Fourth Annual 48HBC Results

It's past 1 pm, and my part in the Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge is done. I'm glad for the chance to have given myself permission to read in lieu of other activities. For awhile now, I've focused on guitar and sewing to the exclusion of reading, and while I don't regret that focus, reading has always been my first love. When I was very little, I was puzzled by grownups quietly holding rectangular objects in front of them. When I grew older, I memorized books so thoroughly that I thought I knew how to read. I was a bit disgusted in first grade when the teacher called me up to read to her and I didn't recognize the words. My mom told me that she said to someone, "I'm afraid Farida will never be a reader." [Edited to add: What I should have clarified with this vignette was that she was worried I wasn't going to be a reader because I didn't show much interest in reading in first grade, not that I wasn't going to be able to read. My mom at first didn't recall this vignette, but once she realized the intent of my words, the memory started to come back.]

Between first and second grade, I moved from the suburbs where I'd lived at my grandmother's house back to the house on the mountain in the middle of the woods. I looked at the familiar books on the shelves and realized that this time I really did know how to read them. I was seven years old, and still stumbled over a lot of words, but knew enough to be able to figure out words in context.

My mother brought home a stack of books from the library, and I read them. She brought home more books, and I read more. Books became an escape. I trust that plenty of good readers have had satisfying school experiences, but I was not one of them. In looking back, I wonder if I would have been such an avid reader had I not been so miserable in school. Summers were a welcome relief. Aside from one interesting week at a Brethren bible study camp*, I had unfettered time to read.

Enough preamble! Here is the finish line and here are the results of my 48 Hour Book Challenge:

June 5, 2009

The Princess and the Goblin—George MacDonald
I first read this book as a child, and enjoyed it just as much as an adult. I didn’t realize as a child that Princess Irene’s great grandmother in the book was a powerful Mary figure, but I do remember then as now longing for such a wise, magical presence in my life. I’d forgotten some of the humorous bits in the story. My favorite one is when Curdie, the miner’s son, grabs at a goblin’s foot and the goblin thinks a beast from the wall came out and licked him.

Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes

The Lizard Cage—Karen Connelly
Months after it was loaned to me, I finally read this gripping story of Teza, a Burmese prisoner jailed for his political songs and the 12 year old boy he befriends and helps set free. I’ll be thinking about this story for awhile. It’s beautifully written but brutal. My friend begged me not to rush through this book, so I slowed down a bit so I could prove to her that I retained important details.

Total time: 4 hours 20 minutes

June 6, 2009

Salt: A World History—Mark Kurlansky
I grasp history so much better when I read about it with a particular focus. The history of salt is as much a history of condiments as it is about the one rock we eat. My favorite apocryphal story told in this book: a shepherd in France left his cheese and bread sitting in a cave for a week. When he returned, Roquefort cheese was invented.

Total time: 2 hours

The Story Biz Handbook: How to Manage Your Storytelling Career from the Desk to the Stage—Dianne de las Casas

I wish I’d had this book two years ago! Fortunately, I’ve already done some of the things de las Casas recommends in terms of the website and online social networking. However, why did it never occur to me to have a preprinted introduction card to give to presenters? I am going to read this book more in-depth after the challenge is over, make notes, and begin to implement some changes bit by bit. I need a boost to my storytelling career, and this book is going to be key to helping me. I think Adrienne Furness would appreciate this book.

Total time: 2 hours

Colman—Monica Furlong
I bought this sequel to Wise Child when it first came out, read a couple of chapters, and then put it down because it didn’t engage me. Years passed, and library books took precedence over purchased books. I loaned this book out twice without having read it myself! Now, for the 4th annual 48HBC, it’s read. I didn’t love it, as I still wasn’t engaged in the way I was with Wise Child and Juniper. Was that because this one was largely plot-driven whereas the others allowed for time to discover the characters? Is it because I am reading it as a 37 year old instead of as a teen? I don’t know. It’s Furlong’s last book, and I want to love it more, but as it stands, I appreciate it for bringing some closure to the Wise Child and Juniper stories.

Total time: 70 minutes.

By These Ten Bones—Clare Dunkle
This spooky story about a werewolf in a Scottish town was published between Dunkle’s 2nd and 3rd books in the Hollow Kingdom trilogy. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the HK trilogy, but I appreciated Dunkle’s weaving in of the supernatural with Catholicism. I found the werewolf love story to be evocative of how women can rationalize relationships with dangerous men. There’s always a gentle side to them that no one else sees!

Total time: 50 minutes

Urn Burial—Robert Westall
This book always makes me hope there really are aliens in the universe. I first read it as a teen. A shepherd discovers a gravesite of an alien that looks like a cat, only much more evolved, and soon after, large dog-like creatures start terrorizing the village where he lives. The big revelation about the nature of the universe is not unexpected, but it's still exciting nonetheless.

