Year: 2010

24 Hour Readathon: 4 hours to go!


A few more hours to go for this October’s 24-Hour Readathon. Just clocking in to let you know how I’m doing before I do my wrap-up later on.

I read two books last night, but the novel got a bit too scary for me so I took it up to bed around 1am and switched on the reading light. It was a shivery-good tale and so I crawled under the blankets and that was a mistake, because I was snoring soundly until 9 am! The light was still on this morning but the batteries had gone kaput! And then I had to read like a maniac until hour 20 to make up for it!

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24-Hour Readathon: The Reading List

I was bummed to have missed last April’s 24-Hour Readathon, so I resolved to join today’s readathon. I’ve joined a couple of readathons in the past and they’ve always been a lot of fun, and I didn’t want the year to end without at least one readathon.

24-hour read-a-thon is an event mounted in memory of Dewey, a blogger and a reader who started the event in October 2007. Dewey passed away in November 2008, and the 24-hour read-a-thon is continued by those who’ve helped Dewey organize the past read-a-thons, and hundreds of book bloggers in the world.

I spent most of the day today in line to see the 17th century galleon replica, the Galeon Andalucia at the South Harbor, and when I got home, I spent the first hour of the readathon starting my first book.

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Timeless Fun

Good, old-fashioned fun is pretty hard to beat, even with all the technology today’s kids have at their fingertips. Looking back at my childhood, I spent an inordinate amount of time reading, but I did come away from the books long enough to create some awesome memories: making bubble blowing solution from hibiscus; sailing paper boats in the gutter; chasing shadows under the street lamp; and drawing chalk pictures on the pavement.

Nostalgia kicked in when I first saw the hardcover volumes of The Dangerous Book for Boys by Gonn and Hal Iggunen and The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz a couple of years ago at the bookstores. I got The Daring Book for Girls when I swapped a book internationally, and just a few weeks ago, I got The Dangerous Book for Boys in the bargain pile at the Manila International Book Fair.

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A Little History of the World

I enjoy trivia of all sorts, so when a friend loaned me his copy of E.H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World, I gladly dove into many hours of fascinating reading.

A Little History of the World is a compact volume that tells us the story of mankind, from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb. Told as stories, it’s simple enough for young readers to understand without getting the feeling of being patronized, and entertaining enough for adults who have already gone through years of history classes.

Gombrich, an art historian (you may recognize the name from the book The Story of Art), wrote this book in 1935 with the intention of presenting a history of the world for younger readers. The book was actually originally written in German, was banned by the Nazis for being too “pacifist,” and was only translated in English by Gombrich himself (mostly, reportedly, but the book credits his assistant Caroline Mustill as the translator) towards the end of his life (he died in 2001, at 92, still working on it).

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Bartimaeus is back!

I loved Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy! While I was deeply satisfied with the series, I was really sad (read: in tears!) to see it end!

This morning, a friend of mine (thank you, Cecille!) tagged me in a Facebook post announcing something I did not see coming — another Bartimaeus novel! Squee!

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