I can sleep a bit easier now

Thank you to everyone who commented about my lock and key issue yesterday. In the comments Teddy Rose said "do not pass go, do not stop to collect $200, do not blog, get the locks changed now, as in yesterday!"

I'm telling you, I could do with that $200 right about now. Today I took the day off at work, and the locksmith came and changed every lock in the house that could be changed, as well as adding one to the garage door. So, several hour and $600 later, we are feeling a little more secure.

I may have to replace two screen doors and maybe look at some kind of security system, but for now, anyone using the old keys won't be able to get into the house at all, and that is the main thing.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

I am not quite sure how this has happened but I seem to be reading two short story collections at the same time. Luckily, they have very different tones - one is paranormal/romance and the other is more literary! This week's teaser comes from page 135 of The Boat by Nam Le. The lines comes from a short story called Halflead Bay:

The sea was like this. You could wait all day and then, just when you were leaving, it might offer something up - the rubbery back of a whale, the glass-sharp glint of jumping mackerel - something.

Anyone know a locksmith?

I am freaking out a little at the moment. I think someone has managed to get hold of the key to my sliding doors that lead to my deck and has been trying to get in while I have been at work.

Last night when I got home from work I noticed that both the sliding glass door and sliding security doors were open. We had had one of the doors open on Sunday afternoon but I was sure that it was all shut up before I went to bed on Sunday night. I looked around the house and it doesn't look like anything had been touched so then I thought maybe we really hadn't shut it. Only problem is the keys that were in the sliding security door were missing, but I couldn't remember if I had taken them out a while ago and just not put them back. So last night before I went to bed, I locked both doors from the inside (don't need the keys to do that), put the barbecue against the door on the outside, and then put the dining room table, some chairs and the heavy leather couch up against it on the inside.

When I got home from work tonight, the barbecue has been moved, the sliding security door was open, and I think that the sliding glass door has been locked from the outside as now I can't open it from the inside.

I think I am going to have to get the locks changed.

The Last Queen by C W Gortner

Juana of Castile, the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, is an enigmatic figure, shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C.W. Gortner challenges centuries of myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand.

The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amidst her parents’ ruthless unification of their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus’s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the Archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents’ strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII.

Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Hapsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a struggle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to win her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything . . . .

With brilliant, lyrical prose, author and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era; and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.

As much as I love reading historical fiction that is set in England, every now and again I really appreciate a change of location and characters. If that sounds a bit like you, then you can't really go wrong with The Last Queen by C W Gortner.

Whilst a lot of historical fiction fans will be familiar with the life and times of Catherine of Aragon, I must confess that I knew very little about any of her other family members. In this book, the author focuses on the life of Juana, Catherine's older sister who married into the Hapsberg family, to Phillip of Flanders (known as Phillip the Handsome). What started out as an arranged marriage quickly turned into a passionate, loving marriage but just as quickly turns into a passionate marriage of what can be a far stronger emotion - loathing and hate.

Due to a series of tragedies that hit the Aragonese royal family, Juana becomes the rightful heir to the Castilian throne. She is however forced to fight for her birthright against not only against her husband who was determined to claim the throne for himself, but also against the church, her own remaining family members, and against the distrust of the idea of a queen reigning.

As husband and wife engage in political power plays to try and gain the upper hand, as family members betray each other, and as mother becomes separated both physically and emotionally from her children, we are left with a portrayal of a woman who many would have envied as having everything, but who is left with nothing. Some of the choices that Juana did make seem somewhat foolhardy and yes, slightly mad, and the author does not shy away from these events. The portrayal of Juana is handled with sensitivity and perceptiveness, and yet as a reader, it is quite easy to be swept up in the drama and the emotion of the story.

I am glad to have been introduced to this fascinating character who in some ways is a footnote in history for many non-Europeans. I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from C W Gortner.

Rating 4.5/5


Cross posted at Historical Tapestry

May Card Swap

For the second month running I have managed to get all my card swap cards made with time to spare - very unusual! This month's theme was circles.

