (550 pages) but I've heard from several people that they could not put this book down, so hopefully I feel the same. And my third book is Shiver

, the first book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. When Linger came out a few months ago the cover really struck me and everyone was talking about it. I had never heard of Shiver before, but I love the idea of the book so hopefully I'll enjoy that. The pretty blue ink can't hurt things- right?

One thing I'm doing that I haven't done before is donate to a charity. I have been very upset by the recent young, gay suicides so for every page I read I am going to donate .03 cents to The Trevor Project. If I finish all of my books that amounts to 40.00.

Usually I update every four hours during the readathon and will probably do that tomorrow as well. Good luck to all you readathoners!