Deborah’s Comments (group member since Dec 28, 2017)

Deborah’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

Jillian wrote: "Just in case someone else missed it. There are more than 15 shelves posted so we don't have to complete all the shelves listed."

Thanks! I was forgetting that part! :)

Jillian wrote: "I don't know about the September 2019 shelf. The books I see on at the list (that make the 1st page) are showing up that would count were either just released Sept. 3rd, planned to be released Sept..."

I do think that will be the toughest! I may be able to find something on Netgalley if no one has something already.

Well, turns out one of the books I had hoped to use only has 120 pages left (why couldn't I have fallen asleep 1 chapter sooner last night!), so at least I have something to finish tonight before the readathon kicks in.

I do have options at the ready for both the LGBT and retellings shelves, so will pick one of those after my current read depending on what is still needed! I'll add them to the spreadsheet!

And I'm now also wishing I had cake (preferably chocolate or ice cream given the heat) at hand!

Great - I added my definite book for now! :) Look forward to reading and read-a-thon-ing with you all!

Hello team! I have one or two in progress books that I can finish this weekend. And since finishing the day with some research seemed more fun than work, jotting down some notes here for the other two audiobooks that I have at the moment to:

Definite: The Passengers would work for wishlist, sci-fi, stand-alone, contemporary or mystery

Possible: (need to check number of pages left) Trail of Lightning would work for sci-fi, mystery, adventure, female-authors

Likely next reads:
Heart of Iron would work for sci-fi, cover-love, wishlist, lgbt, read-in-2019, retellings, adventure

Ten would work for mystery, wishlist, stand-alone, realistic-fiction, comtemporary, library-books, retellings

Autumn / Fall Reading Challenge

Progress:
🍂September: 1/4
🍂 October: 0/4
🍂 November: 0/4

September

1. To Autumn

🍁 Read a book with a title that includes any word of four or more letters that appears in the poem
✔🍁 Read a book first published in a year that includes at least two of the numbers 1, 8, and 9 - eg 1899, 1920, 1975, 1998, 2018 The Whisper Man published 2019 - finished 9/2/2019
🍁 Read a book by an author named John or a reasonable variation - eg Jonathon, Johnson, Jon etc (either first or last name works)

2. Fall into Autumn

🍁 Read a book by an author whose first or last name starts with A or F
🍁 Read a book that has been published under at least two different titles (translations don’t count), eg:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone // Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Northern Lights // The Golden Compass
Cider With Rosie // The Edge of Day.
🍁 Read a book with a title that includes a word that is spelled differently in British and American English. (This list might be helpful but the word doesn’t have to appear on this list to count for this task)

3. Rugby World Cup

🍁 Read a book set in any of the 20 countries who have qualified for the tournament
🍁 Read a book by an author with a three word name - eg Gabriel García Márquez, Louisa May Alcott, Alexander McCall Smith
🍁 Read a book where the main character is a professional sportsperson (nonfiction books about a sportsperson or team would also count)

4. Abbey Road

🍁 Read a book with a cover image that shows four or more people
🍁 Read a book by an author who has the same initials as a member of The Beatles (George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr)
🍁 Read a book where a secret or hiding place is important to the plot (Please say what the secret is when registering this task as complete, but if it’s a plot spoiler than please be sure to use spoiler tags in your post.)

October

1. Poem in October

🍁 Read a book with a picture of any living thing, setting or object mentioned in the poem on the cover (eg birds, sailing boat, harbour, owls, garden)
🍁 Read a book set in a location that begins with a letter found in the word LAUGHARNE
🍁 Read a book by a Welsh author

2. Dictionary Day

🍁 Read a book with the number 1 or 6 in the page count (eg 150, 256, 621, etc)
🍁 Read a book in which one of the most frequently looked up words appears anywhere in the text. (Please quote the sentence when registering this task as completed.)
🍁 Read a book with a title or subtitle that includes a word of 10 letters or more.

3. The Booker Prize

🍁 Read a book first published in October (of any year)
🍁 Read a book by an author whose initials appear in BOOKER PRIZE
🍁 Read a book that has won or been included in the shortlist for the Booker Prize

4. Halloween

🍁 Read a book where the first letter of every word in the title appears in TRICK OR TREAT (titles must be at least two words long to count for this one)
🍁 Read a book with a cover that is mostly orange or black OR that has a a pumpkin, skull or witch on it
🍁 Read a book that appears on one of these lists:
🎃 Goodreads: Best Books to Read for Halloween
🎃 31 Books to put you in the Halloween Spirit
🎃 15 Scary Halloween Books

November

1. No sun, no moon! No morn, no noon ... November!

🍁 Read a book whose title begins with a letter in NOVEMBER (A, An and The may be ignored)
🍁 Read a book set in or first published in the nineteenth century (1800 - 1899 inclusive)
🍁 Read a book of poetry.

