The Walking Dead Vol 1: Days Gone Bye

Title: The Walking Dead Vol 1: Days Gone Bye
Author: Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Tony Moore
Pages: 144, paperback
Rating: I loved it!

I picked up a copy of this for Dewey's read-a-thon but left it in the car. When I wanted to read it, it was after midnight and I wasn't going outside in the dark to get it. I wish I had. It was wonderful! I consider this my first graphic novel even though I loved comics as a kid. 

I am a huge fan of the show so to see what it was based off of was really interesting. The illustrations were good and it was such a fun read. I will definitely be picking up more graphic novels in the future.

I loved how the illustrations not only supported the story but in many instances told the story. That's a really different way for me to read a book and I enjoyed it very much.

Our library system doesn't seem to carry very many graphic novels so I'll be on the lookout for them other places for sure.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry - thoughts on

Title: Patient Zero (Joe Ledger #1)
Author: Jonathan Mayberry
Pages: Kindle, 421
Rating: 4.5 out of 5, I loved it
Source: My own, paperback and Kindle versions

I'm back on a zombie kick and this was the book I started out with for Dewey's readathon. I probably wouldn't start with such a big book in the future but I really enjoyed it. It's about a police officer who is pulled into a top secret government agency. They are trying to stop terrorists from releasing "walkers" to kill everyone.

Although it's all been done before I liked Joe Ledger's character quite a bit. He's a complicated character. He's had a tough life and you feel for him but he's also tough as nails. He's got some great one liners and you know me and my love of all things sarcastic.

I enjoyed the non stop action throughout and thought that the pacing of the plot was well done. Some info dumps along the way but they were probably necessary. The story is quite terrifying because I can totally see this actually happening....that someone would invent a virus that would make people into zombie like creatures that want to kill everything in site.

The only negative that I had with it was the romance. It was light and it wasn't right away but it was too predictable and quite unnecessary in my opinion.

Overall I really loved this one and wanted to read the second in the series right away. That almost never happens so that is saying quite a bit.

Dewey's End of Event Wrap Up

Another excellent event has come and gone. A huge thanks to Andi and Heather for all their hard work, to the cheerleaders for giving encouragement and to everyone - cheerleader or not - who left comments on my blog. I appreciate every single one of them. 

I'm not sure how many readathons I've done. I specifically planned to split my time between reading and visiting others blog while working on my own blog. I also planned several naps throughout. 

I was more interested in the number of pages read. My goal was 700 pages and I read 808. Way more than I thought I'd be able to read. I enjoyed visiting all the blogs that I got to see too. It was fun to see what everyone else was reading and how they were updating their blog. Was a super fun event as always.

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Around 2 am
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I didn't have any of those. Tee hee hee. One of my books was really good but really long (Patient Zero)
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No, it was excellent as always!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? For me personally I loved that a specifically split my time between blogs and reading and that I scheduled in naps.
5. How many books did you read? 3 which is way more than I thought I would.
6. What were the names of the books you read? Patient Zero, How to Win the Game of Business and Notorious Nineteen
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Patient Zero. It was non stop action and I'm back on a zombie kick so it was a good choice. A bit long though.
8. Which did you enjoy least? Notorious Nineteen. I was looking for a fluffy book that I could download right away to my Kindle and that was available from the library. They are so silly.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn't officially signed up as a cheerleader this time but my best advice is to open a few tabs at a time and knock them out for a certain period of time and then go back to you reading.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I can't wait to participate again. Hopefully it will fall on an weekend that my boys are at their dad's so that I can fully participate throughout the whole 24 hours. I like splitting my time between reading and visiting blogs so I'll probably sign up as an official cheerleader.

Dewey's End of Hour Wrap ups

This will be the master post for all of my end of hour wrap ups. I am splitting my day between reading and reading other blogs and updating my own. In years past I haven't split it up that way but this year I want to do more blog visiting.

Hour 1: Reading Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry. Read from 21% to 25% on the Kindle and then started doing an update here. I am off to visit blogs until hour 2. Hope everyone is having a great first hour. Happy reading!

Hour 2: Read from 25% to 29% of Patient Zero. Have visited quite a few blogs to leave comments. Seems like everyone is so excited for this round of Dewey's.

Hour 3: Read 29% to 34% of Patient Zero and visited more blogs this hour.

