Summer Mini-Readathon 2011

*Please note that we will use this post for all readathon updates*

To go to the main blog, click here.

To go to the readathon post, click here.

Hosted by Sarah Says

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Mini-Challenge 1

1. Tell everyone three random things about yourself:

Misha

- I love purple and black!

- I have a phobia of flying

- I am addicted to period dramas.

Maxine

- I collect coins.

- I am terified of dogs

- I love winters.

2. Is this your first readathon?

Misha & Maxine - Yes.

3. Do you have any specific goals for today? (# of books or pages to read?)

Misha & Maxine - Approx 3 books each.

4. Do you have any specific snacks, drinks, or books planned?

Misha's picks:

The Somnambulist - Essie Fox
Eromenos - Melanie McDonald
The Girl in the Green Raincoat - Laura Lippman

Maxine's picks:

Radiance - Alyson Noel
The Karma Club - Jessica Brody
Red Leech - Andrew Lane

5. What hours do you plan on reading during?
We are hoping for 10 a.m to 10 p.m. Let's see whether that actually happens.

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Mini-Challenge 3

Here's the challenge:

Pick one of the books that you're reading during the readathon. Post a pic of the cover. Then go find a cover of another edition that you love: paperback vs. hard, second editions, international, fan-made...whatever strikes your fancy. Or pick one that you don't get/like or both! Post both pics in your blog stating what you like or don't like about the covers, then link up your post. It's that simple.

Misha:

Though I had not planned to read The Great Gatsby for this challenge, I couldn't resist it. I am reading the version on the top. I have always found the one on the bottom very creepy. On the other hand, the top one relates more to the story.

Maxine:

The bottom one is the version I am reading. I think I like both equally. Both are bright and fun to look at, just the way I like covers to be.

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Mini-Challenge 4

 Take a picture (using your camera, webcam, phone... whatever) of where you're reading today for the readathon, or your favorite places to read. Put the pictures in a post, link the post up in the Mr. Linky below, and wa-la! You've completed yet another entry for the gift card prizes at the end :-)


Sorry for the unclear pictures! The camera is with our dad. We had to use our cell-phone cameras.

Misha's bed

The couch - Maxine's favorite place to read.

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Mini-Challenge 5


1. How many books and/or pages were you able to read?Misha and Maxine: Both of us read around two and a half books.


2. About how many hours were you able to read for? (Were there many distractions, breaks, etc?)Around 10 hours. Maxine has a test tomorrow and I (Misha) have a college project to work on, so we couldn't do it continuously.


3. Do you have any likes/dislikes about the 12-hour readathon, compared to a 24-hour readathon?
This is the first readathon we have participated in, so we can't really compare. But we did enjoy it.


4. Favorite and least favorite books that you read today?Misha:Favorite: The Somnambulist
Least Favorite: The Girl in the Green Raincoat


Maxine:

Favorite: The Karma Club

Least Favorite: Red Leech

5. Do you have any suggestions for things you'd like me to do differently if I host another mini-readathon?
We would not want anything to be different. This was perfect and enjoyable.

Other Challenges

Read-a-thons:
Summer Mini Read-a-thon
High Summer Read-a-thon


Others:
Orange July

Book Prize Challenges (Perpetual)

Orange Prize
The Orange Prize for Fiction (known as the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction from 2007 to 2008) is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length 
novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year.
Click HERE  to see the list.


Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be nominated for the Man Booker longlist or selected for inclusion in the shortlist.
Click HERE to see the list


Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize  is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. 

Click HERE to see the list

Pulitzer Prize Winners

2011       A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

2010       Tinkers by Paul Harding

2009      Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2008      The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2007      The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2006      March by Geraldine Brooks

2005       Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson

2004       The Known World by Edward P. Jones

2003       Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

2002       Empire Falls by Richard Russo

2001       The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

2000       Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

1999       The Hours by Michael Cunningham

1998       American Pastoral by Philip Roth

1997       Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser

1996       Independence Day by Richard Ford

1995       The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

1994       The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

1993       A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler

1992       A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

1991       Rabbit At Rest by John Updike

1990       The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos

1989       Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

1988       Beloved by Toni Morrison

1987       A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor

1986       Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

1985       Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie

1984       Ironweed by William Kennedy

1983       The Color Purple by Alice Walker

1982       Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike, the latest novel in a memorable sequence

1981       A Confederacy of Dunces by the late John Kennedy Toole (a posthumous publication)

1980       The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

1979       The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

1978       Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson

1977       (No Award)(Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It was recommended but no award was given)

1976       Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow

1975       The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

1974       (No Award)(Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow was recommended but no award was given)

1973       The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty

1972       Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

1971       (No Award)

1970       Collected Stories by Jean Stafford

1969       House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

1968       The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

1967       The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

1966       Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter

1965       The Keepers Of The House by Shirley Ann Grau

1964       (No Award)

1963       The Reivers by William Faulkner

1962       The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O’Connor

1961       To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1960       Advise and Consent by Allen Drury

1959       The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

1958       A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication)

1957       (No Award)(Elizabeth Spencer’s The Voice at the Back Door was recommended but no award was given)

1956       Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

1955       A Fable by William Faulkner

1954       (No Award)

1953       The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

1952       The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

1951       The Town by Conrad Richter

1950       The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

1949       Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

1948       Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener

1947       All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

1946    (No Award)

1945       A Bell for Adano by John Hersey

1944       Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin

1943       Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair

1942       In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow

1941       (No Award)(Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls was recommended but no award was given)

1940       The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

1939       The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1938       The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand

1937       Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

1936       Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis

1935       Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson

1934       Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller

1933       The Store by T. S. Stribling

1932       The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

1931       Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes

1930       Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge

1929       Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin

1928       The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

1927       Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield

1926       Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

1925       So Big by Edna Ferber

1924       The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson

1923       One of Ours by Willa Cather

1922       Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington

1921       The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

1920       (No Award)

1919       The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

1918       His Family by Ernest Poole