Weekday Read-a-thon Progression

Yesterday was the Weekday Read-a-thon that I hosted with The Book Wheel.

I woke up, and was able to start reading by 7:00am.  I was reading This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.

After a couple of hours, I took a break to respond to some Tweets and check out the amazing Buzzfeed’s The 50 Cutest Things That Ever Happened.

Then at 11:30ish, I finished This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.

Here’s my quickie review: This is How You Lose Her is a novel written in short story form.  The main character, Yunior, is a tragic but compelling individual.  I really liked him, even though he liked to sleep around on his women and had some of his own issues to get over.  Living in America but born in Santo Domingo, Yunior was trying to adjust and live life, all while chasing as many women as possible.

While I was reading, I came across this quote that made me laugh.  This occurred while Yunior and his mother were discussing a neighbor who didn’t have any children:  “Maybe she just doesn’t like children.”  “Nobody likes children, your mother assured you. That doesn’t mean you don’t have them.” (p. 153)  I highly recommend this book!

Then I took a break to have lunch and picked out my next book, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood.  I decided that since it was a nice day outside, I would take my dog, Tilly, outside with me and while I was reading, she could gnaw on a bone.  Tilly was not having it.  She did not want to relax in the sun while I read, and after some of her antsy-ness and whining, I had to bring her back inside.

At 2:00, Allison @ The Book Wheel hosted our first Twitter chat (#WeekdayRead).

Then it was back to The Penelopiad by Atwood.  Here’s my quickie review of the book that helps to satisfy my Project Atwood:

The Penelopiad is Margaret Atwood’s take on the story of Odysseus and his wife Penelope, but from the perspective of Penelope.  It was a fabulous recreation of the Odyssey, with a slightly modern twist.  I like how Penelope explains how Odysseus’s famous exploits could have been explained by myths, or could have been normal but exaggerated experiences.  It kind of reminded me of The Liars’ Gospel in that way, making you think about whether or not the Greek mythology (or Jesus’s legend, if we’re talking about The Liars’ Gospel) is truth or situations that were created.  I highly recommend if you enjoyed The Liars’ Gospel and/or The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller!

Then it was time for another break, a longer one, of cleaning and random things around the apartment, dinner, and finally the second Twitter chat at 9pm.  I hosted this one and it went just as well as the first!  It actually went even longer because everyone was still chatting!

I started Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann and got 79 pages in before the last Twitter chat at midnight.  But by that time, I was crashing, and could only stay in the chat for about 25 minutes.  My brain was just done for the night, I guess!

So all in all, I participated in 2 Twitter chats wholeheartedly, with one that I tried my best but couldn’t finish, and hosted one of the 3.

I read 490 pages total (and if I had added that up last night, I definitely would have read an extra 10 to reach 500!).

I think that was a very successful Weekday Read-a-thon!  Thank you for those who supported and participated!

Check out Allison’s Weekday Read-a-thon Day!