So, if you’re into the book blogging world, you’ve probably come across the readathon concept. I’m a little fuzzy on the rules, but my basic understanding is that you set aside a day for reading as much as possible and neglecting your housework, and because hundreds of other people are all doing this as well and it’s organized with cheerleaders and everything, you get the privilege of calling it a readathon instead of just “Saturday.”
Anyway, I love the idea of reading all day – obviously, since I did plenty of that once upon a time, before children. And I would love to read all day while people leave me encouraging notes, as if I need encouragement. But for various reasons, I’d never joined in on a readathon before. There was always something going on – either I was on vacation (and sightseeing, not a beach or lake vacation where a readathon would actually be practicable), or I had family commitments or a big race, or a tiny baby who needed too much of my attention. I would follow jealously along on Twitter, kicking myself for not signing up at least to cheer. And I always promised myself: someday.
Finally I decided: someday would be April 26, 2014, the date of the spring installment of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. It was, once again, not a great weekend for me. I have a little kid who wants attention (and deserves attention, and is WAY too cute to ignore) and it was also the week before the Five Boro Bike Tour, so I had a couple of training rides to get in. I knew there was no way I’d be able to put as much reading time in as I would have pre-baby, pre-hectic weekends. But I decided I’d go for it anyway.
The first task in any readathon is to pick your books. Here was my stack:
The Mummy Case, by Elizabeth Peters; Bronte: Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets (poems by Emily Bronte – for National Poetry Month; I was slacking); Wigs on the Green, by Nancy Mitford; Henrietta’s War, by Joyce Dennys; William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, by Ian Doescher; The Pericles Commission, by Gary Corby. Since I knew I wouldn’t actually be reading 24 hours, or anywhere close to it, I really didn’t think I’d get through all of these. But this was my lineup of choices.
Sometimes I’m not the brightest. I didn’t exactly read the directions on the readathon site, and didn’t realize that there were different start times for each time zone. I sort of thought the readathon started at midnight wherever you are, and ended at midnight the following night. Actually, for my time zone, it went 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. I started at 6:24 a.m. Oopsie, then.
Anyway. I decided to start with The Mummy Case, since I was 223 pages into it (out of 404) and wanted to finish. I read steadily for almost two hours, then had to break off to feed Peanut her breakfast and get us both ready for Stroller Strides. (It’s a part of the weekend that we both really enjoy, and we had missed the previous weekend and won’t be able to make it next weekend, so it took priority over the readathon.) We got back from Stroller Strides around 11:30. I gave Peanut lunch, put her down for her nap, and then got ready for what I hoped would be a ten mile bike ride.
About two miles in, the hail started. I had also made the unwise decision of wearing skimpy bike shorts, and it was in the 30s. Since I couldn’t feel my legs, there were hailstones under my helmet, and the readathon clock was ticking, I gave up the ride as a bad job and headed back after only six miles. (I had a thirty-five miler on the schedule for Sunday, so it wasn’t like this was my big training ride of the weekend.)
Back home: lunch, and more Amelia Peabody. I am loving these mysteries, but more about that coming in a future post.
Done with book the first! I decided to keep track of my time with this handy digital bookmark, and it tells me I’d been reading for 2 hours, 26 minutes at this point. That’s already more than I thought I’d manage, so I was pretty pleased.
Snacktime, and on to book the second. As I mentioned, I’d been slacking on my plan to read through this volume of Emily Bronte’s poems for National Poetry Month, so I decided some forced reading time would get me back on track. Time for a Bronte binge.
Man, Emily Bronte is depressing. More about this to come in a future post (on Friday!) but the woman had a serious fixation on the grave. It was a good thing I had someone so cute to look at as I read. Here we are enjoying an afternoon snack (Peanut) and a poem that, at first, seemed to be about something other than death, but of course ended up being depressing (me).
Peanut also decided to get in on the readathon action. She spent at least thirty minutes – more like an hour, I think, but I was in no place to count – sitting on the floor, “reading aloud” from her Mother Goose book. Like mother, like daughter.
Late afternoon, more readathon views. I’m still reading depressing poetry, and so is Peanut.
Eventually, it was time to break for dinner (pizza, which seems to be the official readathon dinner food, and wings, because Buffalo), and to give Peanut her bottle and stories and bedtime snuggles. With her tucked cozily away upstairs, I returned to Bronte and finished around 8:30 or a little after. Reading time: 4 hours, 40 minutes.
With book the second finished, it was on to book the third. I chose Henrietta’s War, because I was looking for something short and a bit lighter after an afternoon with the least cheery Bronte sister (and that is saying something), and because I’ve been meaning to read this one for a long time. I also decided to eat Peanut’s Easter cookie from Grandma and Grandpa. In my defense, I tried to cut it up for her, but my knife didn’t want to go through the royal icing. In my further defense, I actually slipped and cut the inside of my mouth on this. So I’m glad I didn’t feed it to Peanut. But sorry anyway, Grandma and Grandpa. It was delicious.
Henrietta’s War was fantastic, and I loved it pretty much from page one. But… I was getting pretty tired.
I moved upstairs and took a short reading break to put sheets on the bed (laundry day). Then I climbed in and curled up with Henrietta and Mrs. Savernack and Lady B and Faith and Colonel Simpkins for a bit longