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Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, Fall 2019

Saturday, October 26th, 2019

Well that’s one way to spend a chunk of readathon: tracking down and fixing a malicious redirect, wheeeee! Now, on to the intro post I started in Hour 1 :)

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? South Portland, Maine
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I just picked up Markus Zusak’s latest, bridge of clay, and I’m certain it’s going to be exquisite.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I had a dozen oysters from my CSA delivered, so those will be a treat later today sometime.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m a Frances Perkins scholar, which is the program for non-traditional students at Mount Holyoke College, and I’m going to school full-time for the first time in my adult life. It’s pretty wild!
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’m going to use the energy of readathon to hopefully propel me through a significant chunk of the 235 page book I need to have read by next week’s medical anthropology classes rather than solely indulging in pleasure reading, which is what I typically do.

Hope everyone’s reading is off to a great start!

Readathon Top 10 and check-in

Saturday, October 17th, 2015

dewey day and night

I always get to this point in the day and think, “How is it possible that more than 5 hours have already passed??” And since this is also when I think, “Jeez, I’ve hardly read anything besides social media in the last five hours,” I will leave you with this Readathon Top 10 I wrote for the Hour 5 mini-challenge, and I will go READ :)

Top 10 ways to enjoy the 24-hour Readathon:

10. Choose a short, easy read first: it’s good to have a sense of accomplishment early on!
9. Don’t slog through anything you’re not feeling.
8. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
7. Caffeinate, caffeinate, caffeinate! :-P
6. Have a variety of places to read, in various positions: sitting upright, curled up, reclining, etc.
5. Snacks! Fruit, raw veggies, pretzels, deli meats, olives, cheese, anything easy to eat with one hand while holding a book with the other.
4. Have an audiobook ready for when you need both hands; showering, driving, cooking, etc.
3. Get up and move around the room at least once an hour, even if it’s just to shake out your limbs and wiggle a bit to get the blood flowing.
2. Let everyone know you’re readathon-ing, so they can join you, cheer you, or leave you the heck alone! ;)
1. Engage with fellow readers on social media. Don’t worry about how much time you’re spending not-reading, because while it is a “readathon,” the spirit of the thing is about reading communally, sharing the love of reading, and meeting other people also crazy enough to dedicate a solid 24 hours to the greatest pastime in the world!

Introductory Meme, October Readathon 2015

Saturday, October 17th, 2015

introductionmeme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Portland, Maine
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? It’s really too hard to say… I’m excited about all of them! But I’ve been holding off on Ernest Cline’s Armada for today, so that’s had some time for anticipation to build.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I got some puff pastry to use for “puffles,” or waffle iron pockets of whatever delicious thing I put in them. That’s going to be amazing.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I’m a 35 year old queer Femme raising a kickass teen brother (he’s a SENIOR this year, WHUT)

I have the dream job of working for LibraryThing for Libraries supporting public and academic librarians around the world who use our products (like the lovely scrolling book display widget in my header – click on a cover! Isn’t that cool??)

My cats love Readathon as much as I do, and will appear in various photos throughout the day because I’m That Girl

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’m officially Cheering for the first time this year, so that’s going to be a fun challenge, especially since I know the last few hours is when readers need cheering the most, and when a lot of folks have tapped out. I’m probably going to nap so I have a little something in reserve for those who are still reading when we wrap up!

Okay kids, it’s time! Happy Readathon!

Ready for Readathon!

Friday, April 24th, 2015

dewey day and nightThe time has come once again for readers around the globe to dedicate 24 hours to whittling down their ever-growing piles of books. After the first time I participated in October of 2009, Dewey’s 24 hour readathon quickly became one of my favorite events, and unlike holidays, we get to do it TWICE a year! Pretty awesome.

The last two readathons, I have used comments and pages read and time not reading to tally up a donation to The Jimmy Fund in memory of my grandmother, an avid Red Sox fan. I’m doing two things differently this time around.

One, the amounts of the last two were so close, and the amount of time I spent encouraging engagement and tallying numbers so great, that instead of doing all of that I’m going to donate a flat amount of $125, the rounded-up total from each of the last two.

And two, this April’s donation will be given in memory of a patient from one of the practices where I have worked, who passed earlier this year. For privacy reasons I can’t disclose more than that, but the organization was one for which she volunteered for many years.

I have an overly-ambitious stack of physical books and an even more ridiculous number of ebook pages lined up for tomorrow’s festivities. Before I sleep I’ll pick out three top contenders for first read, which I like to be something I can breeze through to get that sense of accomplishment early on. Other than that, I just need to set the coffeemaker and get a few food items cut/portioned so they’re easy to grab ‘n’ go. Looking forward to connecting with the usual suspects, and meeting some new bookish friends. Happy readathon, everyone!

