Good morning! Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is finally here! My husband has graciously agreed to take sole charge of my little guy today, so I'm free to readathon the day away!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I'm in Michigan, where the daffodils and tulips are in full bloom. But because it's Michigan, yesterday's nice, warm weather has turned into gray ickiness today. I'm hoping the sun comes out so I can read outside this afternoon!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
This answer keeps changing, but I think the first book of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series is the one I'm most looking forward to. It's also the one I'm starting with, so we'll start things off right!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I actually bought snacks for myself this year, which I don't normally do. But I'm most looking forward to going out to lunch by myself to a new restaurant in town. I never get to go out by myself anymore!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I'm a mom of a one-year-old, which means my life has changed a lot in the past year. I taught for ten years, but I'm now a stay-at-home mom with my little guy. That also means I'm really looking forward to a "day off" for this readathon.
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 lost count of how many 24 hour readathons I've participated in, but it's quite a few. My favorite way to read is with a real, paper book, but I've got an audiobook all ready to go for those times when I have to be away from my physical books (like folding laundry).

Time spent reading: One hour and 46 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 150
Book I'm reading from: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood
Book I'm listening to:​ Still Life by Louise Penny

Time spent reading: Six hours and 28 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 423
Book I'm reading from: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Book I'm listening to:​ Still Life by Louise Penny
Number of books finished:​ One (The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood)

Time spent reading: Nine hours and 3 minutes
Time my husband spent reading after our little guy was in bed: One hour and 14 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 603
Book I'm reading from: Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
Book I'm listening to:​ Still Life by Louise Penny
Number of books finished: Two (The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood; The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith)

Time spent reading: Ten hours and 2 minutes
Time my son woke up so that I could get more reading in: 6:32 a.m.
Number of pages read so far: 627
Book I'm reading from: Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson;​ The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Book I'm listening to:​ Still Life by Louise Penny
Number of books finished: Two (The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood; The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith)

Every time I finish reading a book, I rate it on Goodreads. I like to look back over books I've read, and rating them is an easy way to see which books were stand-out reads for me. It takes a lot for a book to be given a five-star rating, but there's a fair amount of leeway between three stars and four stars for me. This is often the hardest decision - I liked the book, but did I like it enough to give it a four-star rating?

There are two books recently where I realized I was thinking about my rating while I was reading the book, and that thought process was the same for both books. When I got to the middle, I figured they were each solid three-star reads for me so far. But I knew that whatever the ending was could bump it up to four stars for me. (The two books, in case you're curious were Moloka'i by Alan Brennert and Uprooted​ by Naomi Novik. Moloka'i ended up with three stars; Uprooted with four.)

The very fact that I was having this thought process while reading surprised me. I hadn't realized I thought so much about the ratings. And then it made me curious. At what point in your reading process do you decide what rating to give a book? Do you wait until you're completely finished (which is what I thought I did, but apparently not always)? Can you tell by the middle what rating it will be? Have there been any books that you thought you knew how you were going to rate it, and then the ending changed your opinion completely?

​Please add your thoughts in the comments. I'm really curious to know how other readers approach this!

Another trip to the big library on Friday! I got three books for myself this time, but I have the excuse of Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon coming up. I'll get through lots of reading that day, so I need more books, right? The lure of the library books is drawing me back in. Must resist! Sad books on my own shelves need some love!

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Slow start, but it gradually drew me in until I couldn't put it down.)
Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel (An intriguing philosophy of parenting, but not a lot of practical tips.)

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (My book club book for the month. Except my husband is also reading it, so I'm only allowed to read it during the day when he's not home.)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (And this is what I'm reading in the evenings when I can't have The Wright Brothers. I'm loving it!)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (I thought I was at least vaguely familiar with this story, but apparently I had no idea what it was about. Journey of discovery!)

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde (My Fforde reread for April. Although this isn't on my Readathon TBR. It's only my next read for before and after Saturday.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I think Easter is my favorite holiday (followed very closely by Christmas). I love starting the morning with church services and organ and brass, celebrating Christ's resurrection. I love spending time with family. It took some driving, but we even got to spend time with both my and my husband's family yesterday. It was such a fun day, and I hope yours was the same!

