Dewey’s Readathon

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Still here in Keystone Heights, FL. I may try to do some outdoor reading this morning and I’m considering suggesting we take a drive and listen to an audio book that’s due back to the library on Monday… we shall see.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Alas, I’m not really excited about any of the books in my print stack OR in my Kindle. That does not bode well for the day, does it? I’m sure it will be fine. I have two Once Upon a Book Club books to read so that will certainly be fun. And at least one graphic novel and at least one art journaling book and at least one cookbook. It’s all good.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Tough question – there are so many great snacks this time around. Chicken salad sandwich, maybe? Those pastries though… tough question, very tough question.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

Let’s see… what should I say this time around? Oh, I know…. I think this is the very first #readathon that I will do without checking in on work or doing some amount of work during the day. So weird to say that – I know a lot of people don’t work on their days off, I’ve never been one of those people. I guess I am now? Weird. Very weird.

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?

The biggest difference between this #readathon and previous #readathons (besides not doing any actual paid work all day long) is I didn’t go shopping for snacks. TW went alone since she had a couple of appointments in the big city this morning and I needed to stay home and work. I thought about us driving back into town tonight after work and shopping but changed my mind. I made a small list of things I’d be interested in (and I got most of what was on my list) and then just told her to choose the rest on her own. She did well. She did very well.

Happy #readathon to one and all.

I was able to finish another book before I went to bed last night – and read a few more chapters on the book I’m reading on my iPad. Someday I might actually finish that particular book. Maybe. I think I should start posting these right before I go to bed on a readathon night rather than waiting until morning. It’s not like I don’t know what the closing survey will say, right? Yea, I’m going to try to remember to do that in April.

• How would you assess your reading overall?

Pretty good! I remember now why I used to always pad my stacks with children’s books – nice way to continue reading while giving your mind a bit of a break!

• Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it?

No real strategy – except to read from my stack and avoid the internet as much as possible. Considering I had to work on the internet, I did pretty well.

• What was your favorite snack?

Tough choice, Crispy Crunchy Champignon Mushroom Snacks or a spoon of Chili Onion Crunch on 1/2 of a butter croissant. Both were excellent. I enjoyed having a bowl of grapes to munch from as well.

• Did you add any new books to your TBR/wishlist after seeing what everyone else is reading?

NO, which is unusual. BUT, because I was trying my darnedest to avoid the internet, I didn’t see many posts from other readers this time. That’s a blessing and a curse.

• What was your favorite book or experience from this readathon?

Reading a Once Upon a Bookclub Book. TOTALLY fun. I should make sure to always have one available for readathons!

Here’s what’s left in my original stack! Not bad, right?

It’s after 8 and I’m pretty happy with how this one went. I slept for about 9 of the 24 hours, which is pretty decent, all things considered. I read two books in print and started a third. I finished an e-book I’ve been reading for the last week or so and I started another. Somewhere around 700 pages. I ate some decent food that I didn’t have to cook and clean up was minimal. Nothing catastrophic happened here, though it was touch and go there in the 23rd hour. All in all… good readathon. I’m happy.

I don’t see the closing survey up but since I’ve done a zillion of these, I’m going to go ahead and do it:

1. How would you assess your reading overall?

Outstanding! I’m pleased.

2. Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it?

My strategy was to focus on print books and for the most part, it worked. At the end – I realized I could finish the e-book I’d been reading in small batches and went ahead and did that in hours 22/23. I think that was smart. It’s always good to finish a book.

3. What was your favorite snack?

Oddly enough, the SmartSweets Peach Rings.

4. Wanna volunteer for our next event?

I always say maybe but odds are slim, but maybe some day I’ll be able to volunteer again. Thanks to all those who work to pull this off every time. I appreciate it.

Tis the damn season… for a readathon. I was going to stick with the original date of Harry Potter’s birthday and just read books by trans authors or with trans characters but life happened and that idea fell apart. Maybe I’ll do it for the October readathon in honor of coming out month? I’m going to try and make that a priority. (Alexa: Remind me on 10/11 that I’m going to read Trans books for readathon.)

Anyway, on to this reverse readathon… not an ideal time. TW had her capsule endoscopy and we lost a lot of work hours driving back and forth for that + WDW dropped a Remy preview for passholders that turned into a big enough clusterfuck that I cancelled my WDW resort reservation in October in favor of a stay at the Dolphin. (First they ditch Must Do Stacey and now this… not the way to get my 5K in 2022 for the Galactic Cruiser!) But, I digress… the later afternoon trip to GNV for the capsule endoscopy meant that I was able to pick up a Fresh Market curbside order for snacks! That’s a good thing because we had no other good snack options because pandemic and mask-less/vax-less community = crap for food options locally. They were out of a lot of what I ordered but I over-ordered so we’ll be FINE. Yay. On to the official survey now that I’m done rambling along here.

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Mask-less/Vax-less small town north Florida, again. Still. The COVID infection rate was high in 2020 and it’s higher in 2021. (And the library sucks… coincidence, I think not…)

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

Good question – I think the Wally Funk biography.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Complicated question since I’m not 100% sure what I ended up getting and what was out of stock… probably the curried chicken salad and the raspberry peach loaf? (not at the same time, probably.)

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I’m under-employed, still… do you need an online community manager, social media manager, or online reputation manager? I’m your person… message me. lol

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?

I’ve participated in the last zillion readathons… the thing I’m doing differently this time is I’m going old-school and focusing only on print books, no e-books. It’s been more than a year since that was the case! Even before COVID and the library closure, we were shifting to primarily e-books. We’ve built up a tiny collection of print books over the last year or so and I feel like focusing on those. It’s going to be fun – let’s see if I can stick to that plan. If not, I have plenty of e-books waiting on my Kindle or on Libby.

Onward to the snacks and the books. Have fun, readers!