I spent this past Saturday at the National Book Festival soaking in bookish vibes. The festival used to be held later in September (and on the Mall and over two days), but they’ve moved it indoors and up in the calendar year (I assume the two are related) the past five years. I don’t love those changes, but I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that lots of other people do and that it’s unlikely to return to the festival it started out as. I mean, there are still authors and books and book lovers, so the most important parts of the festival remain intact, and that’s the important thing.

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More Posey sock knitting, more Posey sock unraveling (with Jeremiah supervision, as you can see in the above shot). In this case, I accidentally pulled seven stitches off the needle and dropped them. I fixed that in the dark (by the light of a nearby streetlight) while watching the start of Wonder Woman tonight, but missed a row on one stitch, so had to drop it back down to catch it back up. The good news is that I probably only had four rows of dropped stitches originally, so the rest is progress made during the film. I’m nearing the heel, but it’s looking less likely that I’ll get them done by Friday night, which was my goal.

I’m more than a third of the way into Spinning Silver and all three of the girls — Miryem, as the queen of bloodthirsty winter elves; Wanda, on the run with the brother who accidentally killed a man while protecting her; and Irina, the new wife of a tsar she is pretty sure is a warlock — are on the move now.

On audio, I’m listening to The President Is Missing, a political thriller from James Patterson and Bill Clinton. The story is fine, but nothing extraordinary, so far.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see more crafting and reading posts.

Today’s reading was from Spinning Silver, and I read at the Wharf, while waiting for the dragon boat race to begin, and at the park until it got dark. I also downloaded the audiobook for The President Is Missing, which I’m looking forward to listening to as I was dishes tonight.

Today’s challenge is to make/meet stretch goals.

It’s the last day of the readathon, so today’s challenge is to take a look at the goals you set for the week (if you have them) and decide a) how you can stretch yourself to complete them or b) how you can revise them so you can meet them.

My goals for the week were to:

• Take part in at least two challenges and at least one of the Twitter chats.
  I took part in both Twitter chats and this makes the second challenge.
• Visit at least one other Bout of Books participant’s blog a day.
  I decided earlier in the week that this goal was more about actually leaving comments at participants’ blogs and that if I did that for seven different blogs, I’d be good. I’ve done four and have three more to do tomorrow.
• Read a little each day.
  A great success!
• Post some reviews.
  A failure so far! So I guess we know what I have to do tomorrow…

I ripped the toe out one more time on the first sock of my Posies, still had the same problem with a loose stitch and decided it was time to move on. I’ll tack down that stitch with some extra thread, but essentially the first sock is complete. On to sock #2!

While I took Spinning Silver with me to Delaware, I read Dear Rachel Maddow instead, being utterly captivated by the first few pages. Depending on the forecast, either that or The Summer Before the War goes into my work bag. We’ve had several dousing rains recently, and I don’t want a library work to get sodden.

I finished I’ll See You in the Cosmos on audiobook over the weekend and am looking forward to starting Tess of the Road, a fantasy novel featuring dragons. (Rachel Hartman is the author of Seraphina, which I loved.) The novel was a recommendation from my friend Amani and so I’m eager to read it so I can discuss it with her via email or text.

Check out As Kat Knits for more reading/crafting combo posts.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is Top Ten Books to Pull You Out of a Reading Slump. Mine is a mix of books, authors, series, and genres:

1. The Harry Potter series, particularly the first three (old friends)
2. Jasper Fforde (funny)
3. James Thurber (short and funny)
4. Little Women (old friends)
5. Paddington series (sometimes a reading slump is illness-related, and these are my go-to sick-day reads)
6. Pride and Prejudice (old friends)
7. Anne of Green Gables (old friends)
8. A Year in Provence (funny)
9. comic collections (sometimes you just need pictures with your words; plus they’re short)
10. cozies (they read fast and they rarely require a lot out of you)

How about you? What do you turn to when your current reads just aren’t cutting it for whatever reason?

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, August 20, and runs through Sunday, August 26, in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 23 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team.

My goals for the week are to:

• Take part in at least two challenges and at least one of the Twitter chats.
• Visit at least one other Bout of Books participant’s blog a day.
• Read a little each day.
• Post some reviews.

Day 1 Challenge: Introduce Yourself #insixwords

How about: Reading all day. Reading all night.

Rudi suggests I go with “Books make me do weird things.”