The Shepherd's Castle by George MacDonald (This was the perfect Holy Week read - slow and gentle, yet mysterious and gripping. And so spiritually refreshing. I've decided I'm going to read a George MacDonald book every year during Holy Week.)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (My bookmark is in this one, but with the craziness of Easter, I haven't actually started reading it yet. I'm sure I'll enjoy it once I get there!)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (I started this one in the Serial Reader app last week, and I'm already three issues behind. Whoops.)

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (Book club book for May. My husband is reading it right now, so I'm going to have to fight him for it. ;)​ )

There are many different reasons to love books. Maybe they have a twisty-turny plot that you just can't put down. Maybe they have characters that seem so real that they could live next door to you. Maybe the book is about a fascinating topic that you've always wanted to learn about. Maybe it touches you profoundly.

Or maybe the book has created a world that is special and unique and so well-described that you feel as if you're living in it long after you have set the book down. I've discovered that books with this sort of "atmosphere" turn out to be some of my favorites, books that stick with me for years after I've read them.

The Harry Potter series is the most obvious choice here. My head stays at Hogwarts long after I've finished reading the book. Even the movies don't have the same effect for me. I'm only fully living in the world when I'm reading the books.

The Night Circus​ was a book that I read and then immediately bought my own copy. I have yet to reread it, but every once in a while, my mind wanders into that world. More than the characters or the plot, the atmosphere was what made this a five-star read for me.

I've recently developed an interest in reading books set in Asia (although I still don't do nearly enough of that). I can trace that interest directly to Memoirs of a Geisha. Every time I had to put this book down while I was reading it, my brain felt foggy for a few minutes until I could reorient myself to real life.

I have read this book at least four times, which is quite the commitment, considering it's more than 800 pages long. But I just love this magical Victorian alternate world that Susanna Clarke created and brought to life so well. The outside world ceases to exist while I'm traveling through the pages of this book.

I had the chance to go to a huge book sale on Friday, hosted by an area church as a ministry fundraiser. The whole gym was filled with tables of books. I spent a happy hour browsing (although my little guy got pretty fed up in about half that time). I walked out with a whole box of books, but surprisingly only four for me (two of which I've already read but wanted to own). The rest of the box was filled with books for my little guy! And my Sunday afternoon project was to figure out how to fit them all on his already full bookshelves. That was a challenge.

The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall (This book made me laugh and cry. Literally. I rarely cry over a book, but this one did it. These characters! They're just amazing.)
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Magical Year of Reading by Nina Sankovitch (I had high hopes for this one, but it didn't quite live up to them. Still an enjoyable read, though.)

The Shepherd's Castle by George MacDonald (I picked six books that I own that I've been really wanting to read and committed to reading them this year. This is one of them. I'm only a few pages in, but I'm enjoying it so far.)
Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel (I've been reading a parenting book a month to try and prepare myself for what's coming. This is April's selection.)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (I've heard a lot of good things about this one. I'm really looking forward to it!)

The next Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon is coming up at the end of this month - Saturday, April 29! I have been looking forward to this pretty much since the last one ended in October. My husband is absolutely amazing, and is going to take sole charge of our little boy that day - so I get the whole day to readathon! This is also perfect timing for a break because Friday the 28th, my school is hosting the area-wide Music Festival, and it's going to be a completely crazy, running-around kind of day. I'm going to need Saturday to recover, and what better way to recover than to spend the whole day reading?

The weather is finally spring-like, which means all sorts of fun things are reawakening. The daffodils are almost blooming. Our brand new grill is being broken in. And we took our first walk to the local ice cream place yesterday, where we had to wait in line for twenty minutes. I guess we weren't the only ones with that idea!

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (I haven't read this one since I was a kid. It's still powerful.)
Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani (I just love this series and these characters. It feels so real.)
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (I finished this one through the Serial Reader app, then when I pulled the physical book off my shelf to check how many pages it was, I discovered that I had only read half of it. I guess I'll have to finish the second half in my physical book before I can officially cross this one off my Classics Club list.)
100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson (The writing is this one is wonderful. And the plot and mystery will keep you reading to the very last page!)

The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall (This is such a delightful series!)

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch (Because books about books are the best.)