Readathon: Crash and Burn

End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I hit a lot of walls this Readathon. It is probably not a good idea to try to read for twenty-four hours the day after you saw every child in the school during Science Day and the same day you helped host a bridal shower for your fabulous niece! Bad timing this year for me. Sigh.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I like to have those wonderful browsable books, like coffee table books and joke books and children's picture books for the down times. Even those didn't help this year.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I love it just as it is. 
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The mini-challenges were great this year.
5. How many books did you read? I made sixty pages this year. An all-time low, but, as Pete the Cat says, "It's all good!" 
6. What were the names of the books you read? The Word Snoop.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? The Word Snoop.
8. Which did you enjoy least? NA
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? NA
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 may try Cheerleader next time.

Thanks to Andi and Heather 

and all who cheered and cohosted and read! 

HOUR 15

It's off to bed for me. I hope to read a little more in The Word Snoop before I fall asleep.


HOUR 14

Your Name in Titles Mini-Challenge

(Of course, DEB is a pretty easy name!)

HOUR 12

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? The Word Scoop
2. How many books have you read so far? 0
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The Word Scoop
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? I couldn't free up my day.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Yes, so far, I haven't had a single minute to read. Sigh.
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I have never read so little.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? It is perfect as it is.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I might try being a Cheerleader, perhaps.
9. Are you getting tired yet? Yes, but not from the Readathon.
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? I'd love to see tips from others.

Sadly, this may be my worst Readathon ever. 



HOUR 10

Total time spent reading so far:  0 min.
Total time spent blogging so far: 0 min.
Blogs visited so far: 0
Total time spent hosting a wedding shower for sweet niece: 10 hours 

I am now back in the saddle. 
Time to get some serious reading done!



HOUR 0

My delightful Meditation Room? Check.
Candle? Check.
Relaxation fountain? Check.
Reading music? Check.

Comfy reading clothes? Check.

Coffee? Check.

Snacks? Check.

Enormous stack of books to read? Check.

How about you? ¿Esta lista? Ready?

What are we waiting for? ¡Vamos! Let's go!

AAANNNDDD...We're off!

Introductory Questionnaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? An itty-bitty town in Texas.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Word Exchange
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Leftover Easter candy
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! Primary school librarian. Blogger. Reader. 
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I may miss huge chunks of Readathon...today's is my sweet niece's bridal shower....But it's all good....I'll get back in the flow later today.

In Case of Earthquake

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Miserable, Unhappy Characters Who Lead Miserable, Unhappy Lives

Characters Who Can't Get It Together 
(and Die, in the End, Miserable and Unhappy)

If you know anything about me, you know I've been studying happiness for the last few years.

While there are very, very few characters in books who live happy, happy lives (Anne of Green Gables is a notable exception) there are many, many characters who just can't get their lives together and die, in the end, miserable and unhappy. *

Perhaps there is something to be learned about happiness from reflecting on these lives.

Lily Bart in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth

Lily turns down a rich suitor because he's too dull, and then turns down an intriguing suitor because he's too poor. Where does that leave you in 1890 New York City? Poor. Alone. Unhappy.

Jodi Brett in The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison

Jodi is a psychologist who treats unhappy people for a living. Her own life

is grim, too, as she silently deals with an unfaithful boyfriend and refuses to think about her troubled past.

Hagar Shipley in The Stone Angel 

Hagar is at the end of her life, thinking about the events of her life, 

concluding, sadly, that it has been the same strong character traits that kept her going 

which have also kept her miserable. 

Dolores Price in She's Come Undone

You name it and Dolores Price has faced it. 

Faced it, and tried to deal with it in every self-destructive, 

spiraling-into-further-troubles way possible.

Olive Kitteridge from Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Olive lives a small life in a small town in Maine. 

Happiness always evades her, eludes her, escapes from her. 

Dimple Dasgupta in Wife by Bharati Mukherjee

An arranged marriage. Forced to move to America where she knows no one. Days spent, doing nothing, contemplating her own suicide. Poor Dimple.

Mary Saunders in Emma Donoghue's Slammerkin

Emma wants beautiful things. The only way for her to get these things is to sell her body in prostitution. She tries to leave the trade, but finds there is an element of prostitution in even honest work for all women of her day. Misery, misery, and more misery.

Vishnu in The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri

I can't leave you thinking the most unhappy characters are all female; men can also live pretty awful lives. Let's not forget Vishnu. The entire story takes place as Vishnu lies dying on the steps of a rooming house. So, not only is the book centered on a squalid death of a meaningless life, Vishnu spends his time dying going over all the bitter events of his life.

