The Reverse Readathon; Two Great Podcasts; and Matchy-Matchy Sisters

Paris in July is over for another year. It was truly the most appreciated virtual vacation I have ever taken. And now I'm back to the real world...Ah, but I can always escape into books, can't I?

The links will take you to my reviews.

Three picture books: One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole; Hurry Up! A Book About Slowing Down by Kate Dopriak; and The Farmer and the Monkey by Marla Frazee.

Two nonfiction books: A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic by Peter Wadhams and Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times by Andrew D. Kaufman. 

Three fiction books: Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk; The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter; and Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center.

Most of these should look familiar. I've been reading on a couple of these for months:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...65% read

Devotions by Mary Oliver...42% read

How to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life...30% read

Mythos by Stephen Fry...15% read

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout...10% read

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...10% read

It's time for the Reverse Readathon. It starts at 7 pm CST on Friday, August 7 through 7 pm CST on Saturday, August 8. I'm hosting for a couple of hours on Friday night, and then I'm planning to read through Saturday. I also am offering a Mini-Challenge: Share a Mood-Boosting Book. The winner will be randomly selected at midnight CST on Sunday night from those who left a suggestion for a mood-boosting book on the post and will win a free book from Book Depository. Here's my Reverse Readathon post. Did you join in the readathon this time?

Good Thing #1: Podcasts. 

Podcast #1: How to Fail. This week I listened to a fabulous new-to-me podcast with Elizabeth Day called How to Fail. It was Alain De Botton on embracing vulnerability in the age of Coronavirus.

Podcast #2: On Being. I also listened to several more of the On Being podcasts with Krista Tippett. My favorite was Falling Together with Rebecca Solnit. She has a lot to say about the good parts of going through bad experiences. 

Do you have any recommendations for other good podcasts out there? I'd love to hear them.

Good Thing #2: I Won! I won the adult reading prize at my public library. It was a random drawing but you got extra entries for more reading. I logged in 140 hours over June and July. Look at my wonderful new water bottle. (The cap and coffee mug are prizes from last year.) Thank you, Brazoria County Library System. You are the best.

Good Thing #3: Digitizing Old Slides. I was able to check out a machine from the library this week that converts old slides into digital images. My dad gave me a box of 700-800 old slides from the 60s and 70s, and I set to work. So. Much. Fun. Check out my sister and me...Matchy-matchy.

I'm very happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. There are no requirements for linking up at Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is simply a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. Sunday Salon is a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon: The Reverse Readathon Returns!

 

READATHON PREP

List of my fellow Readathon-ers.

Books I may (or may not) read. Lots of choices. Lots of genres. 

Snacks: Oranges, Heath bar, grapes, peanuts, almonds, and ice cream. Oh, and coffee. I'm set.

BINGO Game. Get your own copy here.

Mini-Challenge: Pandemic Mood-Boosting Book Challenge. Join in! Win a book!

HOURS 1-2

Reading. Oh, I'm in my happy place.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Alvin, Texas.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Traveling Cat Chronicles.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Heath bar.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! Reader, blogger, (retired) librarian.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? It's my 27th readathon. I plan to do exactly what I always do...read and blog. Good luck, everyone!

HOURS 3-4-5

I'm hosting! Look for me over at Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon or on Twitter. 

Update: I was somehow able to host and read. I've now finished two books:

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team 

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

HOURS 6-7-8-9-10

Sleeping. ZZZZZZZZ....

HOURS 11

Walking. Every morning I walk to the public library and turn in the books I finished the day before. Great way to start the day. 

HOURS 12-24

Reading. 

Finished:

No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, Resisters Against Hitler in Church and State by Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern 

Packs: Strength in Numbers by Hannah Salyer

Bo the Brave by Bethan Woollvin

Almost Time by Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney

God Got a Dog by Cynthia Rylant

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

Feed Your Mind: A Story of August Wilson by Jen Bryant

Started, but didn't finish yet:

The Black Kids: A Novel by Christina Hammons Reed

BINGO:

ROW 1:

Read while it's dark outside (Friday night)

Read a book related to winter (Almost Time)

Read 200 pages (Friday night)

Select your book blindfolded (Feed Your Mind)

Read a book outside your comfort zone (Travelling Cat Chronicles...thought it was going to be fluff, but it turned out to be different than I'd expected)

