Whew! You wouldn’t think reading all day would leave you exhausted, but here I am, ready to spend all of Sunday being lazy and watching football. I finally called it a night about 1:30 a.m., but managed to sneak in a few pages after my last formal update. Here are my final Read-a-Thon stats:

Pages Read: 956
Books Finished: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin, The Black Count by Tom Reiss
Books Partially Finished: The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone, The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (audio book)

Total Time Reading: 10 hours and 37 minutes
Total Time Listening: 33 minutes
Total Time Reading/Listening: 11 hours and 10 minutes

Comparisons to Prior Read-a-Thons

• October 2011: 1,113 pages in 9 hours and 20 minutes
• April 2011: 1,420 pages in 8 hours and 52 minutes
• October 2010: 376 pages in 4 hours and 15 minutes

And finally, here are my answers to the End of the Event Survey:

Which hour was most daunting for you?

I actually didn’t find any of them daunting – I took a walk when I was getting punchy around hour 10 and headed to bed when I got tired late in the evening. Maybe Hour 1, since I didn’t wake up in time?

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

This probably isn’t for everyone, but I thought Pitch Perfect was absolutely delightful.

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Happy Read-a-thon! This is one of my favorite days to be a book nerd, when readers all over the world come together to ready and read for 24 hours. If you aren’t familiar with the Read-a-thon, you can find out more here. This is a sticky post that I’ll be updating throughout the day (most recent update at the top). I’ll also add links to any mini-challenges or other events I participate in. Allez viens!

• Introductory Questionnaire
• Mini-Challenge: Snacks
• Mid-Event Survey

Update #8: Book Three Finished, 11:30 p.m. CST (Hour 17)

Pages Read: 858
Books Read: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin, The Black Count by Tom Reiss

Total Time Reading: 9 hours and 57 minutes
Total Time Listening: 33 minutes (The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson)

Snacks Consumed: Diet Mtn. Dew

I am… feeling tired, but caffinated.

Other Stuff: It’s been awhile since I updated, but I really wanted to finish Seraphina before I got distracted commenting or got too tired to read more. I really liked that one — it reminded me a lot of BBC’s Merlin, which I have been obsessed with lately. Now I’m really curious about the sequel (I assume there will be a sequel? Maybe even a trilogy?). Anyway… not sure what I will read next. Maybe a comic book?

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In an effort to maybe, perhaps, hopefully get caught up on all the books I haven’t reviewed, I’m planning to start doing mini-reviews every couple of weeks for books that I read but didn’t have much to say about. If you have more specific questions about any of this week’s titles, leave them in the comments!

How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven’t been burned as witches since 1727, life isn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them?

Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women’s lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot of adolescence to her development as a writer, wife, and mother. With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth – whether it’s about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or children – to jump-start a new conversation about feminism. With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

Caitlin Moran’s How To Be a Woman is a feminist memoir/manifesto that I really enjoyed. Her argument is, essentially, that women have a hard time being honest with each other about what it’s like to be a woman and about the value of feminism. More important, feminism itself has ground to a halt, “shrunk down into a couple of increasingly small arguments, carried out among a couple of dozen feminist academics, in books that only feminist academics would read…”

The problem with this, Moran argues, is that feminism should be broader – about all the things that are part of becoming and being a woman today – because the day-to-day indignities are just as insidious and damaging as the larger inequalities women face. It’s a sensible and smart argument that Moran makes in a truly funny way. How To Be a Woman is a great read (if also a little vulgar and embarrassing and cringe-worthy as some of the moments of becoming a woman can be). I thought this one was excellent!

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner’s body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives – one British and one Chinese – race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?

Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.

The next time I need an example of how the time or place I read a book can have an impact on how I feel about it, I’ll be citing Midnight in Peking. I started this book at the airport on my way back from Book Expo America back in June. It’s hard for me to read in an airport – I’m always stressed and unfocused, despite my best efforts to shut out fellow passengers and sink into a book.

For some stories, this level of distraction isn’t really a problem. But Midnight in Peking does a lot in the first several chapters, building up both a horrific crime and explaining how the first investigation was deeply flawed. Without really paying attention to those early details, it’s hard to appreciate the skill of the rest of the book – Paul French’s investigation and expertise reveal a lot, but I just didn’t appreciate the book the way other reviews made me think I should. I can’t really rate this book because of what I feel was my poor reading, but I do hope I’ll get pick it up another time and appreciate it more.

Disclosure: I received How To Be a Woman from the publisher for review consideration, and received a copy of Murder in Peking at Book Expo America. 

Awhile ago, maybe all the way back in 2011, I did a week link round-up post on Monday’s called “Monday Tally.” I’ve been reading a lot of great stuff online lately and wanted a way to share it, so I decided to bring this one back semi-regularly. Enjoy!

Book bloggers are either detrimental to literature or critical to literary criticism. Take your pick on thoughts from British dudes.

Here’s another example of why it’s usually a bad idea for authors to respond to critical reviews, this time from Ron Hogan, with this gem of an observation:

Word of advice, authors: Never state publicly that any of your readers are more or less important than any of your other readers, even if you’re foolish enough to actually believe it. Yes, there are some readers who can “do more’ for your literary success if they like your book, whether they’re reviewing books for a major newspaper or buying fiction for a national chain of bookstores. To circle back to Elle Lothlorien, though, every reader is a customer, and even an unsatisfied reader can be a repeat customer—unless you’re actively condescending and dismissive to them.

This West Wing-inspired campaign ad is my favorite video of the week:

However, this video of a valiant pig saving a drowning baby goat at a petting zoo is a close, close second.

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