It began with rain and ended with rain, but sandwiched between the downpours were moments both literally and metaphorically sunny. Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon, April 2009, has ended, and I can say with all sincerity that I truly enjoyed this, my first opportunity to participate. The read-a-thon began and ended with rain, but it also began and ended with a goat! And this is where the giddiness begins.
At the start of yesterday’s event, Mary was checking out my post and clicked over to the World Vision website, the link for the charity we chose to fund. Within seconds she mentioned that one of the things a person could donate was a goat. A goat! I immediately…and I kid you not (no pun intended), it was instantaneous…had this conversation in my head: “I want to donate a goat and I want to name it Chasuble!”*. And this made me giggle inside. In fact I thought about it often during the day, and as I read Ex Libris and came across Anne Fadiman’s mention of a Nordstrom’s catalog with a goat on the cover, I took it as a sign and declared to Mary that in addition to a donation to the educational fund of World Vision, we were going to give a goat.
The name “Chasuble” is, incidently, the surname of the reverend in The Importance of Being Earnest. Why in the name of all that is holy that name popped instantly in my head at the idea of donating a goat, I will never know! It just did, which, incidently, is what led to me choosing the movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play for our evening’s entertainment.
So there you have it. We came, we read, we donated a goat (and possibly 5 ducks, I haven’t yet decided for sure).
*for the record, you don’t officially get to ‘name’ the goat you donate. But that didn’t stop me.
And now, a recap of the read-a-thon experience.
The experience was an absolute joy, for myself and for Mary as well. Even Tori got into the act and read more than she normally would. I had 3 separate piles of potential reads within arms reach of my desk chair as I spent a good portion of the day in my office, reading books and blogging. That thrill of what to choose next was certainly one of the highlights of the day.
As near as I can figure, I read for about 15 hours. I did not specifically time various activities as some did. This was my first go round with the read-a-thon and it was a lot to just focus on reading, blogging, doing a challenge now and then, and stopping by a few blogs every so often to check in and cheer lead.
Though there were challenges throughout the day, I only managed to do two, but I enjoyed them very much. There were several that I would have liked to do but I either found them at the wrong time, or, quite frankly, was just too wrapped up in the reading part of the read-a-thon. I have to say, there are A LOT of creative individuals out there. Everyone who hosted a mini-challenge deserves a pat on the back. And speaking of pats on the back, Trish and Hannah and Nymeth deserve high praise for the long shifts they took doing hourly updates, etc. on the official read-a-thon site. Thank you so very much for keeping everything in order!!!
I also didn’t count pages, so I’m not sure page-wise how much I read, but I am thrilled with the reading material I spent time with:
John Chapter 17 (finished)
Housekeeping vs. the Dirt ~Nick Hornby (finished)
And There You Are ~Ronnie del Carmen (finished)
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader ~Anne Fadiman (finished)
Blueberry Girl ~Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess (finished)
Hi Fructose Volume 11 (finished)
House of Mystery, issues 5-12 (finished)
Bird by Bird ~Anne Lamott (Chapter on Plot)
Exhibition 36 ~Susan Tuttle (introductory chapter)
Fever Pitch ~Nick Hornby (a handful of chapters)
and a viewing of the 1952 film, The Importance of Being Earnest.
I look at that list and it makes me smile because I really enjoyed the variety and again, had such a good time. Mary has also mentioned several times already today how much she enjoyed spending the day reading.
Hopefully one of these days I will get to make an attempt to go the entire 24 hours. As it was I had already planned on sleeping and it certainly felt good when I finally laid down for the night. It also felt good to wake up and immediately start reading again in order to squeeze out the last few minutes of the read-a-thon event.
I look forward to reading about everyone else’s experience with the event and thank everyone again who made this event happen and those who took the time to come over and post on my site. I really appreciate it!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone! I’m off to start on some of the reviews of the above reads so that I can share my pleasure with you.
Wow, Carl, lots of great reading! Congrats!
