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Read-a-thon #3 - Team 4 Group Discussion
Mod
Tammy, I've put you down for your 100 pages. Can you share one of the poems with us? I've also put you down for 2 hours of audiobook.
Laura, I added your upcoming read to those categories and your book recommendation.
We have completed prompt #12 and are ready for the cover reveal!
Sharing portion of Morrison poem (It's 50 pages, so you probably don't want it all)!The New Creatures by Jim Morrison
Snakeskin jacket
Indian eyes
Brilliant hair
He moves in disturbed
Nile insect
Air
~~~
You parade thru the soft summer
We watch your eager rifle decay
Your wilderness
Your teeming emptiness
Pale forest on verge of light
decline.
More of your miracles
More of your magic arms
~~~
Bitter grazing in sick pastures
Animal sadness & the daybed
Whipping.
Iron curtains pried open.
The elaborate sun implies
dust, knives, voices.
Call out of the Wilderness
Call out of fever, receiving
the wet dreams of an Aztec King.
~~~
The banks are high and overgrown
rich w/warm green danger.
Unlock the canals.
Punish our sister's sweet playmate distress.
Do you want us that way w/the rest?
Do you adore us?
When you return will you
still want to play w/us?
~~~
Fall down.
Strange gods arrive in fast enemy poses.
Their shirts are soft marrying
cloth and hair together.
All along their arms ornaments
conceal veins bluer than blood
pretending welcome.
Soft lizard eyes connect.
Their soft drained insect cries erect
new fear, where fears reign.
The rustling of sex against their skin.
The wind withdraws all sound.
Stamp your witness on the punished ground.
~~~
Wounds, stags, & arrows
Hooded flashing legs plunge
near the tranquil women.
Startling obedience fom the pool people.
Astonishing caves to plunder.
Loose, nerveless ballets of looting.
Boys are running.
Girls are screaming, falling.
The air is thick w/smoke.
Dead crackling wires dance pools
of sea blood.
~~~
Lizard woman
w/your insect eyes
w/your wild surprise.
Warm daughter of silence.
Venom.
Turn your back w/a slither of moaning wisdom.
The unblinking blind eyes
behind walls new histories rise
and wake growling & whining
the weird dawn of dreams.
Dogs lie sleeping.
The wolf howls.
A creature lives out the war.
A forest.
A rustle of cut words, choking
river.
Wow, Tammy, I love that! I knew that Jim Morrison always wanted to be remembered as a poet, but I hadn't until now read any of his poetry. I'm usually not a fan of poetry in general, but that was fantastic.As for me, I just finished off the last 113 pages of A Room of One's Own (I was only 19% in, so I think it counts!). I've also listened to 1h 45 min of Dad Is Fat.
I won't get any more reading today, so that's my tally and contribution!
Mod
Jody, I added your tally and times to the spreadsheet!
Mod
Thanks! :) This illness has worked out nicely... I'm confined to bed and I finally feel well enough to read.
I did end up watching To All The Boys I've Loved Before, which I thought was adorable and actually better than the novel.
Great work, Jody. Get some rest. I'm going to take a nap. I need to rest up for my evening reading! One dog is reclining on my head and the other dog is licking my arm. They are not the most soothing of companions!
Mod
Laura, we are now ready for #7 and #12 to be revealed.
I’m traveling today, so it’s going to be a little harder to update. I plan on finishing A Time to Kill, so I can use that for the orange cover.
Mod
I read a freeverse poem. I searched for humorous poems and found this. It's not laugh out loud funny for me, but it's relateable. My Mother Wants to Know if I’m Dead
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
ARE YOU DEAD? is the subject line of her email.
