Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for meme] 

Thanks to everyone who joined in on my meme, I saw some great quotes up there! I was hoping I would be done with Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor by now, but I've got about forty-five pages left. After this I'm going to read Shirley Volume One by Karou Mori, which is a graphic novel about young maids in Victorian England. I wanted to read more of Emma by Karou Mori, which also takes place in Victorian England, but I only have volume three and I haven't read volume two yet. I'm kicking myself for that one, but maybe I'll be able to snatch it next week.

Here is my Chick Loves Lit meme: I am mostly reading in my bed today, although when I was at work I was sitting at the front desk.

Name of the book you're currently reading: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor.

Wanting Most: A cleaner desk.

Something you like to do besides read: Watch Friends Season Dvds.

Fact about yourself: I love going to Iowa's theatre productions and I keep all of the programs.

Activity you would be doing today if it weren't for the read-a-thon: Writing papers and doing homework.

Updated Stats:
Books Read: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor and Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
Pages Read: 85
Total Books Finished: 1
Total Pages Read: 392
Total Time Spent Reading: 10 hours
Memes Completed: I Heart Monster's Compliments
and Reads4Pleasure's Hero/Heroine Vs. Dick Dastard and my own meme, Favorite Classics.

I crashed right at 8 am and didn't get a chance to complete this meme in the last hour. But I've napped for a few hours and I'm feeling a little rejuvenated!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? My books were high interest..I think it helped that they were YA. My recommendation, though-Don't read books longer than 250 pages or so. Mine were around 300-350 each and sometimes I felt I was never going to finish them!

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? None at all!

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Cheerleaders and Twitter! It was a nice and easy way to keep in contact with others participating. Well, until Beth got kicked off for "over-tweeting!" She was our head cheerleader!

5. How many books did you read? 4 1/2
6. What were the names of the books you read? Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity, Marked, and Speak.

7. Which book did you enjoy most? I enjoyed all of them, but probably Marked the most.

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? N/A
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? 100%! I'll be there! The only thing that would prevent me would be a conflict with the date, so I suggest perhaps doing a survey or something similar. I'll definitely participate as a reader again.

WG 26 asked about world traveling via books - where do you go, how do you get there, where would you like to go... There was a lot of excitement about this assignment.

• Wendy at caribou's mom was quick on the draw with her post; reading globally is one of her passions and, in fact, she has a long term goal to read a book representing every country in the world. You can see her progress and also read about some of her favorite books about faraway places.

• Jason over at Moored at Sea wrote a lovely and heartfelt essay about why he chooses not to read globally

• The host of It's Tuesday, Where Are You, raidergirl3, gets a lot of her global reading ideas from bloggers who participate in her weekly meme. (I highly recommend playing along with her meme!)
  

• A comparison of actual travels and literary travels was what Jackie at Farm Lane Books came up with, and had some interesting results.

• Mystery reader Kerrie had fun with maps and charts! At Mysteries in Paradise she shows us not only what countries she's read about, but includes a pie chart with the country "share;" she also posted a map to show where in the world her blog readers are!

• The Abbot of Unreason (I had to visit a blog with a name like that!) wrote a wonderfully detailed post about the places he's visited, an example from each, and what countries are - so far - missing.
  

It would be interesting to compile all the answers to see where we've been as a group! Anyone up to the task??
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Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) is just a little over a month away! Have you nominated your favorite blogs yet? The deadline is August 15th, so nominate now!

I created my blog in March of 2008, and unfortunately I didn't learn about BBAW until it was over. This year, a little meme was created to spread the excitement about BBAW.

1) What has been one of the highlights of blogging for you?

Without a doubt, I'd say the community. I've met a number of amazing people since creating my blog. This includes other bloggers, but also authors and publicists as well. It was wonderful to know that there were other people out there who appreciated reading as much as I do.

2) What blogger has helped you out with your blog by answering questions, linking to you, or inspiring you?

