Daily Archives: July 1, 2013

Class Orientation for Read-a-Thon #SummerLovin13


Well friends and neighbors, looks like this week is going to be a multiple post kinda week. I love it, I just hope to not bore you to tears!

Class Orientation” Participation Post:

  • Introduce yourself and set your goals for the read-a-thon. Some interesting information to include in this post would be Where are you blogging from? What got you into blogging/reading? What is your favorite genre? The possibilities are endless, just be creative!

Hello! My name is Rachel and I am blogging from the Buckeye State (Ohio) in the United States. This is the first time I have participated in any group activity in the blogging world, I’ve only been doing this for about 15 weeks so I will try not to judge myself too harshly. I stumbled upon this read-a-thon from a fellow blogger and knew it was something I just had to get involved in.

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I started my blog as a way to share my knitting and my families history of knitting with anyone will to read it. As I progressed and the weeks went by, the blog has morphed into something quite different. I talk about books, movies, knitting, my challenges with OCD and even my daily life. It is now akin to a diary that I put out for the world to read, and the feedback has been invaluable. More than just feedback, I have become suddenly immersed with people from all over the world who are passionate about what they are doing – the whole surreal experience has opened my eyes to all the wonderful things there are to do in this world. Suddenly, my bucket list has grown exponentially.

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Perfect Example of How I Read!

Perfect Example of How I Read!

I have always been a reader, which is odd because my parents are most certainly not readers. My mom was always sewing in her spare time and my dad takes great pleasure in admitting he has never – and I truly mean never – read a book in his life.

Even as a kid I used to go buy poster board, line it into graph paper and keep track of all the wonderful books I could get my hands on. My parents thought it was odd, my brother thought I was a dork (even though he was a huge reader and probably my inspiration for starting to read such great quantities of books) but I loved looking up and remembering all the amazing places I had been with these books. Far away lands with eccentric characters – all while never leaving my room.

After graduation, literature and college where were one in the same. I tore through the classics in a desperate fury to talk to others about it. The air on intellect on a college campus can be pompous, but hey – it was college.

After my second and third graduation,  I realized that reading was just going to be one of those things I could never give up. I read constantly – I even listen to audiobooks when I am working out, knitting, gardening, cooking…pretty much whenever I can. I am a bit pickier with what I read now, having established that I love all genres but now old enough to recognize okay writing from exceptional writing.

Did I mention I have a library in our home with over 1,000 books? Yup, this kid (and her husband, niece, brother, friends) get quite a bit of use of the books amassed in the basement.

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So my goal for the read-a-thon….READING! I have so many books on my TBR list that it is embarrassing. I have been working on getting a business off the ground and in doing such haven’t had as much time to read as I would like. So for this week I am putting all other distractions aside and plunging into some amazing books.

Honestly, this was far over due…and my cat loves it!

Max is a Happy Cat When I am Reading!

Max is a Happy Cat When I am Reading!

First Day of Read-A-Thon Challenge!


Straight from Shelf Addiction to my blog….here it goes!

The Challenge Guideline:

  • Grab the book you’re currently reading (or recently read)
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page  NO spoilers allowed! Choose passages void of spoilers. The goal is to entice, yet not ruin the book for others!
  • Share the title & author, so that other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!
  • Last and but not least, link up your post!

Okay friends and neighbors, despite the crappy couple of days I never back down from a challenge and I NEVER quit something I have committed to. So here we go.

PsychopathTest-Cvr-FNLMy Book: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson (you know? the guy who wrote The Men Who State at Goats?).

Teaser One: Abbott said, “Let’s go outside and settle this like men,” and so they did, and Abbott got out a knife and stabbed Richard Adan to death.

Teaser Two: When the police finally caught up with him, you know what he told them about the guy he stabbed?’ Bob said, “He said, ‘Oh, but he would never have made it as an actor.'”

Teasers found on page 107.

So far I am loving this book which is both startlingly scary and very, very funny. I cannot wait to spend the night with my cat curled in my lap, reading this book!