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I think this as my best read-a-thon yet! Starting the day off with an easier read pumped me for the rest of the day; I highly recommend doing this next time. Yes, I had to take breaks to work on final papers, Skype with my parents, and see friends, but I was motivated to use my reading time wisely throughout the day.
I read 910 pages and finished three books in roughly nine hours of reading. I finished America the Vulnerable by Joel Brenner, Naked Heat by Richard Castle, and No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel. Brenner’s book is assigned reading for a class and Ausubel’s was an ARC I received back in January so I’m thrilled that I managed to finish both books. I also made some headway into three other books on my TBR pile by reading 58 pages of The City and the City by China Miéville, 45 pages of Comeback America by David M. Walker, and 75 pages of Heat Rises by Richard Castle. I did have high hopes of making a sizable dent into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, but I waited entirely too long in the day to start the book and couldn’t get past page 8.
This time, the read-a-thon was all about my reading so I did very little blog hopping. I will return all the comments and cheers I’ve received from blogging friends and new-to-me bloggers later this week. Promise.
It’s tradition to end the ‘thon with an ending survey. I’ve answered the End of Event Meme below as well as provided a better summary of what I accomplished. I urge you to check out my master update post for more information
Summary:
- I read 910 pages.
- I finished three books.
- I started three more books.
- I read for 9 hours.
- I cheered for 6 blogs.
- I completed 2 memes and 0 mini-challenges.
End of Event Meme:
- Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 16! I had just gotten off Skype with my parents and wasn’t in the mood to do anything.
- Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Richard Castle’s Nikki Heat series is my brain candy (just like the show). I don’t think I would have read anything for the last two hours if I didn’t switch to Heat Rises.
- Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? There didn’t seem to be as much energy this time around. Maybe because most of the people I follow weren’t participating? I don’t know; it just seemed like participation – and therefore enthusiasm – was down across the board.
- What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?I really liked all the gifs posted on the Readathon website. I don’t normally watch videos (too distracting) but the gifs have me cracking up every time I clicked over the blog.
- How many books did you read? I read three books and started three more.
- What were the names of the books you read?
- America the Vulnerable (Joel Brenner) — Finished!
- The City and the City (China Miéville) – 58/336 pages
- Comeback America (David M. Walker) — 45/218 pages
- Heat Rises (Richard Castle) — 75/302 pages
- Naked Heat (Richard Castle) – Finished!
- No One is Here Except All of Us (Ramona Ausubel) — Finished!
- Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel) – 8/604 pages
- Which book did you enjoy most? America the Vulnerable by Joel Brenner. (Yes, Virginia, you can read nonfiction during the read-a-thon and like it.)
- Which did you enjoy least? None. I liked them all.
- If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Not applicable.
- How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely. October works better with my schedule. I’ll be a reader and, hopefully, a cheerleader.
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
Halfway through the semester and I’m just now getting around to sharing my textbooks for the semester. Told you it’s been a busy semester. Two of my classes for the semester have textbooks; two of my classes for the semester do not. I started out the semester in an additional class that required three more textbooks, but I ended up dropping the class back in February.
- Global Human Smuggling (David Kyle and Rey Koslowski) – I read this book over the course of last week and loved it. I just didn’t have enough to say about the book for a full post, but you can read my thoughts on it over at GoodReads. So far I’m the only person on the site who has read the book.
- Somalia: The New Barbary? (Martin N. Murphy) – I was supposed to read this book for class two weeks ago; I could never get into it and ended up shelving it. Most of my classmates did the same.
- Global Outlaws (Carolyn Nordstrom) – Another book that I loved. I posted my thoughts on the book last week.
- Blood on the Stone (Ian Smillie) – This will be the second book I’ve read on blood diamonds. My classmates and I were assigned an article by Smillie earlier in the semester that I had a hard time getting through so I’m a little worried about how reading this book will go.
- Merchants of Madness (Bertil Lintner and Michael Black) – You can’t take a class on trafficking without some discussion of drugs. Lintner and Black’s book examines the “methamphetamine explosions in the Golden Triangle”.
- Illicit Flows and Criminal Things (Willem van Schendel and Itty Abraham) – This book is a collection of articles about the worldwide circulation of people, things, and ideas. I read most of the
- America the Vulnerable (Joel Brenner) – I was not expecting to discuss computer security in my course this semester, but I am interested to read about the issue after a visit to the International Spy Museum last spring where the museum concludes with the threat hijackers pose to America’s infrastructure.
- Introductory Econometrics (Jeffrey M. Wooldridge) – I was quite concerned about taking econometrics this semester and, unfortunately, this book has done nothing to assuage my concern. I’ve been muddling through the chapters and struggling to understand the necessary concepts both in class and from the textbook.
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
These past four weeks constituted an unplanned break from book blogging. I had lined book reviews and posts through job training and the first few days of school in anticipation of needing time to adjust to a new semester. Yet almost as soon as I arrived back at school I noticed my computer began to slow down and launching any internet browser was next to impossible. Yes, my poor computer became infected with two viruses that essentially attacked the brain of my computer. I had to flatten it and reformat the whole thing. (Doing so actually took less time than trying to figure out what was wrong with my machine.) And so I fell behind in school work and thus book blogging was shifted to the side.
Things are backed to normal now, and I’m actually enjoying the semester rather than feeling stressed out all the time. Since before the beginning of the semester, I finally have time to read for pleasure! Not to say I haven’t read anything since early January; in fact, I finished five books between now and then.
