It’s Been A Day! The First 24 Hours of the 48 Hour Book Challenge

The Experience
I suspected it was going to be a busy weekend when I embarked on this challenge. I was right. While I have been busy--I’ve been reading. I may not read through a stack of books during this challenge, but I am challenging myself--and that’s the whole point right?

Looking at my reading time sheet for the day, I’ve logged 361 minutes of reading--just over 6 hours. I am most interested in how I logged that time. Most of my reading has been completed in short increments. With 12 separate instances of reading my average read time was 30 minutes. My maximum reading time was 65 minutes, my minimum was 10 minutes.

Why is this important? My schedule is usually busy. I rarely have time to read for hours on end. 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there adds up. Today has made me realize that there is always time to read--even if it’s just a little bit of time.

The Books
At the end of day one I am about 1/2 way through the audiobook of The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell and I’ve read 109/359 pages of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. While I’m really enjoying both books, my overall reactions to each are quite different. The Hunger Games, with all its popularity, obviously has broad appeal. There are very few readers from teen upwards that I could not recommend this book to. I'm excited to provide a more complete review once I’ve finished The Hunger Games.

As for The Carrie Diaries--I am most struck by the context and the content of this book. The Carrie Diaries follows Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw through her senior year of high school. As a prequel, this book is met with a set of expectations from Sex and the City fans. Not all teen readers of this book will be familiar Sex and the City, but many will be. Thus far, The Carrie Diaries meets my expectations. As a high school senior, most of Carrie’s life is learning to handle relationships, both friendly and romantic. While Carrie is perhaps the most conservative and pragmatic of her group of friends, this book is peppered with sex, drinking and references to drug use making it a read for older teens and adults. I will follow up with a complete review of this book after I’ve completed it.

Onward
With 24 hours left in the challenge, I hope to complete 6 more hours of reading. Anything beyond that is bonus. I'm looking to finish The Hunger Games and perhaps sneak in Zombie Blondes or perhaps a graphic novel. Judging by the weight of my eyelids, bedtime is swiftly approaching--so reading will have to wait. Goodnight and happy reading.