24-Hour Read-a-Thon: Post 3

For Read-a-Thon information, see The Hidden Side of a Leaf. For my own Read-a-Thon posts, see the deblog's Read-a-Thon category archive.

Currently reading: Peter Sagal, The Book of Vice: Naughty Things (And How to Do Them)

Pages read: 23 (since last post) | 78 (total for Read-a-Thon)
Time spent reading: 28 minutes (since last post) | 1:24 (total for Read-a-Thon)

Comments: Sagal devotes his second chapter, "Eating, or Sodom's Restaurant," to the subject of gluttony. Specifically, he describes a night out at a très exclusive restaurant, Alinea, where he and his wife enjoyed a 24-course meal. How, you ask, can someone possibly eat a 24-course meal? Well, each course is just a bite or two. A bite or two of some food that's taken the restaurant's chef's literally hours to prepare. Sagal also muses on the paradox that gastronomic hedonism--the sort of eating that inspires "wonder and envy among the less fortunate"--leads inevitably to unenviable physical complications. Which is why one leaves a 24-course meal looking for a Jack in the Box.

Thoughts on the Read-a-Thon: I'm a little farther along than this post lets on, as I switched to another book, already in progress, to cleanse my palette a bit. And while my number of pages read may not rival what some of the other Read-a-Thonners are up to, for me it's a big jump over what I usually manage to get read in the course of a day. In large part, that's because I tend to put other things--more urgent or not--ahead of reading, which I think of as an indulgence.

Clare of Keeper of the Snails and I had been batting around the idea of doing this sort of thing more frequently. For myself, I may very well make an effort to make reading-cum-blogging a mainstay of Sundays. Reading Sundays? I also like this very informal, as-it-happens approach to book blogging.

Comments

[Debi]

I'm with you...I think I need to make reading more of a priority...why is it we always put ourselves last anyway? Enjoy your reading!

[Alisia]

You're doing great! And I really like your idea of reading/blogging Sundays!

I have a special treat on my blog for read-a-thon readers, come on by!

Cheerleader Alisia

[Alisia]

You're doing great! And I really like your idea of reading/blogging Sundays!

I have a special treat on my blog for read-a-thon readers, come on by!

Cheerleader Alisia

[Callista]

Good work! That books sounds interesting, I might just add it to my TBR list.

[alisonwonderland]

this sounds like an interesting book. we all should make reading a bigger priority, i think! :)

[Carrie K]

I'm all for reading being a much bigger priority.

And oh no! Another book I want to check out. Similarly I just started to catch the Quiz show on NPR but didn't realize he had a book out.

Wow, sex and food. It's hard to make them sound icky, but swinging and 24 course bites? Kind of does.

[Debra Hamel]

Thanks for all the good wishes, folks!

Carrie: the book is brand-spanking new. I didn't even know he was a writer. I'm so glad I caught that interview. By the way, if you go to the Wait Wait site you'll find the interview--or maybe it's NPR's site. It's somewhere there, not hard to find.

[Clare D]

Yes, 'Reading Sunday' - excellent idea even if it's just for a couple of hours or so. I like the idea of making a date with my books.

[dew]

I'm glad you're having a good time and I love the idea of informal reading notes posts once in a while.

[Debra Hamel]

So is Sunday a good day for you too, Clare? Not that it would have to be coordinated, of course....

[Megan]

I'm loving "watching" you read this book. It sounds like a great read. Just the title made me giggle a bit. Keep up the great reading! =)

[bybee]

There are so many books on self-improvement. It's nice to see something that promotes the other side..."I'm bad as I wanna be!"

Reading/blogging Sundays...bliss.

[Debra Hamel]

Thanks everybody for all the cheerings-on! All the enthusiasm for books and reading and the insanity (yes!) of a 24-hour read-a-thon is very heartening.