- An Amish Gathering (Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller, and Barbara Cameron)
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Katherine Boo)
- Christmas at Pemberley (Regina Jeffers)
- Global Outlaws (Carolyn Nordstrom)
- Illicit Flows and Criminal Things (Willem van Schendel)
I’m trying to pull together thoughts on the books I have read, but it’s been so long that my memories are slightly fuzzy. I might have to do some mini-posts or skip these books all together. And it will take me a while to get back to blogging. I’m still getting caught up on school work but eventually I will be back. Just wanted to stop by and dust off the cobwebs.
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
This New Year is bound to be busier than last year as I start working on my honors thesis last this month and move into my final year of undergrad education in August. I’ve only signed up for one challenge in 2012 – What’s in a Name? – because I want to concentrate a large part of my attention on my new reading project – The Honors Project. Still, I have two goals I would like to work towards and accomplish in 2012.
Despite what the photo above might lead you to believe, I do not plan on focusing on the classics this year. I read twenty classics in 2011, which I know may not seem like a lot to many of you. But I tackled many classics I’ve been afraid of — reading both A Tale of Two Cities and (rereading) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as well as Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I feel so accomplished on the classics front that I’ve decide not to focus on them this year. I feel compelled to pick up a classic or two (or twenty) I certainly will. I just won’t be planning on tackling any large, complicated classics in 2012.
Goal #1: Read Off My Shelves
Isn’t this everyone’s goal? I have 64 books to-read that I actually own a copy of. That number seems pitifully small compared to some of you, but it’s still enough to fill up the entirety of one of my two bookshelves. I feel like I did a fairly good job of getting books off my TBR list in 2011, but I’d like to do an even better job of getting books off my TBR pile in 2012. There are two sub-goals for this goal I have in mind.
Sub-Goal #1: Read the Books I Have at School – I have three semesters left before I graduate and I would like to cut down on the amount of stuff I will have to move from school either to grad school, to the place of my job, or back home. Books that count for this goal include:
- Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
- The City and the City (China Melville)
- The Glory (Herman Wouk)
- Her Fearful Symmetry (Audrey Niffenegger)
- The Hope (Herman Wouk)
- Refuge in Hell (Daniel B. Silver)
Sub-Goal #2: Read eBooks I’ve Downloaded – I don’t know about you but I have this tendency to download free eBooks and then never read them. Something about the physicality of printed books lands on my TBR list while eBooks just don’t. Books that count for this goal include:
- The End is Now (Rob Stennett)
- Lydia Bennet’s Story (Jane Odiwe)
- Millie’s Fling (Jill Mansell)
- A Passage to India (E.M. Forster)
- Phineas Finn (Anthony Trollope)
- The Secret Holocaust Diaries (Nonna Bannister)
- The Shuttle (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Goal #2: Reread My Favorites
This could classified this as a sub-goal under my first goal as many of the books on my shelves to-be-read are actually books that I have read. They’re merely books I read before I started blogging and I always thought I would come back to them. After all, I use to read them repeatedly before I started blogging. But blogging led to the introduction of yet more genres, more authors, and more books and I have yet to come back to these titles. I’d like to rectify that this year. Books that count for this goal include:
- Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie (Kristiana Gregory)
- Anne Frank and Me (Cherie Bennett)
- Behind the Secret Window (Nelly S. Toll)
- A Break with Charity (Ann Rinaldi)
- Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
- Dreams in the Golden Country (Kathryn Lasky)
- Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Brdbury)
- Holes (Louis Sachar)
- The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)
- The Pact (Jodi Picoult)
- There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom (Louis Sachar)
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
In preparation for my honors thesis I have begun to pull together a list of books I would like to read before I begin committing anything to paper. Books that lay the foundation for what I would like to study; books that cover the history and development of America’s food system. I have read a few of these books already but there are still many more titles I have yet to even hear of.
As I have constructed this list, though, questions keep popping into my head: When you read nonfiction, do you read books that challenge your notions, stereotypes, and ideals? Or, do you typically read books that confirm what you hold to be true?
I do not believe this is a question only for those of us in academia. Take, for example, the question of the world’s poor.
I read the first half of Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo for an economics class on development I took this semester. The authors attempt to reexamine the questions (and answers) about (foreign) aid and the poor as presented in Jeffrey D. Sachs’ The End of Poverty and William Easterly’s The White Man’s Burden. Placing these three titles on the spectrum of left equals liberal and right equals conservative, the books would fall as follows:
(Admittedly, I am making these placements having not read the entirety of these books but on selected chapters from these titles, other papers/articles by the authors, and videos featuring the authors as well as their characterizations in Poor Economics and my professor’s presentation.)
The End of Poverty ended up on my TBR list due to the message while The White Man’s Burden sits there because of its sensational title. But there is a fourth title I did not place on my TBR list before taking this class – Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo. Moyo calls for the end of aid and for free markets to help “aid-dependent” countries. This book, obviously, belongs on the right hand side of our spectrum. As such, I have little interest in reading this book. I disagree with its premise and worry the book would leave me frustrated beyond belief.
But this also means I am cherry-picking my nonfiction to fit my beliefs. How can I expect to challenge myself and learn something new if I avoid Dead Aid? If this was the topic of my thesis, how could I expect to present a complete picture? I now feel compelled to read Dead Aid.
I know people lament starting nonfiction books only to find they have an agenda, but how does one avoid placing their own agenda on their selections? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this issue so, please, leave a comment below.
The Sunday Salon:
The Sunday Salon encourages bloggers to get together –at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones– every Sunday and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on each other’s blogs. Salon participants are encouraged to blog about their time spent reading, pages read, information about current reading, discuss a reaction to a book, state what they plan to read the following week, or make suggestions for a group read.
