In getting a feel for where I'd like this blog to go, and because I happened to catch an online read-a-thon at the cusp of a new go-around, I decided to participate in the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon  (it's #20!). Or... Maybe because I'm a first-timer to any kind of organized blogging event, I'll say "participate loosely" because I'm not sure how it will work for me one way or another.   I plan to update this post daily with page counts, links to anything relevant, favorite quotes, likely some read-a-thon participation stuff, and maybe some other things I come up with as I go. This will be a little experiment in seeing how much I can get myself to read and  to see how I like joining in on blog events like this.   Unrelated to Bout-of-Books but popping this here anyway:       Consider checking out  PaperbackSwap .   I'm not affiliated, but I do think it's potentially a great way to unload   books that others are looking for and you collect swap poin...
    I read half of Cat's  Cradle  by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., took a long break for no real reason and then just finished it. This will not be any sort of proper review, but I enjoyed this book a great deal. I had owned my copy--a very old, very,  very  tattered Dell Publishing print from 1973--for a long time before I finally read it.     Of course it was enjoyable--filled, as it were, with cynical humor and a wild, crazy-ass ending.     I particularly loved a small bit of dialogue near the end between the narrator and Newt Hoenikker. It had less to do with making a connection to the overall novel as it did with making a connection to myself, personally.      ... 'I am sick and tired. . .'"      "That comes pretty close to describing how I feel most of the time."     "Maybe that's the way you're supposed to feel."