Around the World discussion

Did you participate? Post what you got through here! And would you ever like to do something like this again?

During the readathon, I completed A Pale View Of Hills and The Summer Book, I'm definitely using The Summer Book for the "52" challenge but haven't decided for sure which book I'm using for Japan since I read another that was great this week and I'm half way through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle too.

I would definitely take part again. I think it's fun to share and it's motivating too.

Thanks Jenny

Finished Wiesel's trilogy which was a compelling piece of writing. I highly suggest reading the three works together instead of separately as there is a continuing thread that runs through and examines the healing process of one boy. Also completed a few stories from The Return...WOW!

Yes! Let's do it again. Thanks, Jenny!

Hi, Jenny and Everyone,

The Saint of Mt. Koya was a rambling tale of a Japanese holy man relating a story with elements of fantasy and sorcery to another man during one night.

Liked the incentive to devote a specific time to read along with others. The event was fun!

Hi, Jenny, Mikki, Marieke, Vicky and all others

I loved the idea and it was great fun to be part of it. I didn't really read 24 hrs, but I concentrate on one book only The Snow Leopard, which I hope to finish next Monday. Normally I'm reading 5 or more books simultaneously. I certainly will join next time.

Thanks Jenny and Mikki for taking this initiative.

I read and finished Kpomassie's An African in Greenland. It has more of Greenland than Togo, but the author is Togolese and lived there until he was 16.

I'd have read more but as I said in the other tread, I just got home from a trip and family was my priority. I'd do it again, especially with longer lead time to get organized.

Well, this was fun. I didn't really plan to spend the majority of the day reading, but ended up reading right up until midnight, only sleeping from 3:30-7:30 am (and then a bit at 6 pm, haha!). I'm not sure what came over me. I did stop to eat from time to time.

I started my journey halfway through one book in Australia, and stayed there for another book before traveling to Japan, and then to Mexico, and then to the dissolving country of Czechoslovakia.

Here is a list of the books I read and my reviews of them! We should do this again!

The Light Between Oceans (My review, this is an ARC)
Cocaine Blues (My review)
A Pale View Of Hills (My review)
Like Water for Chocolate (My review)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (My review)

Nice use of 24 hours!

i definitely enjoyed it! and i don't consider myself finished yet!

it was definitely a motivator becasue i set some stuff aside and got focused on books for this challenge. since i'm still working on my readathon, i will say that i have finished half of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting for Czech REpublic, made a good start with Jasmine and Fire: A Bittersweet Year in Beirut for Lebanon, and once i finish making a coffee smoothie, i hope to finish Death in Venice, which is short but i'm reading it in German so it's taking me longer than it should lol. But that's also a great thing about 52athon: i decided to read something in the original...i've been very lazy keeping my German reading comprehension up to snuff and have been feeling rusty and not quite up to doing it (because i knew i would be slow) but this activity motivated me to get over that hump. :D

Osho wrote: "Nice use of 24 hours!"

YES! i agree. and i'm a little jealous haha.

Marieke wrote: "i definitely enjoyed it! and i don't consider myself finished yet!

it was definitely a motivator becasue i set some stuff aside and got focused on books for this challenge. since i'm still working..."

Forget book talk, tell us more about coffee smoothie! *grin*

haha!

i decided to try this recipe but i had to alter something. i can't digest milk so i used soy milk. also i didn't have any vanilla pudding mix on hand, but i did have this cappaccino mousse mix that has been sitting around because it's supposed to be made with heavy whipping cream (YIKES!) but the mix itself is non-dairy. so i replaced the vanilla pudding with that.

i also didn't have enough ice cubes handy, so i basically have a super cold coffee with a thick frosting on top. maybe i should have blended it longer. but i was impatient.

Marieke wrote: "...But that's also a great thing about 52athon: i decided to read something in the original......"

Very admirable, imo.

Marieke wrote: "haha!

i decided to try this recipe but i had to alter something. i can't digest milk so i used soy milk. also i didn't have any vanilla pudding mix on hand, but i did have this cappaccino mousse m..."

That is the best kind of cooking when you tweak the recipe or cook by smell and taste.

I love cooking, Asmah! Baking has grown on me, but you don't have the easy freedom that you do with cooking. I'm pretty excited, usually, to make dinner.

hey--i have a question, in addition to amazing animals, did anyone else have any cool discoveries over the weekend?

I've been listening to some Soap Kills because Salma Abdelnour searched out a music shop to get one of their CDs (they apparently are defunct now, though). Anyway, i love finding out about new (to me) music when i'm reading books!

I love the music tie-in too. I think my big discovery was figuring out that macadamia nuts have a connection to my family. All from looking up a word in the Phryne Fisher book...

While I had major life intrusions on the actual day, I still read all of Windows and Stones: Selected Poems and made huge dents in The Golden Notebook: Perennial Classics edition which I've almost finished, and The Compassionate Life which I finished up today. I started Fugitive Pieces which I am loving. Earlier in the week, anticipating not being able to spend much of Saturday actually reading, I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Aura, Wide Sargasso Sea, The Path to the Spiders' Nests.

Definitely would love to do it again!!!

I finished my visit to Tanzania Paradise and crossed the border to Kenya A Grain of Wheat. The only wildlife I saw was one stroppy cat (see profile picture).

I'm not sure I read much more than I would have done anyway, although I did start earlier in the morning.
It was a good idea though, I felt a sense of togetherness with all the Readathon participants around the world. We certainly clocked up a few literary airmiles between us.

Well I had a Crazy weekend (yes, with capital C). We had stomach virus, family in town, and death in the family. I still managed to read a bit on Saturday night in between bouts of...well, you know the symptoms of stomach virus. So now I'm half way done with A Fine Balance and almost done with Night. I probably should have picked more uplifting choices for the weekend but that's what I had around.