My original idea was to try and create a photo frame effect with a silhouette of an old fashioned woman inside the circles, sort of inspired by a cameo brooch. The idea was to have several circles of expanding diameter building up around the sides of the silhouette to give it dimension. It very quickly became obvious that there were several issues with this idea. It was incredibly difficult to locate a suitable silhouette that was either free to use from the internet or that was a stamp that I could use. The second issue was creating the circular frames themselves in such a way that they would all align when the card was created.

So, I had a rethink, and instead of having a silhouette, I decided to use half of a stamp that I bought a little while ago of a Victorian lady and go the opposite way, so that one circle is smaller than the other, and they are built up with Magic Mount, give three levels of dimension. Originally I bought this stamp to use for bookmarks for Historical Tapestry, and while I still may use it for that purpose, I haven't figured out the rest of the components yet. This is an image of what the lady looks like normally:


The next issue I had was getting hold of papers to use. What I wanted was so blue and cream type colours. I had a look through the papers that I had, and I had one sheet each of a couple of designs which would have been perfect, including those pictured below. Unfortunately, when I went to the scrap booking shop there was nothing that was really similar, so had to rethink that was well.



So what I ended up with instead was this finished card which is more brown and light blue than dark blue and cream, but never mind. The embossing is really getting caught in the flash and kind of hides the fact that there is a small pearl stuck just at the collar of the dress to try and bring the idea back to the cameo idea.


I did have a bit of an issue with the ribbon that I used because when I wanted to buy 2 metres, there wasn't that much on the roll, but I just had enough allowing for a test card and also for one screw up. There is a certain irony with the screw up because before I had finished making all the cards, I had to clear the table for dinner. When I came back to it I happily started working away, not realising that I was working on a scrap piece of paper that wasn't the same width as the actual card until far too late in the process. I thought I would try to rescue that card for my own use and not as part of the card swap (because you needed 11 identical cards) and so I put a strip of brown down the side to cover the fact that this one was narrower. Only problem is that I think that my rescued card looks better than the 11 actual cards! Whoops! Too late now though.


The other thing that I did over the last couple of days is play with a sheet of images that I bought a while ago when I went to the Stitches and Craft show. The idea is very similar to decoupage with the idea that you build up different levels of a picture, but this time with a twist. I love the image that is on this sheet. I kind of wish I had of bought a couple more of this type because with the fact that the shapes are all rectangles it was really quite easy to assemble. I also bought some Japanese ladies to do, but the cutting out on those ones is much more intricate so I will save them for a bit later. Below are two images of the same card. The first is from above, and the second is from the side so hopefully it will be clearer to see how the layering works.

Quick post

Just a quick note to say, (a) I am still around and (b) we are giving away a copy of Christine Blevins' The Tory Widow over at Historical Tapestry!

I have a relatively busy weekend coming up but have finished a few books lately so hopefully will get a more substantial post up shortly.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

Last year I really enjoyed reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am therefore really happy to be reacquainting myself with Lisbeth and Mikael in the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire. This week's teaser comes from page 279:

In this situation I should probably urge you to turn yourself in to the police, but I suspect I'd be wasting my breath. Sooner or later you're going to be found and when that happens you're going to need a friend.

Thank you!

I want to give a big shout out, and thank you, to Nicchic from Obsessed with Books (my kind of girl with a blog title like that) who has given me the following award:




Another award, this time from Susan at You Can Never Have Too Many Books (another truth if ever I heard one!). Susan has been convinced that she needs to not only watch North and South, but own it as well! We love it when we share the North and South love!


And a belated thank you to Alaine from Queen of Happy Endings who bestowed this award on me. Well actually, she said it was to Marg from Historical Tapestry, but I figure seeing as this is me and it was to me, it can be posted here!

Speaking of Historical Tapestry, it's a big week over there this week! On the weekend we had a guest post from Anna Elliott whose debut novel Twilight of Avalon is released today. On Monday we had a guest post from CW Gortner, author of the excellent The Last Queen, and on Friday we have a guest post from Christine Blevins, author of The Tory Widow, and there is going to be a giveaway as well!

Library Loot!

