My Semi-Detatched Readathon

I was all ready for the 24 hour Readathon last Saturday.


 Books:

The Teammates - David Halberstam

Less - Sean Andrew Greer

Bust Hell Wide Open - Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.

The Crime of the Century - Hal Higdon


Snacks:

Big soft pretzel with cheese

Toffee bar with pecans

Coffee

Nachos

Coca-Cola with lime, extra ice


But...yeah. I couldn't get away for any meaningful length of time. Clearly, my Saturdays are not my own anymore.

What a showing. A few minutes here and there. A few pages, a couple of quick tweets. Maybe a total of fifty pages. Some of the snacks didn't get into my belly until it was all over.

Damn it, I want my Readathons back! I used to read 3-4 books per Readathon, and posted my progress for nearly every hour. My snacks were a thing of joy and beauty forever.

24 hours of reading is such a small thing to want. A tiny indulgence. For the uninitiated, it's a ludicrous thing; I understand that. I love it and I miss it. On some level, I even need it. At this point, I would even settle for a half-marathon.

I tried to be brave on Twitter and put a good face on it, but I feel thwarted.

Thwarted. Think about the sound of that word. It's an arrow released from the bow that misses the mark and lands somewhere in Hell's half-acre.

I'll go now and try to gather my hopes for October.

Readathon: Final Update

That's a wrap for this Readathon, and I'm both glad and sorry.  It feels like I didn't get my stuff together until the waning hours.

Hoped to get in a 4th book, but was happy with what I read, especially my last book, Chocolat.  Thanks to Teri for recommending it to me, and to Becka, who insisted I borrow it from her last year.

Time for the traditional end-of-Readathon reflection:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?  The whole thing seemed daunting, right from the beginning.  Never underestimate the power of a pre-Readathon nap, even just 1-2 hours, especially if you have an awkward start time, like we do here in Asia.

2. For the next Readathon, could you list a few high-interest books that would keep a reader engaged?  That's easy:  Read Chocolat.  Read Chocolat.  Read Chocolat.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Readathon for next year?  For as big and unwieldy as this event has gotten, it's been managed superbly.

4. What do you think worked really well in the Readathon this year?  I liked the dance songs and the jokes from the hosts.

5. How many books did you read?  3, for a total of 777 pages.

6. What were the names of the books you read? 
Dead End In Norvelt - Jack Gantos
 Sounder - William H. Armstrong
 Chocolat - Joanne Harris.

7. Which book did you like the most?  Chocolat!

8. Which book did you like the least?  Dead End In Norvelt.  I was surprised that I didn't like it more.  I've been saving it up like candy (chocolate, for example) for this occasion.

9. Do you have any advice for next year's Cheerleaders?  None.  I didn't realize how much I relied on your comments.

10.  Do you think you'll participate next time?  In what role?  This time, I was just a reader.  Usually I split my time between reading and cheering.  If I participate again, I'll go back to the dual roles.

Readathon: Hours 22-24

That's it -- the whole enchilada.  Whew.

Books read: 
1. The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron
2. Shadow of a Bull - Maia Wojciechowska
3. It's Like This, Cat - Emily Cheney Neville
4. Shane - Jack Schaeffer

Page count:  592

I wish I could manage the whole 24 hours.  Are those days behind me?  I like to think that I just haven't stumbled onto the answer yet.  Maybe next time.

 In October, I plan to make another -- bigger -- Newbery stack, because it really worked well for me.  The books are of excellent quality, they aren't very long and I'm plugging all the gaps in my knowledge about children's literature.

I always think, at the end, that I'll spend all my time reading the next time, but I have this compulsion to see what everyone else is reading and snacking on, so I'll probably do some cheering again.

Okay, the brain now feels like an empty house with the windows up and the door left standing open and the eyeballs feel like they were left on the grill, so I'll say goodnight.

Readathon: The Finish Line

Pages read: 47
Snacks: 0
Blogs visited: 2

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 11.5. I couldn't go another step. I needed sleep.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I haven't read him, but I noticed that John Green got a lot of love during this Readathon.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? No.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The challenges and alphabetizing the readers' names.

5. How many books did you read? 3 books and a tiny amount out of two others when I was finicky and couldn't settle.

6. What were the names of the books you read?
St. Mawr - D. H. Lawrence
Yi Sun-Shin -Korean Spirit and Culture Series (no individual author listed)
A Wish After Midnight - Zetta Elliott

7. Which book did you enjoy most? St. Mawr

8. Which did you enjoy least? The other two books broke even.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Skim through the postings and try to find some sort of comment hook and respond at least partially to what readers talked about or photos they posted in that hour or perhaps a previous hour.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? It's likely that I'd participate again and be both a reader and a cheerleader.

Readathon Wrap-Up

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? In the 8th hour, I was overpowered by that effing jerk, Mr. Sandman. "Bring me a dream." Yeah, right. My ass. The creep held me hostage for 4 hours. I finally got away from him. He pulled some crap again in Hour 19, but I was too strong for him.

2. Could you list some high-interest books that you think could keep a reader engaged? Three words: Linda Sue Park. She's my author-crush of the moment. Yes, she's YA, but don't turn up your nose. Readers of all ages could learn a lot about Korean culture and get good stories in the bargain.

3. Suggestions to improve the Readathon? This is unreasonable, but I'll try anyway: Could we do a 'thon one time in which other continents (like Asia, for example) get a good night's sleep and start in the morning and North America starts at night? Okay, I'll stop whining now.

