Dewey’s Readathon – April 2016

According to the website, Dewey’s readathon is described as this: For 24 hours, we read books, post to our blogs, Twitters, Tumblrs, Goodreads and MORE about our reading, and visit other readers’ homes online. We also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day. It happens twice a year, in April and in October.

It was created by the beloved Dewey (her blog is archived at the Wayback Machine). The first one was held in October 2007. Dewey died in late 2008. We’re still saddened by her absence, but the show must go on. The read-a-thon was renamed to honor its founder in 2009.

Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon is hosted by Heather and Andi of The Estella Society, with help from volunteers

For me, it’s a chance to connect with new readers, and challenge myself to read more than I usually would. It’s also a chance to ignore all of those worries, get rid of all the distractions, and just read. How often do we get a chance to do that?

I participated in this for the first time last year, and I absolutely loved it. The only problem is, I didn’t get even close to doing as well as I wanted to. So this year, I’m actually preparing for it! My readathon goes from midnight to midnight, which is a bit annoying, but I’ll make do

My TBR

I have a TBR way bigger than what I plan to read, because I know I’ll get bored easily, so I want to have variety to swap between. Don’t worry, there’s no way I’ll get all of these read! I’m aiming for maybe one or two

1. Lost Friday by Michael Bronte. This is the one book I absolutely have to get read. I got it for review, and I’ve promised I’ll have it read by the end of April. So I figure getting it down during the readathon is perfect!
2. Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski. This is a cute contemporary, that should be light and easy to read. It’ll be good when I’m starting and finishing in the middle of the night, and am totally exhausted
3. The Bookshop That Floated Away by Sarah Henshaw. This one takes a lot more concentration, so it’ll be good for the middle of the afternoon when I want to get my brain active and working again
4. Never Never (1) by Colleen Hoover. When I feel like giving up, I’ll go to this one. I’ve heard it’s impossible to put down, so it should be perfect
5. Dating Down by Stefanie Lyons. This is poetry, which may be difficult since I’ve never really read any before. I’m thinking I’ll dip in and out of this, instead of sitting and reading it all, in between books or breaks
6. Binge by Tyler Oakley. I plan to get this as an audio book, so I can take it with me when I’m multitasking. Since he’s always pushing us to get Audible, and he reads his book himself, it would feel wrong to get any other audio book as my first one

Snack Plan

Everyone knows snacks are the most important part of an entire day activity. I’m off school at the moment, so I’m planning to bake something during the week (probably biscuits or muffins) for easy snacks. Someone else recommended fruit to keep your energy up, so I’m going to make sure I have a good stash of that. 

Most importantly, I’m going to have my regular meals at my regular times. I don’t want to completely alter my day for this, plus I want to be giving myself breaks. Books are not the priority over food!

Break Plan

I know I just said I don’t want to take this super seriously, but I do want to take it more seriously than last time. So, I have a proper plan for breaks I want to take;

1. When I’ve finished a book, I’m going to quickly write out some thoughts. Not a proper review, just some quick thoughts. Those will either be posted on Goodreads or on here, or maybe just on Twitter
2. There are challenges every hour, and I’m thinking of participating in at least three of them. These challenges are meant to take only ten minutes, so it’s not going to take a huge chunk out of my time. But people are putting a lot of effort into planning those, I better go and appreciate them! Those will probably be posted on here too
3. Remember that audio book I mentioned? Well, I plan to stick that in my ears and go for a nice long walk to listen to it. I go for walks most weekends anyway, and it’ll be a nice change of scenery
4. Sleep! Yeah, remember that foreign concept? I’ll be up at the beginning, but I won’t be staying up super late to read. I’ll probably just start, and post a couple of things saying I’ve started, but I’ll be going to sleep at a reasonable time

So, My Readathon…Should be a lot of fun! Particularly if I know I have you guys to talk to. Are any of you doing it? How seriously do you plan on taking it? What’s on your TBR? Let me know! And good luck!