2. George Eliot

🍁 Read a book with a repeated number in the page count (eg 115 pages; 422 pages, 338 pages, etc)
🍁 Read a book by an author who has published at least seven novels.
🍁 Read a book published under a pen name or pseudonym (please give the author’s real name and pen name when registering this task as complete)

3. NaNoWriMo

🍁 Read a book first published in 1999 or later.
🍁 Read a book where the first letter of each word in the title appears in NANOWRIMO (title must be at least two words long to count for this option)
🍁 Read a book that began as a NaNoWriMo novel

4. The Longest Journey

🍁 Read a book in which a main character goes on a long journey (please say where they travelled to when registering this task as complete)
🍁 Read a book where all the letters in ARCTIC TERN can be found in the title and/or subtitle
🍁 Read a book from one of these lists of popular travel books:
🌍 Goodreads: Popular travel books
🌍 Best travel memoirs to inspire Wanderlust
🌍 BookRiot: 30 of the best travel memoirs

1. What is your estimated reading speed (slow, medium, fast)? Fast
2. How many books do you usually finish in a week? Probably 4 to actually finish (plus parts of several more)
3. Which time zone do you live in? PST
4. Can you commit to checking in with your team frequently during the read-a-thon? Yes
5. Are you interested in being a team leader for your group? (i.e. keeping track of team totals, needed tasks, updating spreadsheet, etc.) No

AUGUST

1. Summer Nights
☀️ Read a book published in a year that includes any two of the numbers 1, 9, 7, 8 (eg 1955, 2017, 1802, etc) - Don't Ever Tell (published 2019)

2. Summer is too short for bad books
☀️ Read a book published in 2019 that you have been looking forward to With the Fire on High

3. International Beer Day
☀️ Read a book where the first letter of each word in the title appears in INTERNATIONAL BEER DAY Into the Drowning Deep

4. Back to school
☀️ Read a book by an author who is new to you  Things You Save in a Fire

In terms of the illustrations prompt, I read a couple YA books recently that I think would work. Save the Date has a few cartoon strips between sections of the book. Starry Eyes has some maps in the text drawn by one of the characters. The Illuminae series has some graphics interspersed as well I think?

I think a lot of memoirs will have photos as well. I thought of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told which did and I think also Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls.

Massachusetts Things You Save in a Fire
New York The Bell Jar
New York The Last Time I Lied

England Those People

Bryony wrote: "Wow you guys read fast! :-)

The June readathon definitely helped me pick up my reading pace this month!

I think my July completion got listed under August in the top post. I haven't posted my August yet. :)

JULY

1. Summer in the City
☀️ Read a book by an author whose first and last initials appear in SUMMER IN THE CITY Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (finished 6/9/2019)

2. Travel the world
☀️Read a book set in a country other than the one you currently live in (I'm in the US, this is in Australia) The Lost Man (6/14/2019)

3. Nelson Mandela DayJasmine Guillory
☀️ Read a book you added to your TBR in 2018 Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (added to my TBR in October 2018, finished 6/3/2019)

4. Winter Wonderland
❄️ Read a book where the first letter of each word in the title appears in WINTER WONDERLAND The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (finished 6/3/2019)

JUNE

1. In the Summertime
☀️ Read a book with a title beginning with a letter in SUMMERTIME Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes by Jessica Pan (finished 6/15/2019)

2. June, July, August
☀️ Read a book that was first published in June, July or August of any year. (Published 6/11/19) Those People by Louise Candlish (finished 6/9/2019)

3. Bloomsday
☀️ Read a book with a main character whose name begins with a letter in LEOPOLD BLOOM (Main character is Louise) The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel(finished 6/5/2019)

4. Beach reads
☀️ Read a book with the sun, sea or a swimming pool on the cover OR a book with a mostly yellow or blue cover (blue cover) Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley (finished 6/3/2019)

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I finished 15 books and 5007 pages total.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I definitely met my goal to read a lot. I had to fight off a migraine midway through that left me reliant on audio for a while. There is also an expected mid-readathon slump I think with 10 days and the middle hitting during the middle of the work week (at least for me).

3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I really enjoyed working with a team (yah butterflies!) and digging through my bookshelves to find ways to fulfill reading prompts.

4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon? Probably With the Fire on High because it was a highly anticipated 2019 release for me and I was glad to have something fun to fit a prompt.

5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?

I think either working with smaller groups or increasing the number of pages/prompts to fill a bucket might be good things to consider. I loved having to fulfill prompts to move on, but it seemed like it was going so fast it was hard to keep up or know who would check off a prompt you might also be working on.

I think having to read books and hold off on finishing them until a bucket came up was essential to being competitive with this style of readathon, but it probably took something away from the enjoyment of reading to have to hold off on that last chapter. Maybe if there were a way to make each bucket bigger and not reveal the next bucket until the first bucket was done would help slow things down and keep the groups more focused on what they're currently working toward.

6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Absolutely yes! The mods and the team leaders and really everyone on the teams did a fabulous job of making this a fun experience and I look forward to more!

6/16 - 438 pages

6/15 - 620 pages

Tracy - I hope you and your daughters get some good andcrelaxing time to heal! <3

Yay Butterflies!! It has been a pleasure reading and filling buckets with all of you!

Emily and Ellie, you have done an amazing job - thank you!!!