Update #1: 4:27 P.M. (16.5 hours into the Readathon)
At midnight, I was trying in vain to fall asleep and when I woke up I was running late to get out of the door on time for my OrangeTheory class, which meant I wasn’t quite awake enough to trust myself to retain any information from an audiobook. After OTF and Starbucks, I went into work for three hours, spent the first two talking to my co-workers and a little less than the last hour listening to Before the Devil Breaks You. I continued listening to that on my way home and holy cow, I love Sam and Evie and will fight anyone coming for my children. I’m only three and a half hours from the end of the audiobook and I’m already stressed about book four.
I switched from audiobook listening to physical book reading around 1:30 or so and read 47 pages of Bad Feminist so yay for trying to achieve my goals! I then read about 28 pages of Turtles All the Way Down for a fiction break and then took a shower. For the past hour I’ve been doing nothing and calling it adulting like (procrastinating) paying the bills and setting up a primary care physician, I’ll probably never go to.
I suppose it’s now time for me to get bck to reading though, so I will check in with you soon.
Update #2: 7:44 PM (19 hours and 44 minutes into the Readathon)
I’m at 4 hours and 17 minutes of read time today, which is not great, though the day is not over yet. I have finished Depression and Other Magic Tricks, a poetry collection it feels like I’ve been reading forever. I enjoyed many of the poems in the collection, but mostly toward the beginning. I’m not sure if that’s because I was more open to poetry at the beginning of the month or what, but either way, I enjoyed the beginning much more than the end.
I have also read five more essays from Bad Feminist and really enjoyed the discussion of likability in female characters in “Not Here to Make Friends.” I think that’s been something I’ve touched on a few times before when discussing romance novels, but haven’t necessarily thought of it in quite the same terms Gay lays out in that essay. I really, really enjoyed her take on it.
I then read three more chapters of Turtles All the Way Down and am still waiting impatiently to become so absorbed in the book that I won’t want to put it down. So far no such luck.
When I put it down, I thought I would try the Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, which I have out from Hoopla, but I’m honestly just so confused? This is how I felt when I tried to read Monstress as well. I’m not good at diving into comics that don’t spell things out for you, which is a fault of my own, not of comics, I think.
Then I decided I should make dinner so I put on Before the Devil Breaks You and fell in love with the characters anew. Seriously, I love them so much. I’m almost at the end of the book and you can tell where we are in this fantasy/paranormal series because everyone is being given highs only to take them very low. I’ve also been intrigued by the different reasons for engaging in sexual activity the different characters have displayed. I think I might wind up doing a full discussion post about The Diviners series wherein I talk about that more because I have a lot of thoughts, but that also seems like quite a bit of work so we’ll see. Haha
Anyway, I’ve now eaten and I’m sitting in my bed again about to begin this cycle again so we’ll see how much further I get tonight!
Update #3: 11:16 PM (23 hours and 16 minutes into the Readathon)
I’m a little over six hours in. Somehow I seem to be doing about as well as I did when I was studying for the bar exam. I don’t know why I’m having trouble focusing for an extended period of time. I will say though that I’m greatly enjoying my process of switching back and forth between Bad Feminist and Turtles All the Way Down. I think I’ve switched twice more and have achieved the point in Turtles where I could just dive in and keep reading until I’m finished with the book.
As for Bad Feminist, I have so many thoughts, which you can see if you check my status updates on Goodreads and at this point, I should really just make a whole review for the book. Or rather, a whole discussion based on the book. It’s just that everyone read this book ages ago, so I’m not sure that there is that much of an interest in my opinion? Why do I want to talk about two books I’m reading right now? Stop trying to make more work for yourself, Jenica! But seriously, I’m really enjoying both of these and I like the process of reading five essays and then switching back to my fiction read. I’ll try and update you before I go to sleep, but if I don’t, I’ll talk with you all in the morning!
Update #4: 1:10 AM (25 hours and 10 minutes into the Readathon)
I’ve hit seven hours and am finally ready to go to sleep. I’m at a really interesting part of Turtles All the Way Down that is giving me a ton of feelings. Bad Feminist keeps making good points. I definitely think a review is going to wind up happening if only for myself. It will be extremely time consuming though so probably not likely to happen soon.
Anyway, I’m basically deliriously tired so I shall update you again tomorrow! Er, later today, I suppose. It is looking especially unlikely that I shall hit 24 hours, but a girl can dream.
Update #5: 11:13 AM (35 hours and 13 minutes into the Readathon)
There is no way I’m hitting 24 hours because I didn’t read enough yesterday to manage that. But! I did finish Bad Feminist and Turtles All the Way Down. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about both books and find it interesting how critical people were of Daisy’s character in Turtles. Given that John wrote this book in a way that was heavily influenced by his own mental health struggles, I have a feeling he has a Daisy in his life. I think I have had Daisy’s in my life throughout the years as well. I had a friend once tell me we couldn’t be best friend’s anymore because I was making her “too sad.” To be honest, I don’t think I was really experiencing any sort of mental health struggle, but that’s likely untrue. Given all of the changes that had been occurring in my life at the time, I was likely extremely anxious because my anxiety does not react well to change. I have a friend now who will occasionally share that he finds it exhausting sometimes to be friends with someone who is not me, but who also has anxiety, and I find myself not infrequently thinking about whether it is similarly exhausting to be friends with me, even though I try to shield many of my struggles from everyone. I’m not saying that we should have to have friends like Daisy in our lives. In an ideal world, everyone accepts that we have mental health struggles and that even when our spirals last for days or weeks, that we are still worthy of the same care that comes when we are out of said spiral. That’s not the real world though. And sometimes, it’s worth having a Daisy in our life because she tries, you know? I don’t know if I’m making sense and I don’t know that it’s really good life advice. I’m just saying I get it because it’s a real thing that I’ve experienced and continue to experience. I’m probably going to have feelings on this book for a long time.
Moving on, Bad Feminist was, as expected, fantastic. It’s alarming how little some things have changed in the past few years and I’ll talk about that when I write up a full discussion post (because it’s happening, I swear!). So we’ll see how that goes.
I finished both of those a while ago, but then I went to the store and while I could have listened to my audiobook and finished it up, I didn’t, but maybe when I make myself a lunch that is not chips and a gluten free chocolate chip cookie, I will listen. We’ll see. I make no promises. For now, I shall finally start The Round House and pair it with Beyond Innocence (Jared’s book, woo!) for levity.
Update #6: 1:20 PM (37 hours and 20 minutes into the Readathon)
The Round House is already emotional and devastating, but also a read I’m really glad I’m doing. Beyond Innocence is also breaking my heart at the moment? Lili is very broken at the beginning of this book and perhaps I should have expected that, but I kind of didn’t think about it. Whoops.
Okay, I’ll update again when I’ve done at least one more round through these two!
Final Thoughts/Wrap Up
I finished the Readathon with about 13ish hours read, which was not great, but not terrible all things considered. I definitely could have read a little more (a lot) but I just didn’t feel like pushing myself. After doing the Biannual Bibliothon all week, this weekend was a lot. I still haven’t finished either The Round House or Beyond Innocence, which is terrible considering The Round House is January’s book and I’m probably going to be finishing it in the next month like I did with What Lies Between Us. Beneath? I don’t know. I’m so tired, y’all. Regardless, I enjoyed the books I read and the books I started. If you participated, I hope you enjoyed your time too!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 