What are you doing with the last few weeks of summer?
What are you reading?
What are you drinking and eating or otherwise indulging in?
What new rituals have you added to your routine or are adapting for the fall season?
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
A readathon in pictures
I’m a shameless promoter for the Dewey’s 24-hour readathon because it’s a welcome break from other life activities in order to spend time doing something I love.
Here is my readathon in pictures and narrative:
I always end the readathon by thanking my husband for tolerating being ignored for generally all of the event or hearing the echo of an audiobook wherever I’m moving in the house. He built the fire for ambience on a beautiful summer night when I enjoyed my amaretto cocktail at the 8pm end time in celebration.
I also high-five my two boys who are now middle schoolers who participate– both for about 8 hours of the 24 hours. They packed it in around 12:28am for bed which I wasn’t expecting since they were at a sleepover the night before.
There was the midnight-ish snack which has become a readathon tradition, having a hand-packed pint or pre-packed pint of ice cream from Stewart’s, which is totally an upstate New York thing. I picked a seasonal hand-packed pint called Mango Dragon Fruit Sherbet and it was stellar. It was a perfect pick for a blast of summer in a cup.
Which if you can see the book pictured with the ice cream, it lent itself to the hour 7 Instagram challenge of matching your book cover- I think I nailed it. While I didn’t post the picture until later for the hour 13 challenge, when I’m munching and reading a print book, here is my favorite recent gift: a book weight. This has saved my reading life in so many ways.
Another tradition is my bathtub reading. I’m of the same mind as Sylvia Plath who is quoted as saying
There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.
So a few book options came with me into the tub. I don’t have a fancy set up but I did throw in some bath salts.
And even though the goal is 24 hours of reading, I also still have a household to keep running, so I spent a few of those hours still doing housework or cooking while listening to an audiobook. And I got my workout in too, which was a square on the BINGO card. I listened to The Feather Thief while hitting the elliptical. This audiobook is also another tradition for me for readathons, reading or listening to a book about animals, this one about a heist of bird feathers that is part of a larger ring of the illegal sales of banned bird species skins and feathers. While I did finish that one, I also rolled into the other audiobook about a girl growing up with her grandfather who was a beekeeper.
I spent most of the day Saturday outdoors since the early morning thunder and lightning ushered in a cool but still warm weekend day where I also enjoyed some iced coffee. I don’t always drink coffee, but when I do, it’s iced.
I take breaks throughout with my audiobook on, including eye breaks in general but also when I moderate a few hours of Goodreads discussions on the readathon page. In addition, I co-hosted hour 7’s post on their WordPress site. I love the connection to other readers and find it’s another way to do this and also show my appreciation for the organizers.
Alas, I was getting close to the end and knew I had a blackout BINGO card which I shared along with my read stack when the clock struck 8pm. Needless to say, I slept well that night: a combination of sleep deprivation and a beautiful summertime fire.
Until October 24th, bookworms!
Where I’ll be
From 8pm tonight until 8pm tomorrow, I’ll be reading. With a community of readers built over the course of more than 10 years, the Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon was created by a woman whose last name was Dewey. She began it in 2007, but died in 2008 where a group of colleagues decided to continue to carry the torch.
While it has changed hands one more time, I don’t feel more at home than participating in this readathon held a few times each year. But the summer readathon is special in that it’ a “reverse readathon”– one that for me in upstate New York begins at 8pm Friday rather than the traditional 8am Saturday.
I’ll also be moderating a few Goodreads hourly discussions and one blog post via their WordPress site which will keep me busy while doing my reading in all it’s forms. I’ve got my stack, plus extras to substitute if needed especially to complete the BINGO board or a mini-challenge. I’ve only NOT gotten a blackout for BINGO once and I blame it on COVID.
Snacks and food is generally planned (and baked). Loose tea replenished. Audiobooks loaded. Let’s do this.
Wins
Yesterday my friend Stacey, a fellow school librarian, reader, presenter, and blogger with a sweet tooth wrote a post about some of her recent wins. Part celebration and part encouragement to keep on going when things seems so dim, she posed the question to readers about what wins they’ve had recently. Here are a few of mine.
