Tomorrow, I will be taking part in Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon! I can’t remember how many in total I’ve participated in, but it’s been quite a few. As my tradition goes, I’ve taken the day off today to prep for this monumental event. I’ll be spending a large part of the day taking care of errands and chores around the house so I have ample time to read tomorrow. My boys’ schedule tomorrow is insane, so while I won’t be able to read all day, I should be able to get quite a few hours in.
So, how to I prep for the read-a-thon? First, I set up my read-a-thon spreadsheet. This is the key to making sure I don’t waste too much time on my updates. It calculates how many total pages read, how many total minutes read, just by plugging in a few numbers.
I don’t do multiple blog posts with updates. Instead, I have one main post, and I use Tumblr for my hourly (or sometimes every few hour) updates. I post links to those updates on the main post. I do this as to not overwhelm those who have subscribed to my blog feed; imaging their surprise when they log in to see dozens of posts on one day! And, traditionally, those not participating in the read-a-thon don’t read these posts, generally marking them all as read, so it saves us all a lot of unnecessary work.
The books are the most important part of the read-a-thon, obviously. It’s important to pick the right titles: nothing too heavy or long, I generally pick those with lighter subject matters. Additionally, I always have a few comics and graphic novels in my pile for those late hours when it’s hard to concentrate. So, for this read-a-thon, this is my reading pile:
The titles, in case you can’t see them, are:
The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith
The Mapaker’s Children by Sarah McCoy (ARC)
Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
The Blondes by Emily Schultz
Girl in the Dark: A Memoir by Anna Lyndsey
Comics: Sleepy Hollow, Savior, Lumberjanes, Chrononauts, Secret Identities. I have a few volumes and graphic novels I’ll likely add as well.
Reading location is also key. I’ll be spending most of my reading time in the coveted red reading chair:
The final component is food! No soda or sugar, but food that will sustain you like fruit, raw veggies, and proteins. This is marathon, of sorts. With that, I’m off to go shopping for the last minute food necessities!
Are you participating in the read-a-thon? How do you prepare? What books do you have lined up to read?
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