Normally I do Teaser Tuesday and the Library Loot on Wednesday of every week, but this week I just didn't feel up to doing Library Loot. In fact I was in bed at the very early time of 9.30 three nights in a row during the week. Part of the reason for that is that I am trying to change my eating habits, and so I think my body was going into shock at the fact that it hadn't had any chocolate, or normal Coke or anything like that for a few days. Once I got through those early nights I actually felt pretty good so we will have to see how we go from now on.

Anyway, it has been a pretty interesting week library wise this week. I found something out. They actually DO have an upper limit when it comes to the number of items out. Who knew? And how did I find this out? By reaching that upper limit of course! I have had a whole heap of items that I have had on hold come in so my library list looks very scary again, but it will get back under control soon. (Hah! Who am I trying to kid?).

So the books that I picked up from the library this week were:

Frantic by Katherine Howell - I am supposed to have read this already for OzMystery Readers but it didn't come in for ages.

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman - another book of the month for OzMystery Readers. Luckily I have read the next book already otherwise I would be in danger of striking out completely!

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian - HF, set in WWII. Exactly my kind of read.

The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - I read the first book in this series a while ago and really enjoyed it. I had borrowed this previously but had to return it because I could not renew it, so now I have it out again to hopefully read this time.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - lots of buzz around for this book so I thought I would find out for myself.

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh - I do enjoy Mary Balogh's writing, and this is the first in her latest series.

Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden - Another book I have had out before.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon - Donna Leon is one of those authors that I have been meaning to read for ages, so I finally requested the first book in her mystery series.

April edition of Good Reading Magazine

April Update

Numbers wise my books read for this month seems to be a little down on a normal month (whatever normal is!) but for a change this doesn't really worry me that much. This is because in addition to the books listed below I also read more than 600 pages in two chunksters, which equates to 3 or 4 books.

The books I read this month were:

Tiger Claws by John Speed 3/5
The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh 4/5
Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry 4/5
Marked by PC Cast and Kristin Cast 4/5
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon 3/5
Don't Bargain with a Devil by Sabrina Jeffries 4.5/5
Coraline by Neil Gaiman 4.5/5
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan 4.5/5
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner 4/5
The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson 5/5
Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell 4.5/5

The best book was The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson, and the biggest disappointment was Tiger Claws by John Speed.

I didn't do any reviews for April, although I do have a couple that are nearly ready to post! I think it is safe to say that this is a blog about books mostly these days. It's certainly not a review blog anymore!

It wasn't a bad month for reading challenges either.

I managed to read two books for the Book Awards Reading Challenge II - Shaun Tan's book was the Winner of the 2008 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic Novel, and Coraline by Neil Gaiman won a whole bunch of awards when it came out.

For the Library Challenge, I have now read 36 books, so only 14 books left to go before I have completed this challenge, and for the 100+ Challenge I have completed 49 out of the 50 books required. Given that I have more than 60 books out from the library at the moment, I should be able to read both of these targets!

This month I read 3 Chunksters - Comanche Moon is 752 pages long, The Swan Maiden is 540 pages and Miranda's Big Mistake is 475 pages long. Only one more book to go and that challenge is complete.

It was a good month for the 2009 Pub challenge as well. The Swan Maiden and Don't Bargain with a Devil are both books that were (or are going to be) first published in 2009. Five more books to go in this challenge. Silver Phoenix was also just released but because it is a YA book it doesn't count for this challenge.

This month I read five books that would count for Once Upon a Time III - Marked, Silver Phoenix, Coraline, Silver Phoenix and The Thief - so in effect I have done all the reading I need to do to call this challenge complete! Yay!

Finally, I did join one new challenge this month - the Love Bites challenge. I think that Marked fits the criteria, so that is one book down, two to go on that challenge.

I was going to do my Library Loot post in this post as well, but I think I will save that for later today instead.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

I nearly didn't do Teaser Tuesday this week, because I am still reading a couple of books that I have been going with for a while, simply because they are both very big books!

