My Brain on Books IX

<-- click the pic to learn about the Read-a-thon

I am reading for Script Frenzy and NaNoWriMo today as I am currently participating in my third Script Frenzy and have done NaNo 7 times. 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 and writing and story in kids. If you would like to sponsor me the link above takes you to the page that tells you how. My Script Frenzy username is joywrite


This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones.
I may be posting some updates on Twitter and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two.  Also mini-challenges.   Be sure to scroll to bottom of this post for advice on how to ward off those scary nap attacks. You won't be sorry.

5AM -- The end of thon meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  2pm Pacific or the hour preceding it for I suffered a 2hr nap attack shortly after 2.  But I'd already been awake 20 hours at that point.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Night Circus.  The Child Thief.  Geek Love.  The River Why.  The Tiger's Wife.  
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? no
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I liked the variety of personality and the high energy of those manning the hub.
5. How many books did you read? one.  and I'd already reached the halfway point before this thon's kickoff having started it for the other thon Thursday night.  but i read nearly 400p plus participated in several minichallenges checked out some blogs and followed the twitter and fb conversation and stuck in my 2 cents a few times.
6. What were the names of the books you read? Breaking Dawn
7. Which book did you enjoy most? see above and below in the update previous to this one
8. Which did you enjoy least? ditto
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? NA
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? very.  reader of course but I'm thinking i'd like to cheer again.  was wishing today I'd signed up

4:44AM --  I finished Breaking Dawn with minutes to spare.  753pages since late Thursday evening when I joined the Wonderfully Wicked read-a-thon that is to last thru Sunday night.  That is the first time in a long long time I've read a 700 plus page book in regular print in under a week.  but i wish now that I had set BD aside as the Dewey thon began and switched to large print, audio, or ebook and been willing as I have before to include variety.  One of my best thon experiences was the 2008 October one which I dedicated to short stories and updated with a mini review of ea story I finished.

I knew better and yet I allowed myself to set an obstinate focus on finishing BD.  I don't quite understand why other than that I was just determined to put that saga behind me.  It has been one of the most frustrating reads I've ever experienced.  My expectations had been raised by the glowing reverence two of YA nieces have for the series and I had quite enjoyed the movies, the first two of which I saw long before reading the books.  This was one of those rare times when the movie was better by a huge margin than the book when the book came first.  I still working at trying to figure out why.  It is the storyteller in me that is curious about this and can't let it rest.

I'd been aware of the controversy surrounding the saga and faintly amused by the jibes each side took on the other online over the last several years.  But I'd been confident that any story that had become that much of an enchantment for that many must have something going for it.  But by the time I was half way through Twilight I was already fighting the sense of disappointment and from that point on the analysis of the story and my experience of it accompanied my reading.  I had lost the immersion into the story and its world and could not get it back.  And yet I could not stop turning the pages or stop thinking about it when I wasn't.

I'm still cogitating on it all and don't have a clear reasoned explanation for my reaction. But I'm fairly certain that a part of the explanation lies in wordiness and redundancy.  I think what got published was still of the caliber of a rough draft with lots of potential but still very rough.  There were plot elements dropped on you suddenly without enough foreshadowing and that always yanks one out of the dream.  And well before the end of Twilight I'd started to be uber irritated with Bella and her voice and never did loose that irritation.  And since her voice was not so dominant in the movies that has to be one of the reasons why the movies did not irritate while reading did.

At this point I can say I was irritated but still can't say why to my satisfaction.  I think as I continue to puzzle on this it will be of great value to me as a fiction writer.  The storyteller in me needs to figure out just where and how Stephanie Meyer when wrong and where and how she went right.  And yes I do still believe there was much right about it else how to explain why I kept turning the pages.

well this musing thing probably doesn't belong in a thon update.  It's more the kind of thing my review rough drafts start out as.  I should move all but the first paragraph or two over to my note ap.  But I'm too tired to care and the easiest way to preserve it now is to just update this


1AM Sunday -- am so sorry I stopped updating.  I was focused on reading from 10AM to 2PM and then I was planning an update but I had to stretch a kink out of my back and neck before I dragged the netbook onto my lap and I made the mistake of laying down to do that instead of getting up and walking about.  And of course at 2pm I was 20 hours awake already so that was a BIG mistake.

After I woke I was disgusted with myself and disappointed that I was still so far from finishing Breaking Dawn.  I had so hoped to be done or very near done before 5AM Saturday so I could go on to other books for this thon.  I should have known better than to expect to finish a 750 page regular print book in less than two days.  It has been years since I have done so yet I continue to see myself as someone who does that.  It was something i was known for once upon a time. And not for a thon either but during regular school or work week schedules.

so when my husband woke me up by bringing me the haul of finger foods he'd promised me at 4 I determined at that moment to not open the netbook until I'd finished BD.  At 10pm I had 140 odd pages left but my pace was slowing and by midnight I'd only halfed that.  a 30pph pace or less.  My eyes were in flat out rebellion.  so i finally relented and allowed myself to get on the web to check out the happening on the two thons.  to fb and tweet and update this.   and now I'm going to return to BD and finish.  I'm still hoping to get to pick up another book for that last hour or so or maybe I'll spend what's left doing a challenge or cheering on whoever's still going those last couple of hourse


9:44AM -- I actually haven't been reading since 4AM when I stopped to put up this post.  After that I started doing challenges for both the Dewey and the Wonderfully Wicked thons.  Here is a Book Puzzle for the challenge hosted @ One Librarian's Book Reviews The challenge is to represent a book title graphically.

Anyone have a guess?

I think I'm going to return to reading as soon as I post my link for this at the challenge post.


5:22AM -- The intro meme questions:

1)Where are you reading from today?

Phoenix, OR USA
2)Three random facts about me…

• I'm trying to teach myself to play drums with just the sticks and every available surface with an interesting sound
• I'm trying to learn to use social networking as a promotional tool both of which concepts are totally foreign to me--social networking and promotion esp self promotion.  Any tips?
• i like nightmares

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

I have 4 floating like cream at the top of a large variety of fiction, NF, large print, audio and ebooks to choose from as the whim strikes.  I listed them in the 5am opening below.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

My only goal is to enjoy. And in light of that to go with the flow.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

• don't forget to get up and move every once in awhile
• don't forget to eat and drink. dehydration plays havoc with vision and concentration
• have a variety of reading material to choose from in a variety of formats to accommodate moods and fatigue and eyestrain issues.

5AM -- and so it begins.  I've already been awake for 11 hours since that's where my sleep schedule has been lately.  I'd hoped to take a nap before 5 but when I passed 1am still not sleepy I gave up on that afraid I'd just wake up groggy and useless for an hour or more.

I've also been participating in another thon starting Thursday evening and lasting through Sunday night--Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon..  Twitter #WWReadathon.

So I started Book 4 of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Thursday night and in spite of many hours of reading since I just now passed the halfway point. The end of the Jacob POV section.  I had three more books in my TBR for the two thons but now I'm rather wondering if I'll even finish this one.  But if I do the one I'll pick up next will be one of these:

The Child Thief by Bron
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I had started all three at some point since late September and set them aside for various urgencies.  Like library due dates.