Kevin in We Need to Talk About Kevin

Kevin is an awful character. Not only is he cruel and vicious and unhappy, but he makes everyone who  around him deeply unhappy, too.

Mohun Biswas in A House for Mr. Biswas

A man who was cursed from birth. Tricked into an unhappy marriage. Moves from unhappy job to unhappy job. Unsatisfying relationships with everyone in his life.

Geoffrey Firmin in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano

What list of miserable characters would be complete without including Geoffrey Firmin in Under the Volcano? Geoffrey drinks himself to death as he mulls over the awfulness of his life.



*I chose to write this week about miserable, unhappy characters after reading two books this week about two miserable, unhappy women in The House of Mirth and The Silent Wife. Let's hope I can find some cheery books for this week's reading.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

It's Monday!

                 

What I Finished Last Week Two bleak novels that have left me longing for a jolly good funny story. Suggestions? We listened to Mister Monday on audio last week during our trip to and from TLA.   It's easy to read a lot of books when you are at a librarian's conference. Look at all these short books I finished last week, too. This should be a busy book week. Wednesday is World Book Night! Saturday is Dewey's 24-Hour-Readathon!

What are you reading today?!




It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between.  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from. I love being a part of this and I hope you do too. As part of this weekly meme Book Journey loves to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. 

Children's Books at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at West Metro Mommy Reads.

Official Readerbuzz Guide to All Things Children's Poetry-ish: Poetry Month Blog Tour

Welcome to the 2014 National Poetry Month: Reach for Horizon Blog Tour in which bloggers, poets, authors, and readers review books, talk about poets, write poetry, share their inspirations, and celebrate the love of poetry this April, sponsored by Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit. 

Here I am, ready to share my love for children's poetry.

You like poetry, don't you? Yes, I'm sure you do. (Though if, perchance, you do not, take a look at this Readerbuzz blog post from May of 2013:  Amazing Poetry Books for People Who Say They Do Not Like Poetry.)

Children love poetry. They can't help it. We seem to be born with a love for repetition and rhyme and sounds and poetry is all of that. 

So here, then, tada! is the Official Readerbuzz Guide to All Things Children's Poetry-ish.

Let's start children off right, from day one, from the very beginning, with wonderful Mother Goose rhymes. They are perfect for small moments. Waiting for a bus. Tying shoes. Preparing breakfast. Taking a walk. Try it. You know these. Or if you feel a little rusty, check out these books.

When you are ready for a little more, try Marc Brown's Playtime Rhymes: A Treasury for Families to Learn and Play Together. You know these, too. "This little piggie went...." Right? You really must invest a few bucks in this little book, if you have young children. It's perfect for them.

Once your children are ready for more, you are going to find rhyme everywhere. Notably, Eric Carle. Margaret Wise Brown. John Burningham. Helen Oxenbury. Shirley Hughes. Rhyme, rhythm, repetition...poetry. Everywhere. Of the 35 books listed for 0-3 year olds in the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up, almost all of them feature either rhyme or repetition or rhythm. I recommend:

After a time, poetry can feel very sing-song-ish. It can feel tired. Let's be careful here. Trying to force more poetry on kids who are feeling a little bored with poetry can backfire. Time then to move into more complex poetry. Poetry with a little more surprise. Try these. A great collection of children's poetry is always a good choice. Let your child pick the poem. Every poem with a little illustration to carry you through. Seasonal poems. Poems about nature. Poems about school and its woes. Family poems. Perfect.

And when children grow cold to these rhymes, it's time to move into edgy poetry. Wait to introduce these poetry books until your child is ready and you will give your child books he will love forever and always. Where the Sidewalk Ends and the other Shel Silverstein jewels and Jack Prelutsky books are my two big favorites. 

Here is where I must leave you. I'm sure there are many, many wonderful poets for the scary-edgy-er teen years, but this is a forest in which I have never ventured (and, honestly, never want to venture). Thanks for coming along with me on this journey. I bet you have great recommendations that I have left off and I would love to add here. Please don't hesitate to share these with us.

Bookish Things (That Aren't Books) That I Like

Book-ish Things (That Aren't Books) That I Like

Book-ish Clothes

   

Book-ish Houses

     

Book-ish Diversions

 

Book-ish Vehicles

   

   

Book-ish Art

   

Book-ish Furniture

   

           

Book-ish Treats

   

Book-ish Friends

   

Book-ish Vacations

The Library Hotel in New York City

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.