The Terror by Dan Simmons is a really long book at 769 pages. I am enjoying it a lot but I will be glad when I can close it for the last time and say 'done'. I do have another book by this author on my bookshelves to read soon as well (Drood), which is even longer! The other book I am still reading is Cross Stitch which is another huge novel at 863 pages. I was so tempted to just go through and pick out some of my favourite quotes. The problem with this book is choosing which quotes to use as there are so many great lines!

This week's teaser comes from page 498 of The Terror. I am posting a whole paragraph because I think it works much better for this teaser:

I know that Captain Crozier is especially Devestated by the Loss.. His face was so Pale when He came into camp this morning sometime after 2:00 a.m. that I would have staked my Professional Reputation on the opinion that it could not grow any paler. But it did upon his hearing the News. Even his lips became as white as the ice-pack snow we have been staring at now for the better part of three years.

An Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell

A new bestseller from one of the UK's biggest authors.

Seventeen-year-old Lola has no intention of accepting when her boyfriend's snobbish mother offers her a huge bribe to break up with him. Then Lola discovers a secret that makes her think again, and the only way she can help one of the people she loves most in the world is to take the money and break Dougie's heart.

Ten years later, when Lola meets Dougie again, her feelings for him are as strong as ever. She'll do almost anything to get him back, but she can never tell him the truth. Can she overcome his bitterness and win his heart? She's attractive, persuasive, and endlessly optimistic, but even Lola's got her work cut out for her this time.

A number of years ago I was given at least two Jill Mansell books to read. I read them, enjoyed them, but then didn't really continue reading any of her books. So when I was offered this book for review, I jumped at the chance to renew my acquaintance with Mansell's work.

This is one of Jill Mansell's later books, having originally been released in the UK last year. It is the first of the books that Sourcebooks are planning to release into the US market this year. One of the things that I did wonder was how some of the more British language would translate to the US market. I lived in the UK for a number of years, but there were still a few terms that I didn't easily recognise. For example, what on earth are Toasta Bags? If my interpretation of what they do is correct, I want some, if you can toast a sandwich in the toaster without making a mess!

In terms of the actual story, the characters follow a fairly typical chick lit arc in the storyline. Lola is a young woman who is desperately in love with Dougie. When his mother offers her a sizable amount of money, Lola would ordinarily have said no, but due to an unexpected situation she realises that this is a chance to make someone close to her happy, even if it means that she must never see Dougie again.

Fast forward a number of years and Lola has just returned to the UK after living overseas. She has no way of knowing that by helping out a woman who is being attacked in the street, that she is going to bring herself into contact with Dougie, and his family again.

Whilst the story does focus on Lola and Dougie, the author also manages to fit in secondary stories for Lola's friend Gabe (his adventures in his new career as a paparazzi are both funny and poignant), Dougie's sister, Lola's mother and at least one other person from her past.

If there was one small criticism to be made of this book, it is that all the loose ends were so completely nicely tied up at the end, but that is a small thing really. If you want a fun chick lit read, then from my experience, both with this book, and with the other books I have read from this author in the past, you can't go wrong with Jill Mansell.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me this book for review.

Rating: 4/5


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Bermudaonion
My Friend Amy
Booking Mama
Savvy Verse and Wit

An Anzac Day tradition

Today is Anzac Day, a day when we celebrate the sacrifices made by our soldiers during conflict. The reason why it we celebrate on this day, is because on April 25, 1915, our soldiers arrived a Gallipoli, the first time that we had fought not as British soldiers, but as Australians. The word Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and this is a day that we share proudly with our New Zealand comrade.

This day is a day I actually get very emotional and very proud to be an Aussie. There are the inevitable documentaries about various actions, either the debacle at Gallipoli itself or the conflict on the Western Front. If you are really keen you can go to the dawn service, or there are generally services later in the day, and a big parade in the city as well.

Over the last few years I have posted poems, and videos and stories of sacrifice, but today I thought I would post about something a little different.

It has often been said that Aussies will bet on just about anything, and on Anzac Day especially, if you want to throw some money away you might do it by playing Two-Up. It is actually illegal to run a Two Up game for money anywhere outside of a casino any other day of the year, but on Anzac Day two-up schools (which is what a game of two-up is called) pop up all over the place.