Awww…I love this post! Everything about it, but maybe especially the goat…what a wonderful idea!!! I’m so glad that you all enjoyed yourselves! And I must say that I’m mighty impressed with the pile of reading you got done…whew, you put me to shame. Looks like we’ve got lots of great reviews to look forward to. 🙂
Great job! Sounds like a fun way to spend the day. 🙂
Congrats! What a wonderful charity, by the way. 🙂
The goat was a great idea, and what an awesome (unofficial) name! I’m glad to hear you had such a great day.
A goat! I am not alone in the goat-love! (Er, I’ve been driving my friends and parents nuts the past few… months? Something like that.)
I’m glad to hear everyone enjoyed the Read-a-Thon, Carl! Those are a lot of books to read! I am very impressed indeed!
Great job, Carl! Have a great week!
welcome back to those who eat and sleep along with reading lol.. glad you enjoyed it!!
Funny, I read The Importance of Being Earnest for the read-a-thon! Congrats on The Rev. Goat.
Chris: Ah, that is funny! Great play, isn’t it?
Deslily: I certainly did plenty of eating yesterday, even if my sleep was a little less than normal. 🙂
Vasilly: Thanks, you do the same.
Shanra: I consider myself in good company! Donating goats and ducks…how cool is that?
Memory: Thanks. I’m so glad my wife mentioned it, even if my mind went a bit wonky at the thought.
Mari: Thanks, all my wife’s idea.
Jessi: It was a great way to spend the day. I’d love to do that at least once a week!
Debi: Oh, I doubt that. You actually read full novels. I certainly chose to read some shorter things just to have a day full of variety. Helped keep me motivated as well.
Kailana: Thanks! 🙂
The goat donation is a good idea. Great and varied reading, too. 🙂
Congratulations, Carl! Job well done! I love the idea of donating a goat. I had a student a few years ago that gave me a goat for Christmas … donated in my name, I mean. It was the sweetest gift a student ever gave me.
You donated a goat?! How awesome is that! And they’re so damn cute in those pictures. I’ve always wanted a little pygmy goat. Those little guys rock. Congrats on all you’ve done and all you’ve read! Sounds like y’all had a blast.
It’s brilliant isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve heard of this charity, though.
Shanra: It is! World Vision is a very large, long-standing organization that is primarily known for the commercials on television asking you to sponsor a child. You can sponsor a child for a small monthly amount and send letters back and forth, etc. The money helps provide food and education and other things for the child. I didn’t realize they had all these other things you could do, like donate certain animals for milk and for food, donate nets to protect against malaria, donate money to help dig wells, etc. I’m not sure if all of their efforts are concentrated in Africa or not, but many of them are.
Chris: Yes indeed. We decided we didn’t want to do anything to tie in with page counts or anything simply because we didn’t want to bother keeping track of it. We haven’t decided what our total gift is going to be. I think we are for sure going to choose the ‘donate a goat and 5 ducks’ option and give to the educational fund as well. It was a blast!
Robin: That is a sweet gift! Certainly better than the standard apple!
Maree: Thanks!
I came to visit and was scanning through your posts. To my delight I saw a goat! How fun to donate a goat. That’s awesome!
I have a dream of one day owning a goat. I can just see it standing on top of it’s wooden goat house! I think we need to purchase a home in the country so I can start my petting zoo. Hehe!
Congrats on your donation! Very cool!
I say pursue your dreams now! You’ve got room for a goat over there! 🙂
Goats are great – instead of Christmas presents this year I donated a goat on behalf of my mother, and chickens on behalf of my nephews!
You did great! I am so bummed out I missed it this time around but hopefully the Fall one I’ll get to join in.
By the way, I’m looking forward to your review of the Susan Tuttle book!
Iliana: I just need some time to free up now so I can read the rest of Exhibition 36! Hopefully this weekend. It looks so great. Hope you grandmother is doing better.
Sally: That is really fun.