Total time: 1 hour 45 minutes


June 7, 2009

The Herb of Grace (also known as Pilgrim’s Inn)—Elizabeth Goudge
This is the middle book in the Eliots of Damarosay trilogy, reprinted by the Elizabeth Goudge society. Goudge has a knack of giving her characters far more prescience than most people would have in real life. It’s an alternative to third-person omniscience that is sometimes intrusive but mostly works. Whether writing for children or adults, Goudge’s best stories involve children in some way.

Total time: 3 hours

***
Total Reading time: 16 hours 25 minutes
Social networking time: 1 hour
Writing time: 90 minutes
TOTAL for 48BC: 18 hours 55 minutes

*Regarding that camp: On day five, I asked a camp counselor, "Are we ever going to learn any regular camp songs?" I'd read Yours Till Niagara Falls, Abby, by Jane O'Connor and expected from camp a large assortment of new songs. The "Austrian went yodeling..." cumulative song was the only non-Praise song I learned that whole week. Don't even get me started on the Letter from Jesus that a camp counselor read and my nine-year-old self took quite literally. Oddly enough, I didn't have access to a chapter-book that whole week.

My 48 Hour Book Challenge begins

Our cat Mercedes went missing for two days. She is a dim-witted furry beast who freaks out in open spaces (among other places) and when Bede opened the doors in an attempt to cool off the house, Mercedes got out. She's usually so skittish that she'll peep her nose out and then pull it back in again, but this time curiosity must have triumphed over fear... momentarily. We noticed the next morning that she was gone, but we should have noticed sooner, as she usually wakes us up with her mewing EVERY NIGHT.

Coyotes venture into our neighborhood quite a bit, looking for small, tasty morsels. We thought certainly that Mercedes was gone for good. It's hard when a cat goes missing, because there's no closure, but despite holding out some hope, I began to think of her in the past tense just to get some distance from what I thought was the inevitable.

Last night, we woke up a number of times when we heard mewing a number of times, but found no cat outside. Then, around 4 a.m., Bede saw her on the back porch. He went out to get her, and she ran away. We got out flashlights, and eventually found her under the neighbor's porch. Bede stayed very still and finally she came out from the porch around 4:45 a.m.

I dropped Lucia off at school this morning, drove home, and went to bed. Now' it's 1 p.m. and I'm ready to start MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge. I'm starting out with George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, which I first read as a child. Over the next 48 hours, I will have a storytelling gig, preparation for our bedroom painting, care of Lucia, guitar practice and maybe even some breaks for sewing. Still, I will read. I will keep a running tally of books read, pages read, time spent reading, and time spent blogging. I will do a final blog post Sunday, June 7, after 1 pm PST.

Here I go!

June 6 update at 6 pm:

Total time read: 11.5 hours
Number of books read: 6

11:24 pm update:
Total time read: 12 hours 45 minutes
Number of books read: 7
Time spent writing down notes: 30 minutes
Time spent reading other blogs and commenting: 90 minutes

As tempting as it is to spend a couple more hours reading, I'm going to bed. After having my sleep wrecked by a cat, I am not going to stretch out my circadian rhythms even more when I'm probably not going to be in the running for the 20 Hour Club. If I'm focused, I'll get 3-4 more hours of reading in tomorrow before I stop at 1 pm.

48HBC in 4 Days

MotherReader's Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge is just four days away! Two years ago, I attempted to participate with humorously disastrous results. Last year, something was going on where I couldn't participate, but this year, despite one gig (not two, as one got rescheduled) and the painter coming, I am going to take part in the book challenge. I don't know how much reading I'll get done, but I plan to read! I have a number of books stacking up and more that I hope will come in time. Here's a sample of what I have waiting for me:

The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly (borrowed from a friend 5 months ago)
Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky
By These Ten Bones, by Clare Dunkle
School as a Journey: The Eight Year Odyssey, by Torin Finster
Colman, by Monica Furlong (bought when it was new)
Black Ants and Buddhists: Thinking Critically and Teaching Differently in the Primary Grades, by Mary Cowhey
Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work or Play, by Doug Lipman
The Story Biz Handbook, by Dianne de Las Casas

I know, some of these books do not look like escapist pleasure-reading. They've been on my "to read" list for a long, long time. I need to read them. If I have some dedicated time in which to read them, then they will actually be of use to me.

I plan to do some rereading as well. Urn Burial, by Robert Westall, and The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald, are in the stack.

What about you?

4th Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

It's time to start thinking about MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge. This is her 4th year of hosting a weekend devoted to reading. The challenge is June 5-7, and you can find all the guidelines via the link.

Lissy's Friends (and mine too)

Lissy has an origami turtle on her lap

I'm gearing up for my second public storytelling performance with a guitar. Tomorrow, at 10:30 am PST, I'll be at Bootyland. That's why I've been so quiet on the blog front. Still, how could I help but shout for joy when I received my special prize from Grace Lin as part of MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge? On Saturday, I received a copy of Lissy's Friends with an accompanying dolly. The story is about a little girl named Lissy who experiences isolation at school until she starts to make origami friends. The ending is a happy one (it involves human friends too!), and the last page demonstrates how to fold a paper-crane.

