I've been basy placing holds on books from the library. Do you know what that means?

This always happens. I sit down on my computer and start placing holds on library books, some print and others e-books or audiobooks. Then I wait. And voila! They all come in at once! It never fails. One would think I'd learned my lesson from past experiences with the same results. But, no. No, I haven't.

So now I have a batch of four audiobooks and seven print books that all need my immediate attention. There is no time to waste. It is time for my own personal 24-hour Blog-n-Readathon.

Since it is just me, I get to make the rules. They are:

• Complete 24 hours of reading/blog reviewing in four days. That is an average of six hours every day for the next four days. Doable.
• For every book I complete during that time period, I will write and publish a review. In the past I just read for 24 hours and then had a dickens of a time catching up on all my reviews afterwards. This time I am combining my efforts so I have a strong sense of accomplishment when the 24 hours is up.
• Keep track of my progress here on this post at the end of each of the four days. Also update my pages read on my Goodreads account.
  
• Listen to an hour+ of the audio version of The Count of Monte Cristo each day. An hour of listening is about 25 pages of this dense book, so that will mean I'll cover at least 100 pages of text during the readathon. I am currently on page 279.
  
• Possible other books:
• The Dictionary of Lost Words (audio) -- Currently 24% complete; a future book club selection
  
• The Opposite of Loneliness (print) -- Currently 5% complete
• The Book of Delights (print)
• Citizen Vince (print) -- another book club selection
• Also a Poet (print) -- a memoir 
• 10 Little Tractors (print) --- yes, I am counting a board book.
• When My Brother was an Aztec (print) --- poetry
• The Road (audio) --- part of my Pulitzer Project
• I Hope This Finds You Well (audio) --- Poetry
• The Marriage Portrait (audio) --- yet another book club selection.
  

Five of the books I hope to get to on this readathon.

 

Updates:

End of day #1, Thursday. My progress:

-Hours spend reading/writing reviews: 7 hours, 50 minutes

• Writing blog review of The Beekeeper of Aleppo --- 1 hr.
  
• Audiobook listening of I Hope This Finds You Well -- 50 minutes, finished.
• Audiobook listening of The Count of Monte Cristo -- 1 1/2 hours, up to page 310, 24% complete.
• Audiobook listening of The Dictionary of Lost Words -- 2 1/2 hours, up to page 161, 42% complete.
• Read The Opposite of Loneliness -- 1 hr., up to page 83, 40% complete
• Read When My Brother Was An Aztec -- 25 minutes, up to page 31, 30% complete
• Read 10 Little Tractors (Board book) -- 5 minutes, finished! (Reviewed on Goodreads)
• Read The Bible -- 30 minutes
  

End of day #2, Friday. My progress: 5 hours, 30 minutes

• Audiobook listening of The Count of Monte Cristo -- 1 1/2 hours, up to page 343, 27% complete.
• Audiobook listening of The Dictionary of Lost Words -- 2 1/2 hours, up to page 226, 59% complete.
• Read The Opposite of Loneliness -- 1 hr., up to page 111, 53% complete
• Read When My Brother Was An Aztec -- 30 minutes, up to page 73, 73% complete 

End of day #3, Saturday. My progress: 6 hours, 45 minutes

• Writing blog review for I Hope This Finds You Well -- 1 hour
• Writing blog review for The Opposite of Loneliness -- 45 minutes
• Audiobook listening of The Dictionary of Lost Words -- 45 minutes, up to page 250, 65% complete.
• Read The Opposite of Loneliness --1 hour and 15 minutes, finished.
• Read When My Brother Was An Aztec -- 15 minutes, finished.
• Read The Count of Monte Cristo -- 30 minutes, up to page 360, 28% complete.
• Read e-book of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (I added this to my reading list last night after a recommendation from Deb Nance at ReaderBuzz) -- 1.5 hours, up to the letter D, 33% complete.
• Read The Bible -- 45 minutes

End of day #4, Sunday: 3 1/2 hours.

• Audiobook listening of The Dictionary of Lost Words --  1 hour and 45 minutes, up to page 322, 84% complete.
• Read e-book of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life -- 1.5 hours, up to the letter U, 87% complete.
• Read Citizen Vince -- 15 minutes, page 15, 5% complete.

Wrap up:  

• I read or wrote review blogs for 23 hours and 35 minutes toward my goal of 24 hours. Not bad. Sunday was a challenge with church and then a play up in Seattle. I actually worked pretty hard to scrunch in 3 1/2 hours.
• I finished 4 books, but one of them was a board book. Ha! I wrote blog reviews for two of them, plus a blog review that was pending when the challenge started, plus two Goodread reviews, which are always shorted and less thought out than the ones I write on my blog.
• I am within striking distance on two other books, The Dictionary of Lost Words and Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. I should finish both of these on Monday, no problem.
• I didn't achieve my 100 page goal of The Count of Monte Cristo, but did make progress and I have been super generous with myself with a a completion goal of December. So I am sure I'll get it done eventually.
• The books I finished:
• The Opposite of Loneliness (print)
  
• 10 Little Tractors (print) --- yes, a board book.
• When My Brother was an Aztec (print) --- poetry
• I Hope This Finds You Well (audio) --- Poetry
   
• The books I am still hoping to read soon:
• The Count of Monte Cristo (Audio and Print) -- Currently on page 360, 28% complete.
  
• The Dictionary of Lost Words (audio) -- Currently on page 322, 84% complete.
  
• The Book of Delights (print)
• Citizen Vince (print) -- Currently on page 15, 5% complete.
  
• Also a Poet (print) -- a memoir 
• The Road (audio) 
• The Marriage Portrait (audio) 
• Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (e-book) -- on page 304 of 348, 87% complete
   
• As per usual after I complete one of these readathon thingys I am feeling good and more determined than ever to keep myself on track moving forward. But this feeling may be fleeting. I just received notice that I have two more books waiting for me at the library.
  

-Anne