48-hour Reading Challenge...TAKE TWO!

Okay, I was all set for this entry, but then I went to Google Reader before I started. Under the "People I Know" tab, I read three beautiful entries that got me all choked up and mellow:

Em's brother Steven's gorgeous, intensely heartfelt tribute to his wife, Tamara, on their two-year anniversary.

Lindsay's account of her announcement, a year ago, to her husband--of the second line on the pregnancy test.

Andi Diggs' 37-week belly photos....my little childhood neighbor, who's always been so strongly positive, and whose relationship with her husband is inspirational.

So...I needed a few minutes. I cry at EVERYTHING!

Anyway.

This weekend, I totally did it! I completed the 48-hour Reading Challenge, on better terms than last time, and got a LOT read. No, I didn't make it all the way through Judy Blume's oeuvre, but I did read all weekend, and I plan to finish up before all those books are due back.

I took a few breaks--ran a couple of errands on Saturday, went out to lunch with Neil on Sunday (Bread Basket Cafe FTW!), but my main focus was definitely on reading. When the TV was on, I read in our bedroom--but stayed in the living room, reading, for two Cards games turned down low. I accessed the internet only once, to see if I had any more books to mail on Saturday morning--and, since my default IE8 page is Facebook, couldn't help clicking on that little red number at the bottom to see what notifications I had. I guess it was cheating, a bit, but I wasn't on there for more than a few minutes.

In total, I read over 2059 pages....for 1200 minutes (that doesn't sound as impressive in hours...20 hours out of 48; not even half!)...in chronological order, except in cases where there was a series and I just read the series straight through. The following are the books I read, with my transcribed notes beneath each (I kept a Mead Five-Star Fat Lil' Notebook with me at all times to take notes as I read)--my current, non-notebook thoughts are in brackets:

Start time: 8:30 PM [7/31/09]

[First note:]

I'm excited:

• Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret (c1970)

*my favorite! I like the blond cover best.

*Never liked the "Other Yearling Books you will enjoy" statement. "MAY ALSO ENJOY" would be less of a command.

*she's more mature than I remembered.

*purple towel! Nancy Wheeler is awes. [I always wanted a fluffy purple towel like the one Nancy loaned Margaret]

*LOOOOVE the name Gretchen

*Mavis: a "secret sensational name"? Blech. Alexandra or Veronica was best.

*I never saw this book as about religion, but it so is!

*loved that pink [door] color in the bra dressing room

*"One day in class..." vs. "Tuesday morning" or "Rosh Hashanah" etc. [Okay, here are my thoughts that went with this: All my favorite books--Ramona, Laura Ingalls, and this one--had a way of narration that made me feel like I was experiencing every day with these girls. Like I didn't miss a moment. And I think part of it was because the narration never said "One day, Ramona was in class when..." or "Three months later, Laura got a cat." I can't explain it well, but because these books always just addressed their next story as "Friday afternoon, I met Nancy after school" or "On Christmas Eve, Laura's cousins arrived"...it didn't seem like I was missing anything. Even though I obviously wasn't reading about every day in their lives. I just know that when one of the books--I think Shores of Silver Lake, maybe--began, and the Ingalls suddenly had Baby Grace and Mary was blind from scarlet fever, I felt betrayed. How could Laura have deprived us of such big events??]

*I heart Sylvia Simon! [Margaret's sassy Jewish grandmother]

*[the girls' lecture in class] made me scared of Tampax.

*Margaret's birthday is March 8--SKM's birthday! [Sarah's]

*No belted pads! This is revised--I compared it to my 1982 copy (this one's [published in] 1986). [have to admit, I was disappointed. Some of the charm of the original version was learning how this girly stuff used to be--and feeling lucky we don't have to deal with belts, nowadays!]

*149 pages--ALL were so familiar.

*1st-person [eff]-up that confused me: "Grandma said...all her jewelry was for 'her Margaret'..." [Oh, I agonized over this passage when I was little. When I began to understand different points-of-view in books, I knew it had to be all or nothing; mostly 1st or 3rd omniscient in these types of books...and I just could not wrap my head around Margaret referring to herself, via Grandma, as 'her Margaret'...it drove me nuts.]