Where do I begin? Well, the first blogger I followed was Becky from No More Grumpy Bookseller. She and I both reviewed for Bookbitch and she was definitely an inspiration to me. She gives the best book recommendations and has introduced me to a bunch of "new to me" authors. My book collection has grown tremendously since I started following her blog.

In addition to Becky, there are dozens upon dozens of other bloggers who have helped me improve my blog and my blogging experience. Here are just a few:

• Kathy from Bermudaonion's Weblog-Kathy was one of the first to comment on my blog. She's the commenting queen!
  

• Beth from Beth Fish Reads-We both swear we are long-lost twins, separated by time and space.
  

• Julie from Booking Mama-Her blog has introduced me to a wealth of great books for my boys.
  

• Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?-Trish offers the best suggestions when it comes to improving and enhancing a blog. In addition, she was my roomie at BEA, and I truly enjoyed the time we spent together and the conversations we had.
  

• Amy from My Friend Amy-Another blogger that offers great advice when it comes to books and blogging. She alleviated my nervousness about attending BEA for the first time always has the best responses/solutions when drama pops up in the blogging world. She and I don't always have the same opinion, but hers is one I definitely value.
  

• Swapna from S. Krishna's Books-Swapna is one fast reader! She inspires me to read more!
  

• Dawn from She is Too Fond of Books-Dawn is an amazing monther and woman. I love when she features receipes on her blog. I always try them out. They aren't always a hit, but the experience is unforgettable. Dawn also inspired me to join the Game On Challenge, an experience that forever changed me and my eating lifestyle.
  

• Stephanie from Stephanie's Written Word-Stephanie is a brave and strong woman, an inspiration to us all!
  

• Michelle, aka Galleysmith- Michelle gave me the great idea to create my Virginia is for Lovers feature. She also supported my Supernatural addiction by lending me two seasons-worth of DVDs :). Michelle is a true bibliophile--her book shopping extravaganzas relieve the guilt I have after buying a few books.

3) What one question do you have about BBAW that someone who participated last year could answer?

Short, easy answer: How on earth do you only select one blog to nominate from each category!?

Michele at Southern City Mysteries has recently started a new meme called Writing Prompt Wednesdays. I enjoy writing and am I mostly shameless person, so I think I will join in on this meme. I think you all should too! Not enough people have joined in today and I'm fairly certain it's because people are embarrassed to let other people read their creative writing. Do not be embarrassed. We are all horrible writers. Even Shakespeare was no good! I mean Romeo and Juliet, what's that all about?

Write from this phrase: How the tides came crashing... It does not have to be mysterious. It can be an entire story or just a few paragraphs. What does this bring to mind? Where does this take you?

How the tides came crashing in on Isabella's mind. Or was her name Bella today? She always had such a hard time deciding who she was, especially when it was raining.

Julien watched her pacing in front of the window. He wished he could be inside her mind, swimming with the real Isabella, whoever that was. As much as he thought he knew how Isabella's mind worked though, he couldn't help shaking the thought that when it was raining like this she was drowning rather than swimming.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her as he closed his Emily Dickinson poems.

"No."

Bella. Definitely Bella today.

Ti from Book Chatter and Other Stuff tagged me for a fun meme

Here are the rules: I am going to list three categories of books. 3 MUST Read Books, 3 Keep Your Eyes on These, and 3 Look For These Soon. Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 3 bloggers. They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 3 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as they go around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing.

Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.
So, here goes…[asterisks are next to my additions]

3 MUST Read Books:
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell
*The Lace Reader, by Brunonia Barry

3 Keep Your Eyes on These:
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer
*The Keepsake, by Tess Gerritsen

3 Look For These Soon:
The Prudent Mariner, by Leslie Walker Williams
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
*The Fire by Katherine Neville

3 Tags to keep this meme going:
No More Grumpy Bookseller
Bookish Ruth
Redlady's Reading Room

Before we get started with this week’s roundup, I’m happy to announce that Weekly Geeks has been nominated in three categories for Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW): Best Series or Feature, Best Challenge Host and Most Collaborative Blog. Last year, Dewey's blog won

in two categories – Best Community Builder and Best Challenge Host. She did much more than host Weekly Geeks, this meme that a group of us have kept going in her honor since the first of the year. (For those who don’t know, Dewey died in November of last year.) We’re proud to be nominated and acknowledged as carrying on this part of her legacy. Thanks to all those who participate in this unique meme!

