Here we are, a quarter of the way through Readathon. It was time for me to stand for a while, so I’m listening to The Maze Runner while updating here, then I’ll do some stretching and barre exercises to get the blood flowing.

So, I read The Fault in Our Stars. As expected, it was devastating and beautiful, and John Green has a new fan in me. Next up, I think I’ll go with Anton and Cecil, Cats at Sea – it looks fun, light, and like a simple, swift read, which are all perfect for Readathon (and necessary after the heaviness of TFiOS). I’m pretty certain I can finish that in short order, and then I’ll switch to audio to shower and get ready for my evening out. I really, REALLY wish the concert was any other night, but it’ll be a lot of fun, give my eyes a break, and boost my fundraising total. AND, it’s not like the books are going anywhere! Hope you’re all having a great Saturday, whether you’re reading, cheering, or going about other fun weekend business :)

Oh, and here are my in-home cheerleaders. Their energy is contagious. Which means I’m sleepy just looking at their lazy bones :)

Going into hour 4, I just hit the first bit of BIG SAD in The Fault in our Stars, so figured it was a good time for a quick break to kill the momentum. Wasn’t really thinking about the whole “book about death and dying” thing when I chose it, but, what are ya gonna do? I’m really enjoying the characters (though Hazel kinda bugs me sometimes), and officially fell in love with Gus at this moment:

What literary characters have made you swoon?

Now to crack open a cantaloupe and refill my coffee!

One of the benefits of the Great Library Update of 2014 is that I’ve discovered a few books that needed to move up the TBR stack just in time for Readathon. Combining that knowledge with past Readathon experience and knowledge of my own reading habits, I came up with this book stack:

Additionally, I have Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus on my Nook (the latter of which I’ve been more anxious to read since discovering Morgenstern’s beautiful, and unavailable, Tarot deck). I’m also listening to The Maze Runner by James Dashner, narrated by Mark Deakins.

So, I have a pretty large selection, a bit of diversity, but mostly books I think I’ll enjoy and find easy to read, because I really want to get through a ton of pages and donate a good sum to The Jimmy Fund for my Mamau.

ETA this year’s intro meme, since I actually scheduled this post for 8am – first time I’ve ever been THAT on the ball for Readathon!

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? That’s really hard to say, but The Fault in our Stars was my most recent acquisition; I’ve been meaning to pick that one up for over a year.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Ooh, another tough call! Probably the fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, basil, and assorted Italian deli meats I’ll throw together with a little fresh ground pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I recently became the newest Assistant Librarian for LibraryThing for Libraries, and I could not be more thrilled about it. I adore my team, and love being “at work” (which, as often as not, means being at home with my colleagues on Skype and my cats curled up on either side of me and my laptop).
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 reading to raise funds for charity this time around, which is a real motivator! And I’m most looking forward to meeting new people – most of my Tweeps are from Readathon adds :)

Okay, back to reading – remember, every comment here is money toward the grand total, so if you’ve read this far, don’t leave without at least saying HI – help me give my money away for a good cause!

Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon comes around twice a year, in October and April, but something always seems to come up during one or the other to keep me from participating. Last October, Readathon was the weekend before my Mamau passed away, and I spent it watching the Red Sox with her. Wouldn’t change that for anything.

Watching the Sox with my Mamau

Inspired by Felicia the Geeky Blogger, my Readathon tomorrow will raise money for The Jimmy Fund, a longtime partner with the Red Sox in support of cancer research. Here’s the math:

$0.05 per page read: this works out to $20 for a 400 page book, but I have two books in progress and want to build my donation even if I start a book and am not really feeling itafter 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 the Ryan Montbleau concert. Which leads me to…

$5.00 per hour missed: I know I’m going to miss at least 3 hours for the concert, but this covers hours slept, too. Any hour in which I do not read or listen to a book, that’s five bucks. And finally…

$1.00 per comment left on my blog posts 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

So, happy reading and cheering, those of you participating, and for those of you who aren’t, please stop by and say hi anytime tomorrow; I’ll post links to the blog throughout the day. 24 hours from now, it starts!

Today’s first mini-challenge is a blessedly easy one, haha…

Where are you reading from today? My apartment in San Francisco, which I share with two roommates (who we’ve warned about today!) and my partner, who is doing a movie marathon while I readathon :)

3 facts about me … Hmm… I love glitter, am afraid of balloons, and am terrible at coming up with random facts about myself. *grin*

How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours? 21

Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)? Not particularly, though I would like to make it the whole 24 hours without sleep this time around; I crashed twice for a total of about 3.5 hours last time.

If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time? It’s only my second time, but I definitely recommend (a) stepping away from Twitter unless you’re deliberately spending as much time reading the #readathon posts as reading your books, and (b) having a couple of easy reads at the start of the day to give you a feeling of accomplishment right off the bat.

Back to Magical Thinking; have fun, everyone!

We’re 7 hours from wake-up time. Coffee is ready to brew, Rachel’s movie is in the DVD player, my books are stacked by the computer for now, and I’m about to create a post template for ease of updates. Thanks to my friend Erin for coming through with a second computer monitor so Rachel and I can post, research, and push our marathons simultaneously!

Snack prep was fun; here are a couple of pics of our food lineup for the day!

Chocolate chip cookies, yum!

Fruit salad: you can’t see it all, but we have watermelon, strawberries, pink lady and fiji apples, grapes, blackberries, oranges, and pineapple chunks. Holy moly!

And the majority of the foods we got specifically for the readathon/movie marathon. Snacky stuff, quick and easy meals that Rachel can make without my assistance or coaching (thank you for being the chef for the day, baby!), stuff we enjoy but not too much that’ll cause peaks and crashes.

Now for a quick trip over to the cheerleader pages to see what I need to know for that, and then to bed already – it’s going to be a looooooong 24 hours if I don’t get any sleep!