Read-A-Thon Updates and Mini-challenges

Hour 2 & 7 PM: The second minichallenge - Reading in Translation 

I've read a few translated books (Haruki Murakami, Steig Larsson, Paulo Coelho, Flaubert, etc)

For a book that I'd like to read in the original, I pick the Mahabharata. This is a superlong Indian epic, written in Sanskrit, a language that formed the basis of all Indian languages. It's still taught in schools (rather like Latin).
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana have been translated many times but all translations must necessarily be flavored by both the translator and the times he/she lives in.

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8:00 PM/Hour 3: 
Completed the short story Intuition by J.Meyers - I started late and spent the first hour cheerleading other Readathon-ers.
Also, Twitter is pretty distracting!
For my next book, I'm going offline, though still on my laptop. Remember, I'm only reading ebooks this Read-a-thon!

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9:30 PM Hour 4: Turn to Page 32 Minichallenge
For this challenge, you must turn to page 32 of the book you are currently reading (or the nearest page with text on it) and find the most entertaining phrase to complete the following sentence:
"I would rather read than ________ any day!"

"I would rather read than seen you promenading through town all covered with the stuff."
--- Page 32 of Emily and the Dark Angel by Jo Bev.

10:30 PM/Hour 5: I've just finished my first book - the fun historical romance "Emily and the Dark Angel" by Jo Beverly
Pages read = 17+191 
Currently Reading = BattlePug by Mike Norton

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11:20 PM/Hour 6: Minichallenge Bon Appetit
I'm reading Mike Norton's Battlepug, the graphic novel. Our party would include pets! So the food would be Pedigree dog food, kibbles, chewable toys AND oh yes, adult food - dog-shaped biscuits, and chicken kebabs with cucumber dip from turkey (one of the locations)
Pages read = 17+191 
Currently Reading = BattlePug by Mike Norton & The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by DWJ
Both are incredibly funny!

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12:50 PM/Hour 7:
Pages read = 17+191+66
Book Finished = Mike Norton's Battlepug
Thanks to NetGalley for the graphic novel


I'm going to read and then sleep for several hours now, no updates till morning!
Will probably get more done without twitter and other distractions...that is one huge drawback to doing the entire readathon on my laptop only via ebooks and egalleys.

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12:20 AM/Hour 18:

I'm amazed at just how much I read in the 12 offline hours - I finished both The Gathering and The Calling by Kelley Armstrong. These are fantastic YA stories written by an author at the top of her game.

A Full Read-a-thon update: 
Reading:The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diane Wynne Jones
Munching: Watermelon juice
Listening: To the grunts and baby noises my two-month old is making as he stretches 

Books finished: Mike Norton's Battlepugs, Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering & The Calling, J. Meyer's Intuitive (short story), Jo Beverly's Emily and the Dark Angel
 
Total pages read: 17+191+66+326+368
Total reading time: 12hrs approx
Total cheer comments: 25-ish

Check out #readathon and @deepratap on twitter for more updates 

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2 PM/ Hour 21: Acrostic Minichallenge  
BattlePugs = Bizarre Animal Tales Told in exciting Punny Ultra Good Story!

I'm re-reading Kelley Armstrong's Frostbitten while spending most of time visiting other blogs.

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4 PM/Hour 23: MadLib Minichallenge


Taken from Kelley Armstrong's Frostbitten, are a bunch of nouns, verbs etc arranged into the sentence below - 


This ____snow____ is ____icey____! ____Elena____ has never ____paced___ so much. The ____Kelley____ I'm currently ____rumbling____ is ____canine____ and ____freshly___. When this is over, I will ____sniff____ for ____weeks____.