Marathon Fail.

This weekend, I tried to do my Second Annual 48-Hour Reading Marathon (even though maybe the first one was two years ago?  I can't remember) with Beverly Cleary as the featured author.

I gathered/borrowed all the books in her oeuvre, excluding two she wrote about Beaver Cleaver (which by the way I would LOVE to read, but no one has anymore).  I set aside this past weekend--no plans, no obligations, just reading.  I figured I'd like the experience even more than the Judy Blume weekend.

But...I didn't.  I slacked.  I stalled.  I trudged.  I found excuse after excuse NOT to read.  I got my hair chopped off and my ears double-pierced.  I grocery-shopped.  I talked to Lily about bridesmaid bracelets.  I played my turns promptly on Words With Friends.  I read every interesting-looking thread on Two Peas.  I returned two items to Wal-Mart that had been in the backseat of my car all summer.  I went through Think Geek and Uncommon Goods catalogs online and pinned every single thing that looked interesting.  I cleared Google Reader several times.

It actually was a fairly productive weekend.

What was wrong with me, though?  I was avoiding Beverly-freaking-CLEARY??  I love these books!  Ramona is my GIRRRRRL!  I was excited to finally, finally read "Sister of the Bride"! 

The only thing I can figure is that I really wasn't in a Book Place this weekend.  Sometimes I get in moods where I just don't wanna read.  And I won't, for several weeks, or months.  I'll do a magazine here and there but not much else.  And I haven't read a book for a long time.  Many times, I am in a *total* Book Place.  I'll be listening to one and in the middle of three more, devouring page after page during lunch hours and breaks and evenings.  I love those times.  They make me feel erudite.

But...I really want to read these books.  I want to do it while I have them and while I'm still fresh in the series.  So I'm making it my mission to FINISH this project.  Not in 48 hours, of course, but in a week or so.  And I'll keep writing in my little pocket spiral-bound journal, and report here either from time to time, or when I'm done.

I did get through seven-almost-eight books.  I read the Ramona series from "Henry Huggins" to "Ramona the Brave," and am one chapter away from finishing that one.  
So that's something.