24 hour readathon (& fundraising for the Philippines)

The 24 hour readathon! It's back by popular demand from our book group !

 

 

 

When:

 

8h30, Fri 6 December - 8h30, Sat 7 Dec (GMT)

 

Where:

 

Our places (online & off)

 

What:

 

Read! Anything!

 

You don't have to read or stay up for the whole 24 hours. But there will always be at least one person in our house reading for the whole duration.  Join in with us via Twitter ##wsd24, on the blog, or on our fundraising page.

 

Why:

 

It's a party!

 

Also, we do a bit of fundraising. This time, we're raising money for the British Red Cross, particularly in support of the rescue work they're carrying out in the Philippines as a result of the recent typhoon disaster.

 

Please, donate as much as you can. You can donate online via our justgiving page, or you can

 

Text:

 

MASM48

£2

 

to 70070

 

Please note, the £2 is just a suggestion.

Also, if you've really already done your bit for the appeal, feel free to just join in with the Readathon Party.


Readathon Tips

• Variety of reading material: something that will keep your eyes wide open
• Snacks, snacks, and snacks
• Move it - get a change of atmosphere and bit of excercise too
• Do it with friends - if you're on your own, we'll be around online to keep you company

We'll see you on the 6th or very early on the 7th!

#wsd24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classics Club Spin #3

Classics Club Spin – August 2013

This might be the Classics Club’s third spin but it’s our first! Hosted by the Classics Club, the idea is to choose 20 books we haven’t yet read from our original Classics Club Challenge list – and list them. On 19 August, the Classics Club will spin the bottle (or something) to pick a number from 1-20.  The number picked is matched to the corresponding book title on our spin list and we need to read that book by 1 October.

The idea is to include some titles that might challenge us. We’re both going to try and read the same book, so this list was jointly selected - rather quickly too! You’ll see that a couple of numbers have two titles next to them. That’s because Little M really wants to read them but M’s already read them for the Challenge so the second title is M’s option. And of course, not all of these books are on our shelves either, so getting them in good time will be another challenge!

Our spin list

Because we’re scared of them (but have them both):

1. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
2. Ulysses – James Joyce

New for Little M (but dreaded re-reads for M so obviously we don’t have these):

3. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
4. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

Never got around to reading (yes, we have them):

5. Jock of the Bushveld – Percy Fitzpatrick
6. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
7. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

M’s Old favourites (re-reads for M so have them all; new for Little M)

8. Thunderhead – Mary O’Hara
9. A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula le Guin
10. A Dream of Sadler’s Wells – Lorna Hill
11. The Chocolate War – Robert Cormier
12. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

Because we want to (have most):

13. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee / Emil and the Detectives – Erich Kastner
14. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne
15. Tamar – Mal Peet

Old classics (have all):

16. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
17. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte / The Trial – Franz Kafka

Playful! (no, we don’t have them):

18. Hamlet - Shakespeare
19. Othello - Shakespeare
20. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett

 

First Birthday Bash: Sponsored 24 hour Readathon

 

We Sat Down’s 24 Hour Readathon



We Sat Down's First Birthday Bash: 24 hour readathon

We Sat Down will be one year old this weekend. Instead of a giveaway, we've been inspired by Ms Adkins to hold a 24 hour Readathon to raise money for charity.

 

We're doing this with some of the other teens who've reviewed for We Sat Down. It will take place on the 23^rd March and it will start at 9 in the morning and finish at 9 the next morning.

Join us on Sat 23rd March on the blog, on Twitter or just by reading. We also hope that you’ll head on over to our sponsorship page.

Sponsor children in need

We are setting up a Justgiving page to raise money for a primary school in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The money will go to Maranatha Care Children and they will by educational supplies or services for children who attend Protea Primary School. Little M selected this charity because Nanny Bee and Grandad Africa have gone and read to children there before. The primary school takes children who have been abused, homeless or traumatised and they give them an education.

Many of the children who attend Protea Primary have temporary residence at Siyakatala Youth Centre which is also supported by Maranatha. Please pop over to our Justgiving page to find out more about the charity and give a donation to make a difference to these children’s lives.

 

Video made by Little M: featuring books we've reviewed over the past year!

 

 Please donate!

 

with love from M & Little M

 

It's a Wrap: British Books Challenge 2012

We're ending the year with a wrap on our first book blogging and reading challenge. We both signed up to the British Book Challenge 2012. This was hosted on The Overflowing Library blog this year.

The aim: to read and review 12 books by British authors - or books published in Britain first.

