Read-a-Thon: Hour 11 and Confession Time

So, the confession is...I've succumbed to a nap! I took a couple of hours for sleep, which was pretty much inevitable, with the whole get up at 5am thing. I'm now back and raring to read. Since my last update, I've been reading Horsemen of the Esophagus, which is about (get ready for it) competitive eating. It's bizarre and fascinating all at the same time.

Around here the weather is cold, rainy, and windy, which is perfect for reading. I hope it stays that way.

Readathon: Love to Hate

5 characters I love to hate? This is actually kind of difficult. I'm going to try and do it without spoilers:

1. The Wicked Witch of the West- The Wizard of Oz
2. The Guilty Party in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
3. The Artful Dodger- Oliver Twist
4. Roger Chillingworth- The Scarlet Letter
5. Tom Buchanan- The Great Gatsby

Read-a-Thon: Hour 4

I have been dutifully reading since 5am (!!!!) I have finished Agatha Christie's Spider's Web, which started as a play, adapted to novel form. It's a bit different than other Christies I have read, but still an exciting and good read. I also managed to finish a book I was half through, Fannie's Last Supper, written by a food writer who sought to recreate a 12-course Victorian meal using contemporary cooking methods. Crazy, and the calf's head soup discussion nearly made me lose my lunch, but very interesting, too.

So, that's:

Books finished: 2
Pages: (243+136) - too stupid and tired to do the math right now.

Read-a-Thon: Six Word Celebration

I've been challenged to come up with six words to celebrate the Read-a-Thon. The early hour is making it rather difficult to be creative, but here's my best effort.

Lots of coffee. Smashing good time.

Read-a-Thon: Hour 1

Here it is, 5am, and I am up and ready to read. I am officially insane. I have a few good selections to start me off: Mary Roach's Bonk, which should be hilarious, and two Agatha Christies: Spider's Web and Postern of Fate. At this hour my books need to be engaging and read easily!

So, for our introductory meme, let me introduce myself:

Where I'm reading from:
Washington State

3 facts about me …

I'm a history professor

I'm a figure skater

I'm ridiculously flexible (this should come in handy when couch rot sets in)

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?

I never make an official readathon TBR pile, rather I pick and choose from my entire pile (which currently numbers 2500 books- shhhh, don't tell!)

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?

My goal is to do 18-20 hours of reading.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

Don't over-plan, just have fun!

It's Read-a-Thon Time!

I'm delighted that it is time once again for Dewey's Fall Readathon! This event is 24 hours of non-stop reading. Well, I actually intend to stop every now and then, but I'll be spending the majority of the time reading. The only bad part is my time zone- it starts at 5am here- boo! I'm great at staying up late, not so good at getting up early. Watch for updates, which I'll be posting throughout the day. I last did this readathon in October 2008, and I'm glad to be participating once again. If you'd like to sign up too just click on the image.

Review: The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories

This collection of Miss Marple short stories highlights many of the things I find interesting about Christie, as well as some of her weaknesses. Christie's strength lies in setting up complicated plots and drawing out rich characters in all of their particularities. The short story format, then, takes away Christie's greatest strength. What is left are bare-bones Christie-style stories.

Each story in this collection is a whodunit, usually featuring a murder. Everyone is either bewildered, or convinced that the wrong person is guilty, except, of course, for Miss Marple. Christie affords no energy to the set-up; most of these stories begin with a group telling each other stories. The solutions to these stories involve knowledge of all sorts of things with which the average reader will have little familiarity, such as the uses and results of certain poisons.

Perhaps most striking to me was just how weak the character of Miss Marple actually is. There's simply very little to her, except a conviction that young people are foolish. The introduction to the volume tries to argue otherwise, but I am not convinced.

Christie aficionados will certainly want to read this volume, but I would recommend one of Christie's novels to the uninitiated.

Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Short Stories (Folio, 2003).