Readathon ~ April 2012

406 readers signed up for the April 2012 Readathon.  I'll report here on what I read and which mini-challenges I decide to participate in.  Ready, set, GO!

(This report is continued at April Readathon, second half.)

7:00 p.m. ~ Hour 12

Name That Book @ Fictionally Inclined

Leave a comment with as many guesses as possible!  One comment will be chosen randomly, with no consideration of the accuracy of the answers.

1)  The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
2)  Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Anna Karenina  ✓ 

3)  Paulette Lestafier wasn't as crazy as they said. Sure, she knew what day it was, since that was all she had left to do now.
4)  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Something by Jane Austen, maybe Pride and Prejudice  ✓ 

5)  The play -- for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crepe paper -- was written by her in a two-day tempest of composition, causing her to miss a breakfast and a lunch.
6)  I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.

Middlesex  ✓ 

7)  It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper none others are to see.
8)  All children, except one, grow up.

Peter Pan  ✓ 

9)  Jason was going to Brain Camp. It had another name, a real name, but that's what everyone called it.

Brain Camp?

10)  We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
11)  1801 -- I have just returned from a visit to my landlord -- the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
12)  Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone  ✓ 

13)  I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.
14)  In every life there is a turning point. A moment so tremendous, so sharp and clear that one feels as if one’s been hit in the chest, all the breath knocked out, and one knows, absolute knows without the merest hint of a shadow of a doubt that one’s life will never be the same.
15)  Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

Lolita  ✓ 

16)  First the colors.
Then the humans.
That’s usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.
17)  There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
18)  I remember the day the Aleut ship came to our island. At first it seemed like a small shell afloat on the sea.
19)  Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn  ✓ 

20)  Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

Rebecca  ✓ 

21)  There is one mirror in my house.
22)  In the spring of 1972, Dominick Edward Guy de Ath Ballister, third Marquess of Dain, Earl of Blackmoor, Viscount Launcells, Baron Ballister and Launcells, lost his wife and four children to typhus.
23)  This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
24)  Sophie Dempsey didn't like Temptation even before the Garveys smashed into her '86 Civic, broke her sister's sunglasses, and confirmed all her worse suspicions about people from small towns who drove beige Cadillacs.
25)  Which one of Johnny Burwell's eyebrows do you think is cuter?

Correct Answers (added Sunday afternoon)

1) Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
2) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy  ✓ 
3) Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda
4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen  ✓ 
5) Atonement by Ian McEwan
6) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides  ✓ 
7) Anthem by Ayn Rand
8) Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie  ✓ 
9) The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
10) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
11) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
12) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's / Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling  ✓ 
13) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
14) When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
15) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov  ✓ 
16) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
17) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
18) Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
19) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith  ✓ 
20) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  ✓ 
21) Divergent by Veronica Roth
22) Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
23) The Princess Bride by William Goldman
24) Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Crusie
25) The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper

6:00 p.m. ~ Hour 11

Your Favorite Trouble Maker @ The Fake Steph Dot Com

For this mini-challenge, I want you to tell me about your favorite unlikely hero, troublemaker, or anti-hero.  Recommend some books with some shady characters and tell me why you love them!

I don't love anti-heroes.  The bad guy in my book just killed a monk.  'Nuff said, and I'm back to reading.

5:00 p.m. ~ Hour 10

E-Book Survey @ Noumena12 Book Blog

I don't "read" e-books, so this mini-challenge was not really designed for me.  I did, however, take the survey, which was really irritating.  I said repeatedly for the three dozen or so questions that I don't read e-books, don't have an e-reader, read 0% on an e-reader.  And still there were questions where I had to put SOMETHING before being allowed to proceed, even though no answer fit my situation and there was no "none of the above" option.  It would be really weird if I won this one.

4:00 p.m. ~ Hour 9

The Weird Sisters Challenge @ Just One More Thing….

The Challenge is to tell us how you share your love of with family or friends who live at a distance.  You can submit a picture, humorous anecdote, or just a description of how you keep that reading connection going.

Back in 1996, I met other readers in an AOL chat room to discuss Oprah's first book club choices.  A dozen or so of us, who were the most active, named ourselves the Book Buddies.  When Oprah moved from AOL to her own Oprah.com, I continued with another group, using the same name.  When Oprah discarded years of our book discussions, I started a third group of Book Buddies on Blogger, with some of the same people still hanging in there.  We are not currently active, but if any of you want to talk books with me, the blog is still there.  How about it?  Are you interested?