The short list for BBAW will be announced September 7th and voting will take place between the 7th and the 12th. Be sure to check the BBAW website after the 7th and vote for your favorite blogs!

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog program. Last week’s Geek exploration was about Second Chances: Becky asked if we’d given up on a book (or movie or music) only to discover that it’s “lovelier the second time around.” (OK, I’m dating myself with Frank Sinatra songs.) Or have you contemplated giving a book or author a second chance? And if not, she challenged us to do so. Says Becky: “It is just very interesting to me how time can change tastes and perceptions. How subjective the reading experience is and always will be.”

There were a variety of responses to this challenge.

• Maree found Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin well worth a second read “…because there's always more to find..” Gautami gave up on The Blind Assassin at first, but then picked it up again after six months and now considers it one of her best reads to date. (Edited 8/22/09 after getting it so wrong!)
  

• another cookie crumbles finds it miraculous that she talks “about Anne Enright, Salman Rushdie and JK Rowling in the same post.” She’s given up on one of these and embraced the others after a second look. You’ll have to read her post to find out who and why!

• The Lord of the Rings showed up in several posts: Lahni at Nose in a Book went from being unable to finish it the first time to having it make her top ten favorites list. Kim at Page after Page thinks she’ll give the trilogy another try next year.

• One genre that showed up in several posts was the classics. Melissa hasn’t broken out in hives yet rereading The Grapes of Wrath. Michelle had a more negative reaction to Gone with the Wind on a second read; her life experience affected how she felt about it. She’s curious what her reaction will be the next time she reads it.
  

• Classics guilt (which many of us suffer from!) drove Coversgirl to give Dickens a second chance after her inability to get past the first page earlier in her life. Now she “can foresee a lifelong literary love ... proving that stubbornness pays off.” Suey tried Dickens’ Great Expectations again after experiencing an 8th grade nightmare. "I felt very sorry for my 8th grade self and all that she missed during that foggy first reading," says Suey. Now Great Expectations is one of her alltime favorites.

• Some contemporary authors have come under the axe: Tricia has decided to try Atonement by Ian McEwan again; maybe she’ll have the same experience as Care did and come to love it.

• Gigi blogged about Alice Hoffman. “She's an author I'm forever giving another chance to - not always with good results.”

• After a 2-year hiatus Ali is finishing A Prayer for Owen Meany. Here's her Twitter message:
  Went to bkstore to buy #Owenmeany. Reread a few pages & couldn't do it. ... I'd forgotten how Owen grated on me. I can hear his voice all too well and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard.
  And though Ali came to like it, she’s not inclined to give John Irving another try.
  

Today I got the Honest Scrap award from one of my favorite blogs, Sasha & the Silverfish. This my first time with the Honest Scrap (or any award/meme) so I am very excited! There are a few rules for this award, they are as follows:

1. The Honest Scrap Blogger Award must be shared.
2. The recipient has to tell 10 (true) things about themselves that no one else knows.
3. The recipient has to pass on the award to 7 more bloggers.
4. Those 7 bloggers should link back to the blog that awarded them.

Okay so ten true things about myself. Hmm, I'm sorry to say that I am not very interesting but I will do my very best to wow you with tales of my exciting life.

