Monday, March 23, 2009

Bookworm Quandary

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon has been set for April 18th. As you know, April 18th to most of you is April 19th to me -- and April 19th is book group. We're discussing The Time Traveler's Wife.

Aaarrrghh...I want to do both, but I can't. The Readathon comes but once every 6 months and I enjoy the hell out of pushing myself to read and blog, to stay up the whole 24 hours. Last time, I really got a kick out of my cheerleading duties. I had plans to cheerlead again.

On the other hand: I don't feel like I can neglect my real-life friends for my virtual ones. Would the real-life ones understand? Oh, probably. They know me and even understand me, a little. Also, I'm a little superstitious: I feel as if I start skipping book group, it might just up and disappear. I would hate that, because it took me forever (2.5 years) to find this one.

You might be thinking that the problems of one little bookworm don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday I'll understand.

I've got about a month to work it out. Meanwhile, any suggestions?

11 comments:

Fyrefly said...

How long is your book club meeting for? Could you read-a-thon for the rest of the time, then take a two hour (or whatever) break for book club? (Of course with an audiobook for travel to/from. :)

People take readathon breaks to sleep or for other real-life things all the time... you shouldn't feel guilty about taking a break for something book-related!

Sam said...

I think that first comment is an excellent idea. You might not get in as many pages by taking a break to discuss a book - but your post about the experience would be "different" and, I suspect, more interesting than it otherwise might have been. Do both - just don't fall asleep in front of your real world friends. :-)

Eva said...

I was going to suggest the same thing as Fyrefly! :)

raych said...

Man, I have my OWN quandry! Not only do I have an exam for the first 3 hours of the 'thon (which wouldn't be that big of a deal, because I would just read for 21 hours instead), but I have another exam on teh 20th. So...do I spend the read-a-thon reading or studying? Or both?

Our lives are so hard.

Anonymous said...

Does it count if you read the whole time on the train while going to book group. The group could be considered blogging preparation, and then read on the whole ride back. ;)

Anonymous said...

I haven't heard too much about the book group in a while. But if I was there I would say we get the book group to change the date to a week earlier or later (both of us know it wouldn't be the first time the date was changed (often for idiotic reasons, this is a good reason!)

Tara said...

What a quandry! You have some good suggestions here. It sounds like perhaps you could go to book club and still participate in the read-a-thon. I don't think my family would go for it, though, me doing it.

Literary Feline said...

A couple of people have mentioned doing a 12-hour read-a-thon instead of the entire 24 hours. Would that work out better for you?

Anonymous said...

I'm no help - no suggestions. I'm in a quandary myself. I've got too many 'it depends on ___' to offer up before I can commit and it makes me sad.
Is it quandry or quandary!? sigh.

Anonymous said...

I'd find it hard to give up a book club for a marathon myself. Fyrefly and thatsthebook have excellent suggestions though.

Okibum said...

You know what you could do? Do the readathon with a different time zone. Brunch/Lunch was fun today.