Sunday Salon/Weekly Geeks: Readathon plans, and other items on the reading agenda

I don't have a theme for this Sunday's Salon - I'm a bit random this week.

HELD OVER - Banned Books Week:

After reading Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, I've decided to stretch out Banned Books Week a little longer and pull out two books I'd set aside for my failed Shelf Discovery Challenge. Forever... by Judy Blume and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle are very different from each other, but they've both been challenged or banned many, many times; while I've read them both more than once, it's been years since I picked up either one. While I intended to re-read both last fall for Shelf Discovery, I never got around to it...and Banned Books Week struck me as an even more appropriate occasion to revisit them. Reviews of all three books will be coming soon.

Walking Behind the Book Bandwagon:

I'm not sure I would have read Speak at this time without all the banned-book conversation about it, but sometimes I'm less readily swayed by book talk. During the last couple of weeks, almost everyone who hasn't been reading and talking about Speak has been reading and talking about Room by Emma Donoghue. I'm seriously ambivalent about that novel, however, despite all the praise I've seen about it. I expect that I will end up reading it at some point, and when I do, I'll wonder why I resisted for so long...I may, once again, experience the "hundreds of book bloggers could be wrong, but not this time" reaction I did when I (finally) read The Help or The Hunger Games. But I always have some reason for being a wallflower at the hot-book party. With Room, while I wouldn't say that I find the premise, and the five-year-old narrator, truly off-putting, neither appeals to me very much, and for once, I'm trying to let that outweigh the "everyone's reading and loving it" factor. The child narrator is the bigger obstacle for me, to be honest, even though I understand Donoghue pulls it off very well. Despite that, I'll be a holdout on this one - someone has to be the last to read it, anyway.

Sources of Future Reading - Bookseller Trade-Show Season:

I've read several accounts of the SIBA (Southern Independent Bookseller Alliance) trade show during the last week, and I'm expecting to see some posts soon about the GLIBA (Great Lakes Independent Bookseller Association) trade show, which is being held next weekend in Michigan. This must be the time of year for events like this, because I've read about others as well, and not just in trade-related blogs and newsletters - book  bloggers are attending and participating in these shows too. SIBA seems to be doing more to welcome bloggers than some of the other bookstore groups, but I hope others will follow their lead!

I'm looking at you, Southern California Independent Booksellers Association! Your annual Author Feast and Trade Show is coming in less than two weeks, and I know at least a few book bloggers in our region who would love to work with you and your member bookstores - talk to us, please! (I have a prior commitment for that date and couldn't attend anyway, but that's not the point...)

24-Hour Readathon/Weekly Geeks:

I was already planning to talk about the Readathon in this week's Salon, but now I can count it for Weekly Geeks too by responding to this week's Readathon Q&A!. (Since Dewey founded both WG and the Readathon, it seemed appropriate to combine them.) Geeks want to know:

* if you are participating in the read-a-thon or not.

Yes, I am signed up as both a Reader and a Cheerleader.

* if you are, do you have a strategy?

Not really. I'll read a while, take a break, check in with my fellow Readathoners online, maybe have something to eat (depends on what time it is), and then start again. I don't expect to last the full 24 hours, but I do plan to start off at the opening bell (5 AM my time), and I'll be pleased if I can log anywhere from 13 to 17 hours total.

* do you have a stack of books prepared to read from?

Yes, but since I may change my mind a few times between now and Saturday, I'm not posting a list. While I do plan to write reviews of all my Readathon books, I don't intend to read any "review" books that day. My stack of likely reading choices is mostly YA fiction, light adult fiction, and memoir/essay collections - things that can, hopefully, grab my attention and move quickly, or are easily sampled in between other reading.

* will you try to read as many books as you can or as many pages as you can?

I'm trying to pick books I think I can actually finish, but other than that, I'm more focused on the overall time spent. I never track pages anyway.

* do you have special food and snacks planned?

No, not yet. But I probably will drink some coffee in the late afternoon/early evening, which I almost never do.

* do you have a special spot all set up for reading?

I'll probably switch between the sofa recliner and my armchair with the ottoman.

* will you get your Saturday things done on Friday so you can read guilt free?

Yes! I'm taking the day off from work on Friday for that very reason.

* if you have others living in your household, do you have to work around their schedules too?

I have encouraged my family to make plans without me on Saturday (which is another reason I'm staying home on Friday).

Are you Readathon-ing too? If you are, and you haven't participated in Weekly Geeks for awhile (or ever), this would be a great time to join in and share your plans!