1. Did you discover a new author?
Libba Bray

2. Where was the most unusual place you found yourself reading?
I read where I usually read — in bed, on the balcony or the sofa.

3. Did you read more than usual?
Yes and no. More than the average month, but about the same as the last few months.

4. Did you give up anything in order to read more?
I spent a little less time on the internet.

5. If you won the Amazon voucher what would you spend it on?
Probably the sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty.

6. Would you like to see a 2009 Book Blowout?
Definitely!

My goal was to read 20 books during July and I ended up reading 31.

• Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island - Mike Tucker
• Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction - Stephen Cole
• Doctor Who: The Price of Paradise - Colin Brake
• The Underdog - Markus Zusak
• Tro, hopp och burnout - Johan Unenge
• Torchwood: Something in the Water - Trevor Baxendale
• Vadå feminist - Lisa Gålmark
• Torchwood: Trace Memory - David Llewellyn
• Homofamiljer - Sara Stenholm och Cecilia Strömberg
• Making Money - Terry Pratchett
• Castle Rackrent - Maria Edgeworth
• Moab is My Washpot - Stephen Fry
• Torchwood: The Twilight Streets - Gary Russell
• Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World - Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero
• Betong, fjäril, betong - Ingrid Olsson
• Torchwood: Border Princes - Dan Abnett
• Torchwood: Another Life - Peter Anghelides
• Torchwood: Slow Decay - Andy Lane
• Vegan Freak - Bob Torres & Jenna Torres
• Skinny Bitch - Rory Freedman & Kim Barnouin
• Vegan Virgin Valentine - Carolyn Mackler
• Emily of New Moon - LM Montgomery
• Emily Climbs - LM Montgomery
• Emily’s Quest - LM Montgomery
• The Blue Castle - LM Montgomery
• A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray
• From the Inside Out - Morty Diamond (ed.)
• The History Boys - Alan Bennett
• Life on the Refrigerator Door - Alice Kuipers
• The Commitments - Roddy Doyle
• Historier om ett brott - Lena Lennerhed

I just thought you might want to know.

Since I can’t really do much else right now (I’m logging in, very briefly, from work to type this. Internetlessness has freed up lots of time for reading, though. Twenty-two books this month so far and still going at it!), I had an idea that I would ask the same question that I asked back in November:

Who reads this blog?

Even if you never, ever comment and plan on never, ever commenting again, won’t you make an exception just this once, so I get a little picture of who reads this. I’m curious sometimes, y’know.

The Age of Napoleon; Alistair Horne, eng, 235
Interesting, but a little choppily written, and also the author assumes you know certain things and never explains them, while others he explains over and over again.
C

Cold Comfort Farm; Stella Gibbons, eng, 253
Funny, though I accidentally didn’t read the preface, so I wasn’t 100 % how much of it was intentional (all of it, as it turns out, and as I suspected). Flora Poste is kind of annoying, but all right all the same.
For the TBR reading challenge and as part of the BBC Big Read.
B

Rebecca; Daphne du Maurier, eng, 410
A re-read, not as good as I remembered it, but still lovely. Maxim is both wonderful and creepy.
C

Med uppenbar känsla för stil; Stephan Mendel-Enk, swe, 128
Interestingly written about men and what’s considered masculine. References Morrissey at some points, mostly in connection with a man who went berserk and killed people. Lovely… not!
C

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East; Brian Whitaker, swe, 230
Interesting, scary and occasionally a little bit hopeful.
C

Ingen behöver veta; Christina Wahldén, swe, 139
About male rape and how it does exist, but people find it hard to believe. Kind of a non-ending, but then I suppose that’s sadly the case in most instances of actual male rape also.
C

Ingen grekisk gud, precis; Katarian Kieri, swe, 217
Kind of brilliant tale of a young girl who falls for a teacher. Kind of brilliant mostly because the main character is into Morrissey, but for other reasons also. I was a bit worried where it was going to end, but it’s kind of perfect, really.
B

