Read-a-Thon hours 11 and 12: 17:00 - 19:00

Currently reading: Tales of the Interlake: A Collection of Strange Rural Stories for All Ages by Carol Gardarsson (just starting)

Pages read these hours: 78

Total pages so far: 476

Books finished: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine; The Separation (Animorphs #32) by K.A. Applegate, Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) by Ann M. Martin

Snacks: A couple of hard boiled eggs. Look at me, eating stuff with nutritional value!!

Current state of things: Ready to start my really short book so switch things up a bit after 3 teen novels from the 90s! On a random note, Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls went surprisingly well with The Wrong Number! I almost feel like I have a theme going!

For this update's video, I'm feeling in the mood for some Flight of the Conchords!

And now for the mid-event survey!

1. What are you reading right now? Tales of the Interlake: A Collection of Strange Rural Stories for All Ages by Carol Gardarsson
2. How many books have you read so far? 3
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I'm saving my one graphic novel for the tough hours, so I'm looking forward to that change of pace!
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? None at all! I've been doing the read-a-thon every April and October for the last 7 years, so my husband is used to it by now and knows how important it is to me!
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing really.

Read-a-Thon hours 9 and 10: 15:00 - 17:00

Currently reading: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) by Ann M. Martin

Pages read these hours: 75

Total pages so far: 398

Books finished: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine; The Separation (Animorphs #32) by K.A. Applegate

Snacks: A few strawberry wafer cookies and some Halloween candy.

Current state of things: Still doing fine! My page counts are a bit disappointing, but I know it's just because usually I have lots of graphic novels and this time I don't.

Now let's watch Weapon of Choice!

Read-a-Thon hours 7 and 8: 13:00 - 15:00

Currently reading: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) (just starting)

Pages read these hours: 93

Total pages so far: 323

Books finished: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine; The Separation (Animorphs #32) by K.A. Applegate

Snacks: Leftover cheese pizza for lunch.

Current state of things: Going strong!

Now let's enjoy some more Miike Snow!

Read-a-Thon hours 5 and 6: 11:00 - 13:00

Currently reading: The Separation (Animorphs #32) by K.A. Applegate

Pages read these hours: 87

Total pages so far: 230

Books finished: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine

Snacks: Water (finally getting hydrated!), a banana, some Halloween candy.

Current state of things: Now that the morning is over I'm feeling much more awake and alert! And this Animorphs book is hilarious.

Let's enjoy the intro to the cheesy 90s TV adaptation of Animorphs! (Which I still love. Bad 90s special effects and all.)

Read-a-Thon hours 3 and 4: 9:00 - 11:00

Currently reading: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine

Pages read these hours: 94

Total pages so far: 143

Books finished: None yet. Almost there!

Snacks: Breakfast cereal.

Current state of things: Moved from the bed to the couch, which isn't doing much to make me more alert! But I did get more pages read than in hours 1 and 2, so I must be dozing off less.

Normally I save the music for the late hours, but maybe Genghis Khan will help wake me up a bit in these early hours too!

Read-a-Thon hours 1 and 2: 7:00 - 9:00

Currently reading: The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine

Pages read these hours: 49

Total pages so far: 49

Books finished: None yet.

Snacks: None yet.

Current state of things: I've just been reading in bed for the first two hours. Risky, I know, but I was just so sleepy and the bed was just so cozy! There was a little bit of drifting off but mostly I was reading!

For this update's video, behold the book trailer I made for The Babysitter by R.L. Stine for one of my library tech courses!

Read-a-Thoooooon!

It's a Saturday in late October, so you know what that means! It's read-a-thon time! The only time when people can't make me do stuff and go places because read-a-thoning is top priority! Here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we have a 7:00 am start time, so I am groggy and not equipped for human contact! Bring on the reading!

Increasingly I find myself unprepared for the read-a-thon in terms of book choices! In particular, I'm concerned about the relative lack of graphic novels this time around. If I'm struggling in the hard hours I might have to scrounge up a graphic novel from my book shelves. But this is what I've got ready to go:

• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, vol. 2: Squirrel You Know It's True by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (120 pages)
• The Explorers: The Door in the Alley by Adrienne Kress (304 pages)
• The Wrong Number (Fear Street #5) by R.L. Stine (165 pages)
• How I Broke Up with Ernie by R.L. Stine (136 pages)
• The Separation (Animorphs #32) by K.A. Applegate (158 pages)
• Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls (The Baby-Sitters Club #2) by Ann M. Martin (153 pages)
• Tales of the Interlake by Carol Gardarsson (64 pages)
• Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores edited by Greg Ketter (285 pages)

The total page count is 1385. That's more than my average page count, but less than the most I've ever read in a read-a-thon, so who knows? Of the books, 5 are typical novels (middle grade or YA), 2 are books of short stories, and 1 is a graphic novel.

Finally, here are my answers to the opening survey:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Winnipeg, Manitoba

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Explorers: The Door in the Alley. I hear good things!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I have Girl Guide cookies! Om nom nom.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I've been bingeing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I hadn't seen until a few months ago. I'm already almost done season 5. I am IN LOVE.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? This is my 15th read-a-thon, not including the summer one (which I didn't do all 24 hours of). My last one was probably my best read-a-thon ever, so I won't be intentionally changing anything!!