The text outlines the numerous ways she thinks
I could have died: slain by an axe-murderer, lifeless
on the side of a highway, choked to death by smoke
since I’m a city girl and likely didn’t realize you needed
to open the chimney flue before making a fire (and,
if I do happen to be alive, here’s a link to a YouTube
video on fireplace safety that I should watch). Mom
muses about the point of writing this email. If I am
already dead, which is what she suspects, I wouldn’t
be able to read it. And if I’m alive, what kind of daughter
am I not to write her own mother to let her know
that I’ve arrived at my fancy residency, safe and sound,
and then to immediately send pictures of everything,
like I promised her! If this was a crime show, she posits,
the detective might accuse her of sending this email
as a cover up for murder. How could she be the murderer,
if she wrote an email to her daughter asking if she was murdered?
her defense lawyers would argue at the trial. In fact,
now that she thinks of it, this email is the perfect alibi
for murdering me. And that is something I should
definitely keep in mind, if I don’t write her back
as soon as I have a free goddamn second to spare.
I have read about 100 pages of Six Wakes, this is for the ATY challenge and it is a sci-fi book. Hope to finish it later or tomorrow and get started on something new.
Great poems everyone
Emily wrote: "Jody wrote: "Thank you, lovely! Get well soon."Thanks! :) This illness has worked out nicely... I'm confined to bed and I finally feel well enough to read.
I did end up watching To All The Boys ..."
Ha I watched that with my daughter today and then she talked me into the Kissing booth...back to reading.
Emily wrote: "Joan, I've recorded that for part of a series! I've also put you down for completing one book. Was it more than 100 pages? We can roll your extra pages into the next prompt. I also put Pines down a..."I forgot about the total pages. Total so far is 207 - that is for the Last Town.
Mod
I have finished #4 - A Time to Kill w/ an orange coverIt also counts towards the AtY challenge.
Tammy's Saturday Night Update:- I completed a short story by Jerzy Kosiński from his collection Steps.
- I hit my five hours of audio.
- I participated in the group challenge kick off and set my goals.
- I read a total of 435 pages today.
Great work, everybody! Tammy, you're a reading machine, I'm impressed!! It normally takes me one week to complete what you have done in one day, lol :)
Emily, you can put me down for 50 pages and 0.5 hour of audio. Lots of chores yesterday, hope to get in some more audio time today.
Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!
Liz wrote: "I know the books (@ least I’m pretty positive I do). I think you are right:)
Laura wrote: "Sorry about the delay, everyone! But I'm updating the board in the main message now."Thank you:) Could I ask one tiny favour, is it possible to update the reading tasks with a checkmark once we complete and open them on the board? Don't have access to Google sheets at work, so this would make it easy to just have a quick peek!
Mod
I got absolutely no reading done yesterday :( I figured it would be a bad reading weekend since I'm in my hometown visiting family. But I'll be returning home this afternoon and should have a productive week.
Mod
Joan, I had someone else recommend The Kissing Booth as well! I didn't even know that was a book, but now I want to watch the movie. (And I've updated your pages).
Liz, I've marked down A Time to Kill!
Tammy, I've added your short story, so we can reveal that prompt. I've added your 5 hours of audio and your pages. We only need one person from each group to do the challenges, so I'm only marking the first person who tells me they did it (instead of tracking everyone).
Hilde, I've updated your pages and your times.
Laura, we are read for #4 and #16 to be revealed!
I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I wanted to yesterday. I was just so yucky feeling that looking at a book and reading words was harder than taking lots of naps. The good news is that I'm feeling much better today and I should get some reading done!
Also, it seems like I'm the only US person in here... all of your updates come in the middle of the night for me!
