- Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 11 (for me, 10:00-11:00PM). I had a short nap from ~9:00-9:45 but I felt even more tired when I woke up! Normally, I wouldn’t be that tired until around midnight. Who knew reading was so exhausting? 😉
- Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Unwind dystology by Neal Shusterman (YA dystopia), The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (fantasy of a rare sort), Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago (magical realism; if you can get into his style, I find his books are hard to put down)
- Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I still have the same answer as at mid-event – “I think the improvements made this year have been fantastic! I can’t think of anything I would like to see changed.”
- What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? Cheerleading – it was very-well organized and I felt very supported 🙂
- How many books did you read? I only finished one, but I read three throughout the day, for a total of 700 pages.
- What were the names of the books you read? The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs, and Justice by Rhiannon Paille
- Which book did you enjoy most? Ach, it’s almost unfair now that I read some of LotR because it is one of my all-time favourite books! I’ve read it lots before…
- Which did you enjoy least? I liked the other two books equally the same, but for me they are below LotR so I guess I liked them ‘least’ ^^; (but I did like them!)
- If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? N/A (I did some rogue cheering for people who signed up late and may not have been assigned a cheerleader – I think this is a good option for those who aren’t official cheerleaders.)
- How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Ooh, I would love to say 100% but the next time it’s on I will be living in Japan. I’m not sure what my schedule will be like then. I would probably do the same role – primarily reading, broken up with some interactive tweeting.
This year I kept track of my reading stats with Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelves spreadsheet. I used my iPod timer to keep a close track of how long it took to me to read how many pages – I read 707 pages in 6.8 hours! How that breaks down:
- The Lord of the Rings – 53 pages read in 98 minutes
- Justice – 376 pages read in 184 minutes (read entire book)
- Hollow City – 278 pages in 128 minutes
I came short of my goals (I underestimated the size of Justice and Hollow City), but I’m happy with the reading I did manage. I had a great a time participating. Here is an hourly recap of this year’s event (‘participating online’ means tweeting, commenting or completing a mini-challenge):
- 7:00-8:00AM: Sleeping. I reallllly dislike waking up early (I usually sleep until 8:30). But, even without intending to, I woke up at 7:45. I had been dreaming about the read-a-thon, so I guess I was eager to start!
- 8:00-9:00AM: Reading The Lord of the Rings
- 9:00-10:00AM: Eating breakfast (pancakes with strawberries and bacon) and reading The Lord of the Rings
- 10:00-11:00AM: Reading The Lord of the Rings, participating online
- 11:00-12:00PM: At sports practice
- 12:00-1:00PM: At sports practice
- 1:00-2:00PM: At sports practice
- 2:00-3:00PM: At sports practice [for the curious – practice goes from 12:00-2:00 but there is a lot of driving and set-up/take down]
- 3:00-4:00PM: Showering, eating lunch (grilled cheese, pickles and tomato soup), participating online
- 4:00-5:00PM: Reading Justice, participating online
- 5:00-6:00PM: Reading Justice
- 6:00-7:00PM: Reading Hollow City
- 7:00-8:00PM: Eating dinner (spring rolls, pepperoni pizza), participating online, reading Hollow City
- 8:00-9:00PM: Reading Justice
- 9:00-10:00PM: Napping
- 10:00-11:00PM: Reading Hollow City and Justice, snacking (grapes) participating online
- 11:00PM-12:00AM: Reading Justice, finished the book and got my ‘second wind, snacking (Cheerios)
- 12:00-1:00AM: Reading Hollow City
- 1:00-2:00AM: Sleeping
- 2:00-3:00AM: Sleeping
- 3:00-4:00AM: Sleeping
- 4:00-5:00AM: Sleeping
- 5:00-6:00AM: Sleeping
- 6:00-7:00AM: Sleeping
Here are a few photos I snapped during the Read-a-thon. The shelfie was for The Book Monsters’ mini-challenge and the other is my reading corner around 11:00PM.
Next time I participate, I will pay closer attention to the size of the books I want to read, and have an earlier nap for a longer period of time so I can stay up later. I woke up at 8:00AM this morning! I should have pushed through another hour or two and finished Hollow City…I will finish it today. Thanks to everyone who made this Read-a-thon an incredible event!
Glad you had fun! I need to check out Hollow City, it sounds good! Lovely reading corner, I wish I could do something like that in my house somewhere!
That looks like such a cozy corner for sure! :)And haha with the hours of sleeping, I just woke up but I think I may have to go back to bed again.
I think any afternoon naps today will be forgiven – I will probably even need one! 😛
Thank-you! I think I'm actually enjoying Hollow City more than the first book. I still love the photos.
Glad you had fun! I need to check out Hollow City, it sounds good! Lovely reading corner, I wish I could do something like that in my house somewhere!
That looks like such a cozy corner for sure! :)And haha with the hours of sleeping, I just woke up but I think I may have to go back to bed again.
I think any afternoon naps today will be forgiven – I will probably even need one! 😛
Thank-you! I think I'm actually enjoying Hollow City more than the first book. I still love the photos.