RAT: Hour Four Already?

Title of book(s) read since last update: Little Women
Number of books read since you started: part of one
Pages read since last update: 86
Running total of pages read since you started: 139
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 91 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: (keep track of this one to be eligible for a prize!) 152 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: Children's Books mini-challenge
Other participants you’ve visited: Mika at Read-a-Thon X, Laura Ashlee at Ramblings of a (Future) Librarian, and Teresa at Shelf Love
What I've eaten/drunk: Diet Mt. Diew, cinnamon rolls

I'm making great progress in Little Women. I've been weeping my eyes out at the parts where Mr. March and Beth are sick, but those are over now, so I can dry out and keep reading.

I do plan to have the TV on for a little background noise when Georgia and Tennessee play at noon, so my reading pace will probably slow down quite a bit. But I'm hoping the college football will be a good break for my eyes and my brain. GOOOOO DAWGS!

Sigh

Friday night, and I'm catching up on my Google Reader.

It's been an unproductive reading week here. I'm in the middle of Angela Carter's Shaking a Leg, which is a collection of her literary criticism and other articles she wrote, mostly for New Society. It covers a variety of topics and I'm finding that I quite enjoy her acidic writing style and thought-provoking pieces. She was a feminist of the 1970's variety, if anyone knows what I mean by that. I think they call it First-Wave Feminism? I'm not up on the lingo. I love her scathing review of Linda Lovelace's autobiography. (Linda Lovelace was, I believe, the "actress" who starred in Deep Throat...I had to ask my husband about that one!)

Anyway, this isn't meant to be an in-depth review of the work (I'm only about one sixth of the way through the monstrous thing). BUT what I'm trying to say is...I haven't gotten much accomplished on it this week. I was in jury selection Monday, which tired me out too much to read anything quite as heavy and intellectual as Carter's essays. And I was in trial Wednesday (well, supposed to be...), so I spent most of Tuesday night putting the final touches on my case. When the thing pled out on Wednesday, I was then too exhausted from the stress to pick up the book. All I could manage was Glee. Last night was a night full of TV with the hubby, so that leaves me...nowhere, really. I seem to get through more of the book when I read it during commercials of my beloved football games.

I wish I were one of those people who can read multiple things at once, but I'm not. I'd get a novel going on the side and forsake the non-fiction for that. Especially if it's a good novel. It's not that the essay collection is boring or anything, it's just that I need all my faculties about me to take it all in...and that's hard to come by on a weeknight.

This weekend I'm looking forward to seeing some friends for the Georgia game tomorrow, and hanging with the hubster on Sunday. He's FINALLY done with his week and a half of working nights, so...that'll be nice. Keep your fingers crossed for him. He had two job interviews today and we're really hoping he gets one of them!

Christmas Update

Well, I left for parts north on Saturday, Dec. 20th. The flight up was fairly uneventful. Well, once I was on a flight that was actually going to make it. Apparently, there was some delay with the flight to Atlanta, so they booked me through Baltimore instead. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in the ATL overnight. Which wouldn't have been a problem, there are people I could have dropped in on whom I haven't seen in a while, but then again, unexpected guests are not always the most welcome. Luckily, I had a pretty enterprising ticket agent working for me, so she found another flight which would get me into Ohio on time. Or at least the same day.

It was bitterly cold when I first arrived, and I am simply not built for cold and snow anymore. There's a REASON I moved to Florida, y'all, and it was pretty much so I wouldn't have to battle single-digit temps anymore. I HATE the cold, I'm not REALLY a fan of snow (even on Christmas), and I can DEFINITELY do without scraping ice off my car for several months of the year. But the week warmed up, and my parents' house is always 800 degrees, so I was pretty comfortable.

During the flight up there, I was finishing up the November/December issue of Bookmarks magazine and perusing a holiday-themed issue of Rachael Ray's magazine. Then I started in on The Eight. And I'm still reading it. It's long, like 600 pages. To be fair, this vacation was not the string of uninterrupted reading time I anticipated. I always forget how busy a trip home is. There's Christmas with my cousins, Christmas with the immediate family, dinners with my best friend, evenings watching movies with the fam, a football game, shopping with my sisters, dinners out with my parents and sisters, computer games, etc. Mostly, I read in the mornings over breakfast, before the day got going. And occasionally when I had some down time during the day. On the flight back, I was sick with a terrible cold, so I read a bit in the airport, but slept on the plane. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to finish the book soon, but I do have those 300 Google Reader entries to catch up on...

