My Brain on Books XXV

I am reading for The Office of Letters and Lights the folks who bring us NaNoWriMo today as I love what they are doing for literacy with their Young Writer's Programs and because I've participated in NaNo every year since 2004.  I have been blessed to have it in my life and would like to give something back if only kudos and link love.  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. 

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 @Joystory and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two.  Including mini-challenges that don't require a separate post..   

3:00AM - This will be my last update.  Going to go sit on my bed and read Funny, You Don't Look Autistic by Michael McCreary until 5 and then get some sleep before time to wake Mom at 9am.  Usually that would be 8am but we're letting her sleep in because of how late she got to bed.  There is always the chance she will wake at the usual time tho so I still have to set my alarm to get up and check on her at 8.  Once I know she is up I can message my sister so and then I'm free to go back to sleep until noon.

2:22AM - Started Winds of Fate, the next book chronologically on Lackey's Valdemar timeline immediately after finishing By the Sword.  But I only read for about half an hour before deciding I wanted to go explore the Dewey Thon site and then update my Thon post.  Can't believe there is less than three hours left of the Thon! And I still haven't started reading any of the autism spectrum book which I'd intended to give 50% of Thon time to.  But that expectation was based on finishing the Lackey by noon.  I knew based on the past months experience with the Valdemar world books that I would not want to interrupt one to flit among my 'stack' as has been typical thon behavior for me.

Reading the Mercedes Lackey books has become the thing my husband and I have been doing 'together' since February and after we lost our weekend visits due to the isolation protocol last month this joint reading project has become almost fanatical. We update each other via Messenger several times a day and via phone calls several times a week.  It's been years since I've read so many novels so close together.  Have been averaging two to three per week since January.  And this has been in addition to the other reading--literary fiction and various NF.

11:33PM - Just finished By the Sword.  Read what was probably the last five pages after lights out for Mom.  That was at least two hours later than typical for her.

7:30PM - Still reading By the Sword but closing in on the last 15%. My sister just back with KFC chicken pot pies and root beer floats.  My treat partially as celebration of the read-a-thon and to insure no dinner clean-up but mostly to make amends for destroying last night's dinner and forcing an emergency replacement of the oven which had been on the agenda for sometime in the next year or two.  We just really didn't need the added inconvenience this week!

5PM - Just back from lunch cleanup.  I meant to listen to By the Sword via text-to-speech while making lunch but after realizing how mentally fatigued I was and feeling a loss of confidence after last nights BIg Bummble I thot it best not to divide my attention in the kitchen today. I did read the ebook on the screen while eating my lunch after turning off the burner and griddle.

I thought I'd be finished with By the Sword by now as I've read several of Lackey's Valdemar world books this past month and most of them clocked in at six to eight hours.  Just checked page counts of the book and several others and sure enough By the Sword is nearly twice the length of the typical ones at nearly 500 pages.

3:33PM - Still reading By the Sword.  Just exited bathroom.  Mom dressing.  This is my thirty minute rest before starting the traditional shower day tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches lunch prep.

1:11PM - Still reading By the Sword.  Still waiting for the call from Mom. Discovered she is still in recliner. Apparently she got caught up in the 'drama' of listening to my sister make phone calls all over the NW from south of Tacoma, Washington to Salem, Oregon looking for a replacement for the aging oven that I dealt a death-blow to last night when I left the kitchen scissors on the oven door when I closed it and their plastic handle melted into a toxic lake under the element and suffused the six salmon patties and full sheet of sweet potato tots with noxious fumes along with the whole upstairs once the over door was opened.  Now we are without an oven and my sister had just done the monthly Cosgo shopping which included a lot of menu items that require an oven.

11AM - Still reading By the Sword.  Went back to sitting on my bed after doing the Opening Survey. Have just moved back to my desk to do update and then prepare for Mom's shower.

5:55AM - I got up at a quarter to five and fixed a thermos of coffee and then settled back on my bed among piles of pillows and blanket since the house heat wasn't due to come on for a couple hours.  I started reading By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey on an Android tablet.  But apparently i allowed myself too much comfort too soon after waking from too short a sleep as I dozed back off.

Opening Survey!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Longview Washington USA.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Funny, You Don't Look Autistic by Michael McCreary
--see yesterday's post With Respect to the Spectrum (Revisited)

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Toasted cheese sandwich and tomato soup

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
At least half a week before Governor Insley made it official last month, our family went into isolation in order to protect my elderly mother.  So the four of us--myself, my sister and her twenty-something son and Mom have been holed up for nearly forty-odd days.  Before that we were used to weekend respite when Mom visited my brother's family from Friday afternoon thru Sunday evening.  Now her care becomes a 24/7 challenge as she needs as much attention as a toddler.  My two major duties have always been making and serving her lunch M-Th and supervising her shower on Tuesdays, the occasional dinner for the family, loading dishwasher whenever needed and supervising bedtime S-Th.  Now lunch and bedtime are all seven days, dinner at lest 3 and there is now a second shower on Saturday.

My shower-day duties can start as early as 11am and last as late as 4pm since it isn't over until the kitchen is cleaned up for whoever begins dinner prep between 4:30 and 5.  This is going to affect the read-a-thon for me in a big way as I will not be able to devote my attention to it uninterrupted as has been my habit.  Tho I still hope to cram a lot of reading in to the cracks of time by using the very portable ebooks and audio books on my Android devices.  It is a blessing that Mom still does most of the work of her shower.  I just need to be in the room for those things she can't do herself, to get her back on track if she gets confused and to monitor her well-being--stamina, mental state etc.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? 
This is my 25th Dewey Thon.  See above.  I won't be able to isolate myself from the household--people or duties--for the entire 24 hours which is going to give it a completely different complexion.

4:44 AM - I'm setting this to go live at 4:44 AM but it may be as much as an hour before I check in.  Making coffee, Getting eyes focused.  Settling in at primary reading station.  But I will be reading via audio by 5AM.

Ode to Dewey

by Joy Renee

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