Hour 19 - Show it Off

A challenge from Dead Book Darling - show off and upload a photo of a book you're extremely proud of.

Here's mine - an autographed copy of my favorite romantic suspense, Don't Let Go by Marliss Melton:

Hour 18 - Book Jenga

This was too fun - thank you Curiosity Killed the Bookworm!

My book tower of remaining books:

Hour 17 - Bookish Travel

From Reader's Respite: "Tell me about the best location a book has taken you to. Perhaps a book really did inspire you to physically go some where.  Tell me.  Or perhaps a book took you somewhere in your mind so completely that you don't even need to visit in real life.  Tell me."

Oh wow, how to limit this to one book...Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan made me fall madly in love the The Strand bookstore in NYC. I pictured it in my mind's eye while reading and when looked it up on the internet, it matched perfectly.  Now it's part of my inner happy place. :-)

Hour 16 - Six Word Celebration!

From Estella's Revenge, celebrate the Dewey Read-a-Thon is 6 words:

Reading for 24 hours is bliss.

Hour 15 - Cheap Thrills Challenge

Challenge host Fiction State of Mind requested book recommendations for this one: any book that qualifies as Mystery, Thriller, or Horror and can be obtained for $3.99 or less.

I'd recommend The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - you can get it free from the Gutenberg Project.  It reads very old fashioned, but you have this growing sense of madness and horror and the ending is quite haunting.

Hour 14: AudioBook Dream Date

This challenge from The Geeky Blogger was surprisingly easy - I guess my subconscious has been thinking about it for a while.

My audiobook dream date would be Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning, read by Clive Owens. Swoon.

Hour 13: Best of Your Reading Year

Thanks, Lisa's World of Books for this challenge!

Best Book of Your Reading Year

Little, Big by John Crowley – this is Literature – heavy, daunting, exquisite, magical

Best Romance Book of Your Reading Year

Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh – perfect hero, perfect heroine, perfect story line, perfect series arc wrap-up, I could go on…

Best Main Character of Your Reading Year

Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie – both the main characters in this book were great, very believable, funny, and smart

Best Indie Author of Your Reading Year

The Gamble by Kristen Ashley – loved this book! 

Hour 12: Mid-Event Survey

I've made it half-way!!

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?

Nope - I'm good to go!

2) What have you finished reading?

Black Bird, volumes 12-15 by Kanoko Sakurakouji
3/4 through The Secret Keeper and wow is it getting good

3) What is your favorite read so far?

Black Bird, Vol. 12 - so good!

4) What about your favorite snacks?

Waffle fries!! (Thanks, sweetie!!)  The croissants my husband got me from Starbucks this morning were pretty darn good too.

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!

Yes!  Heather @ The Snake Wrangler

Hour 11: Self Portrait

Thank you Estella Society for an easy one!  My Punkin' Pie wanted to be a part of it since he's joined me for about an hour of the read-a-thon:

Hour 10: Book Trailers

Jehara is asking for our favorite book trailers, which I generally only get through the first 10 seconds of, but I think this one for Marliss Melton's Show No Fear would count as my favorite - it's short, the narrator's voice is yummy, and it always makes me grin and reach for one of her books.

Hour 9 - BookTube Challenge

Here my Hour 9 Challenge video - thank you Estella's Revenge for getting me out of my comfort zone!!

Hour 8: Books on Books Challenge

I can get 7 of Stacey's Books leaf-covered books:
The Uncommon Reader
The 13th Tale
The Reader
Bridget Jone's Diary
This Book is Overdue
The Know-It-All
My Reading Life

And here are my books with books:

Hour 7: Mad Libs

Yay! Mia & Jessica are back on Nisaba Be Praised.

And hosting a mad lib challenge.  Good thing I'm back to The Secret Keeper - this would be pretty impossible with manga.

My original paragraph:

Laurel closed the album.  She'd lost the spirit for narrating the past.  Instead she smoothed her mother's sheet across her chest and said, “I went to see Gerry last night, Ma."

Okay, so two famous people, 4 nouns, 3 verbs.

2 Famous people (thank you, Google):
Mary-Kate Olsen
Dr. Phil

Nouns (thank you, madglibs.com):
Football
Experiment
Sky
Sister

Verbs (again, from madglibs):
Conjecture
Defer
Tantalize

New paragraph:

Mary-Kate Olsen closed the football. She’d lost the spirit for conjecturing the experiment.  Instead she deferred her mother’s sky across her sister and said, “I went to tantalize Dr. Phil last night, Ma.”

Okay, that was so messed up.

Hour 6 - skipped

I had to skip this one - it required a tea bag art project and I'm really bad at art and don't have any tea bags. :-(

Hour 5: Blackout Poetry

This challenge is from Elizabeth-Michelle.  Take a section of newspaper, magazine, or anything else you don't mind butchering with a black marker, and black-out sections so you're left with something very different and poem-like.  Here's my effort (thanks, VegNews!):

Hour 4: Spine Poetry

I love spine poetry - thank you CapriciousReader!! Here's a travel spine poem for you:

In case you can't see the picture:

Mountains beyond mountains
Postcards from the edge
A different kind of dream
The road to Unafraid

Hour 3: A Puzzling Challenge

This hour's challenge is brought to us by Just One More Thing and is a guess-the-cover challenge so I'm not posting my answers here. ;-)

Black Bird, vol. 12 by Kanoko Sakurakouji

I switched to manga in between chapters of The Secret Keeper since it's such a big book.  Vol. 12 of the Black Bird series is the best so far - very dramatic but with plenty of humor.  My favorite moment is when Kyo's grandfather tells him he needs to start picking out successors for his captured friends and bodyguards since they're as a good as dead and Kyo turns to him with a look of genuine confusion and says "Old man...I only speak Japanese. I don't understand Crazytalk."  And Misao's all "Gasp! Kyo!!"  Bwahahaha!

Hour 2 Challenge: Book Tunes

River City Reading is hosting this first challenge. Her challenge is to pick a song that goes best with the book you're reading and explain why.

I'm reading Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper. While Morton has everyone in WW2 London listening to Glenn Miller, as I'm reading I've got The Car Chase music from A Beautiful Mind playing in my head for it's growing sense of darkness - you just know something really bad is about to happen.

Hour 1 Post - It's Back!!

The October Dewey Read-a-thon starts now!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Hampton Roads, VA

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

The waffle fries my husband will bring me. (hint, hint, sweetie ;-) )

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I love reading, video gaming, discovering great new restaurants, and my family.


5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

This is my second read-a-thon.  I'm planning on eating more real food vs snack food, moving around more, and my to-read pile is bigger with more variety.