Hour 4: Read 34% to 39% of Patient Zero and visited more blogs. Completed two mini challenges.

Hour 5: a bit of nap to rest my eyes.

Hour 6: No reading. Just visiting blogs.

Hour 7: Read to 52% of Patient Zero. Visited blogs.

Hour 8: I'm up to 69% of Patient Zero and have visited more blogs.

Hour 9: Up to 73% of Patient Zero. Needing to hit a second wind so I might take a nap soon.

Hour 10: forgot to update. Oopsies.

Hour 11: Got up to 90% of my book done. Loving this one. 

Hour 12: Finished Patient Zero. (461 pages) For the next couple of hours I'll be co-hostessing over at the main blog. Come by to say hi!

Hour 13: 39% of How to Win at the Game of Business by Mark Cuban. Co-hostessing over at the main blog and on the main twitter account.

Hour 14: Up to 82% of How to Win and co-hostessed at the main blog and Twitter.

Hour 15: Finished How to Win (67 pages). Read 2% of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.

Hour 16: Read 21% of Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich.

Hour 17: Somehow I missed posting an hour.

Hour 18: Up to 42% of Notorious Nineteen. Think I need a nap.

Hour 19: 62% now. Slept for a few minutes,

Hour 20: 77%. Going to sleep for the next hour.

Hour 21:  napped.

Hour 22: napped,

Hour 23: More reading but I can't read the percent on the Kindle anymore.

Hour 24: Finished Notorious Nineteen at 6:34 am EST, my eyes are pretty much done. Actually, my eyes are very much done. I'll do the wrap up post when I wake up later. Well done, everyone! Hope you all had a most wonderful reading day. 

Dewey's Mid Event Survey

I can't believe that the time has passed so quickly. So true that time flies when you're having fun, huh?

Here are my answers to the Mid Event Survey.

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now? Still on my first book of the day, Patient Zero. I've been reading and visiting blogs. I have enjoyed splitting up my time this way. So much fun!
2. How many books have you read so far? None, see above.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Not sure. Have forgotten what else I have to read. :-)
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Only ones that I planned. Going to other blogs and taking a nap was scheduled. The rest of the time has been me and my great book.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing so far.

Hope that everyone is booking along (see what I did there?) and that you're having a ton of fun. I'll be co-hostessing over at the main blog for the next two hours, stop by to say hi! Happy reading!

Dewey's Readathon Mini Challenge: Shelfie

The Book Monsters posted a great mini challenge for this hour. A shelfie. Here's the top two shelves from one of my book cases. The rest is blocked right now so this will have to do.

Happy reading, ya'll!

Dewey's Opening Meme

It's here! It's here! Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon is here! We'll officially begin in about 30 minutes. Sorry for blowing up your feeds today but I'll be posting each hour or so for most of the event. To get the party started here are my answers to the opening meme...

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Florida
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Walking Dead graphic novel.3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? chips and dip!4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I am the mom of two of the world's most adorable boys. I enjoy reading (obviously!), watching movies and spending time doing crazy activities with my kids.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? I've never written reviews right away but this year I'll write a mini review after each book. I'm also splitting my time between blogs/blogging and reading. I've never done that before. 

Dewey's Read a thon Goals Post

Dewey's Read a thon is this weekend and since it's one of my favorite bookish events, I'm excited to be able to participate. The boys are at their dad's so I can spend 24 hours in stress free, guilt free reading and commenting on other blogs. 

I want to split my time between reading and blogging/visiting other blogs and resting my poor old eyes. Instead of a goal to read a certain number of books, I want to read a certain number of pages. I'd like to read 700 pages. 

I've loaded up my Kindle and have a stack of possibilities too. In year's past I've tried to finish as many books as possible but with the change to pages read instead, I'm not concerned with that. Hoping that will take a bit of stress out of the day too. I feel like a loser when I don't finish a big stack. Especially when I see how many others read. 

I'm posting my List of Possibilities tomorrow and think I've got some good ones on there.

The one where I failed...

My plan to update my blog and move to a new URL was an epic failure. I have the new blog URL but I have done NOTHING over there. With Dewey's Read a thon coming up this weekend, I'm staying put for the time being. You'll see update posts from me throughout the day. The boys are at their dad's and I'm taking the entire 24 hours (plus a few after to sleep) for stress free, guilt free, reading and cheering time. I'll be posting my goals tomorrow.