My Brain On Books XXXXI

 

   

 

Be sure and see my tribute poem to Dewey and the Thon she birthed at the bottom of this post

Riddle in my Readathon Nest
Also featuring my Kinde Fire on a stand, headphones, a small stack of tree books I'd like to spend time with and over on the shelf my Library of Congress talking book machine

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9:44-11:22 AM - First Finish!

I started with the Fugelsang book for the first sprint and was still listening when the second sprint started.  I was at the 58% point at 5am and finished at quarter to nine.  I tried to start The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree (a Libby ebook on my Kindle) to listen to it as I tended to minor self-care tasks but after the third time i had to return to the Kindle and back up because I'd missed a crucial word, I gave up.  I tend to need to follow with my eyes while the robots read as they get pronunciations so so wrong so so often.  But I got enough out of the nearly two chapters I heard to know that once I sit down with it, I'll be a goner for hours.

I was going to grab the book cover for The Separation of Church and Hate and share first thoughts but having started the next book and found it irresistible I find I'd rather be reading than reviewing.  And I know that because the book's theme is so closely related to the still open emotional wounds left by the cult I was raised in and came out of 30 years ago, trying to write about it now might take me down a rabbit hole that I would not find my way out of before the end of the thon.

I will say tho that I found quite healing Fugelsang's use of humor as a defense against the overwhelming outrage engendered by the colossal hypocrisy of those claiming to follow Jesus who brag about their hate muscles and compete to see who can be the meanest judge of all those they deem unworthy--which is every sinner except they're Piously Rightjus selves.  Because of people like this, I gave up my religion but I never gave up my Jesus.  I recognize Him in the Jesus Fugelsang describes as the Jesus his parents introduced him to. The Jesus for love of Whom they followed callings that led them to pledge service to the most vulnerable outcasts--a leper colony in India.  His mother was a nun and nurse and his father was a Franciscan monk.  They left their orders to marry ten years after they met. Raised by these two he claims left him in need of intense therapy which he could not afford so he turned to stand-up comedy where he works out the logical pretzels in this theology of bullies that owns our country today.

Ooops.  I'm getting worked up just as I feared.  I really need to learn how to wield this kind of humor against the demons my upbringing planted in my psyche.  Ugh.

OK.  Time to go exorcise them with a long immersion in a good story...

4:44 AM - Intro Meme

I'm prepping this the night before and setting it to publish as my alarm goes off.  It will probably be an hour or two before I update with commentary on my first one or two reads.  I'm starting with Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang as it's an audio I can listen while I sip hot coffee and eat a protein bar.  Then I'll switch to The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree by India Hayford.  Both are Libby loans due in under a week.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Kelso Washington USA.  Across the Cowlitz river from Longview where I grew up and had been living with my elderly mother between January 2013 and late July 2021.  I moved into my 400 square foot efficiency unit in late July 2021.  This  post was a photo essay of my new space.

So this is my 14th thon in my own home, counting the Reverse Thons in August 2021 & 2023 - 2025.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Non-Fiction: The Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang

Fiction: Letter From the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall  (book 2 in a duology.  I read the first one in July.  It was one of the best things I've read all year and I've finished over 100 books since Jan 1.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Savory: Red Hot Blues (a Spicy Blue Corn Tortilla Chip)

Sweet:  Atkins chocolate Peanut Butter protein bar

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

• Still processing grief over the loss of Mom last October..  
• Widowed September 2020  It still smarts at unexpected moments.  But at least it is usually only once  a month now instead of constantly. 
• Riddle (featured in pic above) joined me last December as a 2 mo. old. 
• Legally blind with RP aka tunnel vision.  Have only a sliver of vision left in center of right eye.  The rest is shadows and shimmers.
• Have struggled with mood disorder of Anxiety and Depression and insomnia since grade school
• Diagnosed with high functioning autism in 2015.  In my 50s!
• Have a caregiver who comes in five days a week to help with chores and errands I can't do alone. 
• I proved during this move that I have more volume in fiber art supplies than in clothes by at least triple.
• I probably have double the volume of clothes in tree-books but since I still haven't got them all moved over I can't be sure.  But if all the ebooks and audio books loaded on my devices were tree books there probably wouldn't be room for me let alone my yarn and clothes, beanbag chair or bed...

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

This is my 41st Dewey thon so there aren't many variations I haven't tried. 

Doing anything but especially reading or writing for a full 24 hours used to be my superpower but not so much anymore.  Now that I'm in my mid sixties the price I pay for that self abuse is significant as all my systems are less forgiving. 

Because of my vision issues I have always considered that the only metric on which I could compete as I'm now such a slow reader.  But I've discovered that I can rack up an impressive number of books dipped into in 24 hours.  I like to read a chapter each in 4 to 6 NF in an hour and then spend an hour immersed in a novel.

Ah but the ONE thing that I could do different that could make a lot of difference in the quality of the experience is to do a better job than in the past of staying hydrated.  But nearly equal to that in impact would be to get briefly active at least once every two hours.  But this isn't the first time I've set that intention.  Let's hope I do a better job at it this time.

Since anticipation is an insomnia trigger for me I seldom get more than 4 hours sleep the night before so for the last year at least I've been trying to change that aiming for 6-8 hours. I can't think of one time I've done better than six.  I hoped this time. But it is after midnight as I type this.  I started prepping this post two hours ago but decided to get a fresh pic of my reading corner so as to include Riddle and she would not cooperate.  But what did I expect of a diva who just turned 1 in the last 3 or 4 weeks.  (feral litter so a bit of a guess by the first vet to vet her)

Ode to Dewey

by Joy Renee

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