• Iggie's House (c1970)

[this is where I started wondering how many of Blume's books were NJ-or-NYC-set. I decided to begin keeping track.]

*Not 1st person :( I feel like Margaret taught me to prefer that POV!

*Winnie: 11

*Farbrook, NJ (Margaret--[moved] from NYC); NJ here, too

*Herbie--younger bro; Herb--Margaret's dad [I also started to take notice of other commonalities between her books, like names. This was as far as I got with names, though--they weren't consistently repeated.]

*A move from light fare to pretty serious subject matter

*Man--this girl is mature too.

• Then Again, Maybe I Won't (c1971)

*1st person--yay!

*NJ-set - Jersey City

*Hero: Tony, age 12/13

*So far--title always in the book, 1st few pages

*move to Rosemont, Long Island

*[I remember this book being a lot more dirty than it was this go round!]

[Day 1] End time: 1:10 AM

Day 2: begin 9:00 AM

• Freckle Juice (c1971)

[doesn't *really* count, since it's way more easy-read than the others]

• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (c1972)

*Peter: 9 y.o.

*Fudge is so funny! [I never saw him as THAT funny when I was a kid reading this.]

*How the hell did he ever get the name 'Fudge'? [And they never explain it--not after FOUR books! Why did this not drive me crazy as a kid??]

*I learned "make" from Blume books. Still have never really heard it from anyone else.

*Ohhhh I just got "chip off the old block." Wood chips!

*I miss the illustrations in this newer version. They were bell-bottomy. I wonder if anything else is different (content)?

*The striped balloon from the shoe salesman Mr. Berman sounded way cool. Peter refused it but I'd totally have taken it. A lolly AND a balloon, just for shoes? [I also hated that Mr. Berman did not appear in Double Fudge during a shoe-shopping scene. Why not, Judy Blume? WHY NOT??]

*Mr. Hatcher's secretary Janet was pretty, and so was [our family friends] Paul-and-Janet Janet, so that was a "pretty" name for me. So were Mark & Chris [for boys]. I had crushes on those names.

*"I'm not sure when I realized Fudge was gone." ?? Yes you are! You're just not sure when he left.

*"I named him Turtle...to remind me."--I choked up!

• Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (c1972)

*The cover was always so unattractive to me, I never read it as a young-un, even though I'd read the other Fudge bks over & over. I never realized it was Sheila Tubman, either. [Plus I hate the name 'Sheila.'] She looks like an ugly boy. With ugly, too-short, raggedy-ended bell bottoms.

*I don't like "Oh oh!" for "Uh oh!"

*Sheila Tubman--10 y.o.; Peter's building...NYC-set, summer in Tarrytown

*Ugh, Sheila's so unlikeable. She lies to make friends--I hate that!

*Eek: Mouse would be Sheila's "first real-live girl friend"??

*I kinda want a yo-yo right now. A good one!

*Exact title p. 73!

• Superfudge (c1980)

*[I found an inconsistency I never noticed!!]: Peter's now in 5th grade ; Fudge is 4. He was 2 1/2 in Fourth Grade Nothing, but turned 3 during that bk, [which] ended May 10th of Peter's 4th grade yr...so abt 4 months later, Fudge had another b'day? Really, now?

*Moving to Princeton, NJ from NYC

*I really think this is my 2nd favorite

*I always wondered what a Kreskin's Crystal was.

*...and what "sic" means.

*Tootsie turned 1 in Feb. [now I'm looking for more inconsistencies!]

• Fudge-A-Mania (c1990)

*Fudge is now 5. Tootsie is 1.5. 6th grade is over.

*These are not "Fudge" books, to me. The 1st person makes them "Peter" books. We hear much more about him than Fudge.

*Title implied in Superfudge but expressed here.

• Double Fudge (c2002)

*Tootsie--not yet 2. Fudge is still 5 - almost 6. School is abt to start for Peter - 7th grade.

*I am uncomfortable with the modern-ish references--Harry Potter & blading. It lost the vintage feel & it's not timeless.

*This whole Howie-Hatcher plotline is far fetched--I don't like it at all. [Later I realized it reminds me of National Lampoon and their awful relatives, which I also don't like.]

*Really not liking this one. Not helping is the fact that I'm sleepy.

*I miss having loose teeth to wiggle.