Sandman: The Kindly Ones; Neil Gaiman et al., eng, 335
I wouldn’t say Sandman is Gaiman at his best, but I do like the stories and so also in this volume. Not my favourite, though.
For the TBR reading challenge.
C

Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island; Mike Tucker, eng, 255
Scary monsters and kiddies with nightmares. I liked it, but not as much as other DW books.
C

Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction; Stephen Cole, eng, 256
Farming in Africa, golden statues and creepy aliens. Good, but not great. Doctor’s always nice, though.
C

Doctor Who: The Price of Paradise; Colin Brake, eng, 255
References Franz Ferdinand and other pop culture a time or two. Not the best of the DW books I’ve read—I don’t much care for Colin Brake’s style of writing it, though I can’t put my finger on the exact reason.
C

Tro, hopp och burnout; Johan Unenge, swe, 228
YA story about a guy who’s really into cars and death metal, who ends up going on a confirmation camp. It’s a decent story, and I was happy to see it didn’t end up quite where I expected it would, but the writing style is very, very choppy and not at all my cup of tea.
For the A-Z reading challenge.
C

Vadå feminist; Lisa Gålmark, swe, 188
Basic guide to feminism. I wasn’t too keen on the writing and didn’t like the book all that much. Mostly it made me a little annoyed with the author, though it did contain sections worth thinking about. It bothers me that there is no question mark in the title.
For the A-Z reading challenge.
D

Homofamiljer; Sara Stenholm & Cecilia Strömberg, swe, 312
About rainbow families and different ways to get one. Interesting, especially the personal stories, but not fab.
C

*Just a cold, but a bad one. I hate colds. And I’ve run out of Kleenex, which means my nose is very, very sore from regular paper towels. Woe.

English
255 pages
BBC Books
ISBN: 978-1-846-07437-0

First line: The Late Bob Strong.

Back cover blurb:
Dr Bob Strong’s GP surgery has been treating a lot of coughs and colds recently, far more than is normal for the time of year. Bob thinks there’s something up but he can’t think what. He seems to have caught it himself, whatever it is—he’s starting to cough badly and there are flecks of blood in his hanky.

Saskia Harden has been found on a number of occasions submerged in ponds or canals but alive and seemingly none the worse for wear. Saskia is not on any files, except in the medical records at Dr Strong’s GP practice.
But Torchwood’s priorities lie elsewhere: investigating ghostly apparitions in South Wales, they have found a dead body. It’s old and in an advanced state of decay. And it is still able to talk.

And what it is saying is ‘Water hag’…

Thoughts: This isn’t the first of the Torchwood books, but it is the first one I’ve read. I liked it well enough, even if I was freaking out a bit due to the fact that I’ve caught a cold (stupid crowded plane cabins) and was consequently hacking up my lungs as I read it. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I’m reading a book wherein the majority of the characters are suffering from a strange affliction which starts with a tickle in the throat and leads to massive coughing fits, complete with blood and great quantities of green phlegm being expelled, I don’t particularly want to be suffering from a bad cough myself. Not that there are times I would want to be suffering from a bad cough, but y’know, there are degrees of “do not want.”

Apart from the cough coincidence, it was pretty all right. Darker in tone than the Doctor Who books (just like the series is darker and more ‘grown-up’ than DW), but I think I actually prefer the Who books. At least some of them, and possibly not to all of the Torchwood books (time will tell).

My one biggest complaint is that there was much too little of Ianto in this. Ianto Jones is effin’ brilliant, so he deserves more page time than he got here, but what little he did get was pretty snarky, which was nice. I love snarky!Ianto. I also love Jack/Ianto, which there wasn’t much of in this particular book. I am told that there’s more of it in some of the others in the series, though, so I’m not giving up on that yet.