Readathon Wrap

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

Another readathon has come and gone, and I’m excited to tally up the totals. I know it’s going to be lower than April, mostly because I posted less frequently and so had fewer opportunities out there for folks to comment or respond. But, let’s see how we did:

Pages read:

The Blood of Olympus: 502

Maddy Kettle Book 1: The Adventures of the Thimblewitch: 90

Coraline: 162

The Paying Guests: 173 (partial)

Total pages: 927 x $0.05 = $46.35

Hours Listened: rounding up to 1; didn’t get to much of The Vacationers: $5.00

Hours not reading: 4 x$5 = $20

Comments received:

Twitter: 14

Facebook: 25

Instagram: 5

Blog: 2

Total comments: $46

GRAND TOTAL: $117.35

So, not too far shy of April’s total, which was about $123. Thanks to everyone who commented and cheered me on; it was a great readathon, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Off to — you guessed it — finish two of the books I didn’t complete yesterday/this morning. Thanks again, and the kids from The Jimmy Fund thank you, and my Mamau thanks you, for helping me do this.

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Readathon Reading List

Saturday, October 18th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

It’s stupid late and I should really be asleep but instead I’m wrangling a Book Display Widget full of readathon TBRs because I CAN, DANGIT.
 


My short list includes:
THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS, Rick Riordan
THE PAYING GUESTS, Sarah Waters (the second half of)
THE VACATIONERS, Emma Stroub (audiobook)
BAD FEMINIST, Roxane Gay
YOU, Caroline Kepnes
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Zora Neale Hurston (the rest of)
MISSED HER, Ivan Coyote
ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE
and
CURTSIES & CONSPIRACIES, Gail Carriger (of Parasol Protectorate fame)

I have a couple of ARCs in progress that I can’t seem to lay my hands on, not the least of which is Ian McEwan’s most recent, THE CHILDREN ACT. Meanwhile, I should go to bed. See you in a few hours…

Fall Readathon, 2014.

Friday, October 17th, 2014

dreamstime_readathong

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

Mamau the Nerd

Readathon prep.

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

So anyone who has participated in Dewey’s Readathon knows that there are dangers – not the least of which is the explosion of your chosen feed reader both during and in the days following the event. Nearly every blog I subscribe to is one I discovered when I very first started blogging in the bookish world, and many are from Readathon connections. Part of me is tempted to unsub from anything whose author I’m not also connected with on Twitter, LibraryThing, etc., or to remove those blogs without an entry in the last year. But you know what? I’ve gone months at a time without updating here, and while my subscribers certainly haven’t grown, they haven’t dropped, either. So instead, I’ve marked my 1000+ unread as read, will make a point to actively go through my reader each day until the readathon, and only weed out those blogs I really don’t get anything from reading. Any blogs that aren’t updated will be put into a single folder together, and I’ll go through that one every once in a while to move updated blogs either into a category folder or unsub.

I’m also going to organize my reader more categorically; currently, it’s rather a hodgepodge, with book blogs in a couple of different places, social media and networking blogs mixed in with random internet funnies, and it really just needs tidying once and for all. I think that’ll make it far more manageable, not to mention that when it’s organized, I won’t be as overwhelmed by the sheer number of unread posts.

How do you read your favorite blogs and websites; do you use a reader, subscribe primarily via email, use browser bookmarks? Do you read daily, read everything at once once a week, give up and mark all as read and promise to do better next week? :)

Readathon FAIL

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Epic failure on the readathon, guys. Huge. I spent half of the day setting timers for Joshua’s activities and the other half… I don’t even know. But, I only made it through about 150 pages of one book, and didn’t even pick the other up. Sigh.

At any rate, I’m getting a TON of reading done on my new job, as all I’m doing is scanning thousands of pages of medical records and then taking five minutes here and there to assign them to patients in the database. Not the most exciting work, but hey, I’m getting paid to read, pretty much – and blog! :)

Speaking of which, I’ve decided to start using my main page of Femme Flavor as a journal type of blog, so I’m not restricting myself to writing just about bookish things using FolioFiles or in snippets on Facebook and Twitter. I’d love if you’d join me there, as well (http://femmeflavor.com) and get caught up on what’s new in my universe. I’d love to hear updates from you, as well, so come on over! New post will be up shortly :)

LibraryThing Readathon

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

It seems like readathons are always what bring me back to posting after an absence from the blog, and this time is no different. Stasia, a wonderful member of LibraryThing‘s 75 Books Challenge group, is hosting a readathon running from 10p last night until 10p tonight. As I’m snowed in and have no intention of leaving the house for any reason, it seems like a good day to try to finish the two books I’m currently reading and get going on at least one more. I’ll post responses to the hour 1, hour 12, and hour 24 memes here, as well as write an update post for those of you with whom I’m not connected on Twitter and/or Facebook, as much has changed in my life since Thanksgiving! Happy reading, all; off to work on Jonathan Stroud’s The Ring of Solomon, a fun prequel to the Bartimaeus trilogy. :)