Read-a-thon Post 4

Oh dear, dear me. I might just be the worst read-a-thon participant ever. After posting last night I started reading again and then. Erm. Fell asleep and only just woke up. I blame post-holiday body clock but it really is rather pathetic. Five official hours to go and I really need to up my game and finish my first book!

Just popped in to visit Debbie's mini-challenge and what a great idea it was to get lots of people joining BookCrossing. Inspired and I've joined up so will mark up a bunch of books later today and release them this week.

The other mini-challenge at the moment is one about re-reads. Gosh. Off the top of my head, and by looking at my nearby book shelves for the really battered spines, I'd have to say that Pride & Prejudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility (all by Jane Austen) are on that pile. I've read books by Tad Williams several times with his War of the Flowers probably coming up top there. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett has been read several times. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is looking pretty creased as is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - both books I love re-visiting every couple of years or so.

Must stop blogging and reading about the read-a-thon and get back to reading for it...

Read-a-thon Post 3

Phew! Dinner cooked by hubby and eaten by me then watched a couple of episodes of Malcom in the Middle with Mr B as a break so am ready to get back to it! I've decided it might be best to avoid twitter in the near future as it's far, far too distracting and I've not even finished Book 1 yet!

It's also time for another mini-challenge, this time from The Curious Reader on the topic of libraries.

1. What is the name of your local library? What city is it located in? I live in Norwich and pass my library on my walk to work. Our city library burnt down when I was at University and The Forum was built on its former site. A substantial part of the building is now the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library and (amongst other things) the building also contains a heritage centre and the 2^nd Air Division Memorial Library which houses a collection of unique materials about American culture and the Second World War. Here's a picture of The Forum building:
2. 
3. How often do you go to the library? If you're a regular, do the staff know you? It's the busiest lending library in the United Kingdom (for the last two years in a row!) so sadly you don't get personal relationships with the staff. It's also self-service loans/returns so not much chance to get to know them either!
   
4. Do you browse while you're there or just pick up items you have placed on reserve? I think I've only ever reserved one item and that was the audio version of The Graveyard Book. This could be because I am cheap and don't like paying the reserving fee though! It's got a fairly large collection of books so I can treat it like a bookshop and browse for something new or consult the catalogue to see if any of my wishlist are on the shelves.
   
5. What is your favourite thing about your local library? It's filled with (free) books!
   

Read-a-thon Post 2

A quick read-a-thon update from sunny Norwich!

1) I got horrifically distracted by the twitter #readerthon feed for far too long.
2) I spent aaages trying to solve the fabuolus book cover challenge hosted by Bart. I know I got twelve right and that I will kick myself over several that were horribly familiar and I am pretty sure I own them but could not find them on my bookshelves. Looking forward to the result
3) I took Halting State into the garden with me and accidentally ended up sowing seeds.
4) I took Halting State to bed with me as it was a quiet spot to read in peace and... fell asleep for an hour.

Off for dinner now. Will come back refreshed and revitalised soon!

Read-a-thon Post 1

Here's my read-a-thon Hour 1 meme post! Which is a little late as I have been dropping off a birthday present to a two year old friend of mine.

Where are you reading from today? My house! Mainly in the bedroom curled up in the warmth but I might spice things up and also read in the sitting room for a while. The sun is actually out so I might well also do some reading in the garden which is a pretty exciting optionto have in England!

3 facts about me … 1) My middle name is Siobhan. 2) I have two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. 3) I own far, far too many books.

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? Ha! I have sorted through the extensive TBR pile and whittled it down to a short list of around ten books which are all relatively short and should be quick to read. I need to finish off my current book (Halting State) before I can get started on those. I should also confess that I was looking at the shortlist and wishing I'd thought to order some of my really want to reads from my wishlist in time for this weekend. As if I have not already got enough choice!

Edited post to add in a photo of my shortlist. When arranging the books for a photo it got a bit longer...

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? I'm just happy to participate and am looking forward to using the excuse that I am doing a read-a-thon to spend most of this weekend.

April 2009 Read-a-thon

After watching the read-a-thon take place from the sidelines last year, I decided to take part this time around as it all looks such good fun! The UK start time is 1pm today - I'm not sure how many update posts here I will manage to complete over the next 24 hours but I will definitely be updating my twitter account at regular intervals. The official hashtag is #readathon if you want to join in.

I have a TBR pile of at least 150 books so this also strikes me as a perfect opportunity to curl up and make some inroads into that stash. Getting my caveats out of the way early, I will be going to bed at some point tonight and I do also have a number of post-holiday household chores to complete (boo!) but I am really looking forward to getting as involved as possible.

I've also decided that any book completed between 1pm today and 1pm on Sunday will incur a "bonus" donation to BookAid of £2. Having said that, I'd better make sure I read plenty of books in the next 24 hours!

I'm Back!

We arrived back from Kenya this morning - getting into the house at 2am (5 hours later than planned) after the flight was re-scheduled and there was a delay on re-fuelling in Cairo. A delightful end to an otherwise fantastic holiday...

I can not recommend both Sable Valley and The Cove tree houses enough - these are where we stayed for the second week of our trip. As well as being fantastic accommodation in seriously beautiful places, we were utterly spoiled by the Destination Adventure team at both locations. Both great places to relax and I'd definitely consider staying there again.

I only managed to read four books over the two weeks (and one of those was on the return flight) and I will post about them shortly. I am pleased to announce that Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle has now been read and I am so glad that I had two whole weeks in which to indulge myself in reading the three books back to back. What luxury! The pic above is of me reading the first book, Quicksilver.

March Reading List

I only read a very paltry (by my standards) seven books this month but that's £7 to Book Aid International which is better than nothing. Hopefully plenty of holiday reading in April will boost my read-rate although as I plan to read 2000+ pages of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy perhaps not! I have downloaded several books onto my iPod Touch and am very interested to see how reading on that device will pan out and I'll be back online in a couple of weeks!

Shadow's Edge & Beyond the Shadows - Brent Weeks
Forests of the Heart - Charles de Lint
Beyond All Frontiers - Emma Drummond
Hester's Story - Adele Geras
Waterland - Graham Swift
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler