1. What are you reading right now?
I got tired and didn’t know what to do after my cheerleading shift, so I decided to pick up one of the shorter reads I had planned for this event – Sweet 16 #4 Trent by Daniel Parker. It is an easy read, and it’s translated into Swedish which is nice. It’s a little easier reading in my native language so that makes it a good in-between book.

2. How many books have you read so far?
I have read in 3 different books, but have yet to finish one. I began Outlander and Trent from scratch, the first being an 800 page book, which I will not finish this readathon, and the second being a 150 page teen novel which takes seconds to read in comparison (halfway through within an hour). Then I also have Insurgent, which I started before this event but since it’s an e-book that I read on my phone I don’t like to read it for a long period of time. Then I just miss holding a book with real pages.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I have no idea. I would love to continue with Outlander, since the book was amazing, but since there’s no prospect of finishing it during this event I might choose to not read it, just to make sure I feel progress. Seeing twitter posts about people finishing the third or fourth book when I’ve finished none doesn’t feel that good. Depending on how bored I am with the teens literature after Trent, I might continue with more of the book in the Sweet 16 series or read Anne of Green Gables, which I’ve been looking forward to for a while now. If you’ve read the latter book, please tell me if it is an easy read or not!

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
My biggest interruption was when the hour I had signed up for cheering arrived. It took me over an hour to AFTER my cheering hour to get my nose back into a book. I dealt with it the only way I thought would affect me; I asked for some cheering on twitter and got it! <3 This was one of the answers to my request:

@BlondeBookGirl Oh no! *ducks away from heavy book* OK, I'll read!! :D

— Rävöra (@mfoxears) April 25, 2015

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Twitter. When I read the last time (april 2012), I read from China and had to have a VPN which did not work at all times to reach twitter and blogspot. So to see the love spread on twitter really makes a difference! The fact that I just asked for some much needed cheering and received it within minutes, almost seconds is amazing!

Half way through and still more than half of my coke supply left! I will survive!

Books finished: 0
Books started: 2
Pages read: 211
Total amount of books opened: 3

Hour 8: Book Spine Poetry
Link

This was a real challenge, since I don’t own that many books in english, just 20 something… and no one with a verb as a title! I manage something though!

The shock
of the old outlander
Real world shock,
beneath the darkening moon

Hour 9: On Food and Books
Link

This is also a hard one, since I’m a danger to myself and everyone around me in the kitchen. Last I cooked there were no casualties, but the three times before that I managed to cut my finger doing guacamole, burn garlic bread in the oven and slam the fridge door on my partners hand. So no recipes of mine should be made without taking proper caution. I remember trying to make butterbeer from Harry Potter once, in the Swedish translation called Honey Beer. It did not turn out drinkable. My cooking is more or less limited to following finished recipes, far away from sharp knives. So that’s why there will be no recipe from me, and I’ll leave this amazing challenge to people that can cook without hurting themselves. :D

Hour 10: Plan a Bookish Party
Link

Since Harry Potter is one of my favourite books I would pick this for a party theme. I actually already had a Harry Potter party once where I requested everyone to dress up as a character from the book. I came as Bellatrix, a role I have since repeated once at Halloween, with a black death eater mark glowing on my white and pale wrist. During this party I did not have much food that was in universe because of cost and time restraints, but were I to do it again I would. First of all I would find a recipe of butterbeer (and try it beforehand) and also I once found this amazing list of Harry Potter inspired cocktails, shots and long drinks, and since I took a one week bartending course in 2013 I would not miss the chance to serve those to my guests! I would serve cauldron cakes and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans (jelly beans will be sufficient enough), and I would make sure to drape my apartment with the colours of my house (Slytherin). Every guest would of course get their own homemade wand, which I would make from chopsticks and decorade with a glue gun. It’s ok, I’ve seen this done on the internet, I’m positive I will mess up the first 10+ wands.

