Read-A-Thon 2014 – Opening Meme!

Hello, Readathon!

Let’s have the opening meme!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
My adopted home of Liverpool, UK!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
I’ve been saving a certain comic book by Gerard Way for four days now… So I’d say, Edge of the Spider-Verse #5, hands down.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Coffee. Coffee. ALL the coffee.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I’m Ukrainian, I recently finished my first novel, and I’m going to the Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds, UK, under a month from now, together with Emmi Bat, my sister and comic book artist. Things are exciting this year!

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?
I think the main thing I’m going to do differently will be – no stressing. I used to burn myself out quite a bit in my previous attempts, to the point that it became a chore. I’ll have none of that this time, and focus more on trying different books and doing challenges than on my pagecount.

Let’s do this!

Read-A-Thon 2012 – Wrap Up

And so it ends. *DRAMA!*
Cue the ending meme.

Read-A-Thon – Halfway Regular Updates

La La La… Fourteen Hours And Counting…

Currently reading: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Currently feeling: Reasonably awake. It’s around 3 in the morning here, and this is one of the golden times for me when I try to pull an all-nighter. If I can make it to three, then I’m normally fine until eight or so.
Book count: On my second one.
Page count: 482
Vital signs: vital.

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Mid-Survey Event… I Mean Mid-Event Survey

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
Not too sleepy yet. Eyes getting a bit tired, but I’m an experienced nightowl. Although, based on the above slip-up, some concentration has fled me.

2) What have you finished reading?
Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and that is also my answer to question three:
3) What is your favorite read so far?

4) What about your favorite snacks?
COFFEE! I’m also getting a craving for chocolate, which I don’t have. I guess I’ll have to make do with sugar in the energy drinks.

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love!
I stumbled across Curiosity Killed The Bookworm and I can’t help but love the look of it. The design speaks to my darker side (mwahahah… please excuse me, I’ve been reading for twelve hours…)

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End of Hour Eleven:
I can’t believe it’s been eleven hours already! Time for stats!
Books finished: One
Pages so far: 372
Time spent reading: ten hours
Other use of time: an hour’s walk outside
Currently feeling: equally excited and satisfied after finishing Neverwhere. I will not tire of repeating it for a while – this book is EXCELLENT.
Next book in my pile: it’s a tough call, actually. I may go for some hardboiled fiction as my next move. =>

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End of Hour Five:

STATUS UPDATE:
Currently reading: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Thoughts on current book: loving it and want to finish it before reading anything else
Pages in, current book/altogether: 163/163
Distractions so far: ONE. *glares at world*
Caffeine consumption: three cups of instant coffee, i.e. negligible. Saving the big guns for nighttime.

QUOTE TIME:

“Richard noticed that events were cowards: they did not occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.”
~ Neverwhere

And now, back to reading.

Read-A-Thon Mini Challenge One – Recreate Cover!

A challenge by Shel at The Hungry Readers, where we get to recreate a book cover. With some persuasion of my deeply non-smoking husband, we may have achieved a believable imitation of John Constantine.

Constantine. John Constantine. Sort of.

Read-A-Thon 2012 – Introduction

Hello to the reading world!

Let’s start off with the intro questions!
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Liverpool, UK! This is my first readathon from here. In fact – trivia, last year one of my ‘tell about yourself’ things was a mention of a move to the UK – and now here I am!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The one that just got added to it – Farewell, My Lovely, a crime novel by Raymond Chandler featuring Philip Marlowe, who drinks ridiculous amounts of coffee.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Everything that has CAFFEINE!

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
My name is Maria, to friends I’m Noxy, and my writing alias, Maria Stanislav, is a tribute to my grandfather, who is one of the most inspiring people I know. I recently finished my first novel, titled Coffee and Gasoline, a mix of adventure and romance set in a post-apocalyptic America. Both of its protagonists now permanently live in my head, often making me do crazy things I otherwise wouldn’t.

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 will be the first time I’ll do my best to stay up for all 24 hours. My first year, I was ill, and on the second, needed to get some sleep to rest my vocal chords before a singing class. This year, I am going for the hardcore option. Wooo!

Now, to read! I start with Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.