So Many Books... - 48 Hours Sum-up

Jun. 8th, 2009

09:33 am - 48 Hours Sum-up

-As I said in the last post, my total reading time was 29 hours and 25 minutes. My personal best !

-In that time I only read 6 book-equivalents*, which is one less than my personal best, and about a tenth of what the highest number read for the challenge (if collected) will be. Painfully slow.**

-Only wrote about 4 of the 6 books, but will be getting to the others soon, though the last, Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters, is an anthology of which I'd read many stories already, so won't have much to say on that one.

- Made my donation to Books for Africa, in an amount that will apparently buy 100 classroom books. Kind of staggering.

- The Challenge itself was obviously a huge success, with well over 100 participants - isn't that a wonderful thought? 116 people all gathered to a common reading cause by one smart-arsed - uh, by the wonderful MotherReader!

It was so big and successful that I ended up feeling at times a bit like the shy girl in the corner, who only knew a few people and was scared of all the groups of good buddies.*** So...

My own follow-up challenge includes a commitment to visit and comment on 2 participant blogs on which I don't normally comment every day this week. Less squidgy-personally, I'm going to get through my backlog of un-talked-about read books by doing one post a day, minimum, for the rest of the week. (Lack of family crises allowing, of course****.)

* I didn't finish the last story in Pretty Monsters, but got another hour's worth of listening to The Order of Odd-Fish audiobook, which would have been plenty of time to have read the story.

** I think I need to do a bit of serious thinking about my reading again - some of it is simply middle-aged-ness (and I'm due glasses for reading with contacts in, no doubt), but I might get out Tony Buzan's book and do some work on it - I really noticed how horribly wandery my path on the reading page got when I was tired and the light wasn't good.

*** Yes, I AM 50. And?

**** Yes, superstitious jinx-aversion IS silly, but the first year's challenge went horribly wrong due to my mother's coming down with a particularly virulent stomach bug which I caught after taking care of her. The kind of memory that stays with you...

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Comments:

From:	asakiyume
Date:	June 8th, 2009 09:37 am (UTC)

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The jinx-dispelling magic makes good sense to me. Last summer we had plans to bike, en famille, several hundred miles along the route of the Erie Canal. Then the two oldest kids came down with whooping cough.

This year, as we plan a family bike ride, I find myself in a state of heightened anxiety--even though the whooping cough, at least, can't repeat itself (... I think)

Your reading seems to me to be prodigious! And I appreciate the write-ups.

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 10:10 am (UTC)

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Oh -- [stumbling over which response to put first] that holiday sounds amazing! But whooping cough - ack! And I feel your anxiety too for this year's plan!

And thank you for the comment re the Challenge too. (In comparison? Other participants got through 20+ books over the same period, which just astounds me.)

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From:	steepholm
Date:	June 8th, 2009 10:49 am (UTC)

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Other participants got through 20+ books

But I steadfastly refuse to believe they were taking them all in...

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 11:13 am (UTC)

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Well, it's a belief that may be comforting to the slow readers like us, but is too insulting to the speedy ones to be clung to, I think! (I can name you names of fast readers like that if you need back-up evidence...)

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From:	steepholm
Date:	June 8th, 2009 11:21 am (UTC)

Evidence be damned!

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Lalala I can't hear you...

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 11:29 am (UTC)

Re: Evidence be damned!

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Hee!

But you can SEE ME... So I could sneak evidence in front of your eyes before you could shut them!

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From:	dy0ulee
Date:	June 8th, 2009 12:46 pm (UTC)

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Great job, I hope to see you participating again next year! I love your follow up challenge. I think I'm going to try it. :D

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 01:43 pm (UTC)

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Thank you! It would be nice to have company, as a challenge is never as much fun by yourself.

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From:	mreader
Date:	June 8th, 2009 01:40 pm (UTC)

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You did great! Don't knock yourself on book numbers. I am usually a super speedy reader, but had much more trouble this year with So Many Books. Thanks for playing again!

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 02:58 pm (UTC)

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Thanks again for organizing the Challenge - it's something I start looking forward to months before!

I like your userpic too. :)

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From:	emmaco
Date:	June 8th, 2009 05:53 pm (UTC)

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I'm glad you had a good time reading and nothing major derailed the experience! I'll go read your posts from during the challenge now...

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 8th, 2009 09:07 pm (UTC)

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Thanks - I was very glad too! Maybe next year will be your year. :)

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From:	emmaco
Date:	June 9th, 2009 06:44 am (UTC)

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I had a lovely weekend in Paris so won't complain :) But yes, perhaps 2010 will be cooperative (even if it's freaky writing 2010 already).

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From:	jensbookpage
Date:	June 9th, 2009 12:30 am (UTC)

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Impressive reading total!! As for the commenting thing, I definitely felt like I commented on the blogs that I usually comment on, and didn't do a good enough job going out and commenting on new blog. This hit home when I received comments from a bunch of new-to-me blogs. I vow to do better next year.

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From:	lady_schrapnell
Date:	June 9th, 2009 06:48 pm (UTC)

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Thanks! Yes, I've also got some plans for thinking about the social element ahead of time next year, so it doesn't get relatively ignored. But how cool we're all already thinking about next year!

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From:	jensbookpage
Date:	June 9th, 2009 07:12 pm (UTC)

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That is definitely true. If only I could manage the house to myself again...

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