Hour 7 Mini Challenge: Best and Worst Covers

Reading My Way Through Life is hosting this mini-challenge: choose a book you're planning to read for the Read-A-Thon and post what you think are the best cover edition of it and the worst.

I chose Chocolat by Joanne Harris.  My favorite cover version is the one I own - it's bright, magical, and yummy looking:

My least favorite cover is the hardcover edition, because, seriously, this cover tells you nothing - certainly nothing enchanting or chocolate-y.

Hour 6 Mini Challenge: Book Puzzle

Thanks to the creative mind of One Librarian, this hour's challenge is a book puzzle - see her site for a deeper explanation of what exactly that is, but basically, it's a kind of "guess the title" with picture clues.

Here's mine - it's easy-peasy:

And the book is..... 

Eloisa James's Fool for Love!  

Told you it was easy.  Sorry about the image for The Fool totally giving the clue away, but when I did an image search for joker cards all I got was Batman-inspired stuff.

Hour 5 Mini Challenge: Self-Portrait

This one's The Estella Society's fault.  :-)  The things I'll do for Barnes & Noble gift card...

Hour 4 Mini Challenge: Re-Title Your Current Read

I know, I know, I'm falling behind.  But I didn't want to stop reading to post!!  Sweet Deception by Heather Snow is SO GOOD, definitely worth waiting for.  But for this mini-challenge it needs a fitting new title - I don't know if I can do "clever" while still thinking about the last scene I read before putting the book down to check the Dewey blog, where the heroine gets her first real kiss from the hero.  Yummy.  Ok, new title: Smart Chick Gets the Boy Next Door Who Teased Her Mercilessly When They Were Little.  Historical romance revenge is sweet. Now leave me alone, the next chapter promises to be even better.

Thank you, Geeky Blogger,  for easy mini-challenge while I'm so lost in a book. :-)

Hour 3 Mini Challenge: Book Appetit

The Challenge: come up with a menu to go with your current read - thanks Book Journey!

My Book: Sweet Deception by Heather Snow

Well apparently, I'm reading the worst book in the world for food inspiration.  So far the hero & heroine haven't eaten or drunk anything.  This is a historical romance set in the 1800's British countryside, so we'll be drinking tea for our literary feast.  Derick (the hero) smells like bergamot and man to Emma (the heroine), and she smells like lavender and woman to him.  So we'll leave out the man and woman smells, and create a black tea with bergamot and lavender - I'm naming it The Derbyshire Blend in honor of the (real) county the book takes place in.  Okay, so we still need something to eat.  Other people have been eating around the main characters so we'll go with what they got: warm and hearty stew, served to the (Chapter 3 Spoiler Alert!) didn't-go-so-well search and rescue mission volunteers.  For the math genius heroine's sake, I'll make it with perfectly matched proportions of vegetables.

Hour 2 Mini Challenge: Book Spine Poetry

Thank you, Scuffed Slippers & Wormy Books for a fun mini challenge! I went with a romantic theme for my book spine poetry:

Back to the reading pile then!

Special A, vol. 12 by Maki Minami

This series about a group of over-achieving high school students always make me feel like a total slacker, so I figured staring with this one would help motivate me for a 24-hour project.  I'ts been a few months since I read vol. 11 and I'm very grateful for Minami's cast of characters at the beginning of each book.  I love reading the Japanese names in "real" manga, although the nicknames, honorifics, and switching between first and last names gets confusing.  For example: Hikari Hanazono could be called Hikari by family, Hanazono by friends, Hikari-chan  by her best friend, and Hana-san by classmates who need her help.Four names and variations of those for one character - and this manga has 10 main characters so far.  Add reading right-to-left to the mix and you get why reading manga after reading a "regular" book is like switching to an analog watch after using a digital one.  Sometimes I think I can feel the gears in my brain shifting. :-)

This volume's story lines were pretty convoluted with the main story line (of Kei's grandfather pressuring him to leave Japan and, more importantly, Hikari in order to take over the family company in London) not continuing until the final third of the book.  There's one truly beautiful moment where kids from a rival school threaten Hikari (the heroine) as a way to get to Kei (the hero) as they see her as his only weakness. Kei complete turns the tables on them, leaving the bad guys knocked to the ground begging for mercy. In a great frame series with blazing eyes and flowing hair from both hero and heroine, Kei informs the trouble-makers "Who said Hikari's my weakness?  Hikari makes me a thousand times stronger."  Sniffle.

Read-A-Thon: Starting Out

So at 8 AM I snuggled into my reading pillow in bed with my read-a-thon breakfast of champions: a cup of black tea with cardamom and a bowl of mashed potatoes.  As I clicked on the bedside lamp, I announced to my still-in-bed-enjoying-his-Saturday-morning husband, "The Read-A-Thon is now in progress!"  "Great," he mumbled as he pulled the covers over his head, "Now you better not interrupt me while I cheer you on over here."  Fantastic start! :-)

Read-A-Thon Hour 1 Intro

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Virginia Beach, VA

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Sweet Deception by Heather Snow - it has been so hard to not start this book early!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
The curried lentil stew I made last night after reading the blogs warning about needing real food on hand. Thank you, read-a-thon veterans!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Ummm, I like to read?  Well, you probably figured that out! Ok, I LOVE reading!  And my husband and my son.  And video games and hiking and kayaking, although I do way less of the last two since I started becoming allergic to everything.  S'okay though, I'll ALWAYS have books.

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 first read-a-thon, and I'm most looking forward to getting some of these books of my to-read list.  I'm also looking forward to bragging about participating in the read-a-thon. ;-)

It's Tomorrow!! <-again, not a book title

The 24-Hour Read-a-Thon starts tomorrow at 8 AM.  My nook is stocked and ready!

I've had several people ask me how many books I can read in 24 hours of straight reading - I really don't know!  I do have several manga books which are faster reads, so I'll at least read those 5.  I'm thinking of using my completed amount as a base line for raising money in October's Read-a-Thon.  For example, people could pledge a dollar or two for every book I read over my April number.  The Read-A-Thon recommends donating any money raised to literacy programs or your local library.

I do have a scheduled long break in the evening tomorrow because Dr. Who is on at 8 PM - this is date night for me and my husband.  If it's a re-run then I've agreed to keep our date by watching an episode of Black Books, which is perfect as it's set in a bookstore.

I keep telling myself to get some sleep but I know I'll just lie there checking my clock every hour to count down the time to 8 AM.  Squeee!!