ROW 2

Read a book you've had in your TBR forever (Look Both Ways)

Read a book with a title less than two words (Almost Time)

Read a book released within the last year (Almost Time; Feed Your Mind; All Thirteen; Bo the Brave)

Exercise for 30 minutes (Saturday morning walk)

Read a book with diverse characters (The Black Kids; Look Both Ways)

ROW 3

Read in 3 different locations (meditation room; kitchen; front porch)

Title contains the letter D (God Got a Dog)

FREE SPACE

Participate in social media (Friday night Twitter)

Read two books (Finished two on Friday night)

ROW 4

Reading sprint (Saturday)

Read something other than a traditional book ("Poetry for Fraught Times," Atlantic)

Read a book in first person (The Travelling Cat Chronicles)

Snack and read (Heath bar)

Minimalist cover (God Got a Dog)

ROW 5

Read a book with blue on the cover (Look Both Ways)

Read two different genres (fiction, nonfiction, picture books)

Read a book with traveling (Travelling Cat Chronicles)

Make your own challenge (Read and review everything you finish)

Read in your pjs (Friday night)

Closing Survey

1. How would you assess your reading overall? Excellent.
2. Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it? Yes. Read, host, sleep, wake, walk, read.
3. What was your favorite snack? Heath bar.
4. Wanna volunteer for our next event? Stay tuned for the recap post! Sure.

Au Revoir, Paris in July; Diversity; and August Book Events

Diversity was the theme of my reading this week. Citizen: An American Lyric is a book of flash nonfiction and poetry that takes on the American black experience. Each Tiny Spark is a middle-grade children's book that tells the struggles and joys of a young Hispanic girl with ADHD. And The Heart's Invisible Furies is the story of the life of a gay man in Ireland from his birth in the 1940s to the present day.

Paris in July is over, sadly. Happily, though, I wrote more posts (15) last month for Paris in July than I ever have:

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Launch of Paris in July 2019

Favorite French Stories from Childhood

Paris in July: I Forgot to Tell You That I Went to Paris Last Month

Weekly Wrap-Up: Moonlight Over Paris, Love à la Mode, and Rosetta Stone: Français

Wonderful French Book Characters

Paris in July: Paris-ish Things in My Home

Weekly Wrap-Up: Foodie France (Don't Miss These Books!)

I Can't Resist Buying Books With French Things on the Cover

Sablés au Citron: French Lemon Shortbread from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

Weekly Wrap-up: French Shortbread, Fossil Hunting, and a Whole Slew of  Books

My Favorite Settings in Paris

Clafoutis aux Pêche (Peach Clafoutis) from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

Weekly Wrap-Up: French Salons, Clafoutis aux Pêche, and Twenty-One Books Read and Reviewed

Paris + Food = A Love Story

Au Revoir, Paris

I watched two movies set in Paris: Midnight in Paris and Paris: Je T'aime.

I practiced my French with Rosetta Stone.

I read seven books that were by French authors and/or were set in France:

Maigret by Georges Simenon

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

Swann's Way by Marcel Proust

Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan

Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief

Moonlight Over Paris

Love a la Mode

It was a great Paris in July.

August is Women in Translation Month, an event hosted by Bibliobio. The event is designed to encourage more books by women to be translated into English and other languages. I have decided to buy and read three of my 1001 Children's Books that are written by women and that have been translated into English: Aldabra: The Tortoise Who Loved Shakespeare by Italian author Silvana Gandolfi, A Letter to the King by Tonte Dragt, and The Big Sister by Swedish author Six Widerberg.  I have a selfish reason for wanting to encourage more English translations of works by women: many of the 1001 Children's Books have not been translated into English. You can find out more about this event by visiting Bibliobio.

Dewey's 24-Hour Reverse Readathon is August 2nd through August 3rd. It starts at 8 pm EST so that people in other parts of the world can start the readathon at a decent time. I am reading.

Brona's Books is sponsoring the Moby Dick Readalong in August. I am also joining this one.

I spent a long time last Sunday trying to update my list of Blogs I Often Visit. I couldn't believe how many of my favorite blogs were not on the list. I hope I have added you. Would you please make sure you are there? If you are not, would you please let me know?

How was your week?

Did you read any good books? Please share them with us.

What other bookish things did you do? What else is going on in your life?

