UPDATES AT THE END OF THIS POST
Wow! I just realized this is my seventh year participating in this 24 hour readathon. Time sure does fly. I love the Fall version because I just happen to think spooky reading is perfect for a 24 hour readathon. Scary books keep your blood moving, and that means staying awake (in theory). HaHa!
Pre-Readathon notes
I usually do not start at my official start time which is 7:00am. Not sure if I will this time either. I'll keep that up in the air. Also, as it's Saturday, I will be doing my normal outing with my mom. Lunch and a movie. We're going to see Ouija 2. I love my scary movies! I'm also going to early voting. Not sure when I will be back, but I as soon as I'm home, it's on!
I've decided to forego mini-challenges and follow Andi's advice on this post. These two things will be my focus to maximize my readathon (although the pull of social media is strong, I will try):
- Set a timer of 5 minutes to check the challenges/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram so you can get back to reading – when you are done, move your phone to another room or at least out of sight.
- Take breaks from reading in a comfy spot. I find as the later hours come on, if I’m too comfy, I get sleepy. Sit in a firm chair in those moments or read while standing up. (Note on this...if I get sleepy, I'm going to read on the recumbent bike. I'll get some exercise in while reading and I'll stay awake)
Books
These are the books I'll be choosing from. All horror!
Snacks
I went all out this time with snacks! A wide array with pumpkin well-represented (pumpkin latte mix, Krispie Kreme pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice cupcakes...yum!).
How about you? Are you participating? What are your plans?
Intro Survey
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Nashville, Tennessee, USA
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Hmmm, that's a tough one. Probably The Jersey Devil or The Awakening.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? The pumpkin pie!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm a mom of two teen boys, I'm writing my first novel. I love cats. I'm the owner of a massive home library...3000+ books. I love horror novels and movies...my sister blog is a horror blog. Castle Macabre. I'm a Christmas fanatic and have a blog dedicated to that...Christmas Spirit. I host 4 readathons and 2 special readathons yearly at Seasons of Reading.
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? Try to focus more on the reading and less getting online. Wish me luck. lol
Update and Mid-Event Survey
I only did some brief reading this morning...really nothing to talley...because I had to get ready for my Saturday outing with mom. We went to lunch, stopped at Target to pick up some birthday presents for my son (and I snagged some cute Halloween tags to use as bookmarks - see pic below), I voted (Yay!) and then we went to see Ouija: Origin of Evil. Pretty good. Not as scary as I thought it would be. I loved the first Ouija movie. I've probably watched it at least 20 times. This one did have a good story and it helped explained what led to what happened in the original. So, pretty good.
1. What are you reading right now? Trying to finish up a section of Salem's Lot for my read-along, then it's Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror and Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.
2. How many books have you read so far? zilch (see above)
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The Jersey Devil, Hunter Shea
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? see above...lol
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? No surprises so far.
End of Event Survey
Well folks, I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I made it to the 22nd hour...and promptly fell asleep. I didn't start until the 13th hour so I maybe read for 9-10 hours, in between wasting time online, which I said I wasn't going to do, but since when do I follow any rules. lol
1. Which hour was most daunting for you? 22
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Definitely Salem's Lot and I recommend horror short stories as well.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season? No
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I loved the genre polls!
5. How many books did you read? I read 70 pages in Salem's Lot, Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum (short stories)
6. What were the names of the books you read? see above
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Salem's Lot
8. Which did you enjoy least? N/A
9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I'm sure I will participate next time. I can't resist readathons. I will be a reader again.
Nice choice of horror books! Good luck with the readathon and have fun!!)
ReplyDeleteGood luck today! I am just getting started this morning. I'm doing a quick 5 minute check-in, then I'm off to read!
ReplyDeleteI was so bummed to miss Dewey's this fall! Come spring, I'm not letting anything else get on my calendar on that day. If you got 9-10 hours of reading done, it's still probably more than you might have otherwise so that's a win, right?
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