1. My Grandma taught me how to read and therefore jump started my entire life. She is my idol and we share the same birthday. She also got me started on a couple of my other obsessions: baking and crossword puzzles. One of my favorite books she read to me when I was a kid was The Three Little Pigs. She read to me first and eventually when I caught on I would read it to her while she made breakfast.
2. My favorite part about elementary school was book borders. My parents gave me a limit and I would go insane trying to figure out which books I wanted. Not much has changed since then, except now they're not called bookorders they're called BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. Yeah...
3. When Harry Potter came out I swore it was a crappy book. I read the first ten pages and didn't like it. A couple years later I started the first one again and became addicted to it. I then became a bigger Harry Potter fan than any of my friends. Just another tidbit, I was in Europe when the last book came out, so I have the British copy. Very exciting.
4. The scenario in #3 was repeated with Jane Austen. I spent all of high school hating Jane Austen, then I read Sense and Sensibility last year and now I am obsessed with her.
5. I have read On The Road by Jack Kerouac seven times. It's the first book I've ever read that mentions Iowa, and I think this might contribute to my obsession with it. Somehow seeing the name in print makes the place I live seem more legitimate. Kind of like the movie Adventureland and the six summers I worked at an amusement park called Adventureland (but that is a story for another day).
6. Last year I lived in this community at Iowa called the Iowa Writers Learning Community. It was basically two floors of freshman who qualified themselves as writers or did lots of drugs. It was pretty fun, but I didn't do that much writing until I took my first writing class second semester. It's kind of amazing how many different kinds of people lived there.
7. I thought I wanted to be an English teacher until my senior year in high school when I realized that I couldn't spend every day in a high school since I'd spent all of high school waiting to get out. Still, people like me were generally my favorite teachers in high school. But still... no.
8. The books I gave my boyfriend to read so he could understand me were On the Road, Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, How to Be Good by Nick Hornby, and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman.
9. Chuck Klosterman was the speaker during Iowa's welcome week last year and he signed my copy of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. He told me he liked my shirt, but I don't remember which shirt I was wearing.
10. Iowa City is a UNESCO City of Literature, and that's where I live if you didn't know. Because of this we have lots of readings every week. My favorite reading I have ever been to was a woman named Eula Biss. If you haven't read her essay collection Notes From No Man's Land you really should. It's fabulous.

So now I'm going to pass this on to seven other blogs.
Helen Loves Books
Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
Chasing Empty Pavements
A Bookshelf Monstrosity
Laura's Reviews
Bookishly Fabulous
Jenny Loves To Read

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
-W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) -
Weekly Geeks started in April 2008. Its brainchild was an effervescent and energetic blogger named Dewey who envisioned a weekly event which would unite the book blogging community. She posted a weekly assignment - a question, a task, a theme - to be completed and posted on the Geeks' individual blogs and linked at the main assignment post. It turned out to be wildly successful.

And then a heartbreaking notification appeared on Dewey's blog on Tuesday, November 25, 2008. The person who seemed to be everywhere in the blogging community, the quintessential community cheerleader who everyone seemed to know and love, had died - leaving a huge hole in our ranks. In the spirit of keeping Dewey's community efforts alive, several bloggers got together and decided to give Weekly Geeks its own space and carry on what Dewey had started.

Over the last nearly three years, the team keeping this blog running has ebbed and flowed. Mostly we've tried to be consistent in posting each Saturday and doing a wrap up each Friday. But, over the last several months not only has our focus as a team struggled, but participation in the weekly assignments has slowed to a trickle. There are those bloggers who come back week in and week out, and sometimes we see some new faces in the links, but overall attendance has sharply declined.

So after some discussion, the Weekly Geeks team has decided that it is time to end this event. We believe that Dewey would approve - she was never someone who hung onto things that were not working. She was willing to look critically at her own inventions and change them up or simply let them go if the community did not seem as excited about them as she was...and so we are taking our direction from the spirit of the person who started this event.

A great deal of thanks are due those individuals who have in some way stepped up over the last three years to help out here, or give us ideas, or participate by posting to their blog one of the assignments. Without the book blogging community behind us, this event would have closed down a long, long time ago.

This is probably also a good time to announce that Weekly Geeks was nominated for the BBAW Best Meme award for this year. The Weekly Geeks team is incredibly honored to be recognized in this way - thank you to those who submitted a nomination!

