A Reading Life (47) - #WintersRespite #Readathon & Starting over on The Classics Club #ourclassicsclub

I meant to get the bulk of this done during Mini-Bloggiesta, and I did manage to partially compose my 2017 reading challenge post (went live earlier this morning), and I cleaned up my sidebar (which wasn't even on my original goal list 😄), but didn't get a chance to finish transferring reading challenges (along with starting over my Classics Club) to this blog.

This week, I'm hosting my winter readathon at Seasons of Reading, A Winter's Respite. I'm thrilled because it's now a two week long event! It started yesterday, and it runs through Sunday, January 29.

Here's what I'm reading:

• The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazier (This is one I'm reading for TuesBookTalk and I have to finish it by Jan. 31).  Decided to not read this.
• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
• The Chemist, Stephenie Meyer
• Property, Valerie Martin
• The Boy Who Wanted Wings, James Conroyd Martin

Actually, the above are all books I need to read this month so I'm hoping this two week readathon, and the 24 in 48 Readathon this weekend, will help me accomplish it. 

Why not join us? You can sign up and jump in through January 27.

My start date for The Classics Club was March 11, 2012...so my time is up this March. Problem is, I have not hardly put a dent in my list. I've had a lot going on in my life. A separation in late 2012 and finally a divorce in 2014. A job that I hated which sapped my energy and had me getting sick all the time. Plus, being a single mom (or the custodial parent, which means I have the kids the majority of the time). That is why I'm allowing myself a do-over. I'm sure the lovely folks at The Classics Club will understand. My new list, with start and end dates, will be in the menu tab above titled, The Classics Club. Head over there to check it out.

Watching

I saw two movies over the weekend. The Bye Bye Man, a horror film, was pretty scary.
I was hiding my eyes throughout. Passengers. Wow! I really liked it. Not sure why it didn't seem to get great reviews. Definitely worth seeing. 

Some people are grumbling about the season finale of Sherlock. I liked it. I thought the introduction of Eurus was quite interesting, in my opinion. Plus, the very end of the episode was very touching.

Victoria also aired on Masterpiece on PBS Sunday night. I really enjoyed it too. I thought Jenna Coleman did quite a good job in the role.

My youngest son, Reece's 14th birthday was January 10. We had his party this past Sunday at CiCi's Pizza. He had a great time! Why must they grow up so fast?

What's going on in your (Reading) Life?

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Cat Thursday - Cats getting their Read-a-Thon on!

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

In honor of my Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon going on this week, I share some cats doing some read-a-thon-ing of their own. :)

And the cats' version of the quote..."So many books, plenty of time." ;)

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A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon: Reading Plans and Updates #WintersRespite

STICKY POST...SCROLL DOWN FOR NEWER POSTS

I really hope I can get a lot of reading in this week. As I mentioned though (in a previous post), I have taken on two new clients in the past couple of weeks, added to the ones I already had, so I'm more busy than ever. Problem is, I have a TON of reading to do! So, no sleep it is. HaHa!

The first thing I'm going to tackle is to read Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb for my review post due Tuesday. It's only 300 pages so I think I can do it (and I have to). I've already started. Then I'm going to finish Possession by A.S. Byatt for the TuesBookTalk chat Tuesday night. I'm making this post a sticky so I will come back and add what I'm reading next after I finish the above.

Future plans for the week coming soon................Okay, I'm back with my plans!

The Ghost Orchid, Carol Goodman
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
The Gendarme, Mark Mustian
I might read some of Possession by A.S. Byatt, but I've decided to try to finish this one gradually. I'm still not getting into it, but I'm not giving up!

UPDATES

Monday

Total Books Read: 1 (Becoming Josephine, Heather Webb)
Total Pages Read: 300
Books Read Since Last Update: 1
Pages Read since last update: 300
What I'm currently reading: The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman


Sunday

Total Books Read:2 (Becoming Josephine, The Ghost Orchid)
Total Pages Read: 636
Books Read Since Last Update: 1
Pages Read since last update: 336
What I'm currently reading: N/A

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon: My Updates #WintersRespite

In case you haven't heard, I'm hosting my winter read-a-thon, A Winter's Respite, over at my Seasons of Reading read-a-thon blog.  If you haven't already, why not sign-up and join us this week?  I'm hoping I will have time to get some good reading in this week.  Seems like the last few read-a-thons have been a total bust for me.  I say it's time for a game change!

