Going Off The Grid (A Little) For A Readathon

Starting tonight or tomorrow morning, Friday, April 17, 2020 at midnight, depending on how you look at it, I am joining Shanah of Bionic Book Worm and Justine of I Should Read That for their Off the Grid Readathon. The readathon runs through Sunday at midnight. As Shanah described it in her TBR post:

If you haven’t heard of the Off The Grid Readathon before, let me fill you in on the details. This is hosted by myself and Justine from I Should Read That and is a quarterly event. April’s edition will begin this Friday, April 17th as soon as the clock strikes midnight and will end at midnight on Sunday evening. That’s 3 whole days to read!

This is a really low key event. There are no challenges, no buddy reads, no reading sprints – just read when you can and as much as you can. The whole point of this readathon is to stop getting distracted by your phone, tv, etc. and read when you should/could be reading. If you only have 30 minutes of reading time then utilize all of  those minutes! Don’t scroll through twitter for 25 of those minutes and then realize you only have 5 minutes left lol. For more detailed information, check out the announcement post HERE.

I learned about this earlier tonight from Heather of Froodian Slip, who mentioned she was joining in so I thought why not? I think I will try to start at midnight, getting a little reading in then, with the emphasis on “little” as it will be for most of the weekend. As you may or may not remember, I have been making my way slowly through the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories. I am near the beginning of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which is near the end in the first volume of two volumes of a collection of all the novels and short stories.

I also picked up a book of poetry from 2019, Nebraska by Kwame Dawes that I found via the Free Library of Philadelphia this past week and am about halfway through that. I’m certain that I can finish that. As for the Sherlock Holmes, we’ll see how that goes, but I’m hoping maybe, just maybe, I can finish the first volumet too.

Also no danger of scrolling through Twitter here or Facebook since I don’t have either. I’ve also taken Instagram off my phone temporarily, because…well…I just need a break. It’s not you, it’s me! I feel like saying at this point, but really it’s true. I need to take care of myself mentally and getting away from Instagram for a little while, that word “little” again, helps.

I’ll be here throughout the weekend and will post periodic updates on how my “little” reading is going.

Friday

Zero reading.

Saturday

9:30 a.m.: I finished my first book after a half hour of reading, but I already had started it, the aforementioned book of poetry. The following poem resonated with me, especially as we had about four to five inches of snow overnight here in northcentral Pennsylvania:

Fledge

On long walks across the calming whiteness
of deep winter--the arctic air has walked in
and settled over everything--I dress
in dark colors, and venture out, breathing
what feels like a cleansing but is the grim
ritual of a man, constantly on edge
as if waiting for tomorrow's ill winds
to shatter the brittle calm. But to fledge
is all I want: to take flight off this icy edge.

It also seemed to fit the moment(s) this past week as I went out for a walk under a stay-at-home order here in Pennsylvania. I just want to fledge:

Sunday

1:30 p.m.: Late this morning into this afternoon, I read two Sherlock Holmes short stories: “The Adventure of the Priory School” and “The Adventure of Black Peter.” I am about halfway through The Return of Sherlock Holmes and almost near the end of the first of two volumes of Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories.