Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-Thon: The Wrap Up
Well, I stayed up until 4 am (the beginning of hour 22!) but couldn’t stay awake anymore. And I’m extremely exhausted today. I don’t think I’ve been this tired since those first months after my son was born.
But regardless, I had a blast and I reached my goals, so I think it was a success! So I’ll answer the End of Event questions and then post my final stats.
- Which hour was most daunting for you? I’d say hours 20 and 21. I went to sleep early in hour 22, and those couple of hours right before were really hard! At one point (around hour 20) I read for an hour straight and only read 24 pages! My brain was really slow at that point.
- Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The two books I finished this year, I think, are great for readathon. The first is The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan. It’s a really beautifully written novel that tells the story of a romance through definitions. It’s 211 pages, but many of the pages are only a few sentences long, so it’s a really quick read! And the other book I read was a manga, and I think those are great for readathon, especially to break things up a bit.
- Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I can’t think of any! This was my first time participating and I think it went really well!
- What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I think it all went really well!
- How many books did you read? Finished 2, plus started another
- What were the names of the books you read? The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld, and Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
- Which book did you enjoy most? The Lover’s Dictionary, hands down. It was just such a creative book and was so beautifully written.
- Which did you enjoy least? Sloppy Firsts, but I think that’s only because I started reading it at the time when my brain started slowing down.
- If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was not a cheerleader.
- How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Oh, I’ll definitely participate again! (Hopefully my husband will be okay with watching our son again all day!) I’ll be a reader of course and next time maybe I’ll sign up as a cheerleader, too, or host a mini-challenge. I guess it all depends on how busy I am at the time.
So here are my final stats! My only goal was to read both The Lover’s Dictionary and Uglies: Shay’s Story, and I reached that goal!
Total books read:
The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan (Finished!)
Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld (Finished!)
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (only read about 34 pages)
Total pages read: 437
Total time spent reading: 7 hours (I should have kept count of how many hours I spent doing mini-challenges and commenting, too, because I did a lot of that!)
Mini-challenges completed:
Turn to Page… @ Reflections of a Bookaholic
Book Sentence @ On the Wings of Books (here’s my sentence)
Book Staging @ Midnight Book Girl (here’s my staging)
E-book Survey @ Noumena12 Book Blog
Your Favorite Trouble Maker @ The Fake Steph Dot Com (here’s my post)
MidEvent Survey @ Dewey’s Read-a-Thon home page
Name That Book @ Fictionally Inclined
Other participants I’ve visited: (I plan on visiting more soon!)
Prizes won: None, darn!
Links:
I adapted this template from Irish at Ticket to Anywhere. Thanks, Irish!
So I think it was a great success! I enjoyed the mini-challenges and checking out other bloggers who were participating, and of course the reading! I’ll definitely be participating again! Now I should probably take a nap…
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Bittner
April 22, 2012 at 7:26 pmYou did a great job this readathon! But next readathon is going to kick ass!!! I can't wait! Congrats on finishing the two books you wanted to finish and starting a third. I fell asleep shortly after we got off the phone! And then I slept in until after 10!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:29 pmThanks! Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again!
Kate@Midnight Book Girl
April 22, 2012 at 7:27 pmCongrats on reaching and surpassing your goals! One of these days I will be more realistic. But I agree, Lover's Dictionary and any kind of manga is great for Readathon. And if you really want to pump up your page #, then for sure read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it's over 500 pages, but quite a bit of it is drawings and light text on pages.
And you should definitely cheerlead, even if for just an hour! So many people unofficially cheer that they may as well take the title too. I'm so glad that you participated!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:30 pmI do really want to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, so maybe I'll save it for next readathon!
Kimberly @ On the Wings of Books
April 22, 2012 at 8:49 pmI love how you set a realistic, attainable goal. I was a little over ambitious, but I did manage to finish the 2 books that I really really wanted to read so I feel good about that. The only thing I wished I would have done more of is visit other blogs, but that will be my plan for next time! I can't wait for your review of The Lover's Dictionary. :)
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:33 pmWell, I figured, since it was my first readathon plus since I'm a slow reader, it would be better to just set a small goal. But I'll probably up the ante next time!
Kristine A
April 23, 2012 at 2:53 amCongratulations on reaching your goal! I haven't heard of The Lover's Dictionary before, so I'll have to check that out. Your post is much more organized than me…I'm taking notes on what to do next time. :) I didn't really have a goal or keep track of time read/doing challenges/commenting, but now I know for the next readathon: I need a plan to be more organized! Congrats, again! Also, your blog layout is very pretty. :)
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:36 pmThanks! I just happened to stumble across a template, so it made it a lot easier to stay organized! I still think I'm going to do things a bit differently next time – like keeping track of the time I spend on other blogs and doing mini-challenges, but also I think I'll have less update posts. That actually seemed to take time away from my reading, and also probably annoyed people who subscribe, since those posts were filling up their google readers!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics
April 23, 2012 at 2:27 pmWow — I did not realize that the read-a-thon necessitated staying up for 24 hours. Not sure I could do that! But great job — I'm very impressed!!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:47 pmWell, you don't have to stay up the full 24 hours, and I don't think most people do. But I tried to stay up as late as I could and read as much as possible.
fakesteph
April 23, 2012 at 4:23 pmI seriously need to read The Lover's Dictionary. And I'm glad you had a good time! I love the Readathon!!!!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:47 pmYes, you should read it! And yeah, readathon was awesome! Glad you guys had fun!
Tracy
April 23, 2012 at 4:32 pmSounds like you had a great readathon. I havent heard of those books, will check them out.
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 23, 2012 at 9:48 pmYep, it was lots of fun! Thanks for stopping by!
Jessie Marie
April 24, 2012 at 12:14 amWow, congratulations on all that you did accomplish! Reading all day takes a lot of effort, even though we love it so. So committing to and accomplishing over 400 pages (and a toddler, to boot!), you'd best be patting yourself on the back!
I hope to be able to participate in October. I had to pass this go around for a spring football game that I was so excited about… and ended up being cancelled for thunderstorms. Ugh! Ah well, se la vie, right?
Anyway, congrats!
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 25, 2012 at 2:46 amThanks! Yeah, I was pretty proud of reading that much, especially since I'm a pretty slow reader. Luckily my husband was on toddler duty all day, although I did give him lots of breaks!
I'm glad you're going to try to participate in October! I'll let you know when the signups start!
LHughes
April 24, 2012 at 2:36 amGosh! The Read-a-thon sounds intense! I just don't know if I could put life on hold for that long. And my eyes would probably feel droopy. Probably depends on what book I'm reading though! :)
Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase
April 25, 2012 at 2:48 amIt wasn't too intense. I mean, yeah, it was in a way, but it wasn't at the same time. I'm not really sure how to explain it. But surprisingly my eyes didn't really get droopy until about hour 20 or so. Which is pretty good, I think! Next year I might try to take some naps during the day so that I can try to make it the full 24 hours. But many people don't make it the full 24 anyway. But it was a lot of fun!