M. Suzanne Terry

The clock has stopped. A glass of wine has been poured. My laptop is making a weird frog-like noise (probably because it’s been on idle for most of the day) that’s oddly soothing. Unless it crashes. (Please don’t crash.)

I’m 10 hours shy of my goal, but looking back at the weekend, that’s not at all surprising. I left home too often. Then when I returned, it took me a while to get back into my reading rhythm. The fourteen hours I spent reading, though? Still bliss. So I’m happy.

Things I learned this go around:

1. Hey, self – if you actually want to read 24 hours in two days, maybe don’t go do other things. Stay home. And don’t plan extra things to do at home, either (like taking extra SEO assignments when I actively planned – meaning, wrote “Don’t take SEO assignments” in bold, serious letters in my planner – not to). Except…
   a. If I just want to read a lot one weekend and also do other things, that’s okay, too.
   b. I’m not mad about the $35 I earned this afternoon, either.
   c. I made it to the gym and actually used the weight machines in a non-haphazard fashion (i.e., actually paid attention and worked out every major muscle group). So *pats self on back*
2. While cozy romance mysteries are not my usual cup of tea, they are a delicious treat every once in a while.
3. My hands smell like faux basil. I need to never buy this hand soap again. This doesn’t have much to do with reading, except I washed my hands to get the oil from the popcorn off before switching from audio book to tangible book. And now, an hour and a half later, the odor is still so strong it’s distracting me. Hey, does anyone local want some basil hand soap (now that I’ve talked it up so nicely)?
4. I love decorating books so much. They make me want to clean and rearrange everything and also go to yard sales. Not on reading weekends, though. *whispers* I totally would have hit a yard sale or two yesterday morning if I had started with The Nesting Place.
5. Gabrielle Union is delightful. And I am glad that the audio book allowed me to get some laundry and dishes done.
6. AUDIO BOOKS TAKE SO MUCH TIME TO GET THROUGH.
7. When you are making beef stew, don’t get so engrossed in the audio book you are listening to that you use chicken stock instead of beef stock. They are not interchangeable. The result is still perfectly edible but odd. I do not recommend it.

I hope your weekend was lovely, regardless of what it entailed.

Read Full Post »

Prompt: “For this challenge, we want to see the first book on your shelves, and the last book on your shelves.”

My shelves are arranged in a mostly logical fashion. My first couple of bookshelves hold fiction, which is organized by the author’s last name. Watership Down, therefore, is the first book on my fiction shelves.

After fiction, the next bookcase houses collections. It includes some fiction – short story collections, plays, and fiction series. It also includes poetry, essay collections, and letters.

The nonfiction case is organized by general topic. It’s not Dewey Decimal specific, but it’s pretty close. It’s also outgrowing its allotted area, so it may be time to start shopping for more bookshelves (YAY).

The last bookcase holds food books. Their arrangement is probably the most practical of the categories. On the top shelves are foodie fiction and memoir. In order to land on these shelves and not on the fiction or nonfiction shelves, they must contain at least one recipe, because this bookcase is right outside my kitchen. Until I move again, there will probably come a time when the top two shelves have to move to the library, as there’s only room for the one bookcase on that wall.

The bottom shelves hold cookbooks, organized somewhat by category, but mostly just by size. Smaller tomes go on higher shelves and larger ones (like the giant collection from Gourmet pictured above) go on the bottom. Because physics. And, to a lesser degree, because it just looks better.

What’s first and last on your bookshelves? How do you arrange them?

Read Full Post »

*theme music to Rocky playing in background*

I have been excited about this weekend since I heard about it in early July, and it lived up to my every expectation. The only way this weekend could have been better is if I had taken my books to a hotel with good room service near a beach. Maybe next time.

