July 2018’s Reverse Readathon

The wonderful people at Dewey’s 24 Hour Reathon hosted a Reverse Readathon this weekend. I only heard about it on Wednesday but I wanted to participate because, well, reading. I didn’t do anything correctly. I missed the prompts that were posted on the site, I didn’t know you were supposed to time yourself and I am now finding out that I didn’t even sign up properly! So, I suppose I participated in it renegade style. Still, it was a wonderful experience. Since I didn’t know about it far enough ahead I didn’t have time to clear my schedule. But, for 24 hours I made reading a priority and it has slapped some enthusiasm into me!

The Reverse Readathon, I would come to learn, was “reverse” because of the hours. This Readathon was from 8 p.m. Friday night until 8 p.m. Saturday night instead of the usual schedule (which I still don’t know for sure). So, Friday night I sat out my stack.

Like I said, I didn’t know about the Readathon so I had a full day Friday but I still managed to finish Circe on my lunch break. Gorgeous, beautiful Circe. Sigh. I just couldn’t wait. I also ran to the store and stock piled like a teenage version of my brother and four of his friends were coming over that night. At 8:00 Friday night I promptly sat down and started reading.

I started with Kill the Farm Boy. Was that in my stack? No. No, it was not. But, I was half-way through it and hopped up on so much tea. I only read for two hours that night but I ate a full bag of chips and too many M&Ms. I have never been a night owl so off to bed I went.

At 6:30 the next morning I was reading again! After coffee and more coffee I finished Kill the Farm Boy and went directly to Regarding the Fountain: a Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks by Kate and Sarah Klise. I needed a refreshing change if I was going to continue with this marathon of reading.

I love the Klise sisters and I read this while I exercised. This book, like all of theirs, is thoroughly enjoyable. I love the format the Klise sister’s employ of using letters, drawn newspaper clippings and so very many puns and hilarious names. When the children finally figure out where the water in Dry Creek had gone I was finished with my biking (God bless recumbent bicycles) and ready to move on to my next book.

I decided to jump into Ready Player One and I had a couple of chapters finished when it was time for me to head to an afternoon appointment. Thankfully, I was able to listen to my audiobook version of Stuff Matters while driving to and from everything. I didn’t finish either book by the end of the 24 hour Readathon but I only have three chapters left in Stuff Matters, I am half-way through Ready Player One, and I got twenty more pages into Two Towers. More importantly, I had an absolutely fantastic time.

Lately, life has been busy and typically reading is saved for when everything else gets done. I read everyday (I couldn’t fall asleep without reading first) but it hasn’t been a priority since returning from Canada. Nor has my writing reviews (clearly). But the Readathon reminded me that when something is important you make it a priority. So, instead of watching television all Friday night and sleeping late Saturday I made time to read. And now, I am determined to keep that energy going as long as possible!

Another Readathon is scheduled for October and I am sure there are other people hosting similar events. If I have any hope of getting through my 2018 reading goals, I will need them.

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Tell me, please!

Have you participated in a Readathon?

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