What are you currently reading?
The Iliad by Homer
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
What did you just finish reading?
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin
Backpacks and Brastraps with Savannah Grace
Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
What do you think you’ll read next?
The Regulators by Richard Bachman
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
I’m always both sad to see a Readathon end…and a bit relieved. Sad, because Readathons are FUN! Everyone reads as much as they possibly can, we put aside everything else and go into marathon reading mode. Many of us forgo all TV and any other activities and plow through as many books we possibly can. There are reading sprints, friendly competitions. I always keep track of how much I’m reading each day and try to beat my numbers.
But, by the end of it, I’m usually ready for a TV day. My brain is worn OUT. It doesn’t help that I’m in the middle of rereading Game of Thrones right now, either!
So, how’d I do?
Books Read:
A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham
Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (Page 1-57)
Backpacks and Brastraps by Savannah Grace
A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin (Up to Page 408)
Plus a short story per day, usually 3-7 pages.
Pages Read: 2,900
I did all but one of the challenges. Sorry Saturday…I just am not graphically inclined enough to recreate a book cover!
I skipped over The Iliad, which technically was on my TBR list before most of these, but that would have sucked up the whole challenge time. I will read that soon, I promise. I also am overdue on an ARC, but it’s only readable on my tablet, which died right before the Readathon started. Yikes! Other than that, I think I did pretty well. I would have been able to read a higher number of books if I hadn’t been reading Martin, but I got through a lot of actual pages, so I’m happy with the turnout.
The last few books I’ve read have been intense–from Game of Thrones to a nonfiction memoir about a boy genius starving in Africa. My brain has been on overdrive, and so have my emotions. I was ready for an “easy read.”
And so I picked a novel about cancer.
What? So much sense I make, right?
Colleen Oakley’s new book Before I Go is due to release on January 6. And yes, it is about a women in Stage 4 Breast Cancer. Or, as she calls it: Lots of Cancer. She tackles her Lots of Cancer with…not so much grace as much as stark reality, frustration, and determination. What else are you going to do when you have an orange in your brain?
This isn’t a romance novel, but Oakley follows that same romance novel pattern, which I think is why it was so calming to read, even while it was an emotional subject. It’s very much Women’s Fiction…if not really Chick Lit.
I blew through this in an afternoon, and it was a page turner for sure. I fell in love with Daisy, maybe because she reminded me so much of myself..and Jack is so much my husband. Their relationship was so familiar, and I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t get maybe a little more emotionally involved than I normally would have in a book like this.
This is one to look out for in January. I’ll be recommending it to my mom and sisters. It’s just the type of book they’d like!
What are you currently reading?
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
What did you just finish reading?
Breeder by KB Hoyle
The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
What do you think you’ll read next?
Before I Go by Colleen Oakley
Backpacks and Brastraps by Savannah Grace
A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin
I am also overdue to read The Iliad, but I am saving that until after the readathon. I’ll be hitting that up as soon as this week is over, so we’ll see how many books I get though! I keep putting it off, and I need to get to it!
As I Lay Reading 