48-Hour Book Challenge

I'm so excited!

It's 6:08 in the morning on a Saturday. That's not why I'm excited. That's just why it's amazing that I can be excited. I'm up because I know everything works better when I treat my schedule and my baby's schedule the same on weekends as I do during the rest of the week, and I recently made some adjustments so I've finally started getting up as early during the week as I always mean to.

I'm excited because I'm participating in the 48-Hour Book Challenge this year! It's the 8th Annual, but I think I only heard about it for the first time last year, from my sister Sondy at Sonderbooks. I'm sure she's participated for many years now, but apparently I wasn't paying attention.

I couldn't do it last year, but this year... I can make the attempt! Woo! Between a seven-month-old and some things I have going on this weekend, I very well may not manage even the 12-hour minimum required for true official participation, but I'm going to have fun.

Go check out the rules, but basically, the idea is one reads and blogs about books as much as possible over a 48-hour window of time. Yay!

Baby last ate at 5:15 a.m., so I'm hoping she won't get up for the day quite as early as she normally does. Uh-oh, she's awake, poked my head in to grab my Kindle, and her eyes were open. But she's not making any noise yet, so there's still hope...

I may be posting this waaay later than the 6:08 mentioned at the beginning. Not because of my propensity to run on. We'll see.

I sort of have my structure picked out for me, because at the end of April I signed up for the May Challenge at 750words.com, which involved writing 750 words every single day, and then... I didn't. Quite. My penalty to myself was that in June I would always write a book review before sitting down to read a book. (I've stayed sane with all the times nursing and pumping that I could be reading by staying more or less current with the many blogs I try to follow. Not the same, but also fun.) I decided to count separate sittings on the same day as one sitting, only requiring one book review, unless I switch books. If I finish one book and start another on the same day, they still require a book review in between.

I also decided to count writing a book review as both drafting a review and then editing and posting it. Doesn't have to be of the same book, I could draft one review and then edit and post another, but both parts have to be included.

Because I forgot about these rules once recently, at the moment I need to post one more review and draft two more before I will allow myself to read. So that structures this Challenge nicely for me.

The first book on my list is The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, for SLOBS (a book club) on Monday, and it's very short, so then I'll be doing even more writing and blogging. Or as much as I actually get to. We'll see.

Left to myself (er, left to... less of my rules-following self? I have no idea.), I would have chosen more reading and less blogging for the Challenge, but this works.

I have no actual physical TBR pile, they're all scattered all over the place (and in notes to myself to get a hold of other books I've heard of), but for this weekend... Well, see the above. I figure I'll read whatever I feel like at the time, when I get to the reading parts. Which, after The Death of Ivan Ilyich, will probably be reading more of Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines. Which is longer. But I have both of them on my Kindle.

So! A sort-of picture of my TBR pile!

Wow, there's a lot of nonfiction at the top of the list right now. And somehow neither of the books I've mentioned so far are on this list. Meh.

Now, I would also give you a picture of my favorite spot to read, but this house doesn't really have any reading corners I'm in love with. And you know what's more important than a "where" picture? A "when" picture.

Yes, it is quite possible to photograph a "when." I'm not talking about sunrise or sunset, either.

My favorite time to read.

See?

Well, this is my starting line post. It's 7:36 a.m. now. Er, make that 8:19. I think the latest allowed window is 7:00 a.m. on Saturday to 7:00 a.m. on Monday, and I haven't started yet, so I guess that's the window I'm taking. I'll be tracking my time on everything using Toggl. Don't want to spend too much time on this post that I could be using on the Challenge, so I guess I'd better hurry and put this up!