This blog will remain up, at least for awhile, so that those who wish to may browse the links or read the assignments - perhaps find inspiration for their blog.

This will be the final Weekly Geeks "assignment"...share one of the following on your blog:

• If you knew Dewey - a favorite memory of her, or one of your favorite "events" which was Dewey-inspired.
• Browse the topics here and re-post one of your favorites

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
  


• Open to a random page
  


• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  


• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  


• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser comes from CEMETERY DANCE by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child:

It was as silent as a tomb in the basement lab, with the faint hissing of the forced-air system like a steady whisper in the darkness. The nightmare at the hospital had spooked her-the dream had been so real.

Please share your teaser!

I just wanted to thank everyone who has nominated me for a blog award. I'm sorry I haven't recognized these earlier, or passed the meme's on, but I'm overwhelmed with traveling for work. I wanted to be sure, though, to thank you all, and mention all the amazing blogs and bloggers out there!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read


• Open to a random page


• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from The Spare Room

by Helen Garner:

"I was afraid I would slide off the bench and measure my length among the cut roses. At the same time, a chain of metallic thoughts went clanking through my mind, like the first dropping of an anchor: death would not be denied."

Share your teaser by commenting below, or by visiting MizB of Should Be Reading.

Normally Thursdays are Children's Books Thursdays (although I have not been so great at keeping up with this lately). In case you don't know what the reason for Children's Books Thursdays is, I wanted to explain it. For the past year I have participated in a program where I tutor two children three times a week for thirty minutes. I've worked five children this year, but the two I had this semester have really grown important to me. Today I am sad because tomorrow is the last day I'll get to see these kids and it is also my last day as a tutor. Next year I'll move onto my new job and leave behind the two jobs I've been working for what seems like forever. So today I thought I'd talk about the experience of teaching children to learn.

Tutoring is time consuming, and a lot of people don't put in the right amount of time. I often fall short myself. Choosing books for children is difficult, especially if the children are having a hard time reading. The books they "should" be able to read are too hard for them, but the books they can read aren't right for them because of the content. "The dog ran" is only interesting for awhile and then it becomes embarrassing. I learned how to read very early so I never experienced what the children I work with are experiencing. That is, I never experienced it in regards to reading, but I did experience it with many other things. Like math. And sports. And learning to ride a bike. I always say I can relate to the anger the students I work with sometimes have. If someone came in and said I had to do math for a half hour I'd probably be pissed too.

As difficult as tutoring has been though, it has been seriously rewarding. One of the children I tutored this year had difficulty reading even the shortest of words and now she has mastered the word "about." This may seem small, but after tutoring for a year I realize what a huge accomplishment this is! Another student I worked with wouldn't read pages that had more than one sentence on them. Now he reads pages that have paragraphs (although he does so begrudgingly sometimes). This is another huge accomplishment.

Tutoring has also taught me the importance of literacy especially in regards to children. I knew how important reading and writing was to me, but working with kids has made me realize how important reading actually is. Especially in today's world where we are constantly being bombarded by text. Emails, ads, signs, texts, newspapers, websites, and on and on and on. We're reading constantly, yet there really are a great deal of children struggling with reading. And this is just in the US, children's literacy is a much bigger problem on a national level.

There is another purpose to this post, possibly a more fun purpose. Since I'm done tutoring this week I want to change my regular Thursday post and I'm looking for ideas. Is there a meme or weekly post you'd like to see on English Major's Junk Food? If you have any idea let me know!

Tif Talks Books meme is Book Libs, which is like Mad Libs Except with your books. I totally love this idea because I was addicted to Mad Libs when I was a kid!

Once upon a time in the land of Scargrave Manor, there lived Miss Austen and the Lieutenant happily ever after. Is that not how the story always goes?!? On the night before the wedding, Miss Austen was sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden there was a noise. She jumped out of bed to awaken the Lieutenant.

As both stood there, looking at the snow in their front room, they felt gratitude. How could it be? Was it true? To be face to face with snow was not possible. What were they to do?

