Suzy Q Homemaker

I wish I could say I read all afternoon and late into the night.  But I didn’t!  I read The Sex Lives of Cannibals until it was finally finished.  The end gave me warm fuzzies.  Then I read the first few pages of Into the Forest, but abandoned it for several rounds of Cooking Dash on my iPod.  I didn’t read any more for the rest of the day.

But!

Last night we went to bed at 10:00, so I read some more of Into the Forest.  I was up until 1:40 reading and I was getting disappointed in myself for falling asleep since I was sure I could finish it.  It’s been a long time since it only took a day or two to finish a book.  Like, before-Corey.  I went to the library every other day when I was pregnant with Corey and would spend hours upon hours lying in bed reading.  Man, that was luxurious.  I’m not allowed to write about this book, though, because it’s for next month’s book club.  There’s so much I want to say!!!!

(three hours later)

I forgot I was writing a blog post.  Imagine I left you hanging there for a while.  I also forgot what else I was going to write about, so I suppose this will have to do for today.

To summarize:

1. I didn’t read a lot during the read-a-thon, but I did finish a book.

2. I read a lot last night/this morning and I really like the book I’m reading.

The end!

P.S.  Thank you to all the read-a-thon cheerleaders who stopped by my blog on Saturday.  It was a good reminder of how wonderful and supportive the book blogging community can be.  When I grow up, maybe I’ll actually be able to branch off a section of my feed for books. 

I wish my heart was in it, but because the morning was spent on the set of a documentary with Corey, I didn’t kick off the day reading like I thought I was going to.  In fact, I hadn’t put two and two together when I signed up for the read-a-thon.  So here we are well into the day and I haven’t picked up so much as one book.

Never fear!  I’m about to hole myself up in the bedroom and try to finish The Sex Lives of Cannibals.  I was supposed to finish it for my book club (COUGH) last month.  I also have a few books in my TBR/TBF pile–and it is quite literally a pile next to my bed:

• From Dead to Worse (book 8 in the Sookie Stackhouse series)
• When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
• Belong to Me, by Maria de los Santos
• Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland

I’ll try to check in a little later this evening, so I hope the rest of you are enjoying the read-a-thon festivities!  I see there are plenty of mini-challenges and fun prizes to win.  Thanks again to everyone who put this together in honor of Dewey.  I sure do miss her and this event is bittersweet indeed.

~Lizzie

I’ve been putting off this post for a few days.  The other night, I was catching up with some of the book blogs I’m subscribed to, and when posts were popping up with “Dewey’s Read-a-Thon” in the title, I cried for a good long time.  The grief that has been rolling in and out over the past year is still fresh, and I honestly didn’t expect myself to react in that way to what I should have been anticipating for a few weeks.  Sure, I knew that the anniversary of Dewey’s death was approaching, but I completely forgot about the Read-a-Thon.  I shouldn’t have, and maybe that’s why I crumpled.  Now that I’m trying to piece together the last couple of months of her life–what I was doing, what we were talking about–I remember now that I had a hard time finishing even one book during last year’s Read-a-Thon.  We had a brand-new kitten, Corey had a soccer practice that day, and Jamie was working.  I still tried, though, because I loved participating, and I loved and wanted to support Dewey.

Dewey was a real-life friend of mine.  Her death was devastating, and there’s a small group of us who were her friends that are still struggling every day.  There are days when we laugh about things she wrote about her husband or her cat or the crazy birds in her backyard.  Then we turn right around and cry because we are so angry with the suddenness of it all, the fact that we didn’t get to say goodbye.  I remember the first time I got a package from Dewey.  It was filled with homemade chocolate chip cookies and I ate every one of them right then and there.  Over the years, we talked about so many different things, and I’m still honored to have been such a close friend of hers.

But I have a tendency to avoid uncomfortable situations, especially if they make me sad.  Dewey’s death was one of the saddest moments in my life, right up there with the death of Jamie’s dad, a childhood friend of mine, and a few other family tragedies.  The moment I heard she was gone, a part of me died, and I spent the rest of the day in bed, crying on and off, avoiding phone calls, mostly avoiding email, and asking myself “why” over and over.  And I had to move on.  Thanksgiving was painful because I didn’t know how to explain my “real life” internet friendship with Dewey to my family.  I had never talked about her to anyone but Jamie.  So I left it alone, pretended nothing was wrong, and just went through the motions required of any typical holiday.  And over the past few weeks, I have been avoiding the knit-a-long group, the book blogs in my reader, and even my friends.

This year, I want to participate in Dewey’s Read-a-Thon not just to read, but to honor her.  I’m telling you right now that she’s probably laughing it up in the after life, and would probably make fun of me for being so reverent in this post.   But I needed to write something publicly.  This year, when you’re reading for Dewey, read for her friends, too.  Those of us who stood behind her during the good times and the bad.  I loved that she was so passionate about her blog and her book blog friends.  She left behind a magnificent legacy in the blogging community and we’re so proud of her.

 

Scraps is getting bigger and playing so much now!  Aiden was laughing hysterically when he first saw her jumping around at his feet.  Lucy has moved from resentment to ambivalence, so that’s a step.  Gwennie is still interested in Scraps and smells her often, though she’s scared of her; she runs if Scraps turns around to see who’s sniffing her junk.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? They all were!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Sadly, no.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Everything was great.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? See number 3!

5. How many books did you read? I finished one that I had started before the RAT, and then started another.

6. What were the names of the books you read? Watchers by Dean Koontz and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

7. Which book did you enjoy most? I enjoyed them both the same, really.

8. Which did you enjoy least? None.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? NA

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely! I’d like to be a reader and maybe contribute a price if I can find the time to make something to donate.

Comments: I pretty much pooped out there half-way through. After the kids went to bed, Jamie and I watched a movie and just chilled for the rest of the night. I read before I went to sleep, but that only lasted about half an hour. I hope I’m more successful next time!

And for all of you asking about the Jackson book: I liked it well enough. I’m still pondering the whole thing, so I won’t be posting a review any time soon.

And a BIG thank you to all of you who stopped by!