Starting the 48HBC!

Here I go! I'm starting with Sarah Tregay's Love and Leftovers, a Wild Cherry Pepsi, and a turkey sandwich. As of now, I have a $20 donation and 4 sponsors besides myself for a total of $4/hr for Mr. Sharp's school library! But check out my previous post if you'd like to help out, too. The children would greatly appreciate it! Just leave a comment below or contact me by email or twitter (see below post for contacts). Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Welcome back to Bookotomy!

I know it's been a year since I posted, as the last time I wrote was about the 48HBC and that's why I'm writing again! Let me give you an overview of the 48HBC, or 48 Hour Book Challenge. This year it is running from June 8th-10th/11th.

Within 48 hours of the weekend (you get to pick which consecutive 48 hours work best for you), you read as many hours as you can. You also get some blogging time and networking time to tell others what you are reading and see what they've read. For every five hours read, you can network (Twitter, blogs) for one hour. Last year I read the minimum for prizes, 12 hours. This year I know I have more time and I have been planning for this the whole year. (Really, I have been that excited). I know what snacks and caffeine to get, I know that an audio book is a great addition, and I even have a nook from the local library to help me out/sneak in time possibly at my brother's graduation. Now, do you have to read for 48 hours? No, definitely not. Last year I think three people did and got showered with prizes. My goal is 20 hours this year, 24 if I can.

You can learn more about the 48 Hour Book Challenge, hosted by MotherReader at her FAQs section. There is also her most recent post about it where you can see the prizes she is trying to get and asking anyone if they can donate any as well. Also, although a year out of date, here is all the information about it.

Now that you know what I'm in for this upcoming weekend, let me tell you about my "charity." I met this wonderful teacher, Colby Sharp, last year who is really into reading. He gets up on desks to tell students about reading (scroll down on his blog and look at the vodpod video on the right hand side). On his blog, he told us about the unfortunate state of his school library and it really touched me. The Mr. Schu he mentions is actually the person who first got me into graphic novels, and now I can't get enough of them. I think every student deserves the chance to read graphic novels and see the magic in them. I wanted to help.

Then, for a class I was taking, we had to do a leadership project. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to meld the project and my desire to help Mr. Sharp's school library. I went through several ideas to try to raise money for the library at Minges Brook Elementary School in Battle Creek, Michigan, but they all fell through. Well, when I get passionate about something, I get determined, too. So I decided this would be a great way to raise money.

I am asking if you can sponsor me per hour read for as little or as much as you'd like - $0.25/hr, $0.50/hr, $1/hr, $5/hr - whatever you can give. My goal is 20-24 hours. You can also give a specified amount as well. Then I will collect all the money I get and use it to buy graphic novels for Mr. Sharp's school library.

As an incentive for anyone to give, I am going to be giving away a copy of one of the books I read during the 48HBC. Right now I am planning to read Love and Leftovers by Sarah Tregay, The Anybodies, The Nobodies, and The Somebodies all by N.E. Bode, Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos, and Level Up, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. I will randomly pick one person and he/she will get to choose one of the books I read to get a copy of! (What I read may change, and the person will pick from the books I end up reading.)

I am on Twitter @muellerspace and my email address is kcmuel AT gmail DOT com. You can comment right here on an amount you would be willing to sponsor me for or contact me in either of those ways. I will then give you an address where you can send the money at the end of the challenge.

I know the students at Mr. Sharp's school, Mr. Sharp, and I will be grateful for any amount you can give, and want you to know that students will benefit from the power of reading for years to come. Thank you!

48HBC Finale

If this was the 24HBC I would have done quite well. Unfortunately, having work, then more work, then a broken down car in 95 degree heat 30 minutes from my parents right before the construction, then dehydration, then a party all on Saturday, a key day, really killed my time. I knew I wouldn't get to read between 8 am and probably 1 am on Saturday, so about 17 hours, but I didn't know I'd have such an eventful day to completely wear me out either. So in my 2nd 24 hours I read 54 minutes.

But in my first 24 hours I read 9 hours, and 57 minutes, and networked 1 hour and 9 minutes.

So my total time is 12 hours even I just realized. I was aiming for 12-15 hours, and this is my first year, so I'm plenty pleased.

I read 5 books - the ones I posted on and also The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner, Calamity Jack, a young adult graphic novel by Hale, and Ten by Lauren Myracle. I figure you're 10 in 5th grade, so it fits the requirements.

I already can't wait for next year and really enjoyed the networking and checking out other people's blogs and twitter accounts! Thanks to everyone for their support and commenting on my posts!