So what is two-up? Basically it is a betting game when you toss up two coins (traditionally pennies) and bet on whether they are going to land on heads, tails or odds (where the coins land with one head up and one tail up). Among the rules are the stipulation that the coins must be flipped up more than 1 metre above the head, and the spinner (the person flipping the coins) wins if they can throw 3 lots of heads in a row.

I was trying to find some video where the noise didn't just sound like a rabble, but one of the thing that goes hand in hand with two-up for many is drinking, but here is a short video of a veteran being the spinner (warning there is a little swearing at the end), and the second video is some radio announcers at a Brisbane radio stations learning how to play two-up.

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Library Loot!

There's something just a little bit different about this week's library loot! The obvious difference is the widget showing the covers. The other thing is that there are again lots of library books out, but the difference is that they are from two different libraries!

At one point I was actually a member of four library districts. There were two different libraries over near where I used to live about 4 years ago and that is about 45 minutes away from where I live now, so it isn't exactly easy to get to either of them. On the weekend just gone, I made the big step of getting rid of my library cards to both of these as the likelihood of me borrowing something from them again is remote really.

The other two libraries that I am a member of is the library district near my house, which I visit at least once a week, and then there is a library less than 10 minutes walk from where I work. I joined that library a few months again, but I hadn't borrowed anything from there until this week!

So the books that I borrowed from my normal library were:

Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters
Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding anthology
Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
Web of Love by Mary Balogh
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom DVD
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
Tomorrow when the War Began by John Marsden (audio book)
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Boat by Nam Le

Now you may have noticed in previous posts that I was actually reading The Terror. I got really stuck on it last week, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but just because I couldn't seem to read! I have left it in the Currently Reading section of my sidebar as it is my intention to pick that one up from where I left off last week when I finish the current book that I am reading, perhaps tomorrow.

As I need to try and figure out how to do a slideshow for a craft blog that I help out with, I have come up with the following display of covers for the books listed above.

From the other library (near work) I picked up Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and Her Only Desire by Gaelen Foley. I couldn't borrow the Foley from my main library because it appears as though their copy is lost. As for Lonesome Dove, it turns out that if I had of realised, I actually didn't need to borrow it from the library anyway! When I finished Comanche Moon, the first thing I tried to do was request the next book in the series. I thought it was really odd that my main library had the first two books in the Lonesome Dove series but didn't have the third, and most famous, book, Lonesome Dove.

One of my work colleagues asked me if I owned a copy of Angels and Demons that she could borrow. I came home and was just about to go to bed when I remembered her request so went in to scour my bookshelf to look for it, and ended up creating a big mess of books that I will need to fix, probably on the weekend. I didn't find Angels and Demons, because my brother borrowed it years ago I think, but I did find my own copy of Lonesome Dove that I bought when the mini-series originally was shown on TV, which I guess makes back in the 80s some times!


****Library Loot is a weekly meme hosted by Alessandra from Out of the Blue and Eva from A Striped Armchair****

Teaser Tuesday and a little Star Trek fun

It's not very often that I put a photo of myself up on the blog, but this widget looked like so much fun when I saw it over at Scifichick.com that I just couldn't resist!

Yes, I really am hiding underneath there!

Onto more serious business - Teaser Tuesday!


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

Two teasers this week, both from books I am enjoying immensely!

The Swan Maiden is the latest book by Aussie author Jules Watson. It is a retelling of the Irish Celtic myth about Diedre and so far is very enjoyable. I had to be very careful this morning to make sure I didn't get so engrossed in my reading that I went past my train station! This teaser comes from page 369:

As he spoke to them, he had been filled with the memory of what it felt like in a great mass of warriors, and his long-dammed passion had fired his words.

And so the Epidii felt a glimpse of it, at last.

The second teaser comes from an old favourite. I don't really do rereads, but I decided that it was time for me to reintroduce myself to Jamie and Claire and so I am rereading the first book in the Outlander series, which was published here under the title Cross Stitch. This teaser comes from page 400:

Now, listen. Ye understand me, ye say, and I believe it. But there's a difference between understandin' something with your mind and really knowing, deep down.

