Happy Monday

I so  didn’t want to take off my cheering outfit (by the way, I once tried on my 6th grade COUGAR Cheerleader uniform while I was in college and though it was extremely tight, I was able to get it all the way on!    And I’m skinnier now than when I was in college so I suppose I should have found and worn it yesterday.   OK, I’m seriously going overboard here!)

Yesterday afternoon, I was finally able to tear myself away from the PC and was so fortunate to join a REAL LIFE ‘physical’ book discussion of Never Let Me Go  by K Ishiguro (thx Holly for driving!!) and it was a blast.   Although, not many embraced it as much as I did - some didn’t finish nor even start it, and one lady, I quote, ”I hated it.”    But the discussion was really REALLY  good.   so fun…    I SOOOOO wanted to dominate the entire gathering regaling them how fun the Read-A-Thon was – I was still coming down from that high, I guess.   Holly had to endure most of my yapping during the drive into Boston and I spared the nice ladies at the book club any showings of my extreme enthusiasm.    I did push my blog as hard as I dared, though…

We chose   The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao  by Junot Diaz.   You’ve all heard of this, right?    I have but not in detail.    SO I’ll just point you here and you can read all about it from WIKI of all places.    Isn’t it thrilling when an author’s debut novel hits paydirt?!      Of course, those royalty checks and, I’m sure, advances for the next one are terrific, but the feeling of winning a Pulitzer?   I don’t know – is that like winning an Oscar?    Not being the entire book geek I want to be, please tell me – what IS the ultimate prize for a book?

OK, a few announcements.    Lisa Roe who is connecting books with the online world, will soon have new titles and has news about a worthwhile cause.   SIS BOOM BAH!   * what does that mean anyway?

and Trish at Hey, Lady has an enormous book giveaway going on.     (There’s another entry for me!)   Yea, I know I blabbed that I didn’t even want to win, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help another nice person KNOW about it so that they can win, right?   Sometimes advertising is SHARING needed knowledge.   Please visit her blog to enter:    http://trishsdiary.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/14-book-giveaway/

Have a Reading Monday!    a few more things to share:   yesterday was my highest day evah!  with 246 and someone found my blog with the search term ‘fun’.     That cheers me….

Cheering Addiction

OK, I gotta stop.    The hub left me to go fishing so nobody has come by the office and glared at me.  The dog seems to be having a dog-day and is sleeping on the cold marble in front of the fireplace and I can’t seem to stop checking the darn GoogleReader.

Well, I’m hungry, tired, cranky and smelly so I must quit now!

It was fun!   Til next time, “Keep reading!  SIS BOOM BAH!” 

Thoughts on the ‘Thon Now That It’s Over

Well, we have just over an hour left, ALMOST over!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  The hours when my husband wanted me to ‘come out and play’ and not sit in front of the PC.  so ALL the evening hours!  We sat by the pool of one of our neighbors for a few hours with me bebopping back to spread a little cheer sometime in there with the excuse of ‘potty break’ and then the next-door family had a huge cookout with fireworks, all that jazz. I think we came in at 11 pm and I cheered about an hour and a half. Then attempted some sleep but it was restless. I got up at 4:30 am EST and didn’t move except to refill my coffee cup for 4 hours straight!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?   I saw quite a few completion lists with Stardust by Neil Gaiman.   But then, I really want to read this so that’s probably why I noticed it. 

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?   I think overall, the event was AMAZING and incredibly well run and organized.   Can’t think of a thing except personal things I want to remember for myself now that I know what it’s all about.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?    all of it?    I feel bad about the few links in the list that didn’t get linked  (FinnyB and MorganMoore?) and the few blogs that I was unable to comment at the beginning seemed to get fixed later, so that was good.   I’m pretty sure I got to everyone at least once and with the GoogleReader, I visited many blogs many, many times!    (if you’re reading this and I didn’t visit you, pls let me know and I will visit in the future.  but somehow, I doubt you’d be here to read this… oh well!)

5. How many books did you read?   I read over 60 pages!    and I still have some time so I might read some more yet. I was not signed up to be a READER, only a cheer-er.

