Minithon: The Endening

I'M NOT LEAVING

I LOVE THE MINITHON SO HARD.

IMO, you definitely want a readathon to end when you still want to be reading, as opposed to painfully pushing yourself to keep going, watching the clock with a barely suppressed groan as you realize you're nowhere near the finish line. As the clock ticked down to 6 pm (CST), I found myself rushing to pick up books I hadn't touched yet. "No! I need another hour!"

This is one of many reasons why the Minithon is the best. Along with the snacks and GIFs and minithon hashtag stalking.

HOW TO EVEN SUM UP THIS MINITHON. The minithon of January 2014. Extra-delightful because it is cold and I had no wish to leave the apartment. First off, the ladies were, as always, a cause of sheer joy. I do not know how various book blog people actually find each other, but I feel honored — NAY, BLESSED — to be in their company and seeing pictures of their snacks.

I FINISHED Bill Bryson's America, 1927, which was great and wonderful and I shall most def review it soon. I made it 2/3 of the way through Behind the Candelabra by Scott Thorson, read the first chapter of Bleak House, the intro and first excerpt in The Essential Feminist Reader, the first chapter of Wigs on the Green, the beginning of Wide Sargasso Sea, and the preface to Medieval Women.

SUCCESSFUL MINITHON INDEED. Notice how those were almost all mini parts of books? Notice that? Yeah, that was of course totally unplanned and merely another offshoot of me having problems focusing on one book, but ACCIDENTALLY OR NOT, still in keeping with the theme.

When I skimmed the intro to Wigs on the Green, I became somewhat alarmed at the comparison of Mitford to Wodehouse, as I actually don't really like Wodehouse's style. These fears were put to rest when I actually began the book and found the sentence:

Poor young men who have just received notice of agreeable but moderate legacies can do nothing more stupid than to ring up Jasper Aspect.

Who is Jasper Aspect! Why is his name so fantastic! Why is it terrible to ring him up! So many questions from one sentence. The first chapter was excellent and I think I might now like Nancy Mitford.

The other fun little thing from my reading was, in the introduction to The Essential Feminist Reader, Estelle B. Freedman says "Another recurrent rationale for women's rights, first articulated by the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier, declared that the progress of a civilization could be measured by the level of its women."

Oooh, said I. But then, of course, Freedman talks about ethnocentrism, etc etc, which is all valid. BUT THEN. Immediately after, I picked up Medieval Women, published in 1975, and its first sentence is "The position of women is often considered as a test by which the civilisation of a country or age may be judged."

Hey, idea I hadn't heard before but have now read twice in ten minutes! Look at you!

Just one of many bonuses of participating in the minithon. I love you all. Long live miniature things.