Wrap Up Post: Unputdownables 48 Hour Read-a-Thon

The Finish Line!

Well, the 48 Hour Read-a-Thon is over. Wallace at Unputdownables.net put on a great show! I had lots of fun tweeting with my fellow read-a-thoners, cheering people on at their blogs, and having people stop by my blog to cheer me on.

Check out some of the bloggers that participated in the 48 Read-a-Thon and checked out my blog this weekend. Some of these people were new to me, and have now joined my must-see blog lists. They are great people!

• Vasilly at 1330V - Vasilly read a beautiful looking graphic novel called Flight, Volume 6
• Rikki at The Bookkeeper - Rikki read Gods Behaving Badly (click link to read her review)
• Kemendraugh at Just a Good Book -  Kemendraugh read The Good Neighbors, Book 1 and started The Unseen Academicals
• Trish at Love, Laughter, and Insanity - Trish didn't read in the read-a-thon, but she was consistent with her cheering for the group on Twitter and on update posts! I love her! Help cheer her on through her reading of The Brothers Karamazov (click to read her post).
• Coffee and a Book Chick - She stopped by a few times to cheer me on! Also, her dad is Ernest Hemingway (well, not really, but he looks A LOT like him). Check out this LINK to decide for yourself.
• Leeswammes' Blog - One of my best cheerleaders this weekend. I love Miss Leeswammes! She runs Book Bloggers' Abroad every Thursday on her blog. It's helped me find quite a few new bloggers.
• Constance Reader - She tackled North and South this weekend. Oh John Thornton...you angry, but sexy man..."Look back at me!" (I really only know the movie, but yes...I swooned)
• Lily from Never Fading Wood - She dropped by to tell me to try French press coffee. I have put it on my list of things to try!
• Scrabblequeen - Dropped by to cheer me on and admit her tea snobbery. Scrabblequeen is a fantastic knitter and and Anne McCaffrey fan!
• Chachic at Chachic's Book Nook - I have Chachic to thank for pushing me to read Magic Bites this weekend. It was fantastic! She's a Filipino blogger that is my partner in hilarity on Twitter. She also runs the Filipino Book Bloggers Directory
• Bahnree from I am, therefore I write - She read a Geek's Guide to World Domination and The Historian (one of my favorites from the last few years). 
• Fiona from The Book Coop - Oh Fi...one of my favorite bloggers out there. I love her Friday Coffee Chat comments. She has some serious funny going on! She read The Housekeeper and the Professor.
• Reese from Bibliophile Girl - She read the book I am most interested in from all the blogs I checked this weekend, The Know-it-All. It sounded hilarious!
• Joy from Edgy Inspirational Romance - Joy had to chose from 58 novels on her Shelfari list! Ack! Well, not so bad considering my TBR shelf has over 100 books on it. 
• Wallace from Unputdownables.net - Our wonderful host for this event. She worked so hard and commented on so many blogs. She also spent lots of tweety time with all of us. How did she get any reading done? Well she did! Lots of it! Amazing.

My thanks goes out to all of you for cheering me on this weekend! It really did help. I know there were people on Twitter that cheered me on as well, so thanks to all of you as well! Please check out some of these blogs. It's a varied bunch so I'm sure is at least one blog here that is something you'd like and is new to you!

Here is my final tally for the weekend:

• One book read cover to cover - Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
• Half of Book 4 and half of Book 5 of Middlemarch read
• Started The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley
• One lost key to my neighbor's house that is possibly making its way through one of my dog's digestive tract (I still cannot find it so it's a possibility that Turbo ate it--yes, my dogs do crazy things like that!)
• Three crazy fun dogs that interrupted my reading frequently but got major love all the same. 
• Two very awesome cups of iced coffee
• Many laughs with old and new friends
• 402 Total Pages Read!!!

Here are the crazies running through the yard!

Update #2: Unputdownables 48 Hour Read-a-Thon!

Update #2

Finished

Magic Bites
169 pages on Friday
  91 pages on Saturday
260 pages Total

Middlemarch Book 4
46 pages on Saturday (Read pp. 344-390)

Reading

The Tricking of Freya 
56 pages on Saturday

Read-a-Thon Totals So Far

Total for Friday     169 pages

Total for Saturday 193 pages

Total so far          352 pages

My goal for Sunday is to read half of Book 5 of Middlemarch and maybe a little more on The Tricking of Freya. Hope I can do it! 