To prepare to read for 24 of the 48 hours in a weekend, I gathered a lot of books. I expected that I would read a little bit from most of them, switching things up as my attention waned. This was not the case for most of the time, though. I finished A Year in Provence, and then I savored Milk and Honey, reading it slowly and in the case of some of the poems, over and over. I finished the day (erm, next morning – it was definitely after sunrise when I went to sleep) devouring Love, Loss, and What We Ate. My reading on day two, however, was a little more like I’d planned. I listened to most of Roxane Gay’s Hunger on audio while cleaning, read the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Nayyirah Waheed, and spent a half hour here and there on several other items on my read-next list.

What I learned from reading all weekend:

1. Is there a job where I can do this all the time? I feel like I’d be fantastic at it.
2. 24 hours, even with breaks, is a loooong time to sit. Fine. I relent. Audiobooks can be your friend.
3. It’s been really easy to eat well this weekend. It turns out that holding a book distracts me/keeps my hands busy enough that I don’t eat mindlessly. I’m almost annoyed that my secret to eating better is something as fun and simple as reading a lot. It seems I could have figured that out a while ago.
4. I need poetry. I’ve been super stressed out lately, but halfway through Milk and Honey, I was completely relaxed. And those are not exactly soothing verses. There’s something about the way poetry captures language that slows me down and quiets me. I prescribe more poetry reading.
5. I can’t speak for all writers, but for me, reading inspires writing. In addition to reading for a whole day, I have written more – poetry, my fiction WIP, future blog posts – this weekend than the rest of the days this month combined. I’m thinking of starting a practice of one wordy weekend a month. Oh, introvert bliss!

I loved this weekend. It was just what I needed.

Read Full Post »

This was my favorite challenge thus far – spine poetry.

It’s Day Two of the 24in48 Readathon, and I’m going to make it! I’ve finished three books:

• A Day in Provence by Peter Mayle
• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
• Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi

Today’s reading is going to be a combination of

• The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
• The audiobook of Hunger by Roxane Gay (because 24 hours is A LOT of sitting)
• Pieces posted in my mastermind group’s Google drive

I’ve consisted on a diet of spinach and goat cheese lasagna, potatoes dressed with onions and various sauces (inspired by Padma Lakshmi), oatmeal, and all the coffee I have in the house.

Thanks to all that coffee, I reached hour fifteen early this morning before napping.

Nine hours to go!

Read Full Post »

Just one of my book stacks for this weekend. My whole table is covered with them. I’m too excited. I may just read 30 minutes in each one. THERE ARE TOO MANY BOOKS TO READ HOW CAN I POSSIBLY CHOOSE?!

We interrupt our regularly (if you use that term loosely) scheduled Friday Five to talk about books. I am participating in 24in48 this weekend (which you can read about here and sign up for here if you want to participate online). And yes – I will be reading for 24 hours. I have been training my whole life for just such an event.

I imagine a weekend full of coffee and tea and wine and cereal and leftovers from the lasagna I am making tonight. I am going to be reading some old favorites (The Eyes of the Dragon was my first Stephen King novel. I haven’t read it since sixth grade.), some poetry (I highly recommend Milk and Honey), and of course, foodie books that I’ve been neglecting for too long (Padma Lakshmi is my spice hero).

I hope to get to some of the nonfiction I have been meaning to read, if for no other reason than it’s time to take them back to the library. Non-fiction is rarely my go-to read (foodie books and cookbooks the notable exception), but maybe I can make it a closer friend this weekend.

There will probably be times when I am reading some of the treasures on my e-reader. I have a tendency to forget about these since they don’t take up physical space on my bookshelf (as evidenced by my only having read 37% of Hidden Figures, even though I started it months ago). Maybe I’ll finish the ones I’ve started this weekend.

I will spend at least two hours reading selections from my Mastermind writers group and hopefully having useful feedback to give there. A few friends have had books come out recently (or will have books coming out in the next few months), and I’m going to spend a few hours reading some of them.

Part of participating online is posting in the spaces I’ve selected to be a part of the weekend, so you’ll see posts here, on Instagram, and on Twitter, answering prompts, completing challenges, and updating you on how it’s going.

Let me know if you’re going to join!

Read Full Post »