I'd love to have you to link up here and/or at the Sunday Salon page on Facebook each weekend (Saturday-Sunday-Monday) and let us know what you have been doing. I hope you will visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. If you have other blogging friends, it would be wonderful if you'd tell others about our salon and encourage them to join us.

Other places where you may like to link up are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Dewey's 24 Hour Reverse Readathon, with a Moby Dick Theme

PRE-READATHON PREP

I decide to spend Dewey's 24-Hour Reverse Readathon reading Moby Dick and Moby Dick-related books. The Reverse Readathon starts Friday, August 2nd at 8 pm EST and runs through August 3rd at 8 pm EST.

In case you missed it, Brona's Books is holding a Moby Dick Readalong, beginning this month. Here are some useful resources she oh-so-kindly bookmarks for us:

Power-Moby, the Online Annotation

Moby Dick Podcast
Moby Dick Big Read

I find summaries of each chapter:

Shmoop Summaries of Moby Dick Chapters
How to Read Moby Dick: A Guide for First-Timers

I check out books from my public library that I also plan to read. I find a children's version of Moby Dick, a comic book of Moby Dick, and a graphic novel of Moby Dick. In addition, I have the true story of Moby Dick, Moby-Dick in Pictures (with a drawing for every page), and Nathaniel Philbrick's Why Read Moby-Dick?

I find Abbott and Costello's Moby Dick (which really doesn't have much to do with Moby Dick at all) from February 13, 1947. Of course I had to start with Abbott and Costello:

"Now Moby Dick was swimming along and one day he saw a swordfish fighting with a mackerel. The swordfish stabbed the mackerel. Then he stabbed him again. And he stabbed him again. And again." 

"Poor little mackerel."

"Then he stabbed him again."

"That poor little mackerel must have been full of holes."

"Yep. He was a holy mackerel."

"Now Moby Dick didn't feel so good so he went to see the doctor fish."

"Doctor fish?"

"Yeah, he was a famous sturgeon."

"What?"

"He was, too. He was a great fish-sician."

I find three movie versions of Moby Dick on Amazon Prime. I wonder which one is the best.

I make a music playlist on Amazon Prime: Moby Dick Music.

And you just can't have any sort of a readathon without snacks, right?

I think I'm set. Do you have any other resources for me? Ideas? Suggestions?

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1

I am simultaneously listening to the podcasts and reading along in Power Moby Dick for Chapters 1-10. The readathon hasn't even started and I'm already 14% through the book.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2

Here's a lovely poem to kick off our Moby Dick: Things to Do in the Belly of a Whale by Dan Albergotti, read aloud starting at 2:50 by Garrison Keillor.

Bryan Waterman has lots of fascinating observations in his Top 5 Bits of Advice for First-Time Readers of Moby Dick.

This morning I learn that Herman Melville apparently wrote all of Moby Dick before meeting Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was Hawthorne who encouraged Melville to read broadly, and Melville did. The result of that wide reading was a complete revision of Moby Dick. Fascinating. Writer Austin Kleon concludes, "I believe that the first step towards becoming a writer is becoming a reader, but the next step is becoming a reader with a pencil." 


It's all out there, folks. Someone has apparently copied Melville's library, books filled with his scribbled marginalia. Take a look at that here.

I read along in Power Moby Dick while listening to the podcasts for Chapters 11-16.

HOUR 1-2

1)What fine part of the world are you reading from today? And what time is it where you are?

It's 7 pm, and I'm in Alvin, Texas, along the Gulf Coast.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The comic book version of Moby Dick. I think I'll read that first.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? 

The Caribbean coconut gelato.

4) Do you have a #reversereadathon plan of attack?

All things Moby Dick.

5) Are you doing the readathon solo or with others?

Solo AND with others. Oddly.

HOUR 3

Moby Dick (Classics Illustrated, No. 5) Comics – Color, 1943 by Herman Melville

I can now, in all honesty, say that I have read Moby Dick. Well, the comic book version, published at a time a comic book sold for fifteen cents, 1943. Comic book classics plus Cliff Notes is all that got my generation through college English, I think. All in all, not bad.  Forty-eight color pages (reduced from sixty-four, to conserve paper during the war). I especially love seeing Ahab's wildly manic face. 

HOUR 4-11

Sleeping.

HOUR 12

I'm back, listening to my Whale, Whale, Whale podcast while reading the online Power Moby Dick and browsing through the chapter summaries at Shmoop.

