… and as the picture shows, I am an expert this time, which means I’ll do my usual cheering, but now I will be OFFICIAL and stuff ;) I’ve been participating every time since I discovered this readathon about 2.5 years ago, and it’s one of my favourite things of the year, so I am happy to help the awesome Amanda and Kelly who have been organizing this read-fest for the past 14 (FOURTEEN!) times. This is the 15th. Will you join us?
I’m… late to this readathon-review party. Life has this thing of getting in the way, and this time it was my girlfriend moving (so there was painting, and all that stuff) and starting a new job. And I spend lots of time with my boyfriend, which was lovely. All this left little time for blogging though!
So, I read two-and-a-half books this time around. Which I see as quite the achievement, since I only read a small part of the 24 hour hours (because of aforementioned boyfriend and girlfriend, and my attachment to 8 hours of sleep).
And last but not least, next time we really should make #drunkreadathon a thing!
I had a lot of fun this time, especially because I did not pressure myself to do anything. Only to read and tweet when I felt like it, and not more. I think this’ll be my strategy next time around as well. I’m starting to like this “no goal” thing.
How did you people fare?
Dewey’s 24-hour-readathon April 2015: I signed up!
But I know how it goes. It might be that after a bit I’ll feel more like more science fiction, more non-fiction, more short books, a long book, a re-read. Stuff might change any time.
So, the only thing still left is some administrative stuff (creating a goodreads shelf for this readathon, maybe even pre-format some blogposts) and making sure all the foods are ready. If you participate, what will you be snacking on?
Bout of Books – How did I do?
Which I did! I participated in one twitter-chat (the last one), did two challenges, and basically did just what I felt like. This meant I “only” read two books, and finished up an audiobook (which I actually started last Bout of Books…). I think this no goals-goal was a succes!
The question Ashley from Taking Stept Into Another World asked us, what 5 books we woudl take along, if we had just 15 minutes to leave our houses. Given the short amount of time you are only able to take 5 books with you. What books would you pick to take with you as you escape and prepare for the end of the world.
The complete works of William Shakespeare and The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes: Who knows how long I’ll be in my hideout (I am assuming I will have one)? I have these two big books, with all those stories, and they’ll bring me comfort and distraction through trying times.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: It’s one of my favourite books, so it will be good as a re-read. And rere-read. And rerere-read. And it can also teach us zen-principles, and make us take the things as they come with wonder and acceptance.
Mindfulness (by Edel Maes): For similar reasons as Zen and.. I’d take this book along. Just for some grounding, as the world around us falls apart. I’m all for mental health and flexibility.
A Narrative Compass: Stories that Guide Women’s Lives: After the world is destroyed, we need to build it up again. For that task, we need inspiration. This book will give me just that.
So: what would your 5 books be you’d face the apocalypse with?
So The Book Monster hosts this Scavenger Hunt Challenge for Bout of Books. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of scavenger hunts, but since I can do this from the safety of my own library, I decided to join. Also, I can tell you some stuff about some of the awesome books I have!
Bint, by F. Bordewijk. One of my favourite books of Dutch literature that I loved more for the style than the content. Some more information in English about the author and this story can be found here.
I guess we have all seen The Neverending Story. This is my copy of the book (in Dutch). I must have read it at least a dozen times. I love how they did printed the book: with what happens in “our” world in red, and what happens “in the neverending story” in blue.
This is a series I loved as an adolescent, about a young woman who is a witch, and who has to deal with demons and other kinds of evils. I loved it, even at that age, because of the Necronomicon-references (and now I love the Cthulu mythos), and the fact the books seemed to take me as a reader seriously. And the stories and characters are just awesome. I still miss one or two books from this series, that I hope to get from a friend of mine who is cleaning out her stack of books.
This is a book with 101 poems about goodbye, aimed at children/adolescents. The title would be something like “Can you greet death as well?” As you can see, I have some pieces of paper in there, to reach my favourites quickly. My mom gave it to me after my sister passed away, 11 years ago. I found some comfort in the words others wrote.
The higher shelf and the right half of the lower shelf consist of my TBR of physical books. (the left half is dictionaries, which don’t lend themselves well for reading cover to cover).