Bout of Books Thursday Update

Last final was yesterday - now to full time grading!  Yeah?

Thursday
Pages read:  94 pages today, plus 96 pages of a graphic novel;

• 51 pages out of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
• 96 pages out of Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

• 33 pages (11%) of Emilie and the Sky World by Martha Wells (fun!)
• 10 pages of On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1885-1859 annotated by James T. Costa. 

Pages - Running Total:  664

Books Finished so far: 2

Challenges: Bout of Books 10.0: Spell It Out Challenge  - I think I went a little overboard - I put my little phrase "Class Done Can Bloom" together using the pictures from books I had already reviewed because I did the challenge on my laptop while proctoring the last hour of a senior class capstone final. It wasn't the sort of final you can really cheat on, so I didn't have to spend the whole test period circling the room like a vulture but I still had to pay attention to them and answer questions, so I couldn't really sit there reading a book. The challenge was a nice compromise - trying to figure out what I could spell with the book cover I had copies of, rather than picking a word and finding books to spell it with.

I am reading Emilie and the Sky World to make up for my disappointment with A Wrinkle in Time. The first book Emilie & the Hollow World by Martha Wells was lots of fun - it is an adventure story that starts with Emilie runs away from home and, in a effort to stow away on a steamship, ends up  ...  going somewhere else entirely. The new book picks up pretty much right where the last book left off.

Plus - I have swag!  I picked up an autographed copy of On the Organic Law of Change: A Facsimile Edition and Annotated Transcription of Alfred Russel Wallace's Species Notebook of 1885-1859 annotated by James T. Costa.  It was signed by Costa, since I don't claim to have held a seance. Without Wallace, Darwin might never have pulled his act together and produced a paper. It was the threat of being scooped that got him moving.