My Brain on Books V

moar funny pictures
<-- click the pic to learn about the Read-a-thon

I am reading for RIF today. I don't have a sponsor but I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading in kids.


This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones.
I will post a notice at Twitter whenever I update this post. Or at least whenever I remember to.

4:44 AM -- End of Event Meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The 3rd cuz waking up is so hard to do.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Anything by Ellen Hopkins or Francine Prose
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Cheerleaders for the cheerleaders? :D Really can't think of a thing.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Splitting the cheeleaders up into teams and splitting the list.
5. How many books did you read? Just one cover to cover. My eyes aint what they used to be. Plus I spent six hours on my RIF challenge from prep thru posting winners. And another two on general cheering.
6. What were the names of the books you read? I read Joshua by Joseph Grizone cover to cover and read at random for around 80 min in From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler which was actually re-reading for me.
7. Which book did you enjoy most? One was a thought provoking and moving parable-like novel. The other was an old fav writing advice essay. No way to compare.
8. Which did you enjoy least? As I said....
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Fret less about repitition, grammar, punctuation and word choice and focus on the spirit of the endeavor. i assure you that as a reader that is the spirit in which i receive whatever came my way.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? If I'm still breathin I'm not leavin. Same as this time--all three--reader, cheerleader and mini-challenge hostess. That last gave me the greatest joy today and that joy will be drawn out as I make and deliver the five prizes over the next several weeks.

Read for joy!

That's it folks. I won't be updating this again. I might see if I can drop a few more cheers before the bell tolls.

3AM -- Finally finished Joshua. Now I'm off to cheer. Probably for duration.

8PM to Midnight -- Before I went back to reading again after wrapping up my mini-challenge I put up the Honoring Dewey post for the one and only mini-challenge I've participated in so far. After that I returned to the novel I started this morning, Joshua by Joseph Grizone. I was pushing to finish it before I updated but I still got 80 pages left and was fading so I thought this might revive me.

Now I'm going to give Joshua another go. I'm fast approaching that un-put-downable stage of the story. If my faculties flag again I shall commence cheering as surfing and commenting seem to ward off the drowse attacks.

3PM to 7:30 -- I spent these hours visiting every participant in my RIF mini-challenge. Here are the 5 winners as selected by random.org:


Kim (page after page)
NTE Never that Easy
Dangerously Cold Tea
Tif @ Tif Talks Books
Chrissy (book bliss)

I will post the same list in the challenge post as well. I need these 5 to email me at joystory AT gmail.com with their address and a color scheme preference for their bookmark i.e. a favorite two color combo or 'earth tones' or 'xxx holiday'. Or if they prefer they can email me with a request for a complete list of my selection of thread colors including variegated and a photo of my ribbons including prints and solids.so they can design a bookmark they know they will love.

OK. As soon as I get the list posted on the challenge post and emailed to Trish, I'm going back to reading again for as long as I can keep my eyes open. I let you know what I pick up next in the next update.

I'm fighting the drowsies right now and a bit of a headache so I hope I can push through that. Had only four hours of sleep this morning before kick-off and that after skipping sleep altogether the previous day to try to flip my hours for this. But my sister called me just as I was laying down (8 hrs before start) to give me an update on the friends who were in that terrible car accident last Sunday. See my post about it here and watch for an update sometime tomorrow.

Noon to 2:30 -- After putting finishing touches on my mini-challenge post and setting it to autopost for a few minutes before 3 (any minute now) I went back to Joshua for a little while but then picked up From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction by Robert Olen Butler. And began to browse at will though it. I've read it before and browsed in it many times since. I'm spending time with it today because it is one of my favorite advice-for-fiction-writers books and I've been refreshing my memory of his technique for NaNoWriMo coming up next weekend. Also it's a library book which was due on Thursday and has to be in the drop box before the library doors open Monday. And I know someone else is waiting for it so I won't see it again before NaNo is over. Sigh. I'm going to have to get my own copy of this someday.

I will be spending the next few minutes reading in this book until the entries of my mini-challenge start coming in and then I'll be visiting them until I've seen them all.

11:55 -- I've spent this entire time with the one book. I reached page 150 something. Had reached page 78 by end of hour two so the last 70 pages took twice as long as the first. Have been fighting eye-fatigue and the drowse since 8am. But am enjoying the story and the thoughts provoked by it.

I'm going to spend the next little while finishing up preparation of my mini-challenge post which is due to begin in three hours--hour 11. Be sure and return to check out the fun. And prizes.

5:05 -- I'm starting off with the novel, Joshua, by Joseph f. Girzone. I first started this several weeks ago but only got a third of the way through before I had to return it to the library. I'm going to start it over though because I can't find my leaving off place. The copy I had before was a large print and this one is not. I may be skimming though until I reach the new scenes.

BTW I was prompted to read this book after watching the movie based on it a couple months ago. At the time I ordered it off the library catalog I also order a memoir by the author, My Struggle with Faith and it is among the books I've set aside to choose from today as the mood strikes. I guess I don't need to reiterate here what/why my strong interest is in all things to do with faith, spirit and religion. Memoir is not quite the right word. Struggle grew out of his attempts to answer questions about his own beliefs after release of the novel Joshua.

Joshua is parable type story about a community impacted by the coming to town of a stranger whose acts and words are startling and somewhat discomfiting especially to those whose role is as a shepherd of one of the many Christian establishments. The story is an attempt to answer the question: What would happen if Jesus lived within a community? How would he act? How would he live? How would the people react to him? Would he be recognized by those who claim to be his followers? Or would he once again be feared and persecuted by those who are challenged by his integrity? Especially those who lay claim to speak and rule others on behalf of THAT which he calls Father?

Grizone's religious upbringing was in the Catholic church. My understanding of what it means to be catholic is about as comprehensive as my understanding of what it means to be French. I'm endlessly fascinated by stories set within a Catholic milieu though as well as with stories by and about those who have struggled to come to terms as an adult with the people and the tenets of the faith community in which they were raised--as I have.

5:00 -- AM Let's get started y'all. (I've set this to autopost at 4:44 AM. if this parenthetical is still here I may not have had time to stop in here before starting. At least I hope it's not because I overslept.)