Dewey's Read-a-Thon 2014

Good morning readers! It's read-a-thon time! If you don't know what I mean, check out this site. And join in if you like! The event actually started almost an hour ago so I'm behind in getting started. But I didn't want to get up at 8am on a Saturday! This post will end up being a large one as I'm going to continuously update it throughout the day. Here we go!

Kick Off

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

I'm reading from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Location helper: I'm 20 minutes away from Niagara Falls.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I don't often read a ton of YA but this contemporary (my fave!) novel has been getting a lot of good press.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Tea. Lots of tea. And maybe popcorn. And hard apple cider for later. And leftover Easter chocolate!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I'll do the basics: I'll be 27 in a month and two days. I'm 6'0" tall (so if you know tall girl books, send me the titles!) with curly-ish brown hair. I own the most ridiculous pet rabbit ever (her name is Tonks – yes, from HP – and I adore her). I just started a new job at a nature centre last week in a marketing/communications type role. That's me in a nutshell!
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 done the read-a-thon before (twice, maybe?) and I've never really, totally, completely committed. As you can tell, I haven't really done it this year either. I love the idea of it and everything but as much as I love reading, I'm not willing to totally disrupt my sleep pattern for it! :) So, there's not a whole lot I'll do differently. Maybe try to participate in more challenges. We'll see!

Update #1: 11:40am = almost 4 hours into the readathon.
I just finished my first book, Who Killed "Tom Jones"? by Gale Martin. In all honesty, I should have DNF-ed it yesterday but I didn't and then I read the bit about the murder today and just couldn't stop. Needed to know for sure who the murderer was! So far I've read for just over two hours and have finished 182 pages. Not bad. Time to move on to Brooklyn Girls!
Did I mention the three books in the above pic are all library books? Thought I'd use the readathon to get through the books that are due soon!

Challenge #1: Best of the Reading Year

Lisa's World of Books is hosting hour six's mini-challenge. She wanted us to share about the bests of our reading year. She has a huge list of options on her page and we were to choose at least three titles. I went with five, even though I could have chosen more. Have you read any of these ones? Links lead to my review if you're interested in learning more!

Best Book: The Orenda – Joseph Boyden

Best New Adult Book: Ten Tiny Breaths –K.A. Tucker

Best Non-Fiction Book: Never Have I Ever – Katie Heaney

Best Fiction Book: One More Thing – B.J.Novak (short stories!)

Best Cover: Landline – Rainbow Rowell (no review yet...book releases in July!)

Update #2: 4:00pm = hour nine is beginning!
I just finished my second book! Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess was a lot of fun. If it had been released this year it'd be considered new adult but I feel like it won't get lumped into whatever NA has become. It was a really fun read and I'm so happy I have the second book in the series to review!
There are a couple of very thought provoking challenges up right now so I'm going to take some time to deal with those. And maybe find another snack! (In case you missed it on Instagram, here's my rabbit, Tonks, eating her snack.)

Challenge #2: A Literary Tea (or Coffee)
Over at the Fig and Thistle, Amanda has asked us readathoners to create a literary coffee or tea drink. Ooh, time to get the brain thinking about something more than the book we're reading. Books and tea are two of my all time favourite things so I had some fun with this one!

In Zoey and the Moment of Zen by Cat Lavoie, our heroine, Zoey, is sent to a wellness resort (her friends tell her it's for her own good but she's not so sure) that doesn't allow anything fun (read: caffeinated) on the premises. I don't know how a coffee shop owner survived without caffeine! I created a tea that uses rooibos leaves – they're caffeine free. Perfect for the Moment of Zen Wellness Resort! I came up with this one because I adore a sweet, dessert tea and the chocolatey taste could almost convince the coffee drinker in you that you're drinking sometime caffeinated.

Zoey's Salted Caramel Escape

Red rooibos leaves

Caramel pieces

Sea salt

Chocolate chips

You'd need about a teaspoon and a half of tea leaves per cup of tea. If you were feeling particularly fancy, you could turn this into a latte!

Challenge #3: First Edition
Jessica at The Bluestocking Society has come up with a challenge that's teaching us something! Her challenge post tells us how to tell what edition we're reading. So, I took up the next book I'm planning on reading, Dorothy Must Die (trying not to think about the whole Full Fathom Five thing...) This is what I found:

It tells me that it's a first edition, right there at the bottom. I can also figure out that it was published in 2014 (which I knew but you can also tell because of the 14 15 etc. to the left). However, I would have thought that there'd be a 1 in the sequence in the left. Can a book still be a first edition if it's in its second printing? Someone help! :)
Looks like I need to brake for supper (the boyfriend made some delicious smelling steaks) but then it's back to reading!

Update #3: Approaching the Midway Point!

Time for the Mid-Event Survey! And also time for me to get back into reading.
1. What are you reading right now?