*213 pages: DUMBDUMBDUMB

*[and where does that title come from?]

• It's Not the End of the World (c1972)

*Ah...this is sounding comfortingly familiar. I must have had it...or R'way/DBRL did.

*Karen: 6th grade, 12 y.o.

*Setting: near NY--NJ it is!

*When Karen goes to sleep one Sat., Val suggests they wash their hair. Karen says hers isn't dirty--she washed it just MONDAY NIGHT. Ew!

[Day 2] Stop time: 1:20 AM

verrrrrry tired...

Day 3 begin: 10:30 AM

• Deenie (c1973)

*Set: Elizabeth, N.J.

*She's 13 y.o., 7th grade

*Calling her mother "Ma" seems ugly. Only Laura Ingalls can get away w/ that. And boys.

*I have Wii-tennis-elbow pains from holding bks all weekend!

*I like that there's an underlying theme to each book, but [yet] it explores a lot of territory. Like, Deenie with scoliosis, but also her period, masturbation, kissing, modesty, & being judgmental.

• The Pain and the Great One (c1974)

[see note for Freckle Juice]

*love different POV books [i.e., within the same book]--haven't seen it in a kid's book before. Very cute.

• Blubber (c1974)

*5th grade.

*I kinda can't wait til 8:30

*These kids are mean. It's hard to read when it's the heroine. [Also, I never liked calling the lead boy or girl 'hero/ine.' I feel like a title like that should be deserved. Ramona never did anything particularly heroic. Aside from finding her aunt's wedding ring.]

*Hm...Pennsylvania-set. Different.

*This reminds me of how mean we were to SarahSallyDevonSarah [EveMarieCollaFawnWright] in 6th grade. It's easy & fun in a group.

*& she's a stamp collector!

• Forever... (c1975)

*setting: Westfield, NJ

*Katherine--HS seniors

*picks raisins out of b'fast buns & piles them on the corner of her plate--just like Fudge!

*I remember flipping thru this book to see if ellipses were on every page. I'll check again when I'm done. [Verdict:] 36 pgs w/o [ellipses] (including ch. separators [normally a blank page])

*Another word I didn't get: "came"

*I remember a comedian or something complaining about this book; the "and then I came"s over & over & over.

*She doesn't like hot dogs! Neither did I! (but I loved Vienna Sausages)

*Reading makes me sleepy...[right before a 24-minute break]

*Yeesh...a suicide attempt...!?

*Why did Kath take a hot dog at Michael's grad party when such a big deal has been made abt her not liking them?

*Ew...Theo has a 'stache.

*Judy uses "Naturally" ALL the time!

*Blegh I do not like deaths in books. G'pa was old, but still.

• Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself (c1977)

*1945 & 47--Eliz., NJ.

*Sally's fave marble is clear green...& Fudge's favorite is green!

*Older bro is 13. I think Sally is 10 - 5th grade

*dropping an egg in the malted when they weren't looking...like G'ma did to Fudge!

*I love how Ma Fanny talks - just like an old Jewish grandmother. I wish I had one of those.

*"...Aunt Bette didn't approve of Nancy Drews. She thought Sally should be reading books about the prairie girl." AWESOME!!

*I like this, abt long stretches of travel: "Breakfast turned into lunch and lunch turned into supper."

*White Shoulders...I think Mom liked that perfume.

*I never did the watch-Mom-get-pretty-to-go-out thing. I wish I had!

Stop time: 8:30 PM [8/2/09]

[only got to pg. 134 (of 298) when the 8:30 end-of-marathon mark hit...and I was READY TO STOP!]

Okay, so...quick, final thoughts before this post spontaneously combusts.

1. It's really fun seeing the patterns in these books, like setting, age, and little details she repeats.

2. I want to continue taking notes as I read the rest. I'll see how much I can do that. It was difficult, reading another book during today's lunch hour, to *not* take notes on it. I think I'm a margin-writer at heart, but my obsessive respect-the-books-please side won't let it out.

3. I got a little--a lot--tired of reading by Sunday, Day 3. I think it's best to keep this as a once-yearly thing...and just to have weekends where I read a lot in between.

4. Judy Blume is a damned genius. Except when she forgets that her heroine doesn't like hot dogs. I wish I could meet that woman!