I’m giving this a C rating. Had it had more Jack/Ianto, or just more Ianto, I would have given it a higher rating, most likely, but as it is, a C is just the right one.

For the A-Z reading challenge.

Swedish
128 pages
Richters
ISBN: 91-7130-027-9

First line: Det var medan vi tittade på teve som vi bestämde oss för att råna tandläkaren.

Back cover blurb:
Cameron Wolfe är en ensamvarg och underdog som slår i underläge. Alltid i underläge!
I Hundår berättar han om några månader i sitt liv. Inte för att det hände något särskilt. Bara hans försök att hitta sin väg genom livet. Och några boxningsmatcher på bakgården.

Thoughts: I don’t know if it was because of the translation, my mood at the time, or because Zusak is just not my cup of tea, but I didn’t like this book. I’ve been hearing a lot of good stuff about him, so I think I’ll probably try The Book Thief anyway, though not by buying it. If I’ll read it, I’ll borrow it from the library.

A D grade. It just wasn’t interesting to me.

Then my family came to visit (and to bring my cats. It’s a long story) and we went shopping for a bit. Of course, since they had never been to the used book store here, I had to take them. And, um… suddenly I seem to have added another four books to my collection. I don’t understand how these things just happen! ;D

The thing about that book store is that, in addition* to selling new and used books, they also sell movie icon related stuff, most of which is pretty nifty. In other words: not only did I add to my book collection, but I also ended up with six new coasters and a tray, all with old style Hollywood stars on them. (And earlier in the day, I’d found two mugs with Tony the Tiger as he used to be.)

The books I ordered from Amazon.co.uk are:

• Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Emily Climbs by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Emily’s Quest by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Generation X by Douglas Coupland
• Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides
• Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane
• Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett
• Torchwood: The Twilight Streets by Gary Russell

The first five are all for a Canadian reading challenge I’m about to join, the last four is because of that Who kick I’ve been on/am on.

The four books I got at the book store were:

• A History of the Breast by Marilyn Yalom
• The Underdog by Markus Zusak
• Tro, hopp och burnout by Johan Unenge
• Vadå feminist? by Lisa Gålmark

I’ve been eyeing the first of these four since September, but never got it because it was a tad on the expensive side the first time, the second time because I couldn’t find it, the third time because it was too expensive. Then today I decided I would get it, and now it was half-price! Brilliant that, I thought.

I can use that book, and the other three, for the A-Z reading challenge, which is the biggest reason I got most of them (another reason I got the Zusak one is because I’ve been curious about Zusak for a good while now). They’re all for pretty tricky letters of the alphabet, which makes it all the better. The one, slightly not cool, thing is that the two first are in translation, rather than original. But I hope they’re okay anyway.

*I totally spelled addition** as addiction at first. Freudian slip?
**And there I did it again. Double slip?

In other, somewhat related news, I won the Read-a-thon post-event survey prize drawing, which is a subscription to Bookmarks magazine. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this.

I will have a post with June stats up at some point soon, maybe by the end of the weekend. I have yet to post reviews for a few books I read in June and I want to get those done first, but I have no time for it until the weekend, basically. (This is yet another reason for the epic fail.)

Still on a Doctor Who kick, which will soon also be a Torchwood kick (I’m about half-way through my last Ten+Rose book, and so shall have to turn to Torchwood for my Who-verse fixes. Well, until Saturday, that is).

Since I’m going to be working full-time this month, I won’t set my goal very high. I’m aiming for 20 books by the end of the month (I’ve read one already—only nineteen to go!).

To kick off the challenge, Mrs S has posted a mini-challenge to get everyone acquainted.

1. Describe yourself in one sentence
A shy and quiet book geek with a Doctor Who fixation and a penchant for the slashridden.

2. What book will you start the challenge with?
Well, I already finished my first (Doctor Who: The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker), but next up is Doctor Who: The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole. Yes, I’m on a Who kick currently. What of it? ;D

3. Where is your favourite place to read?
Bed!

4. What is your favourite book of all time?
Just the one? Oh, you are cruel! ;D Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, probably.