48HBC: Wednesday Wars

Update: Currently at 7 hrs, 52 min of reading/blogging time and 1 hour, 9 min of networking time, for a total of 9 hrs, 1 min as of 17 hours into my start. (I'm using a stop watch to keep track of my time so a)I don't have to remember when I started/stopped reading and b)because I'm kind of anal like that and want to be exact.) I feel quite accomplished. I'm on my 4th book right now.

My second book for today was The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt because I've been hearing so much talk about Okay for Now by Schmidt and read that one of the characters is originally in The Wednesday Wars. I really like to read previous books about people (when I know about them) before the next book.

This book made me wish I had paid more attention in high school English when teachers talked about themes and symbols and "crap" like that. Now that I'm reading more advanced books, I'd like to understand them as well. If I stop and think about what certain parts of the book mean, I can come up with a meaning, but usually when I ask someone else, they come up with what I think of as a better meaning. There may be no wrong or right (contrary to HS English teachers' beliefs) but some meanings are better than others.

The Wednesday Wars talks a lot about Shakespeare, and I'm sure that the author put in the specific parts and plays to make some type of symbolic connection. It makes the book that much more interesting. I thought this book was powerful because it talks about the Vietnam War and a relationship between authority and students, specifically one teacher - Mrs. Baker - and one student - Holling Hoodhood. She hates his guts at the beginning, as he puts it, but she does warm up to her here and there. Schmidt makes some smart moves in this book by making you think all is "swell" when the next chapter, walls (or the ceiling in this case) come tumbling down. He writes a shocker or two into the book as well.

One main theme of the book is being who you want to be, not what someone else wants you to be. Holling learns this early on through The Merchant of Venice but doesn't apply it until much later. On page 48 he says people trapped a Shakespeare character into being a certain way without allowing him to "be anything except for what he was." This plays into the story within Holling's family throughout the book.

There are many parts I found to be profound and many great Shakespearean lines in this book. I highly recommend it and look forward to Okay for Now.

48HBC Blog Post: Creature Tech

Update: So far I'm at about 5 hours of reading time, so I'm going to be blogging and networking for the next hour before work.

I read Creature Tech by Doug Ten Napel, a YA graphic novel. I read Ten Napel's Ghostopolis a week or two ago, and loved it. So when I went to get books for this weekend, I went straight to his last name and found two other books by him, including this one. I recognized Ten Napel's style right away on the cover with the straight lines of the main character, Dr. Michael Ong. This book starts in the past to give the reader an idea of where the plot comes from once we get about 30 pages into the book. We see a giant moray eel fall on a house and crush someone to death.

Then we get to the present day and meet Dr. Ong who becomes a world-class scientist and works at Creature Tech, a place where he and a couple others go through strange things in crates given to them by the government. His town isn't very happy to have this strange operation there. His main task is fighting a ghost who comes back from the dead and all the cats he turns to fight against Dr. Ong.

Although Dr. Ong may sound mature, he is actually a very young man, and there is even a bit of love in this book. Ten Napel combines the science fiction with love with humor, unbelievably. Some parts are visual jokes and some are verbal jokes. For example, at one point the ghost is putting together an aerial view of the town and breaks into an Italian song. Once he finally puts all the pieces together and you realize he is searching for the giant eel again, he says, "That's a moray!" Here it refers to the eel and to the Italian word for love, amore.

Dr. Ong is a very smart, if not sometimes careless, person, but he also comes across as normal in some ways. He has friends, he fights with his dad, he's falling in love with the girl he used to make fun of in high school. The characters in this book, including the bad guys, make this a great story, and the plot twists, foreword, humor, and excellent drawings make it even better.

I should mention something about the foreword. It's written by Terry Mattingly, the director of the Washington Journalism Center, and he gives a very interesting view on the story - he said it feels just like a storyboard for a movie. It's good to read the foreword because when you come to certain parts in the book, it makes them easier to understand.

48 Hour Book Challenge

Here we go! Starting at 7 am on Friday morning but I don't think I'm having cereal for breakfast (catch that reference?). It's time for the 48 hour book challenge. How many hours can I read in the next 48 hours? Well, with work all day Saturday, it certainly will be a challenge, so we'll see.

I'm starting with Creature Tech by Doug Ten Napel, a YA graphic novel.

Here is a link to the challenge: http://www.motherreader.com/2011/05/sixth-annual-48-hour-book-challenge.html



Happy reading!

48 Hour Challenge

Coming up this weekend between June 3rd and 5th I will be trying to read at least 12 hours out of 48 hours in a row for a contest.

Here is the link: http://www.motherreader.com/2011/05/sixth-annual-48-hour-book-challenge.html

Another blogger and fellow tweeter, @motherreader, puts on this challenge yearly. I will be blogging about the books I read, which will probably mostly be YA and will include several graphic novels. Feel free to sign up yourself or just check out the many blogs of people competing and find some more great books to read!