3:00 p.m. ~ Hour 8

Book Staging @ Midnight Book Girl

I should have read a couple more pages before answering Sheila's Hour 6 question, because (on page 191) the main characters ate

"a hurried dinner of chicken and vegetable curry, along with ample helpings of rice and naan to calm the effects of the spices in their stomachs."

My book's characters are still at the Taj Mahal (p. 207), and I have continued to listen to sitar music by Ravi Shankar and videos showing the Taj Mahal, with other Indian music.  It's perfect background for reading this book.

This hour's mini-challenge:  You know how real estate agents will stage an apartment to attract potential buyers?  Well, that's what you're going to do to a book!  Take a picture of a book you're reading today, or any book you have lying around.  In the picture you should have the book in a setting, or surrounded by items, that represent the book.  It can mimic the cover, or represent characters or events, etc. from the story.  Basically, make us want to read the book based on picture alone.

I'll pass on the mini-challenge, so I can keep reading this 400+ page book.

2:00 p.m. ~ Hour 7

Find a Poem @ The Hungry Readers

I really don't want to try to write a poem based on favorite phrases and words from what I'm reading.  So back to reading.

1:00 p.m. ~ Hour 6

Book Appetit @ Book Journey

Take one of the books you are reading today.  Now let's pretend that you are going to have a book discussion with friends regarding that book.  They are all coming over to your house, and you are providing food and beverage to go with said book.  That’s right, your challenge is to share with me here:  1.  Title and author of the book  2.  The menu:  the food, the beverage (if you want you can go as far plan background music, decor, whatever.  :D )

Okay, Sheila, I'd pick up my share of these foods from a local Indian restaurant because the main character in my book has just flown to India (other characters from the United States and from Bhutan are also converging at the Taj Mahal — long story).

1.  Title and author:  The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small
2.  The menu:  lamb shish kabob (mint and cilantro flavored lamb charbroiled on skewers), some dal soup made with yellow lentils, mango lassi to drink, and rice pudding for dessert.
3.  Sitar music:  Ravi Shankar and his daughter playing the sitar (my recordings by him go back to the 1970s).

12:00 noon ~ Hour 5

Book Sentences @ On the Wings of Books

Your challenge is to make a book sentence.  What is a book sentence you ask?  Well… a book sentence is a sentence made up of book titles!  For this challenge you will use book titles to form a complete sentence, and then take a picture of your sentence and post it to your blog.

My sentence says:

Catching a wave,
Rachel and her children
return to Sodom and Gomorrah.

I'm reading about koans (sayings) in The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small, and this hour's title says, "If a book and a head knock against each other and there is a hollow sound, is it always the book?"

11:00 a.m. ~ Hour 4

 Turn to a Page @ Reflections of a Bookaholic

For this challenge, you must turn to page 32 of the book you are currently reading (or the nearest page with text on it) and find the most entertaining phrase to complete the following sentence:  "I would rather read than ________ any day!"  For example, mine might say: "I would rather read than spend hours at that windows, staring at the garden any day!"

Here's mine, from page 32 of The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small:  "I would rather read than hunt with Tim any day!"

10:00 a.m. ~ Hour 3
Book Puzzle @ One Librarian’s Book Reviews

I'm hanging in, still reading, but plan to avoid mini-challenges, if possible, so I can keep reading.  This is the hour I should return to when I complete a book, to add my title to the April 2012 Book DataBase.

9:00 a.m. ~ Hour 2

Reading in Translation @ Reading Through Life

Looks kind of interesting, but I'll pass.  It would take too much of my reading time to do this.

8:00 a.m. ~ Hour 1
Introductory Questionnaire @ 24-Hour Read-a-Thon

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Chattanooga, Tennessee is in the Eastern Daylight Time zone of the United States, so the first hour for me starts at 8:00 a.m.  What time is it where you are?

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

I'm starting with my newest book, a thriller:  The Breath of God by Jeffrey Small (2011).  I shared that book's beginning on Friday.  My stack is whatever is not yet read on my Spring Reading Thing list.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

This part hasn't been planned, but I'm hungry for breakfast right now.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I'm retired, I have a 12-year-old cat named Kiki, and I'll be 72 on Thursday.

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?

I've participated in many (but not all) of Dewey's readathon's, and today I plan to spend more time reading and less time doing the mini-challenges.