HOUR 13

Listening to all of these podcasts has apparently twisted my brain toward the trivial, but I suddenly feel curious to explore the meaning behind the Pepperidge Farm Double Chocolate Nantucket cookies ("If you're going to have a cookie, have a cookie.") Why Nantucket? I wonder. I wasn't able to find out why, but I do find out that Taste of Home ranked the Nantucket #6 of fifteen Pepperidge Farm cookies its taste-testers tried. I also learn that Pepperidge Farm founder Margaret Rudkin began the tradition of naming cookies after cities after a Queen Mary voyage through Europe, and Pepperidge Farm has continued the tradition through their American collection. I like how the ad copy for the Nantucket says, "It's the kind of cookie that's more than a treat, it's an experience!" I'll take that.

HOUR 14

Continuing on. As I am reading along in Power Moby-Dick, I notice the ad on the side panel is for Mack Weldon men's underwear. Mack Weldon, I learn, sells a 3-pack of Nautical Jersey Boxer Briefs for $72. Mack Weldon does not appear to sell women's underwear.

HOUR 15

I begin three lists of vocabulary words from Moby Dick. One, of course, is a list of sailing words and whaling words. One is a list of great vocabulary words I'd like to start using. And one is a list of words that are not in general usage nowadays, but should be.

I finish Chapter 27.

HOUR 16-18

Behance has lovely illustrations of all the Moby Dick characters. Can you guess who this is?

Perfect to glance at this illustration, as I read through Chapters 28 and 29 and the captain at last makes his entrance. From the podcast: "It feels like as soon as the ship is out of the port, this book kicks into twelfth gear."

A helpful character chart.

HOUR 19

I finish all the Whale, Whale, Whale podcasts (they go up to Chapter 32), and forge on, reading Power Moby-Dick through Chapter 35, 31% on my Kindle.

Moby Dick: 10 Minute Classics retold by Philip Edwards and illustrated by Adam Horsepool

Now I read Moby Dick: 10 Minute Classics, retold by Philip Edwards and illustrated by Adam Horsepool. It's a picture book version of Moby Dick, to be sure, much condensed, thirty-two pages versus the complete 655, but it's a nice abridgment, with all the key happenings, and enlivened by the clever caricatures drawn by the illustrator. 

HOUR 20

The Whaleship Essex: The True Story of Moby Dick by Jil Fine

Yes, it's a book for elementary age children, but The Whaleship Essex: The True Story of Moby Dick was an excellent introduction for me into the events that inspired Herman Melville to write his masterpiece. The Essex left Nantucket and traveled around Cape Horn and up around the Pacific Coast of South America when the ship attempted to harpoon a whale in late November. The angry whale retaliated by striking the 238 ton whaling ship twice, causing the ship to sink. The crew abandoned the ship, and took to the three whaling boats. Of the twenty crewmen, only eight were rescued, and the rescues did not take place until February, March, and for the last three, April. It's a devastating story, and, now that I've read a condensed version, I want to read more. I'm off to reserve Nathaniel Philbrook's In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex to read soon.

HOUR 21

Moby Dick based on the novel by Herman Melville, retold by Lew Sayre Schwartz, illustrated by Dick Giordano

The City of New Bedford, long considered the Whaling Capital of the World, set out in 2001 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Moby Dick with an informative book for students. This is that book. It has three main parts: a biography of Herman Melville, a nonfiction section about whales and whaling, and a graphic novel of Moby Dick for children. It's an ideal introduction to Moby Dick for young people. And the occasional elderly librarian.

HOUR 22

Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick

In this little book, written like a master's thesis from a besotted fan, Nathaniel Philbrick shares all his favorite lines and favorite themes and favorite issues from his beloved book, Moby Dick. Philbrick shows the contemporariness of Moby Dick through the issues Melville interweaves into his story as well as the timelessness of Moby Dick through the themes Melville touches upon. It's a love poem to Moby Dick, and I found myself reading the book while simultaneously marking passages in my Kindle version of Moby Dick to reflect upon later.

HOURS 23-24

Serendipitously, I have just enough time to finish off the readathon with a movie of Moby Dick, choosing the John Huston-Gregory Peck-Orson Wells-Richard Basehart version. Perfect ending to a lovely readathon.