And… I’m Done (phew)

First the final stats:

I read for 20 1/2 hours over two days, mostly on Saturday. I did have a goal to reach 20 hours, and I made that, and for that I’m glad.

I read five books — the mysterious edge of the heroic world, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia and The Fall of the Kings — for a total of 1,732 pages. Not as much as I thought I could get through. But then, my ideas are often bigger than my abilities.

Things I learned while doing this:

  • It’s hard to do this with young kids. Say under 5. Even with a very supportive husband.
  • While I love to read, it is not all I love to do. I love to cook, garden, play with my kids, watch TV on occasion, blog, and basically putter around the house. I missed doing all that while I was devoting myself to reading.
  • Additionally, I came to realize that if I’m going to read all day, it’s because the book has my attention and not because I want to rack up hours.
  • When I read, normally, I like to finish a book, put it down, think about it for a while, write a blog review (and think about that for a while), do something else for the afternoon/evening, and start a book fresh. I felt like by the time I got to the third and fourth and especially fifth books, I was muddle-headed, and not only was I not enjoying the books as much, but I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about them.
  • I don’t do well on a lack of sleep. (Meaning less than 8 hours a night!)
  • I’m a slow reader, comparatively. I like to savor the words (funny, coming from someone who’s not known for her love of words in and of themselves) and savor the story. It’s hard to do that when you’re going for time and pages read. And I admit that I kind of felt bad that I wasn’t a faster reader.

Even though I’m not sure I actually enjoyed all my 48 hours, I’m glad I did this. At least I found out that it’s not something I’d want to do on any sort of regular basis. And that I need to wait a few years until my youngest girls are older. Things I didn’t know before. (Or if I did, wouldn’t admit to myself.)

I’ve been trying to come up with a witty ending, but I’m still muddled. I need a nap.

6 thoughts on “And… I’m Done (phew)

  1. Congratulations on completing! I’m with you – I like to read and savour my books and review them before moving onto the next. Sometimes I need to leave a sleep between two books so I’m not sure I could force myself to read so many back to back.

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  2. Funny, for me this validated that I do better if I write my review immediately after finishing the book. When I wait, the chance of my never reviewing the book increases significantly. But it’s a learning experience either way.

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  3. ZG says:

    I agree that it does become somewhat muddled. However, it is quite interesting to see what you do recall about each one if you don’t do any sort of commentary till the final wrap-up! The acid test of whether it was worth reading?🙂ZG @midwesternlodestar

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  4. I enjoy doing this every year because it is time I devote to reading but I do find that I get a little burned out, I know that is true when I think about going grocery shopping rather than reading. However I found last year, and quite possibly this as well, that the book that stands out at the end of it becomes on of my favorites of the year. This year it was My Most Excellent Year. Last year The Nature of Jade. I also find that it forces me to blog about the book, and usually I only do that if I want to gush. But I do miss the time to savor, in fact I may reread My Most Excellent Year.

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