6. What were the names of the books you read?    none completed.

7. Which book did you enjoy most?    When We Were Orphans by K Ishiguro

8. Which did you enjoy least?    not applicable

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?    YES!  Make sure you have a google blog id – goes much faster since there are a lot of google-blogspotters…    THANK YOU to whomever set up the feed;  it couldn’t be done without it.  or not as easily.     Which, sadly, means that if a reader didn’t update or add many posts, they probably didn’t get as many SIS-BOOM-BAHs and pompon waves. Also… I attempted to keep a count of comments and it got away from me fast. I know I got thru my list on paper ONCE and then got a few more double and/or triple checked. Then I realized I’d lost control. I would like to figure out a way to do this next time. Even tho, I might not cheer… Also, I think we could have been given – or asked to – provide a 4-5 hour time frame of being HEAD-CHEERleader or maybe to make up a zinger of poem to cheer with or even have as a challenge to visit all the cheerleaders during their assigned time – or something. Maybe that is too cheer-centric and off the concept. Speaking like the egocheermaniac, that I was! aNyway, I’m brainstorming…

 

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?   YES, again:  YES.  I loved it.   I want to be a reader next time.    Which also means that I will need to spend a few hours brainwashing the Hub to be more Hub-O’Wonder-like  and to RESPECT this event.    I will still comment and blog about as a reader but don’t want to commit to cheering.   Then, when I grow up to be as wicked cool as Eva, I will try both.    

Other things to store away in/for my ‘rememory’ is:

1.    Have a clean house.   Lots of healthy snacks.   Prepare the coffee pot before I need it.   Clean off my desk.  Have pens/notebooks handy.

2.    GET some graphic novels and short stories and poetry books.  oh!  and audio books.

3.   Choose funny and light books as well as fascinating memoirs.

4.   Brainwash Hub into LEAVING for the weekend or …   give him notice that I’m leaving for the weekend.  maybe talk Jimmi into doing this with me.   I’m 50/50 on whether or not she would….

5.  Buy a new PC laptop!!!   have blogging post templates ready for easy upload.   same with photos.

6.  Save all blog urls to a file for easy cut&paste to make sure I visited everyone.    Actually, the link might embed and wouldn’t need to C/V now that I think of it.  

7.   Print off a time zone with HOUR NUMBER into a chart for easy checkoff and page count updates.   Something fun would be a post at the beginning tell you who was in which time zone?    a place map, maybe.   I know we had Korea and Sweden and ????   and all over the US.     

What Are You Doing Next?

Congrats to all the readers! WOW – I can’t wait to hear how many stayed awake the whole time – it was quite a few. May you all have a pleasant day sleeping, napping, (and reading?!) as you recuperate.

I will be showering as soon as the ‘Thon wraps up (2 hours left as I write this) and then I will be training into Boston for a book club meeting.

Yep, you read that right. A REAL LIFE non-virtual non-online Book Club Meeting. My sorority alumni group has had a book club for awhile and due to my distance from most of the ladies and my feelings of discomfort with finding my way around Boston, I haven’t gone in…. years.

But today, two good things are inspiring me to attend.   The book being discussed is Never Let Me GO by Kazuo Ishiguro (I reviewed it here) and my friend who is willing to show me the way around town has been invited to attend with me even though she’s not technically a member of the sponsoring ’society’. I didn’t think they’d mind, but all’s cool.

SO Yippee for me! I’m going to have a book discussion that doesn’t involve typing! Can’t wait.

Fun Diversion

hi! The Sunday Sudoku from USAToday is usually always an easy one… Try this if you need a quick little break from words… PLAY WITH SOME NUMBERS. (or numbahs, as they say here in New England…

http://puzzles.usatoday.com/sudoku/

WHOOPS! I was wrong! they made it a HARD/DIFFICULT ONE today! I’m still in the middle of it myself….

or go back to yesterday’s – there’s a calendar in the lower left corner… Saturdays and Mondays are usually easy. (I just gave up – I’m coming back to cheer!)

And, That’s a Wrap

Thank you all who stopped by and offered a word, a sentence, or a comment of cheer  - THANK YOU, thanks for playing.

Seventeen participants and a lot of great words – one of which needs to be read in the context of the surrounding words (organism!)

