Nearing the End

I know, I know, it's been nearly 24 hours since I last posted. But if you look at how long I usually go between posts (oh, about a year), then a day is really nothing. Also, I left to go to the library at 5 pm today, forgetting that the library closes at 5 pm on Saturdays. So, no TenNapel for this year's challenge. I might end up reading it tomorrow after the challenge anyways, though, once the library opens.

So what have I been up to?! Well, I slept, actually sticking to the 5 hour max I wanted so I didn't get too much sleep to the point of grogginess. And then I finished 4.5 more books. I haven't wanted to put the books down, so that's why I haven't been blogging. Read for 6.5 hours, took a break, did some more reading, and am coming off having read for about 4.5 hours. This year's best idea? Audio e-book on my tablet. Portable - can bring it from one room to the next or outside or in the car and can listen to it while putting a sandwich on a plate for my grandma or helping her find the bathroom. Also, glad I picked a long one. It's The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, and I'm still not done with it. Oh, it was also a lifesaver for the four hours of hockey tonight. Put hockey on mute and could just watch it and listen to the book. No, hockey is not usually four hours, but the Blackhawks went into double overtime. The narrator is phenomenal, and I feel like the characters are talking to me instead of someone reading a book to me. She really might have been a robot in her past life. If you're looking for something quirky and laugh out loud funny, I'd definitely suggest it on audio.

I read three graphic novels - Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge, Peanut by Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe, and Brain Camp by Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, and Faith Erin Hicks. I don't think this has ever happened to me before, but I actually cried a bit during a graphic novel - Will & Whit. It was touching. It was another great book by her but without all the metaphors of the first book. I actually loved the metaphors in the first book, but she used more of plays on words in this book with her different chapter headings relating to light and dark. The main character loves creating lamps out of unusual objects, but she also greatly fears the dark, so the chapter headings brilliantly relate to that. The other thing I loved about this book was how the author uses black outlines for the pages where it's darker (for some reason - I'm not going to tell you) and regular white outlines for the pages where it's lighter.

Quickly about Brain Camp, it was interesting and fun to read a kind of creepy book, but now I know where Faith Erin Hicks (maybe) gets her idea for sudden endings to her books. It's not bad that it ends differently, but it is kind of a cliffhanger or where you would have to fill in the blanks, and it just kind of throws me for a loop.

And then Peanut was interesting, too. Much longer but with simpler panels, and the use of one color in there makes sense - showing how the main character, who is pretending to have a peanut allergy at her new school, stands out or blends in. It's not just color for color's sake. Even though the idea the main character has is outrageous, the story still seems mainly plausible.

I'll end this one here with an update and will hopefully post later. I also finished Tentacles by Roland Smith, and it was even better than Cryptid Hunters. Can't wait for #3 in October. Currently reading Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. Have been wanting to read the rest of her books, so those made my TBR pile for the challenge. I am at 29.5 hours total time (what what), 7 books finished, and somewhere over 2000 pages read when I count my two not yet finished books. Tonight I plan to go to bed when, or if, I feel like it. I can sleep tomorrow, so why not? I'm having a blast, and hope you are, too.