Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon!!

Hi all and welcome to Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon! Although I’ve participated tentatively before, this year I’m shooting for the whole 24 hours. For starters, I just got up at 8am on a weekend to join in kicking off hour one. This is going to be a master post where I keep links to of all the challenge posts I do and  record what I’m up to each hour. Have fun guys and lets get started!

Hour 1 – Survey

This hour, I’ve just gotten up and am continuing to read The City and The City, which I read a little of yesterday.

  1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
    • I’m in Ithaca, NY in the US
  2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
    • I don’t know! They all sound so exciting!
  3. Which snack are you most looking forward to?
    • I need to go on a snack run for one of my reading breaks because I am not well-stocked on snacks. I think I’ll get lots of fruit and nuts so I have snackable stuff that’s not junk food, but I’m also going to get raisinettes, which are going to be awesome.
  4. Tell us a little something about yourself!
    • I read about half non-fiction and half fiction and my reading pile reflects that. I haven’t pulled an all nighter since senior year of college, so I’m excited to give it a try tonight :)
  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 did participate in the last read-a-thon, but only for a few hours. This year, I’m going to get lots more reading in. And snacks, lots of snacks :)

Hour 2 – Music for Reading

I’m still reading The City and The City and boy am I glad I got to this one early! It’s making me think so much, I don’t think I’d be able to do it later in the read-a-thon. The hour 2 challenge from River City Reading is to pick a song to go with your book. Personally, I’d pair The City and The City with Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know, because both the book and the song are a bit haunting.

Hour 3 and 4 – Still Reading

The City and The City is pretty slow going, so I’m passing on the challenges for now and just reading.

Hour 5 - Book Spine Poetry and a Break

I just took a small break, to get myself and my cat some food and to do the spine poetry mini-challenge from Capricious Reader. Mine is about The City and The City, which is what I’ve been reading so far.

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The City and The City
The Mirrored World
The Immortal Rules
Beautiful Lies

Hour 6 – First Book Finished!

I just finished The City and The City! Now it’s time for a break :)

Hour 7 – Starting A New Book + Lunch

I didn’t do too much reading this hour, since I got lunch, but I did make what turned out to be a difficult decision of what to start next. I ended up settling on Five Days at Memorial, which will probably take me a bit to get through, but which I expect to enjoy a lot and would rather read earlier than later.

Hour 8 – Madlibs and Books on Books

This hour I read some more of Five Days At Memorial. I also tried out both the Madlibs challenge at Nisaba Be Praised and the book cover guessing game at Stacy’s Books. I think I did pretty well at the cover guessing game and my madlib result was:

Baptist had its own spleen plant. A hex rose seven warlocks above it. Workers prepared to crunch the hospital’s furnaces 200,ooo gallons of love potion per week.

Hour 9 – Reading Outside

It actually warmed up enough to sit outside in the sun! That made for a nice change of pace :)

Hour 10 – Back Inside and Book Trailers

I’m back inside getting cozy on my couch this hour. I also checked out some book trailers for the hour 10 challenge from Jehara. For the most part, I don’t enjoy book trailers because they’re so poorly made, but I thought the one for Reboot was interesting.

Hour 11 – Snacks!

Ran to the store for about 30 minutes and am now in possession of a microwavable pot pie, grapes, granola bars, and several bits of dark chocolate delightfulness.

Hour 12 – Halfway There!

  1.  How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired?
    • not yet!
  2.  What have you finished reading?
    • I’ve finished The City and The City
  3.  What is your favorite read so far?
    • Out of my many choices, I think I’ll have to go with The City and The City  :)
  4.  What about your favorite snacks?
    • dark chocolate lindt truffles
  5.  Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love
    • Not yet, but I plan on doing a lot of commenting when I finish my current read

Hour 13 – Best Books of the Year

I’m steadily making my way though Five Days at Memorial and also selecting three categories to give “best of the year” awards in for the challenge being hosted this hour by Lisa’s World of Books. My awards are:

  • Best non-fiction of the year –  Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. This was incredibly well written, including great anecdotes and actionable advice backed by research. It’s also the book I’ve read this year which I most want other people to read.
  • Best indie book of the year - After The Ending, an indie dystopian that did a great job avoiding cliches
  • Best book to movie adaptation - The King’s Speech, a surprisingly dramatic and heartwarming movie

Hour 14 – Just Keep Reading

Still reading Five Days at Memorial and beginning to think about having some of those raisinettes! Also, for The Geeky Book Blogger’s, I said my dream audiobook would be anything on my TBR list narrated by Simon Vance. I love all of the audiobooks he narrates.

