More Read-a-Thon Preparations!

I am still gearing up for the 24-hour read-a-thon madness that is happening tomorrow.

I will be hosting a giveaway during the event tomorrow (its not through the organizers-I signed up for an official mini-challenge too late), but I do hope that you will spread the word tomorrow if you are participating. Even not, stop by and see if you are interested in entering. It requires a little thought and planning on your part, but not any heavy duty thinking. And the prize is book-themed (but not a book), and customizable...I hope that got you interested!

I read all of your comments from my previous post, and I wanted to respond to some thoughts and questions.

I am well aware that my book list is lengthy...and heavy. Believe me, I know I am not going to get through all the titles, and I don't hope to. With this kind of reading marathon, I am sure I am going to be flipping from book to book hoping that something will catch my attention. But again, my goal is to finish 3.

Yes, I plan on staying up for all 24 hours, but I won't be actively participating in about 4 of them. Matt and I have a friend coming in from "up north" (Traverse City area) and we are taking him to lunch. In addition, my college, Michigan State, is taking on our rival, Michigan, in football. I am sure that a couple hours in the afternoon will be spent with the husband on the couch wearing our green white, cheering on the Spartans, and consuming some adult beverages.

But, besides that, I plan on having a book in my hands for a good chunk of the remaining time. Matt is in charge of feeding me since he has the day off, and to go get me more Diet Coke (my other addiction besides books).

I am also planning on taking an hour of time tomorrow to work on writing some overdue posts-a good excuse for a break from reading, and a way to get some blog work done in the peak of blogger happiness. :)

Anyway, enough for one afternoon. :) I hope to see many, many read-a-thon posts from you tomorrow. If you haven't already, please let me know if you are participating so I can stop by and cheer you on.

Book 56: Finished.

(I want to apologize first for not posting this earlier this week. I thought I had scheduled it. Turns out, I didn't. Brain fart on my part. It happens).

I really enjoyed my time spend with Tan. It was like visiting an old friend I didn't even know I had. There was something very comforting in reading this tale about mothers and daughters, and the gaps that come between them.

I am fortunate that I have a really good relationship with my mother. We disagree sometimes, but we go out to lunch and talk about everything. I am grateful that I have that and can count on that.

So perhaps I cannot relate to the women in this book, who cannot understand who their mothers are, or why they are the way they are. We all have private experiences that make us who we are and that we cannot even begin to explain to even those who are closest to us.

This novel is an example of those moments-those places and times where we fall within ourselves and discover things that we hold private.

I want to share a few small sections that I loved. This first one is from "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates,"

"When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you-not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?" (128).

Here is another section from "Queen Mother of the Western Skies,"

"I know how it is to be quiet, to listen and watch, as if your life were a dream. You can close your eyes when you no longer want to watch. But when you no longer want to listen, what can you do?" (242).

My favorite is from the chapter or story called "Feathers from a Thousand Li Away,"

"I wiped my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful read dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind," (53).

So yes, the book is about discovering the differences between East and West, the old and the new, and the stories we all have inside and never tell. It is powerful without being overbearing and shouting in your face. It is simple, and beautiful, and everything I needed to read.

"So this is what I will do. I will gather together my past and look. I will see a thing that has already happened. The pain that cut my spirit loose. I will hole that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. And then my fierceness can come back, my golden side, my black side. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter's tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and giver her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter," (286).

Thursday Treat #29: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

There are quite a few books and movies that I wish I would have discovered when I was younger. Its not that I don't appreciate them now, but I feel that I would have LOVED them as a kid or teenager. But, these are the books that I'll make sure I share with my own kids so that they can enjoy them.

Anyway, I didn't read Michael Ende's The Neverending Story until college and my young adult literature class. I had seen the movie a year or two earlier with Matt and thought it was a little weird. Matt had raved about it, and about seeing it as a kid at home. We even purchased it on DVD to watch it because it was "necessary we own it."