WRAP-UP
As you can see below, I only updated once and that was because I didn't get shit read. *frown*  Well, I did manage to finish the first half of Les Mis...400 some odd pages.  But nowhere near what I had hoped.  Oh well, I enjoyed it anyway.  Interacting with all of my lovely participants is enough reward in itself! Looking forward to Spring into Horror in April!

UPDATES
for 1/21 and 1/22:


Book I’m reading: Currently reading Persuasion
Number of pages I’ve read: 200 in Les Miserables
Total number of pages I’ve read:  200

Notes: I've got off to a slow start, but hoping to pick up momentum starting today!

Here's what I'm hoping to get read this week:

Read-a-Long catch up
Les Miserables--Victor Hugo
Persuasion--Jane Austen
The Night Circus--Erin Morgenstern
The Waste Lands (Dark Tower #3)--Stephen King

Let's Read Plays catch up
Shakespeare's plays
Coriolanus
The Tempest
Richard III

Others
Under the Snow--Kerstin Ekman
Dune--Frank Herbert
????

I will update in this format:

Book I’m reading: 
Number of pages I’ve read: 
Total number of pages I’ve read:  

Notes: 

Updates will appear at the top of this post, just below the introduction.

Happy Reading!

A Winter's Respite Read-a-Thon: My Updates

***This is a sticky post for my read-a-thon updates.  Please scroll down below this post for newer content.  Thanks.***

Update--Saturday, 1/28/12
Okay, so I started out the week with great momentum and quickly petered out to almost nothing. =O(  I'm still working on Gone with the Wind.  Here's my plan for the remainder of the read-a-thon and I'm sticking to it...
Catch up on GWTW...read to page 289 (Ch. 21) so roughly 180 pages
Tomorrow I'm cracking open The Secret History by Donna Tartt and I will finish it!

Update--Wednesday, 1/25/12
On Monday:
Read...Lifting the Wheel of Karma by Paul H. Magid--186 pages (REVIEW)
Read a bit of...Gone with the Wind--5 pages (LOL)
On Tuesday:
Finished...The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (started on page 99)--Total pages read 116

Running totals
Pages read:  307
Books read:  2
Currently reading:
Gone with the Wind (started on page 44) Note: will not read entire book--only catching up for read-a-long
Coming up next:  The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg

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My Mini-Challenge participation:
Charla's (Book Talk with Charla) Mini-Challenge--Character Do-Over:

The Scarlet Letter--Hester Prynne
Hester is a succubus and seduced the Minister Dimmesdale into carnal knowledge with her.  After that, the bond was established and she slowly sucks the life from him over time, which explains his sickly condition.

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Karla's (Book Addict-Paranormal Romance Obsession) Mini-Challenge--Love Sentence from book titles.  Since one of these books is about love, I figured this is a love sentence.  LOL!

Wild Mind:  The Secret History, Gone with the Wind

I did the best with what I had to work with.  If we could add some extra words, it would make more sense, like...A Wild Mind and the Secret History is Gone with the Wind.  ;O)

******

I started reading at Midnight (CST).  Yes, it's an all-nighter for me because I'm reading Lifting the Wheel of Karma by Paul H. Magid.  Starting my read-a-thon off right. ;O)  Here's what else I'm going to read this week:

• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (will read on Tuesday to catch up on my TuesBookTalk read-a-long)
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (catch up for read-a-long with Kate @ Literary Explorations) 
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt (this is my Just for Fun read for Dollycas's challenge)

I'm not going to list anything else right now because I have to think on it some more.  I'm so looking forward to this week though because I don't really have any major obligations so I'll be able to read, read, read....when I'm not too busy hosting, that is!