Sigh. There's always something else going on.

P.S. Hurrah for the Georgia Bulldogs, winners of the Capital One Bowl!!!!!!!!!!!

End of a Rough Week

This week has been a tough one, work-wise. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold." You know? It marks only the second time in my life when I've been steamrolled by someone absolutely losing their shit when I undeniably thought they had it all together. It freaks me out. I am about the farthest thing from having everything together. Some days I feel like I'm hanging on by my fingernails, above a bottomless ravine. My house is a wreck, I don't spend enough time with my fiance', I can't get anything accomplished at work, my leisure reading is behind schedule...the list goes on and on. So when someone who is supposedly unshakeable gets shaken, well, what is to become of me?

Went to see The Changeling last night with some friends from work, in order to kind of decompress. Unfortunately, that movie is DEPRESSING and was probably not the best choice for someone who wanted to blow off a little steam. We probably should have gone to see Role Models. The movie was just okay. I don't know what it was about it that I didn't like. The storyline was fine, the acting was fine (for the most part...Jeffrey Donovan's Irish accent made my skin crawl, but the Malkovich more than made up for it). It wasn't as suspenseful as I hoped, I guess, maybe because I'd seen too many commercials which gave away at least PART of the storyline which might better have been kept under wraps. And the ending wasn't very satisfying. I needed a happy ending last night, and it just...wasn't. So we had to go have a couple of beers afterwards, in order to get our happy ending.

The air show is this weekend, which means planes buzzing the house for the foreseeable future. The Dawgs play Kentucky at 12:30. Hopefully, they can shake off the pathetic game against Florida last week, and kick some serious Wildcat ass this week.

Sunday at the Bookstore

The Fiance' and I went to Barnes & Noble today. I had to pick up the latest Bookmarks magazine, I just HAD to. God knows when I'll get to it, but it's nice to have something to browse through in my "spare time." Amazingly enough, I didn't pick up anything else. I wanted to find Mary Cheney's Now It's My Turn. I'm actually a political lefty, but this book was recommended by...um, someone (I should really start keeping track of where I hear about books), and I figure it never hurts to read the other side's perspective. I may not AGREE with it at all, but I feel that keeping an open mind is a good thing. HOWEVER, Barney's (as my friend Zach and I used to call it, when we worked together at an Office Depot across from one) did not have a copy of the book, at least not that I could find. So I left empty-handed, except for my copy of Bookmarks. Well, I WANTED to buy Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and Best American Non-Required Reading for 2008, but I decided that the budget just doesn't allow for those right now. And I'm asking for them for Christmas, so...we'll see. I collect those series, practically the only series I DO collect, and have them going back to 1999, I believe. Almost ten years' worth!

Okay, enough rambling. Time to go finish watching the Dolphins game. Don't even talk to me about the Georgia/Florida game. No, don't.

What Hour Is It Again?

DAWGS WIN!!! Well, they won about two hours ago, really. Since then, I've been polishing off my Glamour magazine (it's not all high literature in Ms. Lexi's household), and I've made a fair start on H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man. I'm going to take another short break soon, to deliver dinner to the Fiance' at work. That shouldn't take long. When I get home, I would like to check my email and Google Reader, and then back to the reading! I'm a little afraid that I won't be able to stay up very long tonight, since I'm ALREADY tired and it's only just shy of 6 PM. But I'll do my best.

Read-a-Thon Update, Hour 8

Still watching the Dawgs' game. I've read about another 1/3 of my magazine. I think it's about time for more caffeine, though. I've reached my mid-afternoon slump. After the game, I'm getting a shower and will try to start on H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man.

Where are YOU at with your reading? Reaching goals? What are you reading?

Read-a-Thon Update Hour 6

Things have slowed down for me in the last hour or so. The Georgia Bulldogs are playing, and I never miss a Georgia game, if it's on the tube. We're up by two touchdowns over Vanderbilt right now, so things are going well. I decided to browse through my Glamour while I'm watching and I'm about a third of the way through that...

Things will pick back up this afternoon, when the Fiance' gets off to work and the game is over with.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to cheerlead and comment! I appreciate the support!