Win #1
Reading a newly-graduated student’s published book after buying it from Amazon. Really, a published book and it was an atmospheric one-sitting read that I’ll be covering soon. This reminds us why we’re educators.
Win #2
I’ve continued my personal challenge to read a book a day since the last day of in-person instruction on Friday, March 13th. Beginning on the 14th, I’ve read at least a book a day and share the titles on Instagram. Where some have been unable to concentrate on reading during the pandemic, I have found comfort and routine in the completion of at least one book a day.
Win #3
Every summer, I run several professional book groups for staff at my high school to the point that it’s become part of the culture. Not only is completion rate high, but the camaraderie adds to summertime joyousness and we all get something out of it. Last week, one of the math teachers posted that if it wasn’t for these book groups, she wouldn’t be reading at all, so she was appreciative of the work I put in to crafting the groups and selecting the books each summer.
And I’ll ask you, what wins have you had recently?
5 thoughts on the Eisner Awards
Within the last few days the Eisner Awards were announced. While I didn’t watch the video announcements, I took a look at the long list via Comics Beat. Here are my X thoughts.
- While Lorena Alvarez who colored Hicotea was not the winner, the coloring was out of this world and a visual feast. I won’t soon forget Hicotea for that reason.
- Gosh, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. I can’t imagine why it’s a winner a few times over. I blogged about the graphic novel and several of the reasons I loved it so much are why it’s on the list between Valero-O’Connell as a penciller/inker to its writing to it just being the all-around best!
- My boys would probably tell you that Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls by Dav Pilkey should have one, but that’s just their opinion. We’re the pre-order the next one and pick it up on publication day, see Dog Man: The Musical, own-all-the-books-and-reread-them-so-often-they’re-falling-apart kind of family.
- They Called Us Enemy by Takei was a phenomenal reality-based story, but gosh darn it, there was something about my recent read of Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Jacob that just had such a unique style and presentation that I wouldn’t have minded if it won.
- The reinforcement that Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama is phenomenal by placing it on the list for best US edition of international materials (Asia) makes me put purchasing the entire series from my indie bookstore at the top of my list for tomorrow. I read the first one from the library and spent the evening making my own hat. That’s how much I loved it. I’ve been waiting (that good kind of wait) to read the rest in the series, but I don’t know why I’m torturing myself. It will end tomorrow.
Reading a book a day
Working in a school in upstate New York, Friday, March 13th was our last day of in-person instruction. It also happened to be the day after my sons’ birthday and we had to cancel their friend and family birthday parties that weekend. Whatever school was going to look like for the rest of the year was undeniably tenuous. How would my co-librarian and I support our students and teachers? How would I support my 5th graders with their work at home? It was going to look different than it had every had, but one thing was going to be certain, I was going to read.
I’m a reader who rarely has reading slumps or droughts. I am always prepared with books for every mood and in every format so that I continue to read. Before the pandemic if there was a day or two I didn’t pick up a book, it was usually due to a day packed with work and family obligations but I had started reading for 15 minutes each morning so I could say that I did read daily, it just wouldn’t usually amount of finishing a book.
So Saturday, March 14th happened. It was the start of a weekend, but the start of new uncharted territory so I decided that to lay a foundation of familiarity, thus, I would read at least a book a day. Done. If there’s one thing you know, it’s that I like a challenge. Challenge accepted. It might be a picture book or it might be finishing a book I had been listening to for several days, but I would finish a book a day.
This past Sunday, Father’s Day, happened to be one hundred days of reading a book a day. I’ve documented my journey on my Instagram not only to be able to see how much I’ve read, but how varied my moods have been and what was available.
I recognize that many readers have been significantly affected by the pandemic and found themselves in droughts of reading. That’s okay. I look at my ability to read a book a day as a necessity– like a writer writing, I’m a reader reading. It has kept me grounded and focused when other things weren’t so definite. My safety net. My life raft.