A Winter's Respite: Post Your Wrap-Up and Final Winners

Winners of the Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish Challenge:


Risa @ Bread Crumb Reads

Ashleigh Oldfield

Daily Winners for the Final Day:


Julie @ Knitting and Sundries


Bev @ My Reader's Block   Bev asked me to pass her win on to another read-a-thon participant so I chose another winner and that is:

Tracy @ Just another bookworm's blog


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!


******

I hope everyone enjoyed the read-a-thon and I'd like to thank you for joining me.  I'm still reading...extending my read-a-thon into the wee hours...and since I'm not eligible for any of my prizes, I guess that's okay.  I'll post my wrap-up tomorrow.

I'd also like to thank all the authors, bloggers, etc. who donated prizes and who hosted mini-challenges/giveaways.  Thank you for helping to make the read-a-thon a success.

Be sure to post your wrap-up with the number of books you read because Kate's (Read 2 Review) giveaway of Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate is for the person who read the most books during the read-a-thon.  Please place the link to your post in the linky below.

Looking forward--Many of you know that I host these read-a-thons seasonally and in the Fall I hosted from my brand new horror/speculative fiction blog, Castle Macabre.  It was a read-a-thon with a scary theme and it was a big success and a lot of fun.  So I decided to make my Spring read-a-thon scary themed.  The Fall and Spring read-a-thons will have a spooky/scary theme yearly and the Winter and Summer ones will be with a regular theme.  I have asked my readers to help me pick the name for the Spring read-a-thon.  You can vote on the poll at Castle Macabre HERE.  It's at the top of the left sidebar.  Now I know some people aren't in to horror.  No worries! My only requirement for a scary read-a-thon is to read at least one scary book and that does not have to be strictly horror.  It can be a mystery, thriller, paranormal, etc.  I'm also thinking about focusing this read-a-thon more on the reading and so the mini-challenges might be reading sprints or pages read in chunks of time or something like that.  I mean that is usually our goal during a read-a-thon...to get a lot of reading done, if possible.  Any input would really be appreciated.

Again, thank you for joining me for A Winter's Respite.  I hope you will think about joining me in the Spring or Summer...or both!

A Winter's Respite: Day Six Winners...and a little less than 24 hours to go!

Day Six Winners!


Melissa @ Must Read Faster


Gina @ Book Dragon's Lair



Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

My Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish challenge...is open until the end of the read-a-thon, Sunday at 11:59pm CST.  Check the details out HERE.

A Winter's Respite: Intro Mini-Challenge and Mini-Mini-Challenge Winners

The two winners of the read-a-thon intro mini-challenge (to post your tbr list and/or photo for the read-a-thon) are:

Justice @ Cheap Black Pens

Amber @ The Musings of Almybnenr   Amber asked me to pass her win on to another read-a-thon participant so I chose another winner and that is:

JP @ Elle Lit

The winner of the mini-mini-challenge is:

Tobey @ Reading Schtuff (entered via comments)


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

A Winter's Respite: Day Five Winners and You Can Still Sign-Up!

Day Five Winners!


Celine @ Nyx Book Reviews


Jane Harfeld @ Jane's Book Blog

Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

You still have time to complete my read-a-thon mini-mini-challenge.  It ends this morning at 8:00am CST.  It's quick and easy.  Check it out HERE.

My Mega Mini-Challenge...the Covet/Cherish challenge...is open until the end of the read-a-thon, Sunday at 11:59pm CST.  Check the details out HERE.

You can still sign-up and participate in the read-a-thon.  Why not join us for the weekend?! If you decide to take the plunge, go to this POST to sign-in.

A Winter's Respite: Day Four Winners and Final (Mega) Mini-Challenge

Day Four Winners!