5. Remind us all of your challenge target
Twenty, which is kind of low for me, but then I’m back to work now, so I won’t have that much time for reading.

Tell me, did you finish the challenge? Which was your favourite book?

My list:

1. A Strong and Sudden Thaw; RW Day — finished 14th June, 2008
2. His Majesty’s Dragon; Naomi Novik — finished on 3rd January, 2008
3. A Game of Thrones; George RR Martin — finished 30th June, 2008
4. Dragon’s Bait; Vivian Vande Velde — finished on 2nd March, 2008
5. Throne of Jade; Naomi Novik — finished on 22nd June, 2008

My favourite was A Strong and Sudden Thaw by RW Day, followed closely by the two written by Naomi Novik. I’m definitely going to have to get my hands on the rest of that series (as well as the sequel to ASaST, which I hear is in the works).

I’m going to be visiting all the participants in the next few days to see how you all did. ‘Cause I’m nosy like that. ;D

I’ve already got some half-formed plans for a follow-up challenge, or a repeat challenge.

For the Here Be Dragons and First in a Series reading challenges.

English
837 pages
Bantam Books
ISBN: 987-0-553-57340-4

First line: “We should start back,” Gared urged them as the woods began to grow dark around them.

Back cover blurb:
In a land where summer can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family born as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs periously in the balance, as each endeavor to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Thoughts: I kept pushing back reading this forever, as it’s such a big book. I didn’t use to mind big books—quite the opposite, in fact—but then I got a job and I don’t have as much time for reading as I used to, so I’ve rarely got time to finish big books in one sitting, which is what I prefer to do (example: I read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, which was 1239 pages in the translation I read, in less than two days).

Anyway, I went to London and I needed to have some reading material with me, or I’d go spare, but I also didn’t want to take too much, on account of weight issues and such, so this book got to come along with me. I didn’t finish it there, but I did get about half-way through. And then I finished it today.

For the first couple of hundred pages or so, it was pretty much just confusing. It’s written in third person. However it’s not one person we follow, but at least eight (I probably forgot someone now. It wouldn’t surprise me) and they never have two chapters in a row, which means that it took a while to get to know them.

Once I did, though, things did pick up a little and the story ends up being quite good. I even had a couple of favourite characters (Dany, Eddard, Jon and Tyrion). However, I don’t feel that it was good enough that I’ll likely want to read the rest in the series. Probably not, anyway. I am itching a little to know what happens next, so maybe one day I will end up reading the other books, but right now I doubt it.

It’s a C grade, which means it was a decent read, but not awe-inspiring.

English
121 pages
Faber and Faber
ISBN: 978-1-84668-133-2

First line: At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.

Back cover blurb:
Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster travelling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it is, the following week her choice proves more enjoyable and awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen’s literary odyssey to a close.

Thoughts: This book is made of awesome and that’s a fact. I read it in just a little over an hour and I kind of wish I hadn’t read it yet, so I could read it again for the first time.

I love the ending. I think it was absolutely fab. The rest also. I laughed out loud more than once and giggled madly about three times that.

There was a paragraph—well, not actually even a whole paragraph really, but a bit of a paragraph— at the beginning of the book that made me shout with glee. This, to be exact:

[...] he was largely self-taught, his reading tending to be determined by whether an author was gay or not.

Because I have a tendency to do that. Well, not exactly. More like I tend to turn towards books that I know have gay characters, even if maybe they don’t sound terribly exciting otherwise. I am hooked on boy on boy, okay? IT IS AN *AFFLICTION, BUT I AM NOT ASHAMED! (I am, however, operating on about four hours of sleep and um, it’s starting to show?) Almost, without fail, if a book has a gay character, he will be my favourite. I am terribly predictable about this, but there it is. (And it doesn’t apply to females. Because most of the time I couldn’t care less about the womenfolk. Which is, err, not so great, actually.)