And we've done it! Here are links to our reviews:

M's Review List
1. My Name is Mina - David Almond, Hodder
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - David Haddon, Vintage
3. Slated - Teri Terry, Orchard
4. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher, Indigo
5. Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein, Electric Monkey
6. After the Snow - SD Crockett, Macmillan
7. Emma Hearts LA - Keris Stainton, Orchard
8. Changeling - Philippa Gregory, Simon & Schuster
9. Secrets of the Henna Girl - Sufiya Ahmed, Puffin
10. The Other Side of Truth - Beverley Naidoo
11. Velvet - Mary Hooper, Bloomsbury
12. All Fall Down - Sally Nicholls, Marion Lloyd (Scholastic)
13. The Seeing - Diana Hendry, Bodley Head (Random)
14. Noughts and Crosses - Marjorie Blackman, Corgi (Random)
15. Muddle and Win: The Battle of Sally Jones - John Dickinson, David Fickling
16. Raspberries On the Yangtze - Karen Wallace, Simon & Schuster
17. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Vintage
18. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome, Vintage
19. Maggot Moon - Sally Gardner, Hot Key Books
20. Flip - Martyn Bedford, Walker
21. Silenced - Simon Packham, Piccadilly Press
22. A World Between Us - Lydia Syson, Hot Key Books
23. Katya's World - Jonathan L Howard, Strange Chemistry
24. Obsidian Mirror - Catherine Fisher, Hodder
25. The Night Sky In My Head - Sarah Hammond, OUP Childrens
26. A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness, Walker
27. Breathe - Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury
28. This Is Not Forgiveness - Celia Rees, Bloomsbury
29. Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses #2) - Malorie Blackman, Corgi (Random)
30. Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman, Bloomsbury
31. Hold On - Alan Gibbons, Indigo
32. The Weight of Water - Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury
33. A Boy and a Bear in a Boat - Dave Shelton, Random House Children's


Little M's Review List
1. Sky Hawk - Gill Lewis, Oxford University Press
2. Hitler's Angel - William Osborne, Chicken House
3. Dolphin Song - Lauren St John, Orion
4. White Dolphin - Gill Lewis, Oxford University Press
5. A Stallion Called Midnight - Victoria Eveleigh, Orion
6. Tiger Wars - Steve Backshall, Orion
7. Codename Quicksilver: In the Zone - Allan Jones, Orion
8. The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones - Susie Day, Scholastic
9. Girl, Missing - Sophie McKenzie, Simon and Schuster
10. Kentucky Thriller (Laura Marlin #3) - Lauren St John, Orion
11. Missing Me - Sophie McKenzie, Simon and Schuster
12. Codename Quicksilver #3: Burning Sky - Allan Jones, Orion
13. A Sea of Stars - Kate Maryon, Harper Collins


The British Books Challenge 2013 is being hosted by Feeling Fictional. And we've both signed up. Here's a link to our Challenges page.

Classics Club

It's got to that time when planning for the next year for a lot of us is already well underway. And in the book blogging world, sign-ups for reading challenges start appearing.

One that has caught my eye, and can be signed up to at any time is the Classics Club. Over the summer, we had a family adventure reading some of the children's classics from Vintage. We enjoyed that and it spurred all sorts of discussions. We also just received a copy of The Ultimate Teen Book Guide (thanks YA Library UK) which includes recommendations for all sorts of classic books, some teen, some children's and some adult.

The Classics Club challenge is a big one and it's longitudinal: 50 classics over 5 years - and you need to start off with a proposed list of 50 books.

Because our blog has always tried to focus on sharing and discussion in reading, we thought that this would be perfect for us, so both  myself and Little M are signing up for it. It will be fascinating to see whether our reading lists diverge - or whether we both read the same 50!

We'll likely start this in the new year so we're setting out goal end date as 31 December 2017.

The club leaves the definition of 'classic' open. We'll start off by defining it for ourselves as books that publishers have deemed 'classic' or books that have passed among generations of readers. Our We Sat Down 50 Classics Club reading list includes some books that will be rereads for M and some brand new reads for both M & Little M. Some of the books have been chosen because they are already on our bookshelves! New additions and progress will be posted as time goes on.

1. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
2. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (on our shelf)
3. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (on our shelf)
4. Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner (on our shelf)
5. Black Beauty - Anna Sewell (on our shelf)
6. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (M's re-read)
7. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (on our shelf; M's re-read)
8. The Little Prince - Antione de Saint-Exupery
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (M's re-read)
10. My Friend Flicka - Mary O'Hara (on our shelf; M's re-read)
11. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
12. A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula le Guin (M's re-read)
13. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (M's re-read)
14. A Dream of Sadlers Wells - Lorna Hill (on our shelf; M's re-read)
15. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4 - Sue Townsend
16. Franny and Zooey - JD Salinger
17. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (on our shelf; M's re-read)
18. The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier (M's re-read; on our shelf)
19. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (on our shelf; M's re-read)
20. Tamar - Mal Peet
21.  Discworld: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett
22. The Color Purple - Alice Walker (on our shelf; M's re-read)
23. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (on our shelf; M's re-read)
24. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (on our shelf)
26. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou (on our shelf)
27. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
28. The Trial - Franz Kafka (on our shelf)
29. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
30. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
31. East of Eden - John Steinbeck (M's re-read)
32. Waiting For Godot - Samuel Beckett (M's re-read)
33. My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk (on our shelf)
34. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (on our shelf)
35. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
36. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
37. The Story of an African Farm - Olive Schreiner
38. My Antonia - Cather Willa
39. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
40. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera (on our shelf; M's re-read)
41. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates (on our shelf)
42. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
43. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
44. Ulysses - James Joyce (on our shelf)
45. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (on our shelf)
46. The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
47. Hamlet - William Shakespeare (M's re-read)
48. Othello - William Shakespeare (M's re-read)
49. Travel Light - Naomi Mitchison
50. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
51. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (on our shelf; M's re-read)

If you're wondering why there is 51, that's because there was a small typing error which meant that no.51 was originally not numbered!