So, I’ve been wishy-washy about this readathon. I haven’t done any of the usual prep, haven’t been excited about it, but have also had a sort of determination to use it to manage my grief around the one year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. When I first realized the date of the readathon, I thought, “This is great, what better way to spend what would otherwise be an absolute SHIT day than to have an excuse to do nothing but read?” Then someone who cares about me a lot and who means a lot to me offered to take some time that day to spend with me, maybe go to the ocean, be still with my feelings, and that sounded really good. Then I thought, I don’t know that I really want to see anyone that day, or rather, I don’t want anyone to see me, because as it is, I’m crying typing this stupid blog post. So, I haven’t ruled out taking some time to be with another human being who will let me ugly-cry on her shoulder and punch her instead of the rocks and generally take care of me during the meltdown that is almost guaranteed, but the time will be well spent, and will also contribute to this readathon’s fundraiser. I’m going to follow a similar model to the one I used in April:

$0.05 per page read: this works out to $20 for a 400 page book, but I have SEVERAL books in progress and want to build my donation even if I start a book and am not really feeling it after 20 pages.

$5.00 per hour listened: I have an audiobook in progress, and this will make it easier to continue to participate while cooking/preparing snacks, and getting to and from anywhere I may go.

$5.00 per hour missed: If I leave for a while, this will go into effect, but this covers hours slept, too. Any hour in which I do not read or listen to a book, that’s five bucks. (I may decide at 8am that oversleeping is worth the $$…) And finally…

$1.00 per comment left on my blog posts, Facebook comments, and @ tweets during the readathon. Official Readathon Cheerleaders will be assigned to stop by and root for me as a reader, but this is an easy way for family and friends to contribute to the grand total.

On Sunday, whenever I wake up from my epic post-readathon sleep, I will do a roundup and calculate the total, which will be donated to the Jimmy Fund in memory of the Reverend Lucille Richard, my favorite reader and fellow nerd.

Mamau the Nerd