Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon 2012

Photo Credit: 24hourreadathon.com

It’s that time of year again… time to tackle that toppling pile of books I’ve been “meaning to get to” for AGES. The readathon happens in October and April, and while I was away in Paris in April and missed it, I did participate in the one last October. It’s always a great time, having cheerleaders motivate you along and participating in hourly mini-challenges to win prizes!

This year, my goal will be to finish at least 2-3 of my partially/barely-started books that I’m “currently reading” (which is apparently 6, according to Goodreads)

• Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs –> Finished right at the beginning of Hour 20!
• The Black Isle by Sandi Tan
• The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
• The Blondes by Emily Schultz
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

Everyone starts at the same time, with timezones broking out here… so looks like 8am is my time to get reading!

Interested in joining in? It’s not too late! Sign up here and everyone can join in with the talks & cheering over on Twitter via @readathon or with the hashtags #Readathon #Dewey #MiniChallenge #RahRahReadathon

Mini Challenges

• Hour 1: Introductory Questions
• Hour 2: Recreate the Cover
• Hour 3: Readathon Snacks
• Hour 4: Oldies but Goodies
• Hour 5: Turn to Page
• Hour 6: Book Blogger Bingo
• Hour 7: Read-a-Thon-a-Crostic
• Hour 8: Day Break
• Hour 9: Book Puzzle
• Hour 10: Create a Bookmark
• Hour 11: Literacy Challenge
• Hour 12: skipped mini-challenge
• Hour 13: Mid-Event Survey!
• Hour 14: Picturrific
• Hour 15: I Love Fall
• Hour 16: Time Flies
• Hour 17: Challenge Your Brain While Reading
• Hour 18: Six Word Celebration
• Hour 19: Book Sentences
• Hour 20: Show It Off! (FINAL hour!)
• Hour 24: End of Event Meme

Hour 1

Well, I failed this since I didn’t get up at 8am to start reading.. so I’ll fill out my Introductory Questionnaire here instead!

1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Toronto, Canada!
2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Casual Vacancy
3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? Hmm maybe some yummy nachos later on
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m a bit addicted to caramel macchiatos.. so really wishing I had a Starbucks closer to where I live!
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 didn’t do April’s, but I did do last October’s.. I think I’ll read books I really want to get to and finish, rather than struggle through some books that I felt obligated to read. It did NOT make for an enjoyable readathon process.

Hour 2

Recreating/redesignin the cover over on The Hungry Readers. I chose to re-do The Casual Vacancy.. Given the sudden death of one of the characters right in the beginning, and when I hear “casual vacancy”, it makes me think of someone who has just casually left. Like, got up from an armchair. Hence my re-design of this book cover.

My redesign of Casual Vacancy for Readathon Hr 2 Mini Challenge

Hour 3

Unflame Creates is hosting a mini challenge this hour to share your readathon snacks!

My Hour 3 mini challenge: Snacks!

I have a selection of snacks, ready for the readathon including some nachos (when it’s a bit later in the morning), my newly discovered almonds that are wasabi & soy sauce flavoured, some Lindt chocolates and my handy-dandy Tassimo with caramel macchiatos (as previously mentioned, my addiction.. it’s no Starbucks ones but it’ll suffice)

Hour 4

Oldies but Goodies is the 4th hour’s mini challenge, over at A Literary Odyssey. The question to answer over on the page is which classic book should all children read, and why? I’m actually going to sit this hour’s challenge out. Sadly, I haven’t read enough classic books myself to actually give a justifiable answer.

Hour 5

This hour, Reflections of a Bookaholic is hosting a mini challenge where you  have to turn to page 32 of the book you’re currently reading, and find the most interesting phrase to fill in the blank!

“If only you knew ________, you’d run screaming into the night!”

So, on page 32 of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children… “If only you knew that grandfathers were supposed to die in beds, you’d run screaming into the night!”

Hour 6

This hour, Create Your World is hosting a Book Blogger Bingo! I need to find readathon participants that fit each of these categories:

B - A blogger you’ve never come across before –> Stiletto Storytime (love that name!)

I  - A blogger whose  blog name has the word ‘book’ in it –> The Bookie Nook

N - A blogger who lives in Europe –> Book World in My Head is in Scotland!

G - A male blogger –> Richard’s Readings

O - A blogger whose read-a-thon pile has more than 5 books  –> The Allure of Books (as well as my own!)

Hour 7

Wow! Already onto hour #7!? This hour, Book Drunkard‘s mini challenge is to create an acrostic with the title of the book you’re currently reading (or some form of it). Considering I’m reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, that’s quite the lengthy title. I chose to do the acrostic with Peregrine.

Particularly Energizing, Really Exciting, Gruesomely Ridiculous, Intense ‘n Eerie

Hour 8

This hour is a get-up-on-your-feet and smell the roses kinda challenge! Hosted by I Heart Monster, just share what you’ve done during this mini break!

What did I do? I got up, put away some groceries that my BF went out to get (since I’m “really busy” with this readathon thing and all.. lol), refilled my coffee, stretched it out on our balcony and plopped back down to do some more reading!

Hour 9

One Librarian’s Book Reviews is hosting the Book Puzzle mini challenge this hour! Where I create a puzzle with a series of pictures and you have to guess what book it is!

My book puzzle for Hr 9 mini challenge

Hour 10

WOW. Onto Hour 10.. not even halfway through yet but I’m making great progress on my book! This hour’s mini challenge is brought to us by Nisaba Be Praised and we have to create a bookmark, or share what you like to use as a bookmark… While I’d love to create a bookmark, I definitely want to get back to reading so instead, I’ll share a picture of all the different things I use as bookmarks!