Srivalli @ Valli's Book Den

TFrances @ Wading Through the Ocean of Life

Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

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On Wednesday, we had a mini-mini-challenge...fairly easy, not much effort.  Well, today for our final mini-challenge we have a Mega Mini-Challenge (sort of)! The object of today's challenge will be to show something we covet and something we already cherish.  And what is the object that we covet and cherish?  Why it's our home libraries! Here's what I want you to do:

• Show/share what you covet...Find an image (Google images, photobucket, etc.) of a home library design that you covet.  Post the image in a blog post.  If you're not updating from a blog, you can just share the link to the image in the comments.
• Describe what you cherish...If you're not up to taking photos of your home library or your huge TBR stack, you can describe your home library or TBR stack, either in your blog post or in the comments along with the link to your image of your coveted library.  OR....
• Show us what you cherish...For those of us who are extremely boastful proud of our home libraries, take some photos of your library (or use images you've already taken) and add them to your blog post, or leave links to the photo(s) in the comments.

**You must do the 1st step above and one of the 2nd or 3rd step above for your challenge to qualify**
If you do a blog post for this challenge, add the link to your post in the linky below.  If you decide to just leave a comment, it should include the following:

• link to coveted home library image
• description of your home library/TBR stack OR link(s) to image(s) of your home library
• your email address, in case you win 

This mega mini-challenge will stay open until the very end of the read-a-thon, which is Sunday, January 29 at 11:59pm CST.  There will be two winners drawn randomly from all entries via random.org  Have fun and good luck!


And now I'll share with you my covet and cherish....

I had to post two coveted home libraries.  I have such a huge amount of books (3000+), I was looking for designs that would hold a ton of books yet still look aesthetically pleasing.  I think these two libraries fit the bill.  Which one do you like better?

Now, it's time for me to show off the home library I cherish.  You will probably notice books stacked in front of many of the shelves and this is because I ran out of shelves.  LOL  I apologize for the quality of some of these images.  The cell phone camera isn't always agreeable!

 The corner shelf holds my collections 

of Anne Rice, Stephen King, and other 

authors and/or series books

 My Christmas books

 Some of my non-fiction

 More non-fiction

   Yes, I even had to utilize my coffee table!

A Winter's Respite: Day Three Winners

Day Three Winners!


Shaunie @ The Space Between


Melissa @ Jayne's Books



Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Don't forget!

All of the mini-challenges and giveaways being hosted at other blogs are still going on.  There are some great prizes up for grabs.  Check out the list at this POST.

My read-a-thon mid-week mini-mini-challenge is open until Saturday morning at 8:00am CST.  It's a really easy one.  Check it out HERE.

Good luck!

A Winter's Respite: Day Two Winners and Mini-Mini-Challenge

Day Two Winners!

Bri @ Kindling the Fire


Abigail @ The Story Factory Reading Zone


Head over to the PRIZE PAGE and pick your prize and then email me your choice at truebookaddictATgmailDOTcom  Prizes are awarded on a first response basis.  Congratulations!

Now...on to today's Mini-Mini-Challenge!


Here's what I want you to do: 

• Take your current read and pick one sentence from three of the following pages:  page 1, page 77, page 179, page 255, page 360, or one from the 5th page from the end (I picked a diverse number for books of varying lengths).  
• Take the three sentences and make them into a short paragraph.  If it makes sense as is, fine.  If not, you can add your own words or sentences to make it romantic, funny, scary...whatever.  
• Be sure to bold and/or italicize the original text from the book or, if you leave it in the comments, put quotes around the original text.  
• You can leave yours in the comment section below and/or post it on your blog.  If you do a post on your blog, add the link to the linky below.  If you don't have a blog or just would rather not do a post, leave yours in the comments and include your email address.  
• This mini-challenge will be open until Saturday, (1/28) at 8:00am CST.  One winner will be randomly selected from all submissions and chosen by random.org  The winner will pick a prize from the PRIZE PAGE.

I will do my current read for you as an example.  I'm reading Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  The sentences I used are from pages 1, 77, and 829 (5th page from end).

Her eyes were pale green without a touch of hazel, starred with bristly black lashes and slightly tilted at the ends.  They were eyes that would flash fire when she was angry or provoked.  She dragged her eyes away from his without smiling back, and he turned as someone called.  When he turned back around, he looked at her in an almost kindly way, speculation in his eyes.


Easy Peasy! Here's the linky: