My first participation in a Read-A-Thon happened on January 4th and, for my first initiation into this 24 hour marathon, I was pleased how it went.
Beginning at 8:03 am, I got off to a great start, reading one-third of Wuthering Heights for a read-along that I was considering. The weather was lovely for this time of year, yet I resisted its lure to delve into one of my History challenge books, The History of the Ancient World. In fact, I was doing so well, that I figured I could relax my rigid regime and take my reading outside along with my silent reading sentinel.
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| Reading Sentinel! |
Warm, yet brittle sunshine flooded the pages of Mrs. Dalloway but I had perhaps made a calculated error in bringing my camera with me, and for the next hour I was distracted by texture, light and layering. Sigh!
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| Texture, light, layering …… Voila! |
I consoled myself with the excuse that I was still engaged in a creative task but Mrs. Dalloway was not happy, so I went inside, read some more and then convinced myself that I needed a walk to open my mind to Woolf’s “stream-of consciousness” style of writing.
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| The end of Paradise |
The hike sent oxygen to my brain but, sadly, didn’t make me more enamoured with Woolf’s novel, so I began The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before dinner to get a start on my C.S. Lewis Project.
After dinner I was able to buckle down and get a good 4 uninterrupted hours of reading accomplished. I really tried to get to War and Peace because I am baby steps to the end, but after reading a few chapters and realizing that I was not understanding anything because of need of sleep, I decided to end the experiment. My first read-a-thon completed!
I would consider it an initial success with room for much improvement. In the 16 hours I was awake (you notice I have deliberately avoided the word “reading”), I managed to read:
What a fun post! Is that seriously your view? I'd never get any reading done! (I am neglectfully residing in a desert.)
Good for you getting through 1/3 of Mrs. Dalloway in one sitting.
That is an impressive amount of reading done in one day. Congratulations! And your sentinel is adorable. Is it a border collie? Because I have one (tri color) and she looks so much like your puppy.
Yes, that was my view and the photos were taken at the times mentioned. We were dog-sitting for a friend in one of the most beautiful places I've seen, but sadly we are back in the city now. There must be benefits to living in a desert ……. you don't get moss growing on your roof and dampness that permeates your bones, etc.
Yes, Mrs. Dalloway is challenging, surprising considering I enjoyed To The Lighthouse so much and it is the same style of writing. I'm finding that I care very little about the characters in Mrs. D and wish that they would stop finding every little thing to pick at about each other, but perhaps that's the point of the book. In any case, it's early yet so there is time for it to come together.
I hope you were able to get some quality reading in if you participated, to make up for the lack of reading during your own marathon. It is so hard to get quality silent time to read, isn't it? I think I'm going to try more of these marathons, not only to get through some of my books, but because they are good practice in setting boundaries, focusing on one task and finding time to be still. These are all qualities that we seem to have lost and need to regain again. What better way than practice?!
I'm glad someone finds it impressive! 😉 If the day had been rainy, I would have had much more accomplished but it was so hard to ignore the outdoors on a day like that!
My 10 year old "puppy" is an Australian Shepherd. He actually still behaves the same way as when he was a puppy, so your description is not far off. Both Border Collies and Aussies have the same type of temperaments, so I bet they are very similar in character. Lots of fun but high-energy, right?
Lovely pictures! The sea picture is perfect, beautiful colours. Brilliant shot 🙂
And you did well with the readathon 🙂
I'm scared to see how much you would read on a rainy day then! That's amazing! I would also have a hard time staying indoors with such gorgeous scenery outside. But all I see in the window right now are mountains of snow, so nothing for me to do there.
Oh yes, high-energy dogs indeed. Mine is only one, and all she wants to do is fetch ball all day long. And if you try to ignore her, she will let you know! I sure love herding dogs – they are great companions.
Thanks, O! I had a very creative holiday!