Sunday, October 18, 2015

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon Oct 2015 Finish Line


Another Dewey's readathon complete! Thanks to everybody that made this day possible! I had fun cheering and watching everybody's progress. 

pg 112 to pg 121 12:49 am to 1:02

I managed to stay awake until hour 19, by far not the longest I've stayed up, but I have a long week ahead of me so I didn't want to push it. 

Pages Read:9
Time Read: 13 minutes
Total Pages Read: 256
Total Time Read: 4 hours 38 minutes                                                                             

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 18, because I was ready for bed. 
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Five Summers by Una LaMarche
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? The read-a-thon is so amazing! Keep up the good work!
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I always love the hourly updates. They keep me motivated. 
  5. How many books did you read? 2 and part of 1
  6. What were the names of the books you read? #Scandal by Sarah Ockler, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, and part of Five Summer by Una LaMarche
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? Five Summers
  8. Which did you enjoy least? #Scandal
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I didn't get to everybody, so set aside time to make it to as many blogs as possible. Listen to audiobooks while you cheer if you want. 
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I will for sure be a reader and consider being a cheerleader again. 

April 2013: 296 pages
Oct 2013: 92 pages
April 2014: 440 pages
Oct 2014: 417 pages
April 2015: 360 pages
Oct 2015: 256

April 2013: 8 hours 6 minutes
Oct 2013: 3 hours 44 minutes
April 2014: 11 hours 24 minutes
Oct 2014: 8 hours 44 minutes
April 2015: 9 hours 13 minutes
Oct 2015: 4 hours and 38 minutes


This by far is not my most productive readathon, but it isn't my least productive either. I only had half of the time free yesterday, so I used that time to get as much reading done as possible. I'm proud of myself for completing A Long Walk to Water, a book I needed to read for class, and I'm glad that I'm enjoying Five Summers and actually want to read this book because I have been in a reading slump for so long. 



Saturday, October 17, 2015

Dewey's 24 hour readathon Hour 18 Update

This update post for me is new. I usually update at hour 16 and then I retire to my bed for the rest of the night. I usually make it to hour 19 before falling asleep. I'm here to do the midevent survey because I didn't do it earlier and give you guys my very short update. I'm sad that Readathon day is almost over! 


1. What are you reading right now? Five Summer by Una Lemarche
2. How many books have you read so far? I have finished 2 #Scandal by Sarah Ockler and A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? reading more of Five Summers. 
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? yes I actually had an extended interruption. I just set aside reading and knew my book would be waiting for me when I returned. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? how each and every readathon is different. 


pg 83 to 112 from 3:20 to 3:55

It is 12:27 am now and this is the last time that I have picked up this book. I made a quick trip to Walgreens, which didn't go as planned because they were out of a lot of things, and then my friend has a desk job where she is allowed to have visitors, so we hung out until she got off at midnight. It is always great to hang out with my friends! 


Pages Read: 29
Minutes Read: 35 minutes
Total Pages Read: 247
Total Time Read: 4 hours 25 minutes

This will be my last post until the finish line in the morning! Every blog that I have visited is doing amazing!

Dewey's Readathon Hour 9 Update



I took a nice long bath and continued to read Five Summers. pg 32 to 83 from 10:50 to 11:55. Then I had some progresso soup for lunch. 

I needed to read this book for class. How convenient that I can do homework that involves me in the read-a-thon. This book is very short, so I have already finished it. 

pg 0 to pg 120 from 12:50 to 2:40


Pages Read: 171
Time Read: 2 hours 55 minutes
Total Pages Read: 218
Total Time Read: 3 hours 50 minutes


Dewey's Readathon Hour 5 update




Good Morning Readathoners! Dewey's Readathon is one of my favorite times of the year! A time set aside for reading with 1000s of other people around the world. I woke up this morning around 8:15 and got reading right away. For the first time this year I'm an official cheerleader. I'm on #teamdogwood, so I hope to get to every blog on my team. 

It seems every readathon I start by finishing a book I was previously reading. I only had 14 pages of this book left. I have been reading it since September. From 8:23 to 8:40 I read from page 386 to 401. 

Then I picked out another book to read off my stack and so far I think I have picked a winner with this one. 
8:47 to 9:06 pg 0 to pg 14
9:21 to 9:30 pg 14 to pg 23
9:45 to 9:55 pg 23 to pg 32

Pages Read: 47
Time Read: 55 minutes




Dewey's Readathon Starting Line October 2015


1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I'm reading from South Dakota, United States
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Fruit Squish'em, Apple Sauce, Yogurt, Granola, Cinnamon Rolls
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
My name is a Rachael. I have been a book blogger for over two years. I love reading YA and Adult fiction. I am now a Junior in college and this is my 6th readathon. When I'm not busy with school work I'm always reading or with my friends. I also enjoy running and love living a happy active lifestyle. 
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 6th Dewey's Readathon. Last read-a-thon was very productive. I was able to finish 1 book even though I may have fell asleep while reading the book. I did finish it before I went to bed for the night. I had most of the day free. I'm going to try to make my day free and enjoy reading again. I haven't been in the mood to read lately, so I'm hoping this is the book that will make me want to read again. 


