This weekend, January 21-22 is the next installment of the 24in48 Readathon. The goal of this challenge is to read books for 24 out of the 48 hours in the weekend, beginning at 12:01 am in your local time zone. You don't have to read for 24 straight hours, however, which makes it more flexible than other readathons, like Dewey's. If you have things to do, a job shift to work, or (gasp!) sleep - you can still participate in the readathon and do what needs to be done.
It's not just about the reading, however. There's a real sense of community amongst all the participants, celebrating successes and rooting each other on to keep reading. If you're involved in bookish social media, there are reading challenges, hashtags, and fun competitions that you can participate in for prizes. During the last 24in48, I won a copy of Good as Gone by Amy Gentry for one of my photos!
This will be the first time that I've participated in 24in48 since I've started this blog. Last time around, I updated my reading status via Instagram Twitter and Litsy, and had an absolute blast! The readathon has a presence on all of these social media, and you can find their links on their homepage. I'm planning to post my real-time reading updates on all of these social media channels, so be sure to follow me there if you're interested to see how I get on with things. I'll also be posting a summary of my reading here in the following week.
Are you participating in any 2017 reading challenges...BookRiot Read Harder, Pop Sugar, etc? A readathon is a great way to tick a few boxes off those lists! As with all readathons, it's important to have a strategy in place for optimum success. That's not only the books you'll be reading, but the eats and drinks you'll need to keep your energy topped up.
The Books
I always select my readathon books in advance, because I don't want to think about what book to read once I've begun. It's important for me to be able to pick up something else right away once I've finished whatever I'm currently reading at the time. When it comes to books, I have carefully crafted the criteria that books must meet in order to make any readathon TBR. Generally they fall into three categories: Short, funny, gripping. This means that I often choose short story or essay collections, graphic novels/memoirs, short novels, and culturally relevant books. In addition, my TBR choices need to conform to my #WinterOfWomen17 project - all be written by women.Here are the books (an optimistically large stack, to be sure) I've got on my 24in48 TBR, in no particular order -
The Eats
As I mentioned before, sustenance is important to success. Because the hours of the readathon are individualized, the options for food and drink are wide and vast. It might mean that you are snacking on celery and carrot sticks (popcorn and M&Ms) during the wee hours of the morning with some sparkling water. Maybe you actually want to get some sleep, and start off your readathon with a mug of coffee or tea, and a pastry. Whatever it takes to keep you reading, make sure you're stocked up on it before 12:01 am on January 21st.
And what about me? I plan to start reading right away, then napping here and there throughout the weekend. For food, I'm actually thinking of going Gilmore - pizza, licorice whips, toast and butter, Chinese food, copious amounts of coffee, and maybe a salad. Because, you know, health.
Are you up for the challenge of reading 24 hours in a weekend? If so, grab your books and snacks, log on to whatever social media strikes your fancy, and get ready to have some fun! I hope to see you there.
Librorum annis