Just about to start Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
2. How many books have you read so far?

I've finished two (though one I was already reading...I was about 25% complete when I started)
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

Because Dorothy has been a wee bit tainted due to the Full Fathom Five issue, I'm looking forward to To All the Boys I've Loved Before even more.
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

Not really. Honestly, I don't have much of a life! :) The rabbit is pretty self sufficient and the boyfriend cooked supper (steaks...om nom nom). I put off going out to the mall but it wasn't pressing. And  I might have held off suggesting that we have friends over tonight!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Not so much. I was annoyed that I needed to do laundry and dishes but they were quick to do. Of course, I did it at a time where supper came soon after so it's been a couple of hours since I've read!
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I haven't really been too involved in the online community aspect of it, I admit. I've been posting pictures and updates but haven't been checking out other people's. I'm happy that others are responding to my posts even though I'm not out there doing the same. So, thank you to the people who are balancing their commenting and reading!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

Not really...my irks only come from the fact that not everything is open internationally!
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

Just read more. And comment more. But I like my laid back approach.
9. Are you getting tired yet?

Nope! It's just 7:30pm in my part of the world. But I am making myself a caffeinated tea (Coffee Cake from David's Tea...damn, it's so good) before getting into the hard ciders I'm looking forward to later!
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'm sure others have discovered it but go into the readathon with a plan. Know how your day is going to play out and what you're going to read when. And if you live with anyone, let them know what you're doing...and why you're reading a tad more than usual!

Challenge #4: Name in Titles
So. It turns out that it is REALLY hard to spell my name (Kaley) using the books I have at home. Wow. But, props to The Geeky Blogger's Book Blog for this awesome challenge! I've also been distracted by watching 24 and drinking and making popcorn :) BUT. Here's my title pic:

Keeping the Moon - Sarah Dessen
Attachments - Rainbow Rowell
Life After Yes - Aidan Donnelley Rowley
Exes and Ohs - Shallon Lester
You Had Me At Hello - Mhairi McFarlane

Now, it's back to Dorothy Must Die! I'm 78 pages in (chapter eight) and it's ok so far. Happy reading, friends!

Challenge #5: Page 35
Hoo boy, this was a difficult challenge for my last one. Full disclosure: it's approaching midnight here and I've had a couple of drinks sooo...I'm not at my best :) With this challenge, hosted by Bibliophibian Inc., we had to find the third sentence on page 35 of the book we're reading and then create something to go along with it. Like I've said, I'm reading Dorothy Must Die. I can't exactly categorize it (fantasy, I guess?) but the goal is to try to write something different than the original material. I have no idea how this sounds to anyone else (did I mention the alcohol I've had?) but here it is:

After a while, the bedraggled fields by the side of the road turned into huge cornfields on either side, with stalks as tall as my body. The first thing I thought of when I saw the cornfields was baseball. That might sound silly to some but I'm a sucker for ball movies. Really, I'm a sucker for anything baseball. But add in Kevin Costner and I'm a happy girl. I mean, come on. Have you seen Bull Durham? Guys might think it's a baseball movie but it's got one hell of a romantic storyline. But that's not where the cornfields come in. No, that's that other ball movie, Field of Dreams. You know the one where there are ghosts playing baseball in Kevin's backyard? "If you build it, he will come" and all that? Baseball's a romantic sport, and I'm not talking about the lovey-dovey romance. I'm talking about a certain kind of relationship you get with the sport. With the way it's played. With the players themselves. Like Annie in Bull Durham, I like to pray to the Church of Baseball. It might not mean much to you but when I see a cornfield I think of Field of Dreams. I think of the men who were banned from playing ball after the Black Sox scandal. I think of Costner's character finally playing catch with his father. And I think of all the feelings I have. Somewhere in there is romance. And who can argue with that?

And now...bed! I'll update with final numbers and include a Storify link for all of my #readathon tweets tomorrow!

Final Update
As promised, here's the Storify link for my #readathon tweets.
And here are my final numbers: 7.8 hours read over 15 hours. 160 pages read. Finished a book I was about 25% through already (Who Killed 'Tom Jones'?), finished a full book (Brooklyn Girls), and finished close to half of another (Dorothy Must Die).
Notable consumables: chocolate, tea, steak supper, popcorn, and hard cider.
I'm pretty happy with how the day played out. I wish I was able to put off my chores (laundry and dishes just had to be done!) as that contributed to a large chunk of non-reading time in the afternoon. I do wish I had been able to finish Dorothy (I did finish it today) but that's alright. I made a dent in my TBR list and that's all I could have hoped for! I hope everyone else participating had fun. I'm hoping I can participate in October's read-a-thon, too. Maybe I won't be quite as focused on reading and will interact more with others! Now it's time to write up some reviews and dive into my next book!