Unterscharfuhrer – Gautami Tripathy
dryzam – Shawnee Reading in Appalachia
adipocere – Bybee
segobrigae – Raych
craic, rumourmonger, doppelganger, crenellated – Brenda
asafoetida – ThisRedHeadReads
DownEaster – Andi
laaf – EKSwitaj
rememory – Athena
schlemiel – Trish
rooibos – mine (from Athena’s blog!)

spazzer – Mee

uxorious, polygamous, gravid – Bonnie

THE WINNER IS WORDLILY!  congratulations!! Her word was perspicacity.

Read all about the current hour RAT activities here:  http://deweymonster.com/

Hour 19 Mini-Challenge!

WORD / SENTENCE Challenge! 

The prize for this challenge is from the Read-A-Thon prize box…  and it will be TWO BOOKS!    other than that, I think Hannah is in charge.   YOU HAVE TWO HOURS.     and I think Dewey is randomly picking from the entries.   

Leave a comment OR blog yourself (you’re all doing both anyway, right?!)  for one or both (or neither?) of the following:

        A – strangest new vocabulary word found during entire read-a-thon

        B – most interesting /  annoying / favorite RUN ON sentence encountered.

 

Have fun!   Look alive PEOPLE!  

Haiku for Hour ? sometime before 19…

I’m reading When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro and true to form, it has subtle mysteries going through it…   I’m half way.  Here’s my haiku but I probably have the rhythm wrong.   I got all blurry-eyed trying to read thru the Wiki page that said what EXACTLY is a haiku, anyway!

Parents are kidnapped.
Boy moves from Shanghai to England.
Grows up, back to China.
 

This is exactly the point I’m at in the book!   He has just arrived in China and is remarking about the peculiar cultural customs that bother him.

RAT Half Way Mark

It’s hour 12 and I’m still wide awake!  but not for long…     Things are definitely slowing down and I can’t decide if I should go catch some ZZZZzzzzz and get up extra EXTRA early or  stay up an hour or two more. 

I so hate staying up when the Hub has gone to bed…

We had a neighborhood party – next door - so it was difficult for me to stay inside with my butt in front of the PC.   I tried to tell them about this but I was teased quite unmercifully.   They kept at me to get back to my ‘blugging’ if I had ‘better things to do’…     I did have the yummiest pomegranite cosmos!

Dewey has some questions:

1. What are you reading right now?  – I did manage about 50 pages of When We Were Orphans but that was HOURS ago…

2. How many books have you read so far?  I haven’t finished any.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?   I’m not going to read anymore.  I have some sleep to catch and then prep for my MINI-CHALLENGE!  Hour 19

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?   Nope.

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?  Just Hub and the neighbors.

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?   I felt a little frantic trying to visit everyone…

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?  I think I would prep an hourly chart only to know which hour number was my clock time in EST.

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?  Oops – see answer for #7.

9. Are you getting tired yet?  Yes, I’m feeling a little drowsy.

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?    This would be impossible without the reader!   OH, idea for #7 – the blog that lists ALL the participants?   could it have the links open new windows rather than replacing that?   I’m not sure the correct techy language but I keep closing down and reopening windows.   COuld have been an issue with my IE – but not sure.   that’s why the reader is awesome:  it opens a new window each time you click on a site/blog.

I’m Frantic

I have over 100 blogs to visit of readers who have posted since I’ve last stopped by.   I knew that I wouldn’t get any reading done during this!  It’s good that I only signed up to cheer.   And I’ve already lost count how many comments I’ve left…  oh well.

That said, I’m also attempting the mini-challenges, even though to be honest, I don’t want to take the time from reading blogs!   sigh…

I feel guilty I blew off Nymeth’s in my quest to visit everyone (and I still want to visit ALL the cheerleaders, too.)    SO, I’m going to give it a quick shot to do N.Vasillis’ mini-challenge at:    http://1330v.blogspot.com/   (I have to fix all my embedded links by fiddling with the code and I’m just NOT going to take the time to do that today!)

From a book of quotes that I began in college:

Love is the salutation of the angel to the stars.
Love is the celestial respiration of the air of paradise.

- Victor Hugo in Les Miserables