This Saturday, I’ll be taking part in Dewey’s Readathon. I have no plans to do the full 24 hours, but will be spending some of my waking hours reading.

And to prep, here are my answers to the opening survey:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

The U.S. Washington, D.C., in particular.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I left the final third of How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse to finish as part of the event, and I’m very invested in the outcome.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

I probably did not prep adequately for snacking at home, so I’ll be taking a coffeeneuring break at some point. There will be a baked good of some ilk.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

My reading tastes in 2020 run toward romances, because I desperately need some happy endings. I’m a big fiction fan, but sometimes branch out into memoir. I am a big proponent of my local library, which kicks ass and which lends me way more books than they should.

I like to bake, knit, garden, and hang out with friends when there’s not a stupid pandemic going on. I have a demanding cat named Corey, who does not particularly care for reading. And I am a big fan of holidays, particularly Halloween and Christmas. (I run a Virtual Advent Tour in December for bloggers. Drop me a note in the comments if you’re new to the blog and interested in more details.)

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

I think the last time I participated was last fall or maybe spring 2019. I will be interspersing my reading with some outdoor time — and probably some politicking.

Intellectually, I understand that if my knitting stays in my purse and I do not work on it, it will not progress. Yet, somehow, when I pulled it out tonight, I was surprised that it was still just the handful of rounds I’d knit last week. If only elves were knitters, rather than cobblers! (Or if I could knit in my sleep…)

I am making progress with my book. I’m pretty much at the halfway point, and I’d be surprised if I weren’t done by Saturday, since I really like the characters.

Anyway, see what the other Unravelers are up to at As Kat Knits.

Olivia Macaron
3270 M St., N.W.
Saturday, Oct. 17, evening
Conditions: Clear and cool

Again, a later start than I’d hoped for meant I had to improvise a stop.

First stop was the garden, where I picked tomatoes and herbs and mourned the loss of the big pepper I’d been hoping would turn red. Possibly a four-legged marauder, but my bet would be on the two-legged variety.

Second stop was Bridge Street Books, D.C.’s oldest indie bookshop. I was looking for two books of poetry by local authors, and their selection tends to be the deepest. They had neither, so I ordered one and bought a book in translation (another of their specialties) that The New York Times described as “an oddball fairy tale.”

I took a jaunt up the Capital Crescent for a short way, but it was getting toward sundown and I didn’t want to be on the trail alone past dusk. So I turned around at the first connection to the C&O Canal Towpath and headed back to Georgetown.

I decided to finally visit Olivia Macaron, a specialty shop tucked into the side of the Georgetown mall next to what used to be Dean & Deluca. It’s been there seven years, but I’d never bothered to visit, because a) there are other macaron shops in D.C. I like and b) if I’m on M, there are usually baked good shops I’d rather visit. Welcome to pandemic times when everything good is closed and everything open has crazy lines.

I am pleased to report that should you be hankering for a macaron, Olivia’s is perfectly nice. I’d long assumed it was an outpost of a New York shop/chain, but it turns out that it’s an independent shop. (Check out their blog for adorable Halloween macaron hacks.) Because it was late, they had a limited supply of cookies left, so I took the recommendation of the clerk.

I had a cup of Earl Grey tea and a honey lavender macaron, which I consumed on a bench in front of a closed bike shop on a nearby street because there is no bike parking by the mall or on that busiest stretch of M Street. The cookie and tea were good, but there were too many passersby with poor mask skills, so I don’t think I’ll be back to Georgetown on a Saturday evening anytime soon.

My final stop of the night was an impromptu one. As I was biking home, I realized that the Kings of Rock Creek, a local band was performing an outdoor show in Rose Park. I’d heard their music wafting over to the garden sometimes in the summer and passed by some of their corner store concerts en route to other places, but this was the first time I really had nowhere else to be. So I needed to be there. It felt so … normal to be outside listening to a show (albeit in the chilly October air), and the two bands played a fun mix of their own songs and covers. They shared they have two more shows this month, so I now know where I’ll be the next two Saturday nights.

Mileage: 4.65 miles

Here’s today’s library haul and half a pair of Halloween socks. (Ends are woven in but not trimmed on sock #1 and the stitch marker is still hanging out there for safe keeping.)

I believe The Resisters is about dystopian feminist baseball, and How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is described as Princess Leia meets The Princess Bride. Who wouldn’t want to read that?!

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what else is going on with crafters who read and readers who craft!

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to consider super long book titles. Did you know that according to this article, fiction titles should have no more than five words in it and non-fiction no more than ten, including any subtitle.

That sounds … silly. But it may not be wholly inaccurate if my own Goodreads list is any indication.

Anyway, here are ten books I’ve enjoyed that have many more words than a successful titles should:

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows — This one has so many words I often wonder if I’ve gotten them all in or if a few extra have snuck in under the radar. I imagine it’s like a large family; it takes you a while to ascertain that everyone in a room belongs there.
2. Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History by Cait Murphy — I loved this book about baseball at the turn of the 20th century.
3. The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone — Elizebeth Smith Friedman’s story is brought to light.
4. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds — Reynolds tells the story of ten middle-schooler’s trips home from school.
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg — A classic!
6. Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle — I was reading this book and its sequel just before the 2016 election and the fact that real life didn’t get the kick-ass feminist ending this pair of novels did just about ruined me.
7. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg — I feel like so many of us came to this novel through the movie that we forget that’s an abbreviated title.
8. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia — A recent favorite based on African and Black folklore and mythology.
9. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall — I found this book old-fashioned and charming.
10. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by M. Catherynne Valente — Kudos to Valente for getting all these words in without the need for a colon! I should really track down the second book in this middle-grade fantasy series.

How about you? Do you think the length of a book title matters? Are you inclined to forget a book’s title if it goes on for too long?

Behold! A sock that is nearly complete! I’ve started the toe decreases and anticipate wrapping this one up tomorrow evening, perhaps while up at the park.

Or, I’ll be reading. Both of these books are overdue with holds on them. I’d like to get The Trouble with Hating You by Sajni Patel back to the Arlington library this weekend. I have another book overdue there, as well, but my hold on its D.C. equivalent is waiting for me at the MLK library downtown, which I hope to be able to collect tomorrow or Friday. It took me a little while to get into this alternating-POV romance about a woman who runs out on a dinner where her traditional parents have ambushed her with a potential marriage match — who turns out to be the new lawyer she’s going to have to work with on a regular basis. But now that I’m past the set-up, I’m enjoying it.

Sarah has promised me that We Ride Upon Sticks does not contain Horrible Events (outside of the normal day-to-day horrible things that happen to real-life teenage girls), so I have picked that back up again. Its foreshadowing and style of narration had stressed me out and I’d put it down for a while.

Head over to As Kat Knits for her weekly Unraveled wrap-up.