Wicked Wildfire Readathon: Day 1

Books read today: Refuge, Marie Antoinette, When Did I Get Like This?
Books finished: Refuge

12:00 pm: I'm not counting pages read this time because, uh, it's hard. (Yeah, counting is hard. I'm an English major, kay?)

I lazed around this morning, dipping a bit into When Did I Get Like This? by Amy Wilson, a book I bought recently at a library book sale. After I went jogging (finally), the serious reading began. I started with Marie Antionette by Antonia Fraser, a book my mom gave me, which is somehow the most interesting book on my list right now. Don't you love when you're actually drawn to chunky nonfiction? I think my brain is starting to miss school.
After a chapter of MA I rolled up my sleeves and dove into Refuge. I mentioned in my goals that I'm having a hard time with this one. Seriously, I don't even know how that's possible. It's not a difficult read by any means, and everything about it seems like a recipe for success (at least for my particular tastes). But somehow I'm finding myself ambivalent toward it...and I'm even a little bored by it. Maybe it's just because I've been reading so many memoirs recently and I'm starting to itch for something different. Anyway, I thought about just abandoning Refuge since I only have it out of the library for a few more days and I'm only halfway through, but I'm really hoping I start liking it. Like I said, it seems like the sort of thing I would love. So, I'm using this readathon to try to get through it before it's due back at the library. So far I've gotten about 40 more pages read...yippee! I'm getting there!

I'll probably update again later. Hopefully I'll get plenty more reading done today along with some of the mundane household chores waiting for me (just a few more boxes left to unpack...). I would totally put them off and just read all day, but when I don't do that stuff, it tends to get done for me by a little restless elf. And then I feel bad that my husband is doing all the work that I'm supposed to be doing. (Oh, and my husband doesn't actually resemble a small elf in any way. He's more than a foot taller than I am, and people always assume he played football in high school.) So yeah. Chores. Gotta get those done. But I'll be reading, too!

5:00 pm: I could stop right now and declare this the most successful reading day I've had in a while! I finished Refuge--meaning I read 170 pages of it in a single day. And I even got some chores done somewhere in there! Pretty good, especially considering I never really came to enjoy it...I'll be saving those thoughts for a later review.

I probably managed this reading feat mainly because I found out that the book was actually due in 2 days instead of 4 days like I'd thought, so I decided to focus exclusively on finishing it before I read anything else. Well, I seriously wanted to get the book over with so I could read other stuff. I'm so glad it's over! And I'm proud of myself for finishing it.

I'm going to be more leisurely about my reading the rest of the evening. Whether I read in the evenings usually depends on my husband and whether he needs some time to unwind, or if we decide to do something together.

I know I said I wasn't going to count pages, but since it's easy today, here's my page count so far: 235 pages! Wow! I can't remember the last time I read that much in a day. I guess the readathon motivation plan is working out pretty well for me! Here's hoping the rest of the readathon goes just as well.