My bookmarks mini challenge for Hour 10

While I don’t use all of these items at the same time, I thought I would share it all in one picture. Whether it’s receipts, business cards, actual bookmarks, Starbucks download cards (which is my usual choice since I have them all over the place) and even the lip of my desk, as seen in the picture, I use all of these to mark my place in books!

Hour 11

Almost halfway mark! This hour’s mini-challenge is hosted by Joystory and it’s to write a post about childhood and reading. While I don’t have any kids to read to, and my big “childhood reading” story is basically that I have been reading since I was 3 (and clearly, this was in the stars for me to still love books so much). Other than that, I will just go grab some dinner and continue on reading – not officially participating this hour since it’s not much of a story

Hour 13

Well, I chose to skip Hour 12.. dinner was calling & I wanted to keep plowing through Miss Peregrine’s.. Halfway there! Here’s my answers to the mid-event survey!

1. How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? I was actually just thinking I could use a nap.. but napping at 8pm is going to kill the rest of my night for reading.. lol
2. What have you finished reading? Haven’t finished a whole book yet but I’m well on my way to finishing Miss Peregrine’s in the next hour or two!
3. What is your favorite read so far? I guess it’d be Miss Peregrine’s.. since that’s the only one I’ve been reading so far
4. What about your favorite snacks? Definitely my wasabi almonds.. though I can only have a few at a time before my mouth is on fire!
5. Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love! Briefly came across a few.. haven’t had a chance to really delve into them but I do love Sheston’s I Heart Monster. Funny and witty – great personality in her posts!

Hour 14

This hour, as part of Stella Matutina‘s mini-challenge, I have to find a picture that relates to the one I’m currently reading. That’s actually a little difficult considering Miss Peregrine’s is full of bizarre photos that correspond to the story!

My Hr 14 mini challenge picture

Nonetheless, I took this picture of a few random knick knacks that my BF has on our bookcase. Considering that the “home for peculiar children” from the title of the book is on an island where life is more simple and electricity is powered by a generator that shuts off at 10, I thought these carved wooden items seemed appropriate to convey that. The two figures, also a bit creepy and weird like the photos in the book, seemed to fit the bizarre vibe.

Hour 15

A Home Between Pages has tasked us this hour to share our favourite Fall book and Fall tradition.

While I actually can’t think of a Autumn-specific book that I love, one of my favourite Autumn traditions is the return of the pumpkin cream cheese muffin at Starbucks. While I think the Pumpkin Spice Latte is okay, the muffins are delicious – with hidden cream cheese in the centre. Delicious!

Photo Credit: Starbucks.ca

Hour 16

What a fun mini challenge this hour from Stacy’s Books! Only thing is that it’s “first person to get all correct” rather than a random draw.. Nonetheless, the challenge is to name all the books that are pictured in this “Fall clock” that Stacy has created!

Click to enlarge | Photo from Stacy’s Books

I managed to get most of them…

1 – One Day
3 – Three Cups of Tea
7 – Snow White & the Seven Dwarves
8 – Hard Eight
10 – Tenth Circle
11 – 11/22/63
12 – The Twelve

Hour 17

My Seryniti is hosting this hour’s challenge with one of words! This two-parter challenge includes selecting some challenging books that are out of your usual genre and some challenging words you have come across during the readathon.

Challenging Books:

• Pride & Prejudice — I really don’t read enough/many classics, and feel this would be a good one
• Atlas Shrugged — Taking a cue from the challenge host here. I’ve definitely wanted to read this at some point, but seems quite daunting.
• Fifty Shades of Grey — LOL.. it’s definitely out of my realm of usual reads, and definitely would be a challenge.. but even then, I’d have trouble bringing myself to reading it I think.

Challenging Words:

• Avocet — I thought it was just a name until I realized other names were birds.. and avocets are, in fact, birds!

Hour 18

Not only did I win my first ever readathon prize this hour for my Hour 14 mini challenge, this hour’s mini challenge is hosted by Andi @ Estella’s Revenge! We have to create a 6 word celebration about the readathon!

Hmm.. let’s see how my mind is working at 1am…..

Best motivation for decreasing TBR piles!

Hour 19

I loved this mini challenge from last year! Midnight Book Girl is hosting Book Sentences, where we have to take a picture of the spines of books to form a sentence! It takes me a while to decide, and I couldn’t pick one.. so I made two! (I always feel so poetic when I put these book sentences together… lol)

My two Book Sentences for mini challenge hr 19

Hour 20

Well, I made it this far.. Right at 3:01am, I finished my book that I had been reading the whole day. Now I can sleep! But not before sharing this last hour mini-challenge from Dead Book Darling entitled Show It Off!

Being that it’s 3am and I’m too exhausted to go wander out to my bookshelf to find (and decide on) my most prized books, I will just share this photo of my lovely Harry Potter collection – in which I have one set for reading (the “children’s” covers) and the set that’s just for show (the “adult” cover paperback versions)

Showing off my HP collection for the Hr 20 challenge

Annnd that’s it from me! Good night everyone and happy readathoning!!

Hour 24

Well, after a good night’s rest, I’m back to fill out the end of event meme!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Definitely the last few….
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? It’d be different for everyone, but something action-packed rather than a slow-moving book, for sure. One that I’ve read recently that would fit would be James Patterson’s Zoo
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope, you guys do a fantastic job!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? the hosts & mini-challenge hosts.. posted right on the hour, kept everyone motivated and it was fun!
5. How many books did you read? Just the one…
6. What were the names of the books you read? Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
7. Which book did you enjoy most? That one
8. Which did you enjoy least? n/a
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? n/a
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Absolutely would participate again. I had wanted to host a mini-challenge and might think of doing that next time.

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