The end has come!

So the read-a-thon is over for this time! I have to say that I don't think it was my most auspicious effort for a first time, but there was too many other factors involved. I don't think that some of those factors are necessarily going to go away any time soon either. One is the child factor - in this weekend's case it was sport and also wanting to watch a movie together. The other factor is really the times. In less than 8 hours I need to be up and going to work, and there is just no way that that would be enough recovery time if I hadn't slept for the last 24 hours. I still had fun, I am just a bit disappointed that I didn't get to participate more in mini-challenges, or to get around to visit anyone else who was participating at all. Last time the read-a-thon was on, I was a cheerleader and I literally didn't move away from the computer for about 12-14 hours. This time, as a reader, I really struggled to string together more than a couple of hours at a time for reading.

I did end up fitting in some more reading time, but it wasn't exactly quality as I was reading whilst my son was watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Ark in the same room, and so I kept on getting distracted!

I did end up getting about 150 pages into Cross Stitch. Not as much as I would have liked, but still it is a start! All up my stats for the read-a-thon were:


Running totals

Minutes read: Approximately 320

Pages read during official readathon: Approximately 500

Pages read so far this weekend: Approx 700

Books completed during official readathon: 2

Books completed so far this weekend: 3

The books I completed on the weekend were Don't Bargain with the Devil by Sabrina Jeffries, Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. I also started The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, The Swan Maiden by Jules Watson and Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon.

Now I need to go and check my emails, check into the forums I am supposed to mod on but haven't logged into for 36 hours, check Bloglines (I hate to think how many feeds there are to read given that I was already behind before this started), and think about cleaning up my kitchen and finishing my laundry. Maybe I need to take another day off tomorrow just to catch-up!

And the answer to how many Bloglines entries I currently have - 1830!

So it's going well...or not!

In the last 3 hours I have spent 45 minutes preparing dinner, 90 minutes sleeping, oh, and 45 minutes reading! During those 45 minutes I managed to read about 55 pages, but still! It seems the spirit is willing but the mind and body are weak!

Running totals

Minutes read: Approximately 200

Pages read during official readathon: Approximately 380

Pages read so far this weekend: Approx 680

Books completed during official readathon: 2

Books completed so far this weekend: 3

Just got back

I am hoping to get some solid reading time in now, other than when I have to cook dinner.

There is a distinct possibility that I might fall asleep though!

I am hoping to have some photos and maybe video of the first game soon!

This hour's mini challenge is about rereads, which is timely because I am planning to start rereading Cross Stitch now, which is known in other parts of the world as Outlander, the first book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. This is one of my favourite series ever, but because I don't really do rereads normally, I haven't ever reread this book at all. I am really looking forward to going back to the beginning of the fantastic story which feature Claire and Jamie!

Mid event survey!

1. What are you reading right now? The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

2. How many books have you read so far? 2 or 3 depending on how official you want to be.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I really want to sink my teeth into Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon.

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? I wasn't really able to given the time zones and also my son's sporting commitments.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I've had more interupti0ns than reading time, if you count the need to sleep!

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I would try and make it a weekend event as opposed to set hours so as to give the people who have trouble with time zones a bit more flexible! I have just changed what I needed to change so that I could participate but I get that that probably isn't really the intention behind the whole concept.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? I would try to clear the day out a bit more!

9. Are you getting tired yet? No, I just got out of bed a couple of hours ago!

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? Not really. I haven't really been able to get to visit anyone else or participate in any of the mini-challenges or anything like that.

Update

Today is a big day in our house. My son plays his first ever game of real football. Not just doing skills but actually competing to win. He is very excited, and is already to go, so this will be my final update before we leave to go and play!

I will be back to reading in a few hours time!

Running totals

Minutes read: Approximately 160

Pages read during official readathon: Approximately 330

Pages read so far this weekend: Approx 630

Books completed during official readathon: 2

Books completed so far this weekend: 3