Friday, October 17, 2014

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon: My (Kinda Lame!) Plans!!

Tomorrow is Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon! Book bloggers the world over unite twice per year and demonstrate their astonishing mental abilities by reading books for, yes, 24 hours straight! Except when they take breaks to post updates or go on Twitter or eat or nap . . . at least this is what I understand. You can read all about it on the official website here.

I haven't done this before; during the last read-a-thon, I was a brand new blogger and had NO IDEA what was happening on Twitter when I saw all the tweets about it. Well, now it has come around again . . . And I can think of tons of reasons why I should NOT do this. For example:

1. I like to sleep. A sleep-deprived me is a pitiful, easily confused creature who walks into walls and pours orange juice into the coffee-maker. I try not to let this being out.

2. The offspring have various places to go on Saturday--as always!--and I'll need to chauffeur them hither and yon.

3. My husband is returning from a trip on Saturday and might, I don't know, want to chat with me or something. I can guarantee he'll want to go out to dinner. (What is the official read-a-thon protocol for bringing books to restaurants?)

Ah well, to hell with such quotidian obstacles! They are simply hurdles to clear. I've signed up!

So my first read-a-thon plan was just to, you know, read a lot on October 18th. Whoa, then I saw all the posts from fellow bloggers and my bubble was burst! I have now seen many photos of lovely stacks, with books carefully selected for the read-a-thon . . . often a thoughtful assortment of fiction, non-fiction, with short stories and graphic novels to help breaks things up. Um, what a good idea! And then I starting reading great posts about meal and snack planning for the read-a-thon. Oh yeah--I didn't think about how I would eat if I was supposed to be reading all day. Yes, it is clear I have no idea what I am doing here.

Alright, then, I must admit that I have no elaborate strategy for tomorrow's event. Well, that's ok--there's a first time for everything, and I will kind of wing it . . . and maybe in the spring, I will form a better plan of attack. I did, at least, take this photo of my stack:

I do have a a non-fiction book in there (Suki Kim's Without You, There is No Us about her time teaching in North Korea), as well as Margaret Atwood's Stone Mattress, which is a collection of short stories. I am currently reading Marilynne Robinson's Lila, and the writing is beautiful . . . but I think it may not the best novel to sit and read for hours on end. If I want to switch to something different, I thought I might start Victor Bevine's Certainty, which I have an ARC for and need to read for an upcoming blog tour.

On my Kindle, I have a copy of Reunion by Hannah Pittard, which I am hoping might provide some humor. And I've been reading Jojo Moyes's The Ship of Brides on my e-reader as well, so I might tackle some more of that.

Well, that's more or less my plan! I am approaching this read-a-thon with a bit of trepidation, but I think I'll enjoy participating. Are you taking part this fall's read-a-thon, and have you made any advance plans?

5 comments:

  1. Glad to see you'll be joining in this time, it's tons of fun!!

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  2. Hi Leila! Shaina here with a little bit of cheer in Hour 1. :)

    Best of luck on your awesome-sounding stack, and definitely don't be afraid to take a nap if you need it! Whatever you accomplish this RAT is amazing.

    You go, girl! #rahrahreadathon

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  3. I was a cheerleader last year for it because the actual participation is too daunting for me. I can't do it this weekend due to out of state company, but you seem very well prepared with different genres to read and a good attitude (do what you can, that's all you can do)! Have fun and enjoy dinner out with your hubs without a book. Unless you are doing it for charity, it's the quality, not the quantity :)

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    1. Thanks--you're right, do what you can! I want to figure out how to do this for charity for a future year . . . I want to think about what I could do. I bet you were a great cheerleader, Rita--you are always so good at making positive comments on people's posts!!

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