Here's my plan for this lovely Saturday
This is a prescheduled post so it looks like I was up early, but I'm most likely going to sleep in. Once I do get up probably around 8 I'm planning on reading in bed until around 9 and then taking a long bath. 
After my bath it should be lunch time. I'm planning on having leftover taco soup or progresso soup. 
Then I might go to get my weekly shopping done. I didn't have time this week. 
Around 3 I'll return to reading and read until we go visit my friend at her desk job. 
I'm also a cheerleader this year, so I will take some time to cheer for my blogs. 

Thursday, October 15, 2015

The Day I have been waiting for...

My friend Rachel and I bought tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert over a year ago. We waited 327 days for the concert to come around. We fell in love with her album 1989 and we knew we needed to see her in concert. We bought 4 tickets, so my little sister, Renae could come along and Rachel's guest didn't work out, so we ended up inviting our best friend, Lynette to come along. 

Rachel lives in Des Moines, Iowa, so this concert was our obvious choice since we were able to avoid hotel fees by staying at her parents house. It took a lot of careful planning to get to this moment, but Renae and I were finally able to see our second Taylor Swift concert (That shirt I'm wearing I got from the Fearless concert), my friend Rachel attended her fourth Taylor Swift concert (she only missed Red and her tour with Keith Urban counts), and Lynette got to experience her first Taylor Swift concert. 


If you are a Taylor Swift fan and you will be attending one of her remaining tour stops, She only has 6 US concerts left, I would suggest you stop reading the post now. If you all know Taylor Swift her concerts are some of her best kept secrets, while I for sure will not spoil the whole concert I do want to talk about my experience and of course the music is part of it. I took all the pictures used in this post, so there is no copyright infringement. 

We arrived at the concert early so we could take pictures in front of her millions of semi (no kidding, but she has at least 20). Then we went to wait in front of the door for entry. 


Of course as super fans, we had heard about the light up bracelets that were supposedly free. We thought we would get them when we came in the door, but we didn't. We went upstairs to find our seats after a quick trip to the souvenir shop, and the bathroom. We were so ecstatic to find the wristbands on our seats.

Then we began the long wait for the concert to begin. Taylor Swift as usual had videos playing before the concert, so we were entertained. We made friends with our neighbors. Way to the left we had a 5 year old, who was very cute. She says that she is the biggest Taylor Swift fan and her favorite song is Welcome to New York.

My new shirt. Taylor is a rockstar.
Vance Joy came out around 7:30 and he sang for a half an hour. I enjoyed his music, but he could have stepped up the performance. He said that Taylor Swift could have chose anybody and he was glad that it was him. Glorianna opened at the Fearless concert and I fell in love with their music. I can't say the same for Vance Joy, but I may buy a couple songs.

Taylor Swift finally came out at 8:30 and started off the concert with Welcome to New York. She sang all her songs off 1989 minus This Love. She sang 5 throwback songs, which were You Belong with Me, Love Story, I Knew you were Trouble, Enchanted (mashed with Wildest Dreams), and We are Never Ever Getting back together.

Highlights of the concert for me were seeing the wristbands light up and change colors in tune to her songs. Especially
during I Knew You were Trouble, where only special people got a red bracelet and my friend Rachel was lucky enough. The catwalk was by far the thing we talked about the most after the concert It was so cool to watch it rise up when she sang You Belong with Me and later in the show it spun around. I loved the inspirational speech she gave before she sang Clean. She said that this is the song that fans have told her over and over again how much it has helped them get through a different time. She emphasized that after you get out of a relationship that is a great time to find out what is important to you. I haven't been in a relationship, so I didn't personally relate, but I think the hardest part for me has always been putting myself out there and I think that is the most difficult part of finding a lasting relationship is having the courage to start the relationship.


Overall Taylor Swift was amazing, as always each set fit the song perfectly, and I had fun dancing and singing along to the entire show. Although Taylor Swift has changed over from country/pop to pop I am still a hug fan. I fall more in love with 1989 every day. I have listened to this album over and over again and the lyrics are still Taylor Swift even if her sound is different. Although are seats were pretty high up we were able to see the entire show and I would have liked if our section stood up, but overall we had a lot of fun. It was great to share this experience with my two friends and my sister. This might be the only time that we are all in one place and able to do something like this, so I'm glad we took the risk and decide to buy tickets, even though it wasn't in our college student budget. Life is about taking chances and their worth making.



We had a fun rest of the weekend too, which I will talk about in another post since this one is pretty long already. October 8th, 2015 will be another day I will never forget. This moment will forever be implanted in my mind and be a highlight of my life. This night is sparkling don't you let it go.















Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Dewey's Readathon October 2015

Even though I haven't really been blogging I couldn't miss out on my favorite semi-annual event. I have been reading #Scandal by Sarah Ockler lately and it hasn't been keeping my interested. I'm determined to finish it before Saturday comes around. I usually get through a book and a half on read-a-thon day, but my plan is to read Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah as my paperback book and Five Glass Slippers on my kindle.

I'm going to try to clear my schedule as usual, but I might hang out with my friends in the afternoon. I'm going to try to take a bath in the morning and get some reading done then. I will randomly check in here on the blog throughout the day.

Let me know if you are doing the read-a-thon!