What’s this? Another foolhardy readathon sign-up post – yep! This time I’m participating in the 24 in 48 Readathon which is running this weekend, from 12:01 AM EST on Saturday 27th up until 11:59 PM EST on Sunday 28th January. The basic principle is very simple – you try to read for 24 hours within a 48-hour period.
If my calculations are correct, if I waited to start reading at the official time of 12:01 EST that would be 5:01 am where I am over in GMT and, whilst I love readathons, not enough to wake up at 5am on my day off, I’m afraid. However, I am planning to go for this method anyway (over changing the readthon to be 12am my time) because I’ve never tried it this other way before and I suspect it might work out better for me. Plus, even though I’ve previously planned to stay up past midnight and start reading before going to sleep for a bit on Saturday, I never actually did that, so I suspect sticking with the official times might actually be better in the long run. We shall see!
The folks who’ve been around on my blog for a while might remember that I took part in the 24 in 48 Readathon back in January and July last year and had a blast both times, with relative success during both! I like the idea of these shorter term readathons because they’re a quick and easy in-and-out sort of approach, with participants just trying their hardest to squeeze reading into their day(s) wherever they can. I like that attitude, and it has a great community feel too. However, unlike some of the uber dedicated participants, I’ve never managed to make it to the hallowed 24 hours, not even close at 14.5 and 16 hours respectively. So these days I tend to aim for a nice 12 hours of reading which, for me, on a weekend when I’m off and want to just laze about, is still pretty challenging. This round I’m aiming for 12 hours of reading again because everyone loves consistency, right? I probably had success in January 2017 because I had a range of genres and mediums to choose from and I’m a big advocate of that tactic during readathons in general, so I’ll definitely be doing that again this time.
TBR
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert [paperback]
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman [eARC]
- How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb [audiobook and hardback]
- The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo [hardback]
- Circe by Madeline Miller [eARC]
Obviously there is no way on god’s green earth that I’m going to finish all of these books, even though I’m halfway through some of them already, but that’s entirely not the point – I like to have a selection of things to dip in and out of, so I don’t get bored or slumpy during the readathon. Also it’s good to have things that are portable (i.e. eARCs and ebooks) or good for squeezing reading in at the same time as doing errands (i.e. audiobooks), and that has seemed to work well for me in the past too. I might even have a look if there are any graphic novels that I can borrow through my local library or on Amazon Prime Reading to mix it up even more! Ambitious? Perhaps. Foolhardy? We shall see…
(PS – I will definitely be using Twitter to update how I’m doing throughout the weekend so check out my Twitter thread of updates if you’re curious about my reading!)
Are you participating in the 24 in 48 Readathon this weekend? Do you have your TBR all ready and are raring to go? Or have you participated in any short readathons in the past, like the Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon? Let me know in the comments below and let’s chat readathons!
The Terror of Knowing 