It doesn’t have to be reading, but has there been something you’ve done daily since the pandemic? As I wrote that last sentence, I thought of Aisha Saeed’s daily Twitter post
and a recently-read book, but yet-to-be-published book by Syed M. Masood called More Than Just a Pretty Face where main character Danyal shares a thought about a new girl he’s met: “I hope that Bisma Akram had something similar in her life, something that could bring joy and light when all seemed dark.”
Reading habits
When you’re listening to an audiobook, what else are you doing (if anything at all)?
When you’re reading a book, what else are you doing (if anything at all)?
This lady’s reflection on a month of daily blogging
Well, it happened. Each day in April, whether you subscribe and had an email waiting each morning or you found it through WordPress, Twitter, or Instagram, there was something from me. I talked about specific books and other people’s books. A 24-hour readathon. And my love of books centered around the kitchen… more than once.
And it was fun. A lot of work, but fun. Simply put, the ideas were plentiful because I’ve always had lists and ideas, plus I’m reading and learning each day to share new information too. What I’ve learned that most people already know too:
- Write it the day before and schedule it to post the next day
- Write about what inspires you because every experience is an opportunity to share with others
- Shorter is better
- I want connection with others which is why I usually ask a question at the end of a post and I get very excited when someone comments
- I might do this again!
So as I sign-off from sending out a daily post and settle back in to “when the mood strikes me”, know that today, Thursday, April 30th, I’ll do a little dance and toast with a little cocktail in celebration to my readers and to anyone who has achieved a small victory both big and small as I have.
Cheers!
Outstanding book of the month for April 2020
Readers I follow on social media make honest readers of others when they share their stats. They tend to be monthly and presented as a library card, book journal, a Canva creation to share and monitor things like how many pages were read, how many were authors of color, or which categories or genres they fell in to.
I’m not there yet, but I have been sharing my daily reading via Instagram during the pandemic and I use Goodreads religiously (read: obsessively). So technically my stats are at my fingertips, but what I do want to do is look back at my month of books and feature at its end, the one book that was outstanding. It’s like a book club choice, but only I vote. And the criteria will mix the basics of best books (story, character development) with things like originality and longevity.
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
… which just celebrated its book birthday on April 14th. The story is a graphic memoir of Mohamed’s life with his brother Hassan in a refugee camp as told and illustrated by Jamieson. It’s her effortless and beautiful illustrations that bring together a difficult story for middle grade and high school audiences about the conflict in Somalia which led to Omar and Hassan’s circumstances: seeing their father murdered, their village burned, and their mother missing where for their childhood and teenage years they toiled in a very large camp with an older woman to look after them from the next tent over.
The story unfolds in several parts as it moves through time and it works with the narrative, dialogue, and illustrations to elicit an array of emotions that connect the reader. It will speak to any reader– being seen if you are a refugee, understanding if you are not. Jamieson and Mohamed chose to talk about the easy and the hard parts with the ups and the downs and provide an emotional punch in the afterword and author’s notes for a fully-developed arc that is only the beginning of stories from around the world.
The graphic novel is a gem for its format but also the contribution to the genre itself and one of the kinds of stories that I want to pull off the shelf for years to come.
Where do you read?
Post-readathon reminded me of all of the places I read, in particular because during a readathon in the dawn hours, I usually will take a bath and it’s only a rare occasion when I won’t have a book in the bathtub.
In 2015, I wrote a post for our newspaper’s books blog about where people read that I thought would be fun to revisit. Where are the places that you read, the obvious and the awkward? When it’s awkward, what are the props and tools that you must have on hand to make it work? Have books been ruined this way? (I’m dedicating that one to my sister in-law who borrowed a book of mine only to replace it with a new copy because she fell asleep reading it in the tub and dropped it).
I have my typical places and the average reader places too. Do you run and listen to an audiobook? Do you enjoy scrubbing the tub because you can listen to a book? Please share!
One of the pictures from this past weekend’s readathon where were were sharing a photo challenge for reading during quarantine.
Readers Be Advised 