Aaaaanyway, then I finished the book and read the blurb about the author. And I realised I was well daft and that Alan Bennett of The Uncommon Reader is Alan Bennett of The History Boys, which set my gaydar off big time. Because there were certain elements in The Uncommon Reader and there were also elements in The History Boys (very cute elements. V.v. cute elements! Adorable, even! I should read the play. Like, yesterday) and sometimes I have a functioning gaydar.** After a quick Wikipedia check, I had all the confirmation I needed.

And that’s when I cracked up about the quote again. Because it shouldn’t matter, and it doesn’t, but it does. (One day I will show you the little symbols I use in my little black book of books and you will laugh at me.) HI, I’M SHALLOW AND I LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS.

I think I might have got a bit sidetracked there. Y’know, just a smidgen. The Uncommon Reader gets an A grade, because it’s brilliant, but not because it has boy on boy (it doesn’t. Really) or because my gaydar worked on the author, but because it is about books and about reading and it’s funny and quirky and I LOVED IT!

Um, I think I should go to bed now…

*Being hooked on it, I mean. Not the boy on boy. Never!
**Which would be useful, except it only works on authors and fictional characters, more’s the pity.

I enjoyed the whole experience ever so much and next time I intend to participate again, only that time I hope to be able to do the full twenty-four hours (why must there be such a thing as work? Why, oh why?). And next time, I hope my blog doesn’t die on me right in the middle of it. Do you have any idea how excruciatingly annoying that was?

I wish I’d had more time for visiting all the other participants. I did try at the start of it, but then I hardly got any reading done, so I stopped after a while. There were a couple of people I did check in on regularly, but I was a poor commenter to be sure.

Let’s have some numbers then!
8 books finished
2 books dabbled in
1,550 pages read
12.4 hours spent reading
6.5 hours spent sleeping/watching Doctor Who
4 hours (approximately) spent blogging/visiting other people’s blogs
10 cups of tea consumed
1 cup of (shoddy) coffee consumed

Next time I want to spend less time sleeping, more time reading, and hopefully break the 2,000-page barrier. I wasn’t that far off this time, all things considered. (Eva kind of scares me, though. I think she must be superhuman…)

In the photo below you can see eight of the books I picked up and read at some point during the Read-a-thon. Only six of those I finished, though. The other two of my completed reads were e-books, which makes it a tad difficult to include them in the photo.

Post-event survey from Dewey:
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 22 and 23, definitely. I wasn’t very tired, exactly, but my eyes were finding it a little hard to focus on the text.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
My last hour I spent on The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, and I wish I’d started it a little earlier, because it’s a very fast, very fun, read and I would’ve liked to have finished it during the Read-a-thon.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, I think it was fab the way it was! What do you mean, next year, though? ;D

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I really loved the mini-challenges and the cheerleading. I know I didn’t participate in many of the mini-challenges (I meant to for a lot of the later ones, but then my blog stopped working so I couldn’t, and some of the earlier ones I missed because I’d gone to bed), but they are a very nice touch to keep people interacting with each other. And the cheerleaders were gold!
Another thing is I read a lot of kid’s fiction/YA, which helped move things along (even though I felt a bit like I was cheating at times, reading such “simple” stuff).

5. How many books did you read?
I finished eight and read parts of two more.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
Finished: Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune, Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson, Melka: The Story of an Arab Pony - Joan Penney
Dabbled in: A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin, The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
See my answer to question 2. I really liked Travels in the Scriptorium too, though, as well as Gaiman’s The Kindly Ones.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
I liked them all, or I would’ve put them straight down. I can say that A Game of Thrones was perhaps not the best choice for the Read-a-thon. I was already more than half-way in by the time the ‘thon started, but I felt it was a little heavy and really slowed down my pace, so I didn’t read that much from it.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
n/a

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I should like to participate again very much! Same role as this time, except I hope I’d be able to stay awake the full twenty-four hours.

