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Though I don't speak Finnish, the pictures are beautiful!

The temperature in Oslo isn't so bad (just around 0*C) but the ground is covered in wet, slippery ice that is preventing me from getting to the post office to get books and graphic novels I've ordered, ha-rumph!

Tytti, great pictures, sooo cold.

Beautiful but it can be deadly, too. (I actually thought for a long time that Белая смерть, "the White Death", meant the woods during the winter (+ soldiers in snowsuits in there) but it was a nickname for just one sniper, though best in the world.)

In the first pic they are checking each other's faces, hands and feet for frostbite, in the second he is learning how to make a fire (without a lighter, those are unreliable) and the third is just a support thingie.

Karina wrote: "The temperature in Oslo isn't so bad (just around 0*C) but the ground is covered in wet, slippery ice that is preventing me from getting to the post office to get books and graphic novels I've orde..."

I hate that, it's the same here, too, snow is almost gone again, +1 C. Or of course there are piles of it out of the way but not on the streets.

FYI, for lovers of Andy Weir's The Martian, Ridley Scott is working on the movie and Matt Damon is starring. It's supposed to premier this year!

Is anyone going to participate in National Readathon Day?

That's the first I hear of National Readathon Day, but sounds good. I think I will participate.

Cassandra wrote: "Is anyone going to participate in National Readathon Day?"

I read/listen a little almost everyday, I love the idea behind this but I don't have 4 uninterrupted hours most days. Maybe I will try for 2 hours in the morning and two before bed that night? We'll see... :)

I would like to try to participate....Saturday is a really bad day for me though. It's usually my running around and chores day so I seriously doubt I would be able to find four straight hours to read. Might try to do it on a different day in lieu though :)

I was thinking of maybe observing it on Sunday instead. Saturday is wedding day for a friend of mine, so I definitely won't have much reading time then. I first heard about this at my university, where my particular college is holding an on-campus readathon in honor of this day, so I'm kind of bummed I can't participate.

I don't usually read for that long at a time, so planning out a designated "reading time" seems like a fun challenge.

That would be really fun to participate in! Sucks you are busy that day, a wedding is definitely a good reason to miss it though!

I rarely get the opportunity to read that long at a time either. I think the challenge is a great idea.

I might be able to participate it. We're going to movies on Saturday and before that we might go to eat to some restaurant, so I might need to finish earlier. But I try my best! :)

Maybe the group can do it, but over the whole weekend instead of just Saturday? That might be fun.

I like that idea Kara :)

That's a great idea! I'll report back here with when I decide to put my four hour block and what I decide to read.

Cassandra wrote: "Is anyone going to participate in National Readathon Day?"

I didn't know anything about it until I read your post. I just signed up - thanks!

I'm definitely in - four hours of reading is nothing as long as there's a good book and a comfy chair:)

I pledged to read but I can't :( We have a big exam coming up next week, so gotta read to that.. And if you want to know, the exam is about human anatomy.

Don't forget, National Read-A-Thon is today from 12-4!

I would love to participate today but I'm pretty sure my 6 yr old would be against me leaving her to play on her own for 4 hours lol. I might make my own read a thon time on Mondays when she is at school and I have a couple hours to myself

Happy Superbowl Sunday for those into it! I was supposed to go out to a Superbowl party with my fantasy football league, but all of this snow we're getting in Michigan may force me to stay home.

(I'm not going to pretend I'm a huge football fan, but they've PROMISED they'll have Puppy Bowl on the other TV.)

I wish we got snow like that. We get so little that it almost isn't worth putting snow tires on.

No Superbowl for me but sending winning thoughts to Seattle, as they are close neighbours to me.

I'm also rooting for Seattle!

Thanks for the Seattle love! I'm not a huge fan of football by any means, but I'm from Seattle so I'll be watching. :)

I am probably the person most interested in sports in my pub quiz team (others are men) so I think they are relying on me to watch it and have some answers for possible questions. Though last time the only QP we could remember was Tom Brady but we didn't answer that because he WAS the only one and for some reason thought he was with another team... I'm not sure why we always make these mistakes.

Probably rooting for Patriots but actually don't care that much. Kickoff in about 2 minutes.

