Tag: Neil Gaiman

2019 #thankfullyreading Weekend: I’m in!

To sign up, even if only for a day, click on the button above to go to Jenn’s blog to do so.

Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves is hosting Thankfully Reading Weekend again, this year from Wednesday, Nov. 27 through Sunday, Dec. 1, and I’m joining in. As Jenn says, “There are no rules to the weekend, we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for the year.” I plan on starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, after work, and continuing through Sunday night.

The only time I know for sure that I won’t be reading — well, of course, other than sleeping — is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. when I’m working at the library. I also probably won’t be reading during times when my wife and I are watching something on streaming together as she is off both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Other than those times, I plan to devote a good chunk of the long weekend to reading.

So what will I be reading? I’m not exactly sure, but I have possibilities, including the following three very strong probabilities:

  • The Lord God Made Them All, the fourth book in the All Creatures Great and Small series, by James Herriot, as I continue making my way through the series (the first couple a reread, the rest new to me) that I started last year.
  • Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, since we just watched the series on Amazon and I felt it was/is time for a reread.
  • Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle, which I bought via a Kindle deal last year but haven’t read yet.

I only just noticed that all of my choices are British. While not by design, it will be nice to get out of the U.S. for a while over the holidays, given our current political climate. I mean, the United Kingdom isn’t having any issues right now politically, are they? 😉

So how about you? Are you reading over the holidays? If so, what are you planning to read? IF NOT, — because I’m not judging if you spend time with family and friends and/or busy at work — AND PLEASE SEE THIS PART OF THE POSSIBLE QUESTIONS :), what are you reading otherwise that is good? Or what do you have on the radar that you are looking forward to reading? Because I really want to know and I and my readers might get some good ideas for you and vice versa.

In case you missed it, I have been joining in with other book bloggers for an event called Nonfiction November. The first week, Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, I looked back at my year in nonfiction. The second week, Nov. 4 to Nov. 8, I paired a nonfiction book with a fiction book. This week, Nov. 11 to 15, I shared a list of nonfiction books on a topic that I’d like to read.

Easter Triduum Readathon

I have off work tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. I took tomorrow as a vacation day, am not working a Saturday this week, and the library is closed Sunday for Easter. As a result, I am planning my own Easter Triduum Readathon starting tonight and running through Sunday. Tonight, I plan on finishing Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor, which I have been reading for Lent; tomorrow and probably Saturday too, I want to read All Things Wise and Wonderful, the third part (in the U.S.) of the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot; Sunday, I am keeping it light with Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion by Neil Gaiman.

Tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., I am going to be offline and plan on going to a Good Friday service. I will be reading on a Kindle and am going to be listening to a few playlists of Holy Week music that I found and downloaded to my phone on Google Play Music, but I am not going to be on the Internet for those 12 hours.

Why I can do this is because my wife and I don’t have children, by choice, and aren’t able to go visit family this weekend. She works midnight shift all weekend and she and I both saw my side of the family on her birthday earlier in the month. I also don’t want to be going much of anywhere as I will be taking a new medication, prednisone, only for a 13-day stint, as I am starting physical therapy on Wednesday for a sore knee. I don’t know how it will affect me, although I have been given the litany of what could happen.

The litany includes the helpful advice of “BEFORE USING THIS MEDICINE…TELL YOUR DOCTOR: If you have a herpes infection of the eye. TELL YOUR DOCTOR: If have any of these health problems: A fungal infection or malaria infection in the brain.” Maybe it’s just me, but I think I would telling my doctor anyway if I had an infection IN THE BRAIN!

So both you and I are not too traumatized (only slightly traumatized, in other words, with that last thought hanging out in the back of our brains) I’ll leave you with something hopefully slightly less traumatic in keeping with the season :

Update Sunday morning, 4/21/19, 6:46 AM EDT: I didn’t make the Good Friday service, but did finish Leaving Church and started All Things Wise and Wonderful. Saturday’s plans went sideways, but in a good way as the weather was nicer than expected and the prednisone that I started Thursday morning kicked in and gave me extra energy. Highlights can be found on my Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/stillunfinished/. This morning, I am listening to music right now and will be reading Sunday Salon posts (and other blog posts from the past week) before reading more from All Things Wise and Wonderful. I probably won’t get to Don’t Panic today. I probably will dip into The Desert Fathers, the bookmail that I received recently from Deb Nance, the leader of The Sunday Salon. Click through to her blog to see her latest post and link up to the Salon, if you like, with your own post from today or earlier in the week. No Easter service for me because…well…Easter flowers. Sad but true.

If you celebrate Easter, how are you spending your Easter Weekend? If you’re not, what are your plans for this weekend anyway? Do they involve reading? And if they don’t, I’m totally judging you. 😉