I have these old poem books from my husband's family and tried to go through them for something that struck my heart. They were neat but nothing really did. The books were cool - published in 1880 and the other one 1906. Then I searched the web and my daughter has been on my heart lately. She turned 14 this summer. We are so close and she's journeying into the world of boys. It's kind of terrifying in this day and age. Anyway this one poem hit my heart:A Daughter Is Born
© Judith A. Drew
Published: February 2006
Encircle your child with love
Offer your hand to guide her
Shower her with tenderness
Shelter away her fears
May she look for sunshine when
There seems to be clouds
May she take a step further to
Find the best in people and life
May she show kindness and patience
Towards others
May confidence and poise propel
Her in life
Teach her appreciation for small
Things in life
The abundance of nature close at
Her feet
Help her to learn the power of
Words spoken
The response to actions which
Might be awakened
Shower her with your love and
Your pride
Protect her as needed, but let
Her fly free
Free to stand tall with absolute
Dignity
As she grows and discovers
Keep memories keen
For times in the future
When she flies free
Remember too as she grows to
Be a woman
She's a reflection of yourself
A reflection of the joy, kindness,
And dignity
A reflection of a woman set free
To pass down her teachings
From no other than thee.
Ha ha, Emily! I'm in the US too. I just don't sleep much!
I've completed the non-fiction Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961I'll also make a book recommendation to the group. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is one of my favorite books that I've read this year! Happy reading.
Mod
Laura, we are ready for #4, #16, and #20 to be revealed!
Mod
Mod
But I love the idea of the spoilers so we can count it as a success for the team but still leave some challenge to those who want it.
As a side note, I participated in the "Getting to Know You" activity.
I’m in the US too. I just haven’t been sleeping well, & I’m on the west coast. Books 4 & 5:
(view spoiler)
I read my short story.I’ve also read over 200 pages now (~250).
A book I would recommend, especially to those who enjoy literacy fiction, is An American Marriage.
Today, I started Song of a Captive Bird which is an ATY challenge book for me. It can also count for #21 and #5. This book is a fictional story of the life of Forugh Farrokhzad, an Iranian poet, so I decided I would also go read a poem by her. The poem I read is called “Another Birth”.
Just completed Dad Is Fat (audiobook), so including yesterday's listening total, that's 5h 27 minutes for me - not sure if we do the two audiobook hour things are separate (ie. 7 hours total per person), so I'll leave it to Laura to clarify.
Finished Six Wakes - Sci-Fi book. I read a few poems today but this was my was my favorite one I stumbled upon:
Nocturne
Alfred Kreymborg
The pantaloons are dancing,
dancing, through the night,
pure white pantaloons,
underneath the moon,
on a jolly wash line,
skipping from my room,
over to Miranda,
who washed them this noon.
Mod
My local book club just read Fahrenheit 451, & this poem was quoted in it at a pivotal point in the story.Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar,
Retreating to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
(1867).
Mod
I read a book a few years ago that I really loved. It was a poetic, thought-provoking & beautiful magical realism. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Mod
Laura, we are ready for #19 to be revealed!
Mod
Emily wrote: "Liz, I've recorded your poem, and I added that book to my TBR because I love magical realism!"I hope you enjoy it. I don't re-read often, but it's one that I would like to.
I've been doing all of the games as well.
Mod
Emily, thanks for your wonderful spreadsheet and for all your work!
Mod
I just finished Med livet foran seg/(The Life Before Us). Just add it where you see fit, Emily. It also counts for my ATY challenge. This brings my page count up to 130 (The book was 166 pages, and I started at page 36 for the read-a-thon).This will also serve as my book recommendation. It was such a beautiful and optimistic book, maybe the best one of the year (so far), full score from me which doesn't happen that often. I even cried at little at the end there.
Now I am off to bed soon, great work this weekend everyone! And thanks for organising the spreadsheet, Emily.
Mod
Laura, we have completed prompts #1, #5, #19, and #22!
Emily wrote: "Thanks Tammy. I haven't been reading much, so at least I feel like I'm contributing to the team haha"I feel like this role is cursed - last time Tracy on my team did it and ended up sick in bed too!
Are we still needing to contribute pages? I read 96 pages today (on top of my audio listening).
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It counts for:
- A book first published in August or September (of any year)
- A book that is part of a series
- A book originally published in a language other than English
I can update page count each day so we can add to the running tally
For a book recommendation, I would recommend 20th Century Ghosts or really anything by Joe Hill. He definitely doesn't get the attention he deserves and gives his dad (Stephen King) a run for his money.