Saturday, September 13, 2008

Readathon!

...you go back, Jack, do it again...
-Steely Dan-

Can my booklife get any better?! Dewey is hosting another Readathon on October 18, 2008.

Time to start telling people that I'm not available on that day. For anything. Luckily, book group is the weekend before that; I would've hated to miss a discussion of The Road. Speaking of BOOKLEAVES, wouldn't it be great if I could get some of that bookish gang o' mine to participate as well?

Time to start arranging my book pile. When Mr. Bybee returned from the United States recently, he brought me a short biography of Princess Diana. He also stocked up on biographies from that same series (D-K, I think) and he's offering to let me read about Ben Franklin and Gandhi.

Time to figure out just how I want to do this, since I'm planning to read and cheer lead this time. Originally, I had planned to do half-and-half, but since I'm getting close to my 100-books-for-2008 goal, the best course might be to read for 8, be a cheerleader for 8, then resume reading for the remaining time.

Time to get organized. While I'm cheerleading, I plan to have some sort of contest or quiz. While shopping a couple of weeks ago, I saw something with terrific prize potential. I hope it's still there when I go looking for it again. Usually, in these cases, the desired object will have disappeared, but the prospect of Readathoning always ratchets up my optimism several notches. I'm not Pollyanna, but I can be pretty sickening.

Time to figure out what to wear. I'm working out a compromise between real clothing and sleepwear.

Dewey has tweaked the start time to 5 am Pacific on the 18th, which works out to 9 pm that same day for me. The beauty part is that I'll be finished (in more ways than one) in time for a reasonable bedtime Sunday night, which will have me refreshed and ready for the 7:20 class Monday morning. Picture this: 8 students, crusty-eyed and reeking of soju, and me, burbling contentedly about the joys of reading.

Let's read! Let's blog! Let's Readathon!

6 comments:

Dewey said...

I'm glad you're so excited! It really is a perfect time for you, which is great. And I would love for some of your Bookleaves pals to join us!

Tara said...

Good luck!

I'll be in Florida that day - so I won't be participating, though I do enjoy the posts that come along with the read-a-thon.

Anonymous said...

Yes, let's! I have yet to think about the readathon but I sure loved the last one. Love your enthusiasm.

Susan said...

Go Susan go! Go Susan Go! You'll have to do it for both of us, since there is no way I can envision my 3 year old giving me a 24 hour period in which Mommy only gets to read! despite my many attempts to carve out periods of reading time, I have to ignore my kids in order to read, not a good idea!! Pick an easy fun book so at 3 am when your eyelids droop, you can wake Mr Bybee by laughing out loud :-)

Bybee said...

Dewey,
I'll bring it up at the next 2 meetings.

Tara,
Florida sounds nice. Don't tell Dewey, but I could be persuaded to pick that over her readathon.

Care,
Please join in..I'm cheerleading this time for a few hours.

Susan,
I remember last time a couple of mommy participants went halfsies on a hotel room so they could readathon, then they fell asleep about 17 hours in.
Yesterday, I caved and bought a book I've wanted...the new David Sedaris one. I'm saving it for the readathon and thanks to your suggestion, I'll read it (and laugh) while Mr. Bybee is sleeping peacefully. Meanwhile, it's hard to keep my hands off of it till Oct. 18.

Lenore Appelhans said...

Oh no! Bad day for me because of the Frankfurt Book Fair so I won't be able to join in this time either. One of these days!

PS - I'm bloghopping and that's how I landed on your blog. Follow my progress on my latest post.