Since I always LOVE having some games that is centered around clues and such, I would of course have it here as well. For example dividing the guests into teams and having them solve puzzles, such as crosswords, anagrams and the likes, to know where to go next. Of course this would center around Harry Potter-knowledge with questions such as ”which spell creates water?” or ”name all horcruxes in the order they where destroyed”.

My brain is all weird and I can’t really make sense of the world. Thought it was time for a break and looked at the clock to see it is just the start of hour 9. I went over to the Dewey’s site and as usual I just read what minichallenges was up, thinking I would participate in some before I start my cheer-leading shift. I almost skipped over the ”winners” part and only looked because I saw a word that was closely familiar to my own name, and yes, there it was! I never thought I would win, but wow that really spurs my motivation to continue for the entire night and next day! (it’s 10 pm here)

Books finished: 0
Books started: 1
Pages read: 133
Total amount of books opened: 2

I’ve read just over 100 pages in Outlander which is a 800 page book, something I did not know when I selected it for the readathon. Had I known I would probably not have picked it, but I’m glad I did since I’ve been enjoying it. After ”part one” in Outlander I decided to go for another read and turned to Insurgent, the book I was reading before this readathon. Since it is a YA the reading feels a little lighter and not so heavy as Outlander which improved my mood, and so far no books finished yet. I will definitely be able to finish Insurgent during the readathon since I only have about 80 pages left or so, but the prospects of finishing Outlander are non-existent. I am a slow reader and 800 pages would take me around 25-30 hours to complete, being alert through all those hours, which I know I will not be at 5 am. Now I will start cheering, and we’ll see what I choose to read at the start of hour 10.

And I still can’t grasp that I won. That is just unrealistic to me on some level…

Yesterday I went to a party, and I thought that it would be fine since I wouldn’t have to get up before 1 pm to begin the readathon. I even came home at a reasonable time and went to bed so that I would get more than 10 hours sleep. Well, that didn’t matter. I still was all tired when I woke up, not sleepy, but just ”day after party”-tired. I’ve been trying to cure this tiredness with a lot of food and coke to be able to get some reading done, and it has worked OK, but I have learned my lesson. Next time I will have a nice stay at home evening with some movies or so the night before the readathon.

Books finished: 0
Books started: 1
Pages read: 50
Total amout of books opened: 1

A few pages into Outlander now, and I really like it so far! I’m very happy to see that a lot from the book had been adapted into the TV-series. Some longer quotes actually taken straight in. This makes in great to read, since I don’t get the ”oh, the book is so much better why did I spoil it all with this stupid movie before reading it”-feeling. Which is apparently a feeling. ;)

I’m now looking forward to join the minichallenges that has started so far. I’ve already posted the intro challenge in my previous post, and now I will share my take on the hour 2 and 3 challenges.

Hour 2: Classic Words of Wisdom
Link

I’m not much of a fan for the books people usually refers to as ”the classics”. Of the few I read I have found them boring, and maybe it was the fault of my Swedish teacher in junior high that had the whole class read ”Of Mice and Men”, a book that I really hated. Since then I’ve rarely tried reading something I knew was considered a ”classic” because the only thing I thought was of this terrible experience. The quote above is from a classic that I read without knowing it was one, and I liked it, and it helped me realize that maybe I should give classics a second chance. Not all of them can be ”Of Mice and Men”, right?

I like the quote because it speaks the truth of human nature, the truth of what we will do if left to our lazy selves. We can fight this destruction if we want, and I know that many do, and a lot of people just ”don’t care”. The quote is maybe not the most positive quote, but it tells me that we humans have known for a long time what we are, and still we don’t really try to change that. Why, I wonder.

Hour 3: Seasons in Four Covers
Link

The colours in these pictures are the biggest reasons I choose them. For winter the cover has some ice and snow if you look real close, for spring I just felt the surrounding in the cover felt spring-like, for summer the girl is walking in a meadow full of dandelions and for autumn it is only the bright orange, burning colours that made me choose it.