This was fun, and I quite liked the various observations our black and white cat kept making, as well as his adventures with his two oh-so-different cousins (Saaf Landan Tom especially).

It saddens me, though, that Library Cat is actually missing—and has been roughly since the book came out. If any reader in the Edinburgh area happens to get a glimpse of Jordan, please let our University Library know!

Well, this was fun!! I didn't finish full length books on the event as my time was somewhat limited and I didn't want to wake up very early today and end up like a coffee zombie for the rest of the day..

So here is my wrap up post for the whole event: (now all I have to do is write the reviews - oh boy.....)

Hour 0:

Opening Meme

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

Netherlands, it's a sunny sunny day too
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The girl on the train!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

snack? you mean coffeeeee
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I'm just an ordinary girl who loves to read..
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 first one and I'm not sure what to expect to be honest!

Hour 6:

Mini Challenge - Operation Quotation!

My entry:

Time has a way of burying things, shifting like the desert and swallowing entire civilizations, erasing them from map and memory. Always, in the end, everything returns to dust.
“The Forbidden Wish” by Jessica Khoury

 and I am pleased to say that I was one of the random winners!!

Hour 7:

Mini Challenge - Readblock

What keeps you from reading?

My entry:

(nothing in particular - just sitting in front of my computer screen can keep me from doing anything really...)

Hour 9:

Mini Challenge - Share a Quote!

(yes I found the quote-sharing challenges easier to participate in for obvious reasons!)

Pick a quote from the book that you are reading or books that you've read during this read-a-thon.

My entry:

― Jane Austen, Pride And Prejudice (the graphic novel)

Hour 12:

Mid event update

And for the whole day mini challendge over @playster

My entry:

I pair "Every Heart is a Doorway" with ♪ Your Bones, Of Monsters and Men.

and now......

End of the event survey + Book list wrap-up!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
   I wasn't a hard-core reader for this readathon, so I didn't find one hour very daunting in particular
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
   I read a lot of graphic novels and of books that I have already read (and liked). I finished a lot of them so I got the sense of that elusive sense of accomplishement ..lol
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?/What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
   This is the first one for me, so I wouldn't know how things turned out in the past. I thought everything worked out great!
4. How many books did you read?/What were the names of the books you read?
   10 books, 1071 pages, time spent reading ~9hours
                      
   
5. Which book did you enjoy most?
   Every Heart is a Doorway. It's not just a pretty cover guys!
6. Which did you enjoy least?
   The bunny suicides.. I thought the title was weird but I thought why not? OMG.. If you know the cartoon known as "Happy tree friends" then you might guess what this was all about... I did not like this at all......
7. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
   Definitely! I will be more prepared next time and who knows? maybe I would commit for 19 hours instead of 9!

How did you do on the readathon this year?

When this book was advertised on NetGalley, it looked interesting, so I requested it. Unfortunately, this is one of those books that just doesn't live up to the description. Promising interesting stories told by fellow passengers on an airplane, I have to wonder at the choices of some of the stories offered here, as the people he discusses are for the most part as jaded and unlikeable as he comes across. We start with the story of a passenger who is so rigid in his faith that he would kick a woman from his family who married outside of their specific faction of their faith. It's then followed up by a couple of cheaters: one woman who is cheating on her husband and who the author encourages sexually on the flight, and then another woman who is a serial cheater and who is now with a new man... but for how long? We're also introduced to a man whose marriage fell apart because of his hunger for money and power. The main characters has a mild dislike for the men, but is more than happy to encourage the woman, also showing up snippets outside of the "airplane stories" where he talks about his own behavior, sleeping around with whoever is available, even playing games to get more woman.

I hope this book is supposed to be a story of redemption for the author, and that he realizes that perhaps his life is not going in the direction he wants it in, but I stopped reading it about 60% of the way in out of complete disgust. The main character's moral compass is stuck on "sleeze" and I can't find anything encouraging, fun, or unique about the stories he shares... either his own or the stories told by his fellow passengers.

Perhaps the stories and the character get better in the last 40% of the book... but at this point I have no desire to find out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up The Observations, by Jane Harris, because I adored Gillespie and I. I love unreliable narrators, because I get so much more story to pick apart. But reading Gillespie and I didn't prepare me for The Observations. I finished the book and realized I had been lied to—in the best ways possible—for more than 500 pages. Though Gillespie and I was written later, I think that The Observations is the more sophisticated book...

Read the rest of my review at Summer Reading Project.