Last moment, but I’ve joined tomorrow’s readathon.
I’ll have updates here.
Starting a bit early on Friday night as my wife and I are watching the latest adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune on HBO Max.
I’m starting today’s readathon with a favorite, Man’s Search for Meaning (but in audio). I also have two Rabbi Small series in the queue.
It is a little after noon here, and I am about halfway through my first book, an audiobook, Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, as read by Simon Vance. I have about 10 minutes in this first of two parts and a postscript. I have read the book several times, but this is my first time listening to it. Once I’m done with this part, I’m heading out to get lunch.
2:30 p.m.: After stopping by the library for a bathroom break, I saw the vestiges of fall foliage in our area and had to get a photo.
3:30 p.m.: I finished Man’s Search for Meaning. Now I’m going to take a short nap before digging into my next book, Monday the Rabbi Took Off by Harry Kemelman, which I already have started before today.
7:00 p.m.: I took a nap. I had dinner (no photo). Kim and I watched the latest episode of What We Do in the Shadows. Now I’m going down a YouTube rabbit hole.
I’m revising the stack to be more realistic than it was and not as heavy in terms of pages, although you might think that the subject matter is heavy with murder at the center of all three of my choices. They’re really not, but are comfort reads, of a kind for me and just what I need today. Here is the revised stack:
The Potter’s Field, the 13th in the Inspector Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri
Rogue Protocol, the third in the Murderbot series, by Martha Wells
Exit Strategy, the fourth in the Murderbot series, also by Wells.
As I’m writing this at about 9 a.m., I still have to get breakfast, and I am adding two other components to my own readathon with meditation and journaling (therapeutic and much needed after a week full of…well, everything), realistically I probably won’t be getting started until at least noon. The plan from there is to read as much as I can until at least midnight, mixed with the meditation and journaling. It won’t be 12 hours of reading, but I’ll read what I can. If I finish these three (doubtful, even though they’re short), I do have a backup or two in the wings. We’ll see if it/they are needed.
Are you participating in today’s readathon? If so, what are you reading? If not, what are you reading lately anyway?
If you are unfamiliar with Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, here’s a description from the readathon blog:
For 24 hours, we read books, post to our blogs, Twitters, Instagrams, Litsy, Facebook, Goodreads and MORE about our reading, and visit other readers’ homes online. We also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day. It happens twice a year, in April and in October.
In the graphic above are what I have selected to read and, in two cases, what I probably will start but not finish on Saturday. They are:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Potter’s Field, the 13th in the Inspector Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri
The Perseverance by Raymond’s Antrobus, and
The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor.
The two that I’ll probably start but not finish are the Dickens and the O’Connor. I am more likely to finish the short mystery (by Camilleri) and the book of poems (by Antrobus).
I’ve been making my way slowly through the Inspector Montalbano series this year, and I borrowed the book of poetry recently with a few other books of poetry from the Free Library of Philadelphia. I own the O’Connor, which I have read through back in college when I had a class on Southern writers that included her and William Faulkner. And the Dickens, I borrowed via Prime Reading, which also includes audio from Simon Vance if I want to listen to it.
I plan to post updates periodically on my Instagram and every six hours here on the blog. So join me in my journey, if you want.
Then on Sunday, I’ll be kicking my feet back again to chill with chill music with the 13th edition of The Chill Out Tent, starting at 12:45 p.m. where I am, and 5:45 p.m. in England.
With both events, I plan to keep to myself for the most part, yes, partially because I am antisocial (to a degree anyway) but also because I need to escape this weekend. Without going into details, it’s been a slightly rough ride the last couple of weeks and, to mix metaphors slightly, I need some smooth sailing time.
Tomorrow I’m joining Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon for the umpteenth time. However, unlike other readathons like this, I do not have a large stack of books or a goal on time. I only have two books: one that is in progress and almost finished, the first of two volumes of Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories; the other, Every Living Thing, the last part of the All Creatures Great in Small series, by James Herriot.
With the Sherlock Holmes, I’m in the middle of The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which is toward the end of the first volume. As for the Herriot series, over the last few years, I have been making my way slowly through the series, usually during other readathons, so I thought I’d return to it for yet another readathon.