I ended up not going with the Hitchcock short stories after all. I had it in my hand and everything, but then I glanced at my copy of The Uncommon Reader, tried a page and just had to go on. I didn’t quite finish it, but as I’ve only got about twenty-five pages to go, I dare say I will later tonight.

And that’s the end of that. I had heaps of fun and will be posting an entry summing things up in a tick.

One measly hour to go, but it does look as though I’ll manage my not-really-set goal of 1500 pages. My eyes don’t feel as tired now as they did an hour ago, which is certainly nice. I think I’ll round off with some Hitchcock short stories.

A big, huge thank you to Dewey for arranging the Read-a-thon. She’s brilliant!

Another big, huge thank you to all the cheerleaders! Your comments have really brightened the whole experience, and if I had gone for the full twenty-four hours, I’m sure I would have appreciated them all even more.

My eyes are starting to get really tired, but it’s only two hours to go now and I’d really quite like to reach 1500 pages if I can, so I’ll keep on trucking!

Hour 21:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson
Number of books read since you started: 6 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune)
Pages read: 93
Running total of pages read since you started: 1276
Amount of time spent reading: 45 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 9 hrs 58 mins

Hour 20:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune, Good Luck to the Rider - Joan Phipson
Number of books read since you started: 6 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman, Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune)
Pages read: 106
Running total of pages read since you started: 1183
Amount of time spent reading: 52 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 9 hrs 13 mins

Hour 19:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Lad, a Dog - Albert Payson Terhune
Number of books read since you started: 5 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman)
Pages read: 100
Running total of pages read since you started: 1077
Amount of time spent reading: 56 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 8 hrs 21 mins

Hour 18:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman
Number of books read since you started: 5 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft, Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman)
Pages read: 108
Running total of pages read since you started: 977
Amount of time spent reading: 42 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 7 hrs 25 mins

Hour 17:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman
Number of books read since you started: 4 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft)
Pages read: 127
Running total of pages read since you started: 869
Amount of time spent reading: 50 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 6 hrs 43 mins

Hour 16:
Title of book(s) read this hour: Sandman: The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman
Number of books read since you started: 4 (Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster, The Rose and the Ring - William Makepeace Thackeray, Drömponnyn - Pia Hagmar, Teena går til filmen - Ria Tofft)
Pages read: 71
Running total of pages read since you started: 742
Amount of time spent reading: 26 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 5 hrs 53 mins

I’ve read Teena går til filmen before, but it was a long time ago. It’s quite a funny book. It’s written in the late 50’s/early 60’s sometime, so it’s quite dated, but very cute.

One thing that interests me, however, is that it takes place Stockholm, Sweden. I suspect that in the original (it was written in Danish orginially, and I read it in Swedish), it’s set in Copenhagen and everyone is Danish, but the translation has changed everyone to Swedes (including changing names, I don’t doubt) and all the place names mentioned are Swedish. Do they still do that in translations? If not, when did they stop and how common was it?

And I’m properly back in the game with that. Speaking of games, A Game of Thrones is quite good, though at first I was a little annoyed by the way it keeps swapping perspectives (there are six or so main characters, and so far there hasn’t been two chapters in a row with the same character’s perspective). Actually, I still am, but now that I’m 600+ pages in, I’ve got to know them all, so it doesn’t bother me quite as much.

Interestingly enough, the main family, the Starks, has the direwolf as their sign. I thought direwolves were completely made up, but then I went to the Natural History Museum in London, and they had a dire wolf on display. Apparently they actually existed, thousands of years ago, though much smaller than George R R Martin has made them in the book.

I overslept a little, I’m sorry to say. I meant to get up by six am, but when my alarm rang, I stayed in bed for an extra half an hour. Still, considering I didn’t get to sleep until 2 am, it’s not too bad.

