this week I love :: Target Ads for THE AVENGERS

I’m already of the opinion that the Target corporation has an amazing team of creative minds working for them, but their latest print ads have put me over the moon. My first thought upon seeing these sheets for The Avengers movie was, “Oh, that’s pretty cool.” Then I noticed the details: soda cans, toy cars, action figures, yellow pencils, candy bars, Legos, radios, toasters! Oh my goodness. That… is… SO COOL! Every little thing is spot-on, and it just makes me even more giddy for the movie. With only one week to go, I’m so ready for the 2012 Summer Film Season to commence!

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Spring Readathon 2012 :: Finis!

So, my fourth 24-Hour Readathon is complete, and I’m feeling a little defeated, to be honest. I had already come to terms with the fact that my reading will never yield huge page counts or a lengthy list of completed titles, but in all of my past readathon events I’ve always come away feeling like I accomplished a huge endeavor. And I’ve never felt the time was wasted. This time, however, it doesn’t feel successful. Despite the fact that I read for the longest amount of time in any readathon so far, and read the most pages of any event so far, I just didn’t have as much fun with it as I have each time before. I blame this entirely on the book I chose to read and my decision to not abandon it in favor of something more enjoyable. I have this trouble with books, on occasion, where I often feel like I should keep reading in hopes that the story might turn around, thus trudging through a lot of sludge just to seek out the tiniest nuggets of gold. With The Art of Fielding I found just enough great writing and just enough enjoyable characterization to feel like the book was worth the effort. Even though the reading often felt tedious, I found enough merit to want to reach its conclusion, but I really wished that conclusion could have come hundreds of pages before the 512th.

So now I know what not to do in subsequent readathons. If I find myself in this same predicament again, I’ll need to remind myself to set that book aside for another day and pick up a novel that is truly enjoyable and doesn’t make me work so hard to find its value. Loyalty and determination can only go so far, and I see now that a readathon is not the time to prove something to myself. If only there was a Hunger Games series for each and every readathon! I’d never struggle again.

In keeping with tradition, I’ve included my final readathon numbers here, as well as the “official” End-of-Event Meme from the Readathon blog. The next event is scheduled for October 2012. I hope you’ll make plans to join the fun! Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog and posted to Twitter throughout the ‘thon; your encouragement really does make a huge difference, especially in the wee hours of the night.

385  pages read (including 20 or so that I skimmed through)

14.5  total hours spent reading

75% of 1  book completed

1  book attempted during readathon

Which hour was most daunting for you? The toughest time for me is always around Hour 20. I had to give in this time, actually. Had my book been better, or had I not developed a headache, I might have been able to hold out till the end. I’ll strive for that in the fall.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Of the four readathons I’ve done, the easiest was while reading The Hunger Games series. It is so engaging and so well-written that I truly could not put it down. Even when I tried to force myself to step away from it and read something in a different tone I couldn’t stop wondering what would be coming next in the series. No other book has kept me so engrossed that I didn’t have any desire for sleep. It’s an excellent choice for a readathon!

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Everyone really does a great job with keeping participants engaged that I can’t think of much to make it better. I have sometimes wondered about the other participants in my cheer team, though. Perhaps each team could be posted on the website, with both cheer leaders and readers of each team? While I’ve never taken charge as a cheerleader, I often like to encourage other readers when they post to Twitter or when I see a blog post referenced somewhere. So it might be cool to see a list of participants who are grouped together for the cheer teams so that those of us within that team could encourage each other, even as our cheer leader is touching base with each of us. Just a thought!

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The hourly posts on the official website were right on target each and every time. And the mini-challenges were clearly denoted so that I could always see what was new and where to find them. Having a central hub for the readathon is much appreciated!

How many books did you read? Sadly, there was just the one, and it is not yet completed.

What were the names of the books you read? The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Which book did you enjoy most? n/a

Which did you enjoy least? n/a

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I always plan to participate! Every Spring and every Fall. It’s just such fun!

Spring Readathon 2012 :: Hours 17-20

 
Update from Readathon Hours 17–20…
I did continue with The Art of Fielding, though I struggled quite a bit for an hour or so, and have now reached the final third of the book, where finally (finally!) the story has returned to the baseball diamond and picked up steam. I’m engrossed now, and there are fewer tangents occurring that distract from the main plot, so I have decided to continue to the end. It really is a good book when you strip away a couple of characters and unimportant story arcs, and the author’s grasp on the particulars of baseball as a sport and the mechanics of a player is truly a credit to this novel. It’s the baseball that has kept me engaged. I can’t say I would have been worse off for not reading Fielding, but at least it’s not been a total waste of effort throughout this readathon.

I’m beginning to tire again, and a slight headache has settled in behind one eye, so I may not continue through until Hour 24. But I’ll definitely make a final recap post when all is said and done. This particular readathon has been different for me, and I need to document my thoughts so that I can refer back to them in October when the Fall Readathon comes around. Some lessons need to be recalled.

109 pages read this period (plus another 5 pages skimmed)

342 total pages read

3.75 hours spent reading (this period)

13 total hours spent reading

67% of 1 book completed

1 book attempted during readathon

Spring Readathon 2012 :: Hours 13-16

 
Update from Readathon Hours 13–16…
I’m halfway through The Art of Fielding and I’m beginning to consider abandoning it. It’s not that the story isn’t good, but rather that I’ve become weary of some of the character arcs. The main plot about an all-star college shortstop and his struggles to maintain a big league level of play is interesting enough, and I love the moments that are directly tied to the game of baseball. But there is another major story at work in the midst of the novel that involves a homosexual affair between the college president and a student forty years his junior, and, well, I have absolutely no interest in such a relationship nor desire to read about it. I’ve now begun skimming through entire chapters just to avoid that storyline, and I’m starting to question whether the book is worth continuing if I’m going to be overlooking half of it. The next hour will certainly tell the tale. At this point I’m inclined to quit and move to something else. Although I’m terribly disappointed that the book has taken such a turn. I honestly don’t understand why that arc was included in the first place. And that is so discouraging.

108 pages read this period (give or take, due to skimming over some paragraphs)

229 of 512 total page count

3.0 hours spent reading (this period)

– book(s) completed

– books attempted during readathon

Snapshot from my readings: two passages that speak to aspects of baseball that make me love it so… the all-encompassing effect it has on a person’s life and the ritual and superstition that is so much a part of the game.
 


   from Chapters 22 and 29 of The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Spring Readathon 2012 :: Hours 5-12

 
Update from Readathon Hours 5–12… now at the Mid-point!
Not so much reading since the morning, I’m afraid. My body finally gave in from being awake all night and I had to nap. Still, I did get further along in The Art of Fielding, and though I’ve reached the post-crisis lull at the beginning of the story, I’m still engaged enough to continue. It’s not necessarily a mesmerizing book, but it’s a pretty quick and easy read so I’m inclined to continue. I opted against heading to the library earlier, so I won’t be getting around to The Looking Glass Wars today, but it will be a nice reward to look forward to for the post-readathon days. For now, I’m all in for the long haul through the remainder of today and all through the night.

40 pages read this period

121 of 512 total page count

5.5 hours spent reading

4.0 hours spent napping

– book(s) completed

– books attempted during readathon

There was far too much blog-hopping and Twitter-checking during the first hours of the readathon, so I’m ready now to buckle down and commit. I’ll likely check in with page counts on Twitter as I shift reading spots and stop for momentary stretches, but this blog may be silent until a late night update. Drop me a note if you’re still hanging in.