The Harry Potter Read-A-Thon: Fail(ish)

     Well, obviously my Harry Potter Read-A-Thon I attempted to join was a fail. I read Quidditch Through the Ages before I even knew the marathon was happening and only barely squeezed in 36 pages of Prisoner of Azkaban. Yah, that's right- 36 pages. So long my aspiration to read even one whole Harry Potter book. Haha! Despite the lack of Harry Potter in my week, I am so proud of my week in reading terms! I managed to finish Emma, upon which I immediately picked up Northanger Abbey, hungry for more Jane Austen. May I say, oh my goodness I loved Emma! And then, Northanger Abbey was so amazing as well! Both were quite different from the other books I've read by her, Northanger Abbey more so.
      I finished Northanger Abbey in one day. In the meantime, I discovered I enjoy pacing back and forth as I read. It was soothing despite being literally three steps and turn (tiny open space in my cluttered room). Of course, I was holding an incredibly short book of just over 200 pgs. Pacing with Les Miserables- not such a good idea. I can only imagine how tired my arms would get. Jane Austen also happens to be written in particularly the era and style that lends itself to make me very calm and of the pacing sort I suppose. :)
     But that's not all! I finally finished Crime and Punishment! I started the book at the end of October last year, but didn't finish it since my Battle of the Books competition happened. It was then lost amidst Christmas, reading the Vampire Knight Academy Manga series, and many other books. My worst habit is not finishing a book, and so often I read the majority of it, set it down, and come back months later starting from the beginning. Even my dad knew I would do this. He actually commanded me to finish the book so I wouldn't waste more time later. Unfortunately, I didn't pick it up until Friday. The motivation from adding two classics to my finished pile, hurtled me into finishing this book.
     My biggest fear was that I would end up starting from the beginning of Crime and Punishment, so I was really determined not to. However, if you know anything about Russian literature there are multiple names for each character. In Crime and Punishment there are quite a few characters as well. I was really lost for a while and only when I was 50 pages through my last 150 pgs did I finally understand who everyone was and what was happening. It did prove once again to me that sometimes you just have to push through a book. This happened for Inferno, but I understood that after the first three pages.
     At the end of it all, I am so glad I finished Crime and Punishment. I must say that I had thought it would be terribly hard to read and well, Punishment (ok, lame joke, I know). I loved the book though! It was really engaging and fast in its own way. I loved his writing well enough that I picked up Brothers Karamazov the other day, but trust me, I have no intention to read it anytime soon. (Why buy it then? It was buy 2 get 1 free for classics.)
     And now I have three more books added to my finished pile. The update for my reading goal of 25 classics this year is 4/25. I'm caught up for February, but if I want to finish 50 books, I have to read 4 more this month. :o Next book to attack- Frankenstein and The Time Machine (notice the short theme haha). So adios! Until next week. :)

Harry Potter Read -A-Thon

     I found out today at roughly 10:40 pm that there's a group on Goodreads called #AYEARATHON which will be having week long marathons the first Monday through Sunday week of every month this year. And the first read a thon is Feb 3-10 with the theme of... HARRY POTTER! I really wished I had found out about this earlier because I would have arranged my schedule and life around reading the entire HP series in one week (I think I could do it, but not sure). As the matter goes, that ain't gunna happen. Therefore, I will merely pick up the series where I was last rereading it at HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban. What's extraordinarily funny is that before I even knew about this, I actually started at midnight last night Quidditch Through the Ages which is fantastic that I get to count it. :)
     But the theme isn't just Harry Potter. It's Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling in case you want to read one of her other works. For me, though, I'm going to take this a little more obscure. You see, for me, all growing up Harry Potter meant J.K. Rowling, and J.K. Rowling meant her favorite book was Emma. She's said so many times that she drew so many examples from Emma by Jane Austen for the HP stories. I've always loved Jane Austen, but I've only read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. This last January I started Emma to accomplish two goals: one, read all Jane Austin's books before I turn 18 so as to quench my thirst of Jane Austen and gain rights to be a true Austinite and two, to peek into the world of J.K. Rowling and see a major component to her genius behind the Harry Potter books. Therefore I think it's reasonable enough to include finishing Emma in this week's Harry Potter marathon.
     I also plan on reading two of the Harry Potter books in the series and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I would strive for more, but unfortunately, I have a lot planned for this week. So the total reading for Day1 is this:

• Quidditch Through the Ages
• 30 pgs of Emma

     I read a lot today, but the above two are not part of that. Today I read 50 pgs or so of Les Miserables before getting stuck on an incredibly boring part about Napolean and some battle in a place I've only vaguely heard of. The realization that the history lesson was the entire first book of the second volume, made me just shut the book and move on to Emma. haha- even I get intimidated sometimes from classics.


-Until next time (hopefully tomorrow with an update on Harry Potter marathon!) :)