I'm watching the SuperBowl from the UK (late night for me). I'm supporting Seattle but begrudgingly because I'm a Packers fan.

That was the worst possible ending to that football game. I'm not really sad that my team lost, but that ending was so, so disappointing.

Well. That was a surprising ending.

That was one of the better Super Bowl games I've seen. I love it when they are close like that. I'm a Packer fan, so I didn't have a strong preference of who won, I just enjoyed the competition.

Who else is excited about Harper Lee coming out with a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird?!

Dana wrote: "Who else is excited about Harper Lee coming out with a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird?!"

Oh my gosh, I cannot wait! Also,Toni Morrison, another favorite of mine, is coming out with a new novel this year!

I just saw that Tim Burton is going to recreate Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children for the big screen! That's exciting! And I'm sure he will do the odd story justice:)

How interesting! He's probably the perfect director to take on that project. It suits his style so well.

I had the biggest book fangirl moment at school this week... Neil Gaiman is coming to my university in April! I can't wait.

Have you guys been to author readings or book signings before? Which author? What did you think of them?

Yay, Cassandra! Favourite author signings are awesome. I've had a few books signed by China Miéville, which involved a lot of blushing and stuttering, haha. In April I'm going to Eastercon at which I hope Seanan McGuire will do some signings.

Karina wrote: In April I'm going to Eastercon at which I hope Seanan McGuire will do some signings. "

Oh wow! I'd love to be there, too... I never had the opportunity to meet an author I like..

This is from a Mental Floss article from a couple days ago:

"According to online retailer Amazon, the median length of a book is 64,000 words. If we take the average adult reading time to be 250 words per minute, and you treated reading books as a full time job and read, non-stop, for eight hours a day, then it would be possible to read roughly two books per day. Working Monday to Friday with a break at the weekend (because, let’s face it, everyone needs time off even if they have got the best job in the world of simply reading books all day) you could read ten books in one week.

That means it would take you five years and four months to read all the books that are published in the UK in just one week. Six months�� worth of releases? If you spent your life exclusively reading, you still couldn’t get through them all."

I think it's a really interesting perspective on the TBR list. Sadly, it looks like I won't in fact be able to read every book ever published! *sarcasm*

hva

How interesting! I always knew my TBR list was growing at a rate that I could never catch up to, but that is a LOT of books being published every week. Especially since that number only counts books published in the UK, which is leaving out several large English-speaking markets.

What is the difference between members corner and the thread like 51-100?

Wow! That's crazy! I had no idea that many were published in a week.

Hi Winter, the distinction is a little blurry. Different members use their personal challenge thread (51-100, etc.) and their member corner in different ways. Some members just have one or the other, others have both.

The best thing I can recommend is to look at how others are using their threads and find a way that works for you.

I use my personal challenge thread to keep track of what books I've read and what I plan to read in the upcoming month(s). I use my member corner to keep track of what books I currently own and what challenges I'm participating in.

There are a ton of ways to do it, ranging from tracking a TON of things like me, to tracking the bare minimum of books read. It's all up to you! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Winter wrote: "What is the difference between members corner and the thread like 51-100?"

Winter, I use my personal challenge thread to keep track of books I want to read throughout the year, books I plan to read each month, books I have read and reviews. My member corner thread is to keep track of my challenges and how I am doing in each challenge.

Thanks Jodi :) I think I have found something that works for me now. When I started to look at challenges I found I wanted to to many so it is fun to have them al in one place^^

Where do you draw the line between novellas and books? would you count A Christmas Carol as a book?

It's hard to know exactly where to draw the line between a short story, novella, and novel. A lot of people use word count ranges, but it's not like you can look at a book and know how many words it has.

Personally, I count A Christmas Carol as more of a novella, but that's far from scientific. I usually read longer books, so A Christmas Carol seems particularly short to me.

hm wanted to read that as a book for the popsugar challenge, takes place in christmas. But I guess I can too since I'm the judge:P But I'm a bit OCD on these things maybe:P Always want it to be correct.

I have my own challenges on my corner, that's okay I hope? It's so nice to have them all together. I love this group, so friendly and more focused on the jpy of reading than rules.

You do a great job!