Dewey Read-A-Thon: 9 Hours In

Holy Wah! 9 hours down, 15 more hours to go! I've already had to fight off a few desperate urges to nap and I'm currently working through another bout of "but I don't feel well!"

The good news is, I'm working on a new book, The Realmsic Conquest: The Hero of Legend and LOVING IT!!!!! It's a shorter book, but that just means the author is making every word count! I'm really hoping that the rest of the book is as good as the first half has been! I've been hurt by bad endings before.

I didn't get as much cheerleading in as I'd hoped for last time. I got distracted by a conversation with my mother. Totally understandable.

Now I'm waiting for my surprise dinner to be delivered. It's a surprise because, in order to keep me from seeing what he was ordering online, Fluxxdog put a blanket over my head and laptop. I had my own Read-A-Thon fort! If it hadn't been for the fact that it encouraged sleepiness, I'd still be in my fort. :)

Let the reading continue! You know, after I get in some exercise and cheerleading. 

Dewey Read-A-Thon 6 Hours In

So, not too much to update. I did finish The Killer Next Door. I posted the review earlier for all to see. Now I'm working on The Realmsic Conquest: The Hero of Legend and having a MUCH better time!

Fluxxdog isn't feeling so well, so I'm probably going to be distracted, but I'll still do some cheering every 3 hours and definitely reading. Right now I need to do some exercises before the caffeine overdose tears apart my stomach!

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood

I was excited to get to read this book. I'm pretty hit or miss with thrillers, but Stephen King, himself, said this book was "Scary as hell."* That said, I'm so glad I'm done reading this book. I was strongly tempted to list this one as a DNF** because it had become a chore to read. It didn't even get interesting until over halfway through. 

I'm really not sure why Marwood paced the book this way. It made the entire story line painfully predictable. At the very least, I give Marwood full credit for creating realistic characters. My problem is the pacing and lack of anything interesting until the second death. Nothing in this book surprised me. Nothing in this book was scary. Barely anything was interesting. But I did finish it so, by my own standards, I have to give at least two hoots.

                Hoot!Hoot!

*First page of the eBook. 

**Did Not Finish

***The publisher provided me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not have any affect on my overall review.

Dewey Read-A-Thon: 3 Hours Down

Okay, I've been reading (almost solidly) for 3 hours now and I'm still not yet finished with The Killer Next Door. I'm just glad the book is FINALLY getting interesting! Still not scary, though. Oh well.

Anyways, I'm now going to take a 30 minute break to do some exercising, some cheerleading, and just a general refreshment. I have been taking to Twitter after every chapter, which I know is slowing me down, but is still so much fun. I am also appreciative to the Cheerleaders who have already posted comments on my blog!

Oh, and I won one of the door prizes! Yay! I didn't win anything last Read-A-Thon, so to win a book right off the bat! Woo hoo! I'm just hoping next Read-A-Thon I'll be able to help out with the prizes. It'd be nice if we could get to where everyone could win at least a little something.

But, for now, pizza, walking, stretching, and, most importantly, cheering on other readers!!

Dewey's Read-A-Thon: Opening Meme

Today I am participating in the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon and, to get things started, the managers of the event have given us a small questionnaire for our first post!

Opening Meme:

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

I am reading from Ann Arbor Michigan! On a game day!

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I am most looking forward to NPCs by Drew Hayes. I love the idea of a story about the side characters!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Just keep the coffee coming and I'll be good.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

Bibliophile first, Gamer second, but always a combination of Nerd/Geek/Dork.

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 time I'm only going to read eBooks which means I'll be wearing my reading glasses ALL DAY. 

 I am always happy to participate in this even and I even managed to wake up hyper! Good reading everyone!

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Fictional Places to Live

So, I haven't been tagged in this, but I figured, why not give it a try? Basically, these are the Top Ten fictional places I wish were real and I could live in.*

1. Xanth



Don't be fooled by the fact that it looks a lot like Florida. Xanth is a land magic, puns and magical puns. There are dangers, of course. Dragons, Love Springs, Hate Springs, Nickelpedes, etc. But if you keep to the secured paths, you'll be safe. Heck, you'll have problems going hungry in a place where you can get steak and pasta from the trees! I'd love to live in Xanth as long as I got to have my own magical talent. I may have to visit Good Magician Humphrey to figure out how to get one...



2. Pern



I "discovered" Pern before any other fantasy world. I have dreamed of being a Dragon Rider, or at least having my own pet Fire Lizard since. Yes, there are politics to deal with, and dangerous thread organisms falling from the sky now and then, but c'mon, DRAGONS!!!!!!


3. Avalon (as depicted by Gargoyles)

 

This one may seem strange to some, but my favorite interpretation of Avalon was from the cartoon show, Gargoyles. It is run by Lord Oberon and his wife Titania. Admittedly Lord Oberon would probably not welcome more humans to his island, but I would appreciate aging at a MUCH slower pace. But the main reason I would love to be in Avalon, is for when I have to leave. Because Avalon does not let you go where you want, it takes you where you need to be.


4. Fairy World (as depicted by Fairly Odd Parents)



Again, this one may seem strange, but I would love to be surrounded by such positive magic. Most importantly, I would be happy to be a Fairy Godparent who helps kids out every day. Though it would be difficult, on some occasions, to not be able to work with the parents on the child's needs. At least I could help the kids.


5. Skyrim



Okay, I'll admit. I just want to be in Skyrim because magic and fighting come so easily to people. If I could train as quickly as I can in video game time, I would become the strongest citizen in all of Skyrim, maybe even Tamriel!


Well, I know this isn't a full list, but it's really all I can think of right now. As strange is it may seem, these are my top 5 fantasy places. Maybe I should stretch a little further into the fantasy realm to get more ideas.



*Apparently I'm one of the few that's good without Hogwarts...

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Holy wah. It is a good thing that I have been working on building a tolerance to scary stuff, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight...or ever go back to work. Horrorstör is filled with so much of the same corporate speak you hear at almost any job, but the story adds a dark tone on top of my own, and the main character's, cynicism. I doubt I'll be able to attend a company meeting without plotting all the available exits first.*

I picked up this book because there were so many people saying it was incredibly scary, couldn't put it down, etc. You know what? They were right! Admittedly a lot of the scariness is gore based, not my preference, but oh well. There was still plenty of psychological scariness, especially when the Warden took over and you got to read some of his original documentation. His speeches about work and mindless labor as the only ways to reform gives you another viewpoint for when a tough manager is putting you through the wringer. 

This book definitely plays on the idea that crap jobs are soul crushing. That underneath the "We Are Family" mottoes, there is a much darker aspect to the company. The author really plays into it with the furniture descriptions at the beginning of each chapter. They start out innocently enough, but after things really go south in the book, they are a good source of dark humor. Where else are you going to ready such light-hearted descriptions of torture devices? 

Be forewarned, almost every conceivable fear/phobia can be found in this book. There are, of course, the classics: claustrophobia, achluophobia**, agoraphobia, zemmiphobia***, etc. But there are others to be on the lookout for! If you have a phobia of any kind, I'm almost positive you will find some kind of representation of it in Horrorstör!

All in all, I gladly give Horrorstör 4 hoots out of 5. It was an engaging read that had me genuinely scared! 

Hoot!Hoot!

Hoot!Hoot!

*Because I totally never do that anyways...

**Fear of the dark.

***Fear of rats.