4. What do you think worked well in the Readathon? The cheerleaders were well-organized.

5. How many books did you read? 3 and 55.3% of a fourth one.

6. What were they?
When My Name Was Keoko - Linda Sue Park
Yang The Youngest and His Terrible Ear - Lensey Namioka
Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously - Julie Powell

7. Which book did you enjoy the most? Park's my crush, but Satrapi is mesmerizing. I was pleased to discover Namioka's book is part of a series about the Yang family.

8. Which book did you enjoy the least? I lovehate and hatelove Julie and Julia. Her style irritates me, but not so much that I can stop reading. I'm 68% of the way through it now and I'm dying to see the movie, sad to say.

9. If you were a cheerleader, what advice do you have? Try to read people's blogs and leave a personal comment. Or, find a gimmick like Softdrink did with her parodies of songs. I'm still LOL at her rewrite of "Let's Do The Time Warp Again". And, as always, pep talk is wonderful.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Readathon again? 94% likely. October to April is a difficult time for me because there's no Readathons or major league baseball. By the time winter's over, I'm so very ready for both.

Readathon: After The Ball Is Over

Okay, now that I've slept, I can't believe all the fun, camaraderie and reading is over. As always, it's a letdown. Big sigh, but there'll be another one in a few months. Meanwhile, I can complete Dewey's end survey:

1. Which hour was the most daunting for you? When we got into the 20s...boy howdy! I had one hour when I read only 12 pages. My brain felt like it was being bathed in rubber cement.

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2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I was really impressed with those Dorling-Kindersley biographies for young people! You could probably find them at the library. Mr. Bybee bought them at Hastings for $5.00 apiece.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Readathon for next year? Let's double the time! lol

4. What do you think worked really well in this year's Readathon? Dewey's co-hosts kept things running so smoothly; I'm so happy she had help so she could rest a little.

5. How many books did you read? I finished 3 books and got halfway through a fourth one. My total page count came out to 623, which is higher than I thought it would be since I had ten non-reading hours. Never having kept count before, I'm pleased to have a number to match or beat during the next Readathon. Having said all of that, I wish I had participated in more of the challenges. I wish I had read for charity.

6. What were the names of the books you read? How Koreans Talk: A Collection Of Expressions by Sang-Hun Choe & Christopher Torchia; Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry; Princess Diana by Joanne Mattern. The half-finished book is When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris.

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7. Which book did you enjoy the most? It's really hard to say. I enjoyed all of them. Since the reading went so well, I'm going to stick with my nonfiction pattern for the next Readathon.

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8. Which book did you enjoy least? See answer #7.

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9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year's Cheerleaders? The middle hours are when the Readers are tired and really need you. Praise, encouragement, etc. -- all the things you'd be doing, anyway. I tried to find something specific in their blog entries to comment so they'd know that someone was out there truly paying attention and appreciating their effort. Eva, come back -- I missed you and your boundless energy!

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10. How likely are you to participate in the Readathon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Woe betide anyone who would try to stop me from participating again! I'd like to be a Reader/Cheerleader once more, and yes, I'm planning on doing the whole 24 -- or whatever -- hours.

Readathon: The Post-Event Survey

1. Which hour was most daunting?

Hours 5-8. I kept dozing off every few words. After that, I didn't have any real problems.

2. Ideas for high-interest books?

Next year, I'm going to keep some YA nonfiction at the ready. More graphic novels. Something with a "cliffhanger" chapter ending is good, although in my real (non-Readathon) reading life, I'd feel manipulated. Finally, I wish I'd turned to some of the humor books on my shelves. Speaking of humor, I also wish I'd had the new Sedaris book.

3. Suggestions for improvements?

None.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year's Readathon?

The challenges were a lot of fun. I really liked Jessi's. She had a video with authors' photos, and we had to identify as many as possible. I also liked that Dewey had several tasks to keep us busy during the last two hours when we weren't quite as fresh as before.

5. How many books did you read?

Four.

6. What were the books you read?

Grizzly! Real-Life Animal Attacks - Allan B. Ury

Monday Mourning - Kathy Reichs

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

The Witch Of Blackbird Pond - Elizabeth George Speare

7. Which book did you like the most?

Persepolis

8. Which book did you like the least?

I ended up liking all of them, but I wasn't sure about The Witch Of Blackbird Pond at first.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, what advice would you give to future cheerleaders?

I wasn't a Cheerleader.

10. How likely are you to participate in the Readathon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

I'm very likely to participate again. Next time, I'd like to be a Reader for the first half and Cheerleader for the second half.

Dewey! Thank you for hosting this! Now that it's all over and I've slept a bit, I feel sad.

After The Readathon

Wow, that was great. I hope we can do it again next year. Or in 6 months. How often do people do actual marathons...as in running?

Coming into the home stretch, I took an idea from another blog and decided to start a Stephen King novel, Lisey's Story. King's open, easy style and his pacing were just the thing I needed to switch gears. I'm 238 pages into the novel and enjoying it very much. Meeting Stephen King would be a dream, except I'd probably babble uncontrollably and possibly wet myself. I think "Steve" would be pleased that I'm a Don Robertson fan. Otherwise, I might end up as one of his grotesques in a future novel.

CanadaBoy drew names for my prize. Nyssaneala is the winner of A Peep Into Korea. Nyssaneala, please email me with your address. MEM, I'm sorry you lost, but the next time I see this book, I'll pick up a copy for you.

Gigantic kudos to Dewey for envisioning and creating this very fun event. I've had an inkling before, but the Readathon made me fully realize just how much of a community we really are. Now that it's all over, I feel a little postpartum. What about you?