Once I was out of bed, I went to make myself a cup of coffee to wake me up further. I used my last sachet of instant Irish Cream cappucino and then noticed that it was clumping more than it usually does. No wonder — the kettle wasn’t plugged in and the water hadn’t actually been boiled. ::facepalm:: I had to resort to the Daim Cappucino instead, which I hate, but is slightly less vile if you remove the excessive foam on top.

I love Thackeray to tiny little pieces. He’s so clever and funny and his illustrations crack me up. The Rose and the Ring has nothing on Vanity Fair, of course, but it’s still an entertaining book. I must admit to a smallish crush on Giglio, to be honest. Again, he has nothing on Dobbin, but then there are degrees of awesome.

It’s getting late here (it’s past midnight now), so I’m going to take a break—to sleep and to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who (I am hopelessly addicted to new Who, and that’s a fact!). I’ll be back in six hours or so. I wish I could stay up all night reading, but I start work again on Monday and I need to be wellrested then, which is not going to happen unless I go to bed now. I’d risk it, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s the Euro 2008 final tomorrow night and I wouldn’t miss that for the world, so…

I’ve switched to Swedish now and consequently my reading speed has picked up considerably. I quite like that, but I wish I could read this quickly in English as well. It is a fact well known to those who know it well¹ that you can’t have everything you want, however.

1. I keep using that, I know, but no one’s guessed where it’s from yet and I want to give out cookies, damn it! Even if they’d be virtual cookies and nothing more. I feel like I’m the only person on the whole planet who likes this author, but I know I’m not (I used to run the fanlisting for this person, before I got lazy and my domain died and all that).

Title of book(s) read this hour: Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster
Number of books read since you started: 1
Pages read: 108
Running total of pages read since you started: 190
Amount of time spent reading: 1 hr 10 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 2 hrs 21 mins
Other participants visited: none
Mini-challenges participated in: none
Cups of tea/coffee: 3 cups of tea (strawberry-flavoured black tea. Not as nice as the other one, but tolerable enough. Let’s not mention the bathroom breaks. Tea is lovely, but it does pass through you quick as all that. ;D And that was TMI. My apologies.)

So, I finished my first book and I quite liked it. I’m not sure what I was expecting from it, but it was a little creepy towards the end. I’ll have to read more by Auster, though, as this gave me a taste for more. Maybe the New York trilogy next?

I didn’t get much reading done this hour at all, so now I plan to pick up that book again (it’s good. I’ve heard so many positive things about Auster, but I’ve never read anything written by him before) and read until I feel like a break, whenever that might be. It’s quite possible, then, that I won’t post again until hour 4 or 5. We shall see.

Happy reading, all fellow participants!

Since I’ve been away for a while, I have some catching up to do on the blogs and webcomics I read daily, and decided to use this challenge as motivation to catch up on Cyanide and Happiness, which is my favourite webcomic ever. It’s completely insane and hilarious, and pokes fun at things you’re normally told you shouldn’t joke about. Sometimes bad taste is the thing to make you laugh.

I’m posting two of the comics from this most recent week, so you’ll get a sample of what it’s like. There are many more strips to be found in the archives (some 1,300—I spent a fair few days earlier this year reading all the older ones). Apologies if this messes up the layout (which is already messed up in IE, from what I hear).

So, the first hour, I spent most of the time reading. I didn’t get stuck in the moment the clock hands turned to read-a-thon time, though, as I was a little late in prepping my snacks. Better late than never, though, and my snacks are awesome. ;D

Stats: Hour 1
Title of book(s) read this hour: A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin
Number of books read since you started: none finished yet
Pages read: 60
Running total of pages read since you started: 60
Amount of time spent reading: 56 mins
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 56 mins
Other participants visited: Dewey, Word Lily and Eva
Mini-challenges participated in: Darcie’s introductory meme
Cups of tea/coffee: 1 cup of tea (black saffron & chili, very nice!)