Readathon ... and Once Upon a Time

It's getting to that time of year again - readathon time. Hie thee here, if you're wondering what I'm talking about: http://24hourreadathon.com/

One of Dewey's passions was building a community of book bloggers, and I know she'd get a kick out of how many people participate in the readathon every April and October.

I feel like quite the old-timer now, I have to say - lol.

I hummed and hawed over this one, I have to admit. Do I do it, do I not, do I read, do I cheer ..

Usually, I cheer, and I encourage anyone who doesn't have time to dive in as a reader, to join a cheering team. The cheerleaders do a great job at keeping readers motivated, and I always have fun doing it.

But this year, I'm being selfish. I'm doing readathon for me, which means being just a reader (I've tried both at the same time, and I found it stressful).

I'm going to start early, because the readathon starts at midnight-1am my time, which is a bit late to settle in and start reading. So I'm going to start on the Saturday night after Patrick has settled - about 8pm NZ Time.

My plan is to read for a few hours on Saturday night, do the first mini-challenge, get some sleep, then spend as much of the Sunday as I can reading.

There will be food, of course as well, I just need to decide whether I'm going to vlog it this year or not. And decide what books I'm going to stack up, which leads me to ...

http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/once-upon-a-time-vii - a reading challenge run by Carl every year. I tend not to do reading challenges now, but I do love at least TRYING Once Upon a Time, and RIP, both hosted by Carl.

So my readathon stack (short stack probably), will also be my Once Upon a Time stack.

I'm just going to sign up for the journey, which is beautifully open-ended and means I can draw from any number of books.

I'm also going to do the journey on screen. I bought LOTR extended edition on blu-ray, but haven't revelled in it yet, so that will be my Once Upon a Time on-screen journey.

So. Are you readathon-ing? Are you Once Upon  a Time-ing? Let's talk. :D

Very short reviews

Somehow I ended up about four books behind, given that I'm making an effort to, like, write reviews ..

Four books. I'm not writing separate reviews for four books, I'm far too lazy for that.

I'm going to, instead, give very short reviews for all four books.

Starting with ...

When We Wake by Karen Healey.

This is a good one to start on, as it's NZ Book Month (which I haven't blogged about at all. Um. It's NZ Book Month. You should read a book by a Kiwi author this month. They're awesome.)

When We Wake is also one of my favourite genres (though for some reason I haven't read as much in it as I'd like to have) - YA Dystopia. Sixteen-year-old Tegan pretty much has it all - a loyal best friend, a cute new boyfriend, and her future looks bright. That, is until, she's shot in the chest, is cryogenically frozen and woken up 100 years later to a very different world ...
MMm ... yes, good. Strong female protagonist? Check. Believable dystopic future? Check? Kick-ass friends? Check. Cute love-interest but no love triangle in sight? CHECK CHECK CHECK :D

Next up is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I've had this book for a few years, but finally made a concerted effort to read it, and I'm glad I did, and this won't be a revelation to anyone who HAS read it but it's so good.

It focuses on Thomas Cromwell, who  was an adviser (I think? To be honest my English history is extremely shaky) to Henry VIII and apparently all up in the whole marriage thing. This is the kind of historical fiction that I love because it makes my brain go OM NOM NOM NOM NOMMMM

I honestly can't remember all that much about this book. Something about a woman who'd been in prison for shooting her husband after he'd shoved her hand in a box of rattlesnakes at gunpoint or ... something?

When she's parolled, she ends up living above the garage of a single professor at the university she starts attending and then ... uh ... stuff happens?

It was fine, I remember reading it in a day, so it wasn't bad. I just haven't retained very much about it at all.

Last but not least: The Shining by Stephen King. Well. IT gave me a fear of clowns. Now, I have an irrational fear of topiary animals. Thanks for that, Stephen King.

Jack takes his wife and young son to the Overlook hotel, where they're going to act as caretakers for the winter off-season.

The Overlook is, of course, haunted ...

The Shining is vintage Stephen King. Don't read late at night, or on your own, or get it wet or feed it after midnight ... wait, that's Gremlins.