Does Flatland count as a literary classic? Because if it does, then I have my (belated) reading challenge pick for January!

 

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?

 

Eu nao gostei muito do livro porque apenas após 63% é que a história realmente começa. Eh obvio que aprender as diversas caracteristicas de Planolandia é muito interessante, mas se torna enfadonho pois o autor se extendeu demais nesse quesito. Ele poderia ter sido mais rapido nessa parte.

O livro eh bem interessante porque trata de como o mundo seria em cada dimensao! E eu detestaria viver na 2 dimensao, muito menos na zero (pontolandia). Ah sim, no livro tamfem mostra como seria a 0,1,2 e 3 dimensao e ainda lanca uma pergunta de como seria a 4? XD Eh um livro que me fez pensar bastante.

O livro tbm parece ser uma critica social pelo fato de em varios momentos mostrar a inferioridade do cerebro feminino e que ela eh muito incapacitada para qualquer atividade intelectual.

Gostei de alguns pontos do livro, mas nao tudo. Recomendo para quem curte matematica/fisica ou quimica. Mas se vc nao gosta, nao sei se pode gostar.

Maybe you will all know the substantial plot of this novel, but I'll say it for eventual isolated cases. Flatland is an alternative world in two dimensions, populated by flat geometric figures. The main character tell us of the features of this world and "people": the gerarchic society, some habits in everyday interactions, and so on. Besides there is a second part where the main character, a square, will explore other dimensional realities: Lineland, Spaceland and Pointland. Worlds with other dimensions. 

 

I can't think of a more fitting adjective than "remarkable". There is an afterword in my Italian edition which contains a such a right observation: between the madness of an imaginary world built from its basis and the coherence and intelligence of its principles there is the most distinctive feature of this brilliant novel. It has the characteristics of the incontrovertible evidence. I've thought about what can be considered more phraiseworthy: a complete fantastic world in which imagination has the total power or an imagined world still lied to rigid and inevitable mathematic laws to respect, so, less similar to "an autogenerated fantastic burst"? Is an unconfined imagination more phraiseworthy than a subtle intelligence in uniting already existing geometric principles to an imaginary world?

Inventing from nothing personal laws for our creation can be the most remarkable and marvelous thing to do, if it succeeds, but the "adversary" mentioned is no less so.

And Abbott does it perfectly. 

Particularly in reinterpreting his actual society in geometric figures, social laws. An outstanding intelligence and inventiveness: I mean, thinking about all the implications in applying the figure of the straight line to women could be sufficient: I appreciated what was said behind the sharp consequences in exposing the beginning or the end of it (an allusion maybe to our feminine nature, gentle, kind and loving but also cruel when we want) besides the social critic, so as I said how they are perceived in the English sexist sociey of that times. In the second part a valuable example could be Pointland and the philosophical implications in thinking "non-dimensionally". So well represented. That could be applied perfectly to how in adding dimension the represententatives of them were more open and ready to accept differences, like a "three-dimensional mind". 

 

For a moment I've thought that Abbott was sharing the beliefs of his people, but then! I was not fully aware! In fact there was that "unsaid" which lies on the surface, the subtle smile of a silent satire. I loved that thin line between endorsement and critic. 

A really appreciated surprise. I'm a slouch in maths and being able to follow Abbott's explanations and reasonings has been reassuring. I was avoiding this precisely because of the fear of not being able of understanding. Well:

 

At the end of the day

She said a realized "yay!"