Hour 15 – Thriller Recommendation

Phew, my eyes are definitely getting tired, but I’m determined to make it to the end this year :) For this hour’s challenge over at Fiction State of Mind, I’m recommending Knife Music to those looking for a thriller that costs less than $4. I haven’t read Knife Music, but really liked The Big Exit by the same author.

Hour 16 – Six Word Celebration

Feeling a bit more awake after splashing my face with water and getting something to drink. Perhaps should have taken people’s advice to read shorter books, although I have been enjoying my reading. Still on Five Days at Memorial. The challenge this hour from Estella’s Revenge was to write a six word homage to Dewey. Mine is “Thanks to Dewey, nothing but reading”. I wouldn’t want to do this every weekend, but every so often, it’s fun to let everything else go and just read :)

Hour 17 – How Time Flies!

I can’t believe it’s hour 17 already! Reading, reading, reading…

Hour 18 – Another Book Down

This was an exciting hour. I finished my second book, Five Days at Memorial, and also made a meme for My Little World‘s challenge:

Hour 19 – Hip Hip Hooray!

Cheerleading this hour and feeling totally indecisive about what to read next. Am I up to a long fiction book? Or is an essay collection in order? TBD.

Hour 20 – Mini-challenge!

I’m done cheering and my mini-challenge is live! I’ve also settled in my next read, The Girl You Left Behind, and on my next snack, cookies :)

Hour 21 – Socializing/Reading

Am I the only one shifting to more socializing and less reading as time goes by? Because it’s just so much easier to focus on talking to you wonderful people and doing challenges than it is on reading! Still making some progress though and I think I’m going to end up liking The Girl You Left Behind a lot. This hour, I’m participating in Dead Book Darling‘s challenge, where she gives us an excuse to show off a book we’re excited to own :)

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Hour 22 – Almost There

I’ve been doing some more socializing but have mostly been enjoying reading The Girl You Left Behind. Not sure yet what’s so good about it, but I’m sure I like it! For this hour’s challenge from Reflection’s of a Bookaholic, I filled in the blank in a sentence with something from page 32 of my book to get “I would rather read than here the chatter from the bar any day!”

Hour 23 – Back to Reading!

I’m starting to get into The Girl You Left Behind and am doing some more reading in bed :)

Hour 24 – The Last Hour

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
    • I was pretty tired around hour 15 (10pm) and most tired during hour 21 (4am)
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
    • The Girl You Left Behind has really kept me going and I suspect The Husband’s Secret would also be a good read-a-thon choice
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
    • I thought directions for cheerleaders could have been a bit clearer. For instance, were we supposed to include team names in our comments?
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
    • Pretty much everything :)
  5. How many books did you read?
    • 2.5
  6. What were the names of the books you read?
    • The City and The City
    • Five Days At Memorial
    • The Girl You Left Behind
  7. Which book did you enjoy most?
    • The Girl You Left Behind
  8. Which did you enjoy least?
    • The City and The City, although they were all very good
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
    • I saved my cheering for when I needed a break from reading and I thought that worked well
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
    • I think I’ll probably do it again and would enjoy reading, cheering, and hosting a mini challenge, the same as this time

 

18 Comments

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18 Responses to Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon!!

  1. jennandthecats

    Hope the reading is going well! Snacks are a definite must!

    Reply
  2. Alice in Readerland

    Happy read-a-thon-ing!!! :)

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

    Reply
  3. Alexa

    Looks like you are making some progress in your stack. I hope you are having fun. Happy reading!

    Reply
  4. RebeccaScaglione - Love at First Book

    Grapes are a great read-a-thon snack! Keep reading! You can do it!

    Reply
    • DoingDewey

      Thanks! I’m getting sleepier, but The Girl You Left Behind is intriguing enough that I think I might make it :)

      Reply
  5. Veronica Morfi

    You seem to be rocking this read-a-thon. Keep on reading! :)

    Reply
  6. Laura

    Man, you are KILLING this ‘thon! Excellent work here, and I’m so glad that you got some more unhealthy snacks to help balance out the healthy ones you planned on. Sometimes some chocolate just makes you feel better in the wee small hours.

    Keep on truckin’!

    Reply
  7. Masanobu

    You are doing great! It’s true that as time goes by, it’s more difficult to be focused on reading. Keep on the good work!

    Reply
    • DoingDewey

      Thanks for stopping by! For the last few hours, I got a second wind and was able to hop back into reading :)

      Reply
  8. Alice

    Woah, I am so impressed, look at you go! I wish I had had time to participate, it looks like it was so much fun – and so social!

    Reply
  9. ebookclassics

    Wow, congrats on completing the marathon! It was fun to follow your progress each hour.

    Reply
    • DoingDewey

      Thanks! Last year I only read for a few hours, so it was really exciting to be able to devote the whole day this time :)

      Reply

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