Book Events & Blog Events, Challenges

April 2016 Readathon: Updates & Mini Challenges

Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-A-Thon is a bi-annual readathon, hosted at 24hourreadathon.com, where readers and bloggers get together and read for 24 hours, sharing their experience with others.

Instead of writing several posts, I thought I’d just keep all my updates and mini challenges on one page, with separate posts for the Opening Meme and the End of Event Meme.

Hours 1-6
 
Book(s) read: The Walking Dead, Compendium Two by Robert Kirkman, et al.
Thoughts on current read: I was about 75% done with The Walking Dead Compendium Two before the readathon, so I’m hoping to finish it within the next couple hours. I like how the comics are similar to the show, but different as well, so that I am still surprised by things. (Or I guess I should say that the show is different yet similar to the comics, since the comics came before the show, but I watched the show first…)
Total books read so far:  None finished

Pages read:  134
Total pages read so far: 134
Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour, 20 minutes  
Total time spent reading so far: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Notes:  The readathon starts at 5am my time, and I enjoy my sleep, so I didn’t wake up until 8, the start of hour 3. And then I spent some time laying around in bed with my hubs and kiddos, and then published my Starting Line post with the Opening Meme. Then I had breakfast and then there was an impromptu bath for the baby after a lovely diaper blow out, and then I found out I won a prize during hour 5! Yay! So I didn’t actually start reading until halfway into hour 5. But hopefully I’ll get much more reading done during the rest of the day! 

Hours 7-12

Book(s) read:  The Walking Dead, Compendium Two – Finished!
Thoughts on current read:  Still enjoying it!
Total books read so far:  Finished 1

Pages read:  132
Total pages read so far: 266 
Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Total time spent reading so far: 2 hours, 40 minutes 

Notes:  Did the Taco Road Trip challenge (see below) during hour 7, even though the challenge was technically over. I had lots of fun with it, though! Spent hour 8 cheering for fellow members of Team Goldfinch and visited a couple of blogs. In hour 9 I did the Facebook Group Challenge, and did my new exercise routine. Hour 10 I recovered from my exercise routine, spent some time with my husband, and took a shower. During hour 11 I ate lunch, then started reading again. Finished The Walking Dead, Compendium Two just before the end of hour 12.

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? 

I just finished The Walking Dead, Compendium Two.
2. How many books have you read so far?
So far, I’ve only finished one. But I’ve only spent 2 hours and 40 minutes reading so far. (I need to spend more time reading!)
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Basically all of the books that are on my stack:


They’re all graphic novels so I should be able to read them quickly. I just wanted to finish The Walking Dead, Compendium Two, since I was pretty close to finishing it before the readathon began.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

Yes. Every time I leave my bedroom I end up being gone for longer than I expected, because of my kiddos and my husband. It’s not annoying, and they’re not trying to keep me away from reading, it’s just things that happen when you have kids. I just have to try to remember to get back to my reading as quickly as possible.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Well, I’ve done this readathon lots of times, but this is my first time to be a cheerleader, and man, I didn’t realize how much time that took. So far I’ve only cheered for an hour but I didn’t get through many people at all. And I imagine in previous years, it probably took even longer since cheering wasn’t on Twitter then. But I’m going to try to cheer again later.

Hours 13-18

Book(s) read: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz graphic novel by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young
Thoughts on current read: I’m enjoying it, but also just really wanting to finish it.
Total books read so far: 1 finished, 1 started 

Pages read: 142
Total pages read so far: 408 
Amount of time spent reading: 2 hours, 20 minutes 
Total time spent reading so far: 5 hours

Notes: My husband left at the beginning of hour 14, so that left me the closing shift as parent. I spent hour 14 and 15 hanging with the kiddos, making and having dinner with them, and getting them to bed. A little after the start of hour 16, I was back in my room, and started in on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I started to get really tired at the end of that hour, so my reading was slow-going. In hour 17, I decided to do some more cheering, and continued to get even sleepier. Before the hour was up, I decided to have a snack and that woke me up a bit. I read for another hour, until my hubs came home and he and I talked for a bit until he went to bed. I’m really still quite tired but I’m determined to finish this book so hopefully I will be able to do that before I fall asleep!

Hours 19-24

Book(s) read: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz graphic novel – finished!
Thoughts on current read: I might have to reread some of this because I was so tired and falling asleep while trying to finish reading it.
Total books read so far: 2
Pages read: 45


Total pages read so far: 453  
Amount of time spent reading: 1 hour   
Total time spent reading so far: 6 hours 

Notes: I started falling asleep at the end of hour 19, and decided I needed to go to bed. But then I messed around on social media for a little while, and then in the middle of hour 20, I decided to rally and try to finish The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Finally finished, and went to bed at the start of hour21. 


Mini Challenges  

Taco Road Trip (Hosted at In The Forest of Stories)


We were supposed to go on a road trip with a character in our current read and write a postcard to another character, telling them all about our road trip. Mine turned pretty depressing, because of the book I’m reading, but I’m kind of proud of it. I wrote it in about 3 minutes and I would totally change some things, but I’m just going to leave it as it is.


Book: The Walking Dead, Compendium Two by Robert Kirkman, et al.
Traveling Buddy: Rick Grimes


Postcard to Carl Grimes:


Hi Carl! Your dad, Rick, and I took a little trip today. I know you wanted to come but it’s too dangerous out there with all the Walkers for you to come all the time. So you just needed to stay put today, buddy. I miss the old road trips we used to have. They were much more fun than these. I used to take trips with my friends all over the country. We’d eat all the tacos we could handle, listen to songs way too loudly, and visit lots of cool places. Maybe one of these days, you and me and your dad can do that again. Maybe one day things will all be back like they used to be, before dead people started rising again. Maybe your dad and I can find some stuff to make tacos and we can bring them back to you. I miss tacos a lot. I miss my old friends. I miss the way life used to be. And I don’t even know why I’m writing you a postcard, because there’s no post office to deliver it to you. Oh, well. All we can do is keep living, keep fighting, and maybe one day we’ll have a post office, tacos, road trips and music again. We can’t give up hope. See you soon.



I also did the Facebook Challenge.



*****


Other participants I’ve visited:
Jessie from Jessie Marie Reads
Kate from Midnight Book Girl

Prizes I’ve won:
I won during hour 5! Yay! I’m so excited!

Links:
Official Read-a-Thon page

 
I adapted this template from Irish at Ticket to Anywhere.  Thanks, Irish!

1 Comment

  1. Kate Midnight Book Girl

    April 28, 2016 at 11:06 am

    First, yay for cheerleading! And yes, it is harder than it looks! I basically spent time cheering for the members of my Team Raven that were actively tweeting (I think I got to 50 of them?).

    How changed are some of the characters in TWD? Mainly I'm talking about Carol. And Andrea. And Maggie and Glenn. And Michonne (although she's still 100% badass). Loved your postcard!

    And while I don't have any kiddos, I did have my nieces over (all weekend, from Friday night until Sunday for the one and Monday for the other, being a fake parent to two teenagers is both exhausting and expensive, so I have all the respect in the world for you and Jeremy), which was good (the 17 year old read Eleanor and Park and Beta) and bad (the 15 year old read two chapters of Fangirl and two pages of Eleanor and Park because she "has to be in the mood to read", which didn't occur anytime over the weekend).

    I'm sorry I didn't get here on Readathon, but I literally felt like I was juggling flaming balls trying to read, entertain the nieces and cheer. I am no Red Woman, so those flaming balls hurt. ;) Next time I cheer, I might dedicate a solid hour to just visiting my blogger friends actual blogs. ;)

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