Tolstoy Clobbered by Big Shiny Thing in Pacific Northwest Sky

Or "How Sunshine Spoiled My High Summer Readathon".

Mid-week I was going strong, buoyed along by a string of gray days.

Then: catastrophe!  72 degrees and sunny with a cool breeze for the past three days in the midst of a decidedly dreary winter-spring-summer-so-far.

The fall-out: 150 pages of Tolstoy's War and Peace (which I'm actually enjoying but takes ever so long to read, what with the umpteen historical figures and battle scenes to be researched, plus passages in French to be read, then double-checked in the footnotes and the big page/small print issue) and Deerskin (which seems marvelous so far, but feels like a book best read on a cold winter snow day).

The unexpected dark horses who galloped into the race with their light-hearted ways:

Beowulf, adapted as a graphic narrative poem by Gareth Hinds
AND
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay, a lively middle reader/YA novel that simply felt sunny.  Thanks again, Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar for the recommendation; review to follow later this week.



So, the page totals =

Blessing of the Animals by Brenda Miller (creative non-fiction, personal essays) =Finished it (the last 100 pages)
Dante's Divine Comedy adapted by Seymour Chwast (graphic novel) =Finished it (127 pages)
The Odyssey adapted by Gareth Hinds (graphic novel) =Finished it (250 pages)
Roots by Alex Haley (novel for Roots Read-Along) = Finished it (the last 217 pages)
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy (novel for War & Peace Read-Along) = Volume III, Part 1, Ch. 1-14 (50 pp.)
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay (middle reader/young adult novel) = Finished it (296 pages)
Beowulf adapted by Gareth Hinds (graphic novel) = Finished it (128 pages)

TOTAL High Summer Readathon Glory = 1168 pages

Many thanks to Michelle at The True Book Addict, and to all the #HSreadathon-ers on Twitter & blogs this week.  Solidarity!

MFB, until next year,
L