Happy Saturday everyone !!  

Have you entered the giveaways?  Hope so and good luck if you did.    However, if you can’t wait to read one of the books that I am hosting as a giveaway, Oxford Messed Up by Andrea Kayne Kaufman, I wanted to share with you a notice I received from Rebecca at The Cadence Group.

“In celebration of love, life and hope, Andrea will be offering the Ebook edition for $ .99 on Amazon from May Day thru Cinco de Mayo – May 1-5.”

Have a great weekend!!!!

DISCLAIMER
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com,
Barnes & Noble and/or any other retail/wholesale
outlets either online and/or elsewhere.
I am providing this link solely for visitors
that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
I do not receive any monetary compensation from any parties

http://24hourreadathon.com/

This is my first year participating in Dewey’s 24 Read-A-Thon so am not sure what to expect.  In the past, I have seen and read about this wonderful blogger, who is no longer with us but it is done in her memory (if I am right, she hosted and created  it when book blogs were just starting…if I am wrong..I apologize).  

Not sure how well I am going to do, and probably shouldn’t have entered because of  RL issues that need to be done this weekend, but didn’t want to miss our on another year.    Because of that, I am going to track my progress by the number of pages/% on Kindle (wish it had page numbers) on this post and update when my I need a short break from reading.

Good Luck to all that are participating!!!

My Plan:
*Getting up at my usual time (5-6 am)
*Try to complete my daily computer tasks before 8am, which when it starts here in New England.
*Have plenty of coffee on hand with maybe some toothpicks to keep the eyes opened lol.
*Read-I will be starting with my current read, an ARC from The Story Plant–Spread The Word Initiative,  Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden by Laurel Dewey (450 pages).

Updates:
06 am:  Murphy’s Law–Never fails..I sign up for a read-a-thon and RL interferes.  Woke up 30 min late and with one of those annoyng situations where an eyelash is stuck inside your eyelid causing pain and interference with reading.  Hopefully it will work it’s way out with the  application of eye drops.  Plus my spin cycle on washing machine is not working so have reapirman coming at 11am.

10:30am:  Still haven’t been able to start reading due to an above.  Have been putting in drops to flush it out and can’t.   HELP!!   Any suggestions?

2pm:  WooHoo…finally started reading at 11am.  Straining, still painful and a little blurry but I AM reading!!!  Had to get up and do something so I wouldn’t doze off.   Hubby is running errands so he is on a Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee run for me!!  Making progress with the book I am reading, slower than usual due to the eye, but making progress.  Starting point was 36% (Kindle…why can’t they have made page numbers?).  Since I have time to make up…going back to the recliner to read.  TTYS!!   GL all.

5:30pm:  Still at it.  Had to take a couple of walks around the house though.  The eyes are getting heavy, but then they didn’t start off that great.  Plus the weather seems to be changing here in New England, well at least that is what my back is telling me.  So the past 1/2 hour or so, am having trouble getting comfortable due to pain.  Been munching on grapes. pretzels, grapefruit fruit cup and a few twizzlers.  Still reading Betty’s (Little Basment) Garden.  Not sure what page (Kindle) but am at 72%.   I am determined to finish this!!!  I just hope my eyes heard that  lol.

9pm:  Had to take an hour breather.  On phone, taking care of some Partners In Crime Tours business but am headed back to read.  Ohhhhh…how I remember those all nighters while in college, the problem is, that was a long, long time ago  lol.  Not sure when age is going to kick in tonight lol.

Thank you to those that have stopped by and left encouraging comments and being cheerleaders!!

3:00am:  Finished reading or should I say had to stop.   Fell asleep. Almost, but not quite made it.  However did finish reading Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden by Laurel Dewey and started Permanence by Vincent Zandri.

7:30am:  Wrap Up Post
**Which hour was most daunting for you?
My tough periods were around 4-5pm yesterday and then around 2:am.

**Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Since I only completed 1 book, I will have to say the one I finished.  I am sure there were bloggers that finished multiple books, but I only finished one.  Either due to that I am a slow reader, it was a large book, or the eye incident slowed me down.

**Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Since this was my first time participating in this Read-A-Thon, I have nothing to compare it to for improvements.  Personally,  I will need to start on time, plan better for snacking, stadegy and being able to do the mini challenges.  I only did one since I didn’t know the procedure. 

**What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Nothing to compare to so will say everything.  I really appreciated those that stopped by with encouraging comments.  Thanks for cheering me on!!!!

**How many books did you read?
Finished one and began another.

**What were the names of the books you read?
Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden by Laurel Dewey and Permanence by Vincent Zandri (started)

**Which book did you enjoy most?
Since I only finished one, it would have to be that one.

**How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
100%.  Sign me up!!  Since this was was my first time participating, I do have a question.  Is this a Read-A-Thon annually or biannually?  It was fun knowing that so many people were reading all over the world at the same time in an organized manner.  Awesome!!  

Great job from the hosts and cheerleaders!!  Thank you for all your hard work!!

Happy Easter from our house to your’s.

 I hope you all have a very Blessed Easter!!

Today’s Sunday Salon will be taking a hiatus due to the holiday.   

I just received Michelle from The True Book Addict’s newletter.  One of the items was about this Staples App that determines how fast you read.  She also mentioned how some people feel that they read faster with EReaders than with print versions.  I am one of those people, at least it seems to me that I finish an EBook quicker.  According to the little tool I read 291 words per minute.  However, that was with no distractions.  I am quite sure it would be a lot less when I am actually reading a book.

Link:   Staples eReader Department

Click on the link to see your averages.  And if you would like to share, come on back and tell us how you did.  Good Luck!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!  How did you ring in the New Year?

It’s a really exciting day here at the CMash blog, especially if you are reading this.  It means you found me at my new home!!!  And to those that did, I say:

Thanks to my computer angel, Gina from Hott Books, I would not be here nor would I be in one piece.  This blog is put together solely by her.  I have said many times that I am computer challenged, and she will agree that I am, but she has been so patient with me, answering every question, teaching me this new platform and I think, at least I hope, she is still sane lol.  I am still trying to navigate and learn my way around here at WordPress, so you may see some bumps in the road, but eventually I hope to figure it all out.  What year that will be….I’m not sure  lol.

And another day I have been waiting for for months, days of stalking A Novel Challenge, days of looking at a page that is all set up with cute little buttons waiting to be filled in wih titles.  YES!!!  May the 2012 Challenges begin!!!!