I am hoping to do better for this readathon than I have for the last two readathons over the last two months: Off The Grid Readathon and Social Distancing MiniReadathon. Both were a bust (why I’m not providing links), but I’m not going to lie it’s been hard to concentrate within the last 40 days I’ve been sequestered almost continuously except for one or two trips out for medications and groceries. I’m hoping now that with the news of our part of Pennsylvania might be reopening potentially in a couple of weeks, I can focus a little more on reading. It’s not that there’s not anxiety, which I’ll spare you the litany here, but it is less anxiety, or maybe more manageable anxiety now, than what it was a month ago.
I’ll be updating here on this post and on my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/stillunfinished/ tomorrow throughout the day after 8 a.m. when the readathon begins.
Update No. 1: Saturday morning, 9:10 a.m.
Take off the mask you might be wearing. Give yourself a break from micromanaging how you come across to others. Allow yourself the freedom to be you, with all your virtues and vices. Doing so will embolden and empower others to try the same.
from A Mindful Year by Dr. Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth J. Gillihan PhD
“Excellent! And a mask?”
“I can make a couple out of black silk.”
“I can see that you have a strong, natural turn for this sort of thing. Very good, do you make the masks…”
from “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton” in The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
In light of COVID-19 and as a nation we are being told to wear masks to help prevent the pandemic’s spread, out of context the above mask quote from the book of daily reflections I’ve been using for this year seems to be counter to that directive. However, in context, where the previous reflection before that invitation is about depression, it isn’t; to wit: “Sadly, due to social stigma, many of us often hide what we’re going through from others” and “It takes courage to let go of a positive facade. There is freedom to be found in making peace with where we are and what we’re experiencing. The great irony is that accepting our situation allows change to take place — it allows us to return to what matters most to us and take action in line with our values.”
To that end of taking off the figurative mask, I do suffer from depression, and not just because of COVID-19 and family and friends that I know who have had either presumptive cases or actual cases, but because I’ve always suffered from depression. I’ve taken Prozac for almost the last 30 years and just before the stay-at-home order, I began teletherapy (because of the physical distances involved) with a counselor through a free program offered by our insurance. In short, it is going well, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Making it easier today is this readathon, with all of my notifications shut off and only periodic updates here on the blog and on Instagram.
I just finished my second short story of the day, “The Adventure of The Six Napoleons,” which I remembered what happened as I was reading, after reading my first short story of the day, “The Adventure of Charles August Milverton” mentioned above. Both are short stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes in the first volume of two that I am reading of the Holmes canon.
I also am using The Sherlock Holmes Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK Publishing as a guide, as recommended by Emma of the blog Words and Peace. I’m not always finding the plot synopsis that helpful, although at times I do because I’m not really following what is happening. However, I am finding the historical background of the stories, especially as cases relate to real-life events happening during Doyle’s time, fascinating.
Update No. 3: Saturday afternoon, 12:20 p.m.
I just finished “The Adventure of the Three Students” within the last hour. I also have been checking in briefly on Instagram and providing updates and comments there. However, I still have notifications shut off. I think I might take a brief poetry break before returning to finish The Return of Sherlock Holmes in this first volume of two of the Holmes canon. Here are highlights of the first quarter of this readathon in photos:
Update No. 4: Saturday afternoon/evening, 6 p.m.
I just returned from a walk and am getting ready to have dinner, barbecue seitan pizza, with my wife before she goes to work tonight for a 12-hour-shift. On my walk, I listened to “The Adventure of The Golden Pince-Nez” as narrated by Simon Vance, for my fourth Sherlock Holmes story of the day. Where have been I since this morning?
I took a nap for about an hour.
I tried to read a collection of poetry that I thought would be good, but it wasn’t…at least, not for right now.
I searched for other poetry and found some that I might read later tonight and for audiobooks via Audible (two free credits as a Prime member with a 30-day trial). I found Simon Vance reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes and also his narration of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Since I already was reading the Holmes collection, I decided to start there instead of tackling Dickens right now.
During dinner, we’ll probably watch some Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and then after she leaves at about 7:30, I’ll return to either more reading or listening of Sherlock Holmes or poetry. Here are some photos from my walk via Instagram:
I finished my readathon last night by listening to and reading the last two short stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes .
So how are you and reading getting along during all “this”? Are you able to concentrate? If so, what are you reading? If not, what would you like to read when you are able to concentrate? If joining the readathon, let me know your plans. If not, no worries, you don’t have to tell me why not. I get it, we’re all in different places, not only geographically but mentally and physically and also just with whatever we have planned for our weekends, even if not going out anywhere. Wherever you are, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, hope you, your families, and friends are staying safe and well.
Still an unfinished person... 