What are your goals for your Sunday reading?

Update: Time for Making Coffee - Unputdownables 48 Hour Read-a-Thon

Need Some Caffeine to Boost Your Reading Energy?

Let me preface this by saying that one of my Shelfari friends is attempting to teach me to brew a great cup of coffee thereby turning me into a coffee snob. He has already succeeded in teaching me that some coffee just tastes like dirt. I happen to have a bag of tasteless coffee now (no offense Whole Foods, but I don't like your Guatemalen or Rainforest Blend coffees) that I am using to make iced coffee to help keep my energy up through Wallace's Unputdownables.net 48 Hour Read-a-Thon. I'm still a novice and have a lot to learn--I'm still refining my coffee palette. :)

For those of you that asked how I make my coffee, here it goes:

The Tools of the Trade

Boiled Water

Coffee Grinder (the burr kind)

Whole coffee beans

A glass filled to the top with ice

Filter and filter cone

Pyrex measuring cup (optional--you can use whatever container you want to brew it in)

• After your water is hot, run some hot water through the filter to get the paper taste out of the paper cone. It doesn't matter really if you use the brown or white filters unless you can really tell the difference. I run my water from the filter straight into the sink.
• While doing this, grind some fresh beans (I use 3 to 3.5 tablespoons of coffee beans)
• After the water is run through, pour your grinds in and and pour some hot water in the grinds. Stir it around a bit with a spoon. I've actually learned that the bubbles (see above, right picture) is carbon dioxide being released from the beans which is a good thing. It means it's fresher I guess and I think is called "blooming" (but don't quote me on that--I have to get back to reading so I'm too lazy to look it up today).
•  Continue pouring water in until you get the desired amount of coffee you want to make.

• I brew about 400 mL or about 3/4 cup of coffee with 3.5 scoops of beans (I don't like sludge I guess, but I don't like it too watery either)
• After I finish, if I feel like a little flavor, I put in some flavored coffee creamer. this one is International Delights Caramel Macchiato (the low-fat kind...I do not like it very much--I will buy the fatty stuff next time). Most of the time I drink my coffee black, but I'm masking the "meh" taste of this coffee with some flavor!
• Pour over a full glass of ice (mine is a 20 oz. and I have enough for seconds), stick a straw in, and enjoy!

Update on the Read-a-Thon

I have finished Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews and will be starting The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley. I'll also listen to a bit of Middlemarch by George Eliot today.

Finished! It was fantastic!

Reading these two next!

Update: Unputdownables 48 Hour Read-a-Thon!

Update #1

Well, Friday evening was a bit challenging for me. I am taking care of my neighbor's dog for the weekend so I have three dogs in the house. I have whippet so they are skinny and don't weigh much, but they are fairly big dogs and if they were the normal dog shape I would estimate that I have around 180-200 pounds of dog in the house this weekend....and they are ACTIVE! So for three hours last night, they were play fighting "grizzly bear style" and running around outside. I have to watch them to make sure the dynamic is ok and a fight doesn't ensue. So, I didn't get as much reading done as I wanted to, but I still made progress (also note that I am a notoriously slow reader)!

Here are my plans/updates for the weekend:

• Ample amounts of iced coffee (made fresh by the cup, not the pot by yours truly)
• Snacks of course (that's a banana nut muffin)
• Currently Reading: Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
• On page 169 of 260
• Up Next: The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley and second half of Book 4 of Middlemarch by George Eliot

A Little Extra for You!

I also received my bookmarks from iPrint.com this week. Some of you that follow me on Twitter already know that my first attempt to buy bookmarks ended in a bust because I was dumb and failed to check the dimensions. I ended up with a 1" x 3" bookmark which I do actually use for small paperbacks, but isn't practical because you can't really see the print on the bookmark thus ruining any advertising value. After I got my new ones, I was glad I made this mistake because the new ones are simply AWESOME! I love them and highly recommend iPrint.com if you are wanting to get bookmarks for your blog.

The picture isn't the best quality because I used my phone for it, but I can tell you that all the writing is clear and I can definitely read it wall. I also included my bookmark fail just for a laugh (I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, then life is pretty depressing, right?!!). You may now mercilessly mock me! Hehe!