I can't remember if a lot of my class loved the book or not, but I know I did. I know for a lot of the people in that class, it was just another novel we had to read. And truthfully, many of the people in that class were not in love with YA literature and reading in general (I guess the whole topic of English majors who don't read is another rant I can go into). But we did talk a lot about the importance of this book and how it does pertain to reading and the reading process.

The story follows a boy, Bastian, who is hiding from bullies. He finds a book called The Neverending Story and begins reading. Immediately he is taken into the world of the book, Fantastica, and begins imagining a place where stories are real. And Bastian has the power, as the reader, to change the world he reads about and to imagine it as he sees fit. He can make changes to the scenes around him and decides the fate of different creatures he comes across.

The overall effect is magic. It is a book lover's dream-the ability to change a mold the world of a story to your desires as the reader. And while I loved the movie, the book was on a completely different level. It was deeper, more involved, and went further than the movie could hope to. It was beautiful.

The magic of the world of Fantastica inspired me in many ways as a reader, and I probably pulled more away from that book than I did from any other we read in that class, even though I loved almost every novel we picked up.

It is a book and a world that I can't wait to share with my own children when they're old enough to understand and love the way you can fully immerse yourself into the world of a book.

Read-A-Thon Plans.

I'm sure that many of you already know about the 24-hour read-at-hon taking place this Saturday. If not, here is the site that can give you more information, and here is the post to sign up.

I missed the first read-a-thon that took place since beginning my blog, but I did participate in the one that took place in April. And I loved it! It was a great excuse to spend a lot of time on the couch reading, and making progress towards my goal.

One of the best parts was going to the site every hour to look at challenges and find some inspiration from the other participants. I added quite a few bloggers to my own feed that day and had a lot of visitors.

Anyway, in April I finished three books, as well as getting large portions of reading done in other novels I was starting (My wrap-up post is here). I hope I can be as successful this time around and have already started pulling together a list of books that I might grab. The pile includes the following:

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (If I don't finish before then)
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles (see above)
• Othello by William Shakespeare
• Bleak House by Charles Dickens (in short spurts only or I'll go batty)
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• The Little Prince by Antonie Du Saint-Exupery
• The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
• Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert (I need to get through 60 pages for a read-along)
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• Antigone by Sophocles
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

That's a big list and I know I won't get through all of it (that WOULD be amazing, wouldn't it?) but I want to have a lot of options. I also don't want to stick myself with one long book, so a bunch of smaller things might be easier to push through. :)

The main goal is to get through at least THREE more titles completely, as well as catch up and read my commitments for my two current read-a-longs (Bleak House and Madame Bovary). We'll see how it goes. My college has a big game this weekend-it is rivalry week against that dratted University of Michigan, but I know my Spartans are going to win. That game, depending on how it goes, might mean a few more hours taken out of my day!

Let me know if you are participating in the read-a-thon, and check in that day. I MAY/MOST LIKELY will be hosting a giveaway during the day, so make sure to keep your eyes out for it. :)

Happy Reading!

Weekly Wrap-up for October 3, 2010: Glad September is Over

I am so glad to put September behind me. It was a month where nothing seemed to get accomplished!

In reading news, I finished a grand total of ONE book. And it wasn't even a book off my list. Instead, it was a book I grabbed out of frustration off my shelf one night. So, no progress was made towards my goal.

In some ways, that makes me feel like a failure, but it was bound to happen. I just kind of sputtered to a halt, and hopefully that is at an end.

As for Villette, I finally finished it this morning. It took me over a month to read it, and I am so glad to be moving on to some other novels. I really did love it, but you'll have to wait for my full thoughts on it.

I still have Bleak House waiting for me on my nightstand. I haven't touched it in awhile, but I know I need to finish it in time for the end of Amanda's readalong.

I have a few other titles lingering on the nightstand that have been there for awhile: Lolita, On the Road, A Separate Peace...One of those might be read first.

Anyway, I hope to get at least ten titles read this month, including a spookier read in honor of Halloween. Wish me luck!

Happy Reading!