MotherReader and Tadmack (the 48 Hour Book Challenge winner for most hours spent reading), how did you know this book was the perfect gift for me? I have been interested in origami for much of my life, but didn't seriously attempt it until my first professional library job, when I decided that I needed to learn a craft I actually enjoyed for those wretched "bunny-cutting" craft programs.* A friend of mine taught me how to make a paper crane, and and then I taught myself how to make a lily. I became obsessed. Then, I started sharing my obsession with others. Every time I had to lead a craft program, I taught origami. During the short time I ran my own children's room, I'd sometimes hand out origami paper and books** to restless children. Inevitably, they got so caught up in making paper animals that they had to convert their lined notebook paper into squares so that I'd have enough origami paper for craft programs.

The origami obsession ebbed a bit after I gave birth to Lucia. Still, I have all my origami books and am planning to teach her simple folding techniques in a year or two. In the meantime, we have Yoko's Paper Cranes and now Lissy's Friends.

Inside my copy of Lissy's Friends, Grace Lin inscribed, "To my friend Farida *aka Alkelda* In recognition of the "challenge" of the 48 Hour Book Challenge! Best wishes, Grace." Thank you, thank you, Grace Lin. (Expect a note from me soon.) And thank you, MotherReader and TadMack, for thinking of me.



*I appreciate craft programs when someone skilled in a particular area shares his or her expertise. Otherwise, I'd far rather hand children some crayons and paper rather than have them glue pre-cut shapes. I won't even go into all of the hours of your tax dollars wasted on my having to cut out laminated name-tags for 6 storytime sessions every six weeks.

**Recommended books:
Origami, by Hideaki Sakata (my gold standard of beginning origami books)
Paper Creations: Easy to Make Paper-Folding Projects, by Gay Merrill Gross
The Buck Book: All Sorts of Things to do with a Dollar Bill-Besides Spend It, by Anne Akers Johnson

For storytelling with origami, check out Just Enough to Make a Story: A Sourcebook for Storytelling, by Nancy Schimmel. And that reminds me that maybe it's time for me to bring back "The Rainhat" for my storytelling programs... maybe even for tomorrow's gig.

The Beginning and the End of my 48 Hour Book Challenge

7:20 am—Began Fragile Things (355 pages plus 20 pages of introduction=375 pages).

11 am—Finally decided to take a break because of the constant interruptions. Wednesday marked the beginning of Lucia’s hard-core potty-training with NO DIAPERS DURING THE DAY. Bede is doing the best he can to support the 48 Hour Reading Challenge, but life does go on, what with cleaning up accidents. So far, my favorite stories are “A Study in Emerald,” which Gaiman wrote as a Sherlock Holmes story in an H.P. Lovecraft universe, and “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” which I didn’t think I’d like until I realized that the main character was trying to write a realistic, contemporary story—in a gothic universe.

12:30 pm: Returned from my walk, dug up the dead red raspberry and blueberry roots, planted the new blueberry bush I’d bought from the nursery, and resumed reading.

1:00—1:30 pm: Found I was rereading the same paragraph amidst many interruptions for demands to go inside, go outside, get snacks, etc. I finally brought the girlie inside. She was mad, but then she settled down beside me to look at Flat Stanley while I read Fragile Things.

1:30—3 pm: I’m a little over ½ way through Fragile Things.

3:05 pm: Whoops, Lucia just peed on the floor.

3:12: pm. Resumed reading Fragile Things.

3:45 pm: Whoops, Lucia just pooped on the floor. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that there was product coming until too late. My mother called during the clean-up process, and against my better judgement, I attempted to talk to her via speaker-phone while cleaning up. I was so desperate for the voice of an adult colleague (she's a former children's librarian and current kindergarten teacher as well as my mommy).

4:00 pm: Dear Lord, some days I feel I am not cut out for parenthood.

4:11 pm: I definitely know I’m not cut out for the 48 Hour Book Challenge this year. Now, I’m going to the Farmer’s Market to buy my weekly supply of rhubarb. This time, I’m going to make “blue-barb,” which is a compote of blueberries and rhubarb. Tonight, I’m going to my guitar clinic. I’ll still read what I can, but as of now, I am out of the 48 Hour Book Challenge. Please have one next year, MotherReader!

Addition
9:00 pm: Dear bloggers, you need to come over to my house for strawberry-rhubarb compote, strawberry crisp, and blue-barb compote. I went produce-crazy and bought a 1/2 flat of strawberries, a bag of bing cherries, and 5 lbs of rhubarb. Then, I cooked and baked. My freezer and fridge can't fit everything.

The 48 Hour Book Challenge Begins

It's 7:20 am, and I'm ready to read. I'll catch up on blog-reading and commenting after the 48 hour challenge. In the meantime, I'll be reading the books I've bought but never read because I had to make the library books a priority, plus those library books that went back barely-read after 3 weeks.

My first book is Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman. Ready, set... GO!

Freedom to read, baby

Admit it. You want to be part of the 48 Hour Book Challenge. Give into temptation and sign up by following the link. You've got nothing to lose, and much to look forward to with all those good books you've been aching to read.