With quick thinking, Miss Austen and the Lieutenant exchanged a knowing glance and struggled.

From there, we may never know what happened in this story. It could be penniless. Or, it could be lonely. It truly is a mystery! However what we do know is this . . . . Thanks an awful lot.

Tif Talks Books has an amazingly beautiful layout and header. It looks like she recently got an award for her blog's presentation and I am not surprised.

In Spring It Is the Dawn obviously has a great blog title. She is in Japan (although she is Canadian) right now and a lot of her blog is Japanese inspired. I have never seen so much of Japan on one blog, it's definitely a good one to check out!

BiblioAddict's blog has snow! It just started snowing here in Iowa so that definitely got me in the cozy reading spirit.

25 Hour Books has an awesome post every Tuesday about literary tattoos. What a cool idea!

Sasha and the Silverfish has an adorable layout and I just love her blog. She has a good assortment of books. Be sure to take a look at her feed button, it has an octopus!

Thanks to I Heart Monster for hosting this meme.

There were more distractions than I had originally planned on. I decided to take a shower, and then boyfriend said it was dinner time, plus I took a pretty big break when I got back from work. In any case, I'm over halfway done with Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (which is an incredibly long title by the way). Right now I'm in the middle of the trial. For those of you who are wondering, the Jane in the book is actually Jane Austen and she is somewhat of a detective. Her friend's husband dies right after their wedding and Jane is trying to figure out who murdered him, or if someone murdered him. It's a pretty good read, although it is rather difficult for me to imagine Jane Austen reaching up into a dead woman's bloody dress to check if their is a note in her bodice.

In about an hour I'll be hosting a meme here, so be sure to check back!

Here are my stats:
Books Read: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor and Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
Pages Read: 64
Total Books Finished: 1
Total Pages Read: 307
Total Time Spent Reading: 8 hours
Memes Completed: I Heart Monster's Compliments
and Reads4Pleasure's Hero/Heroine Vs. Dick Dastard

Do you read book reviews? Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book?

I read book reviews a lot, mostly through blogs. I do read Bookmarks Magazine and the Believer as well, sometimes I find books I do or do not want to read through those magazines. I think reviews usually push me further in a direction about a book. Usually coming into a review I can already kind of tell if I'd like the book based on the subject matter and a review will often confirm my feelings. Sometimes I read a really positive review but coming away feeling like I don't want to read the book because things the reviewer liked about it I don't think I would like.

But when I review books, I do hope someone will decide to read books that I give positive reviews and perhaps be more wary of books I give negative reviews. I hope people who read my reviews regularly get a good sense of how my tastes work with theirs so that they can find books they really love. That is honestly why I read reviews anyway, to find more books I think that I will love.

This meme is hosted at Booking Through Thursday.

Well I'm two hours in to the readathon. I didn't start reading until about an hour ago because I had a bit of a problem getting out of bed. I'm sure no one can relate to that! I had some pop tarts and Vitamin Water for breakfast, that was good. The first book in my readathon is Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume, which I'm reading for Booking Mama's Shelf Discovery Challenge. I didn't think I'd read it before, but now that I have gotten into it I think I have read it. I recognize the story. I obviously relate to Margaret with the whole growing up teenager business (I can sure remember those days) but I'm surprised that the person I'm really relating to is her teacher, Mr. Benedict. The first day he shows up and it's his first job so he is scared of the kids. I can really relate to that as a tutor and also just as someone who is young and scared about the real world.

So here are my stats:
Books Read: Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
Pages Read: 72
Total Books Finished: 0
Total Pages Read: 72
Total Time Spent Reading: 1 hour

I'm also going to do I Heart Monster's meme right now. Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

Grab your current read

• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser comes from LIFE SENTENCES by Laura Lippman:

"Callie arrived in the city in darkness, with only an edge of light at the eastern sky. She felt as if she were racing the sun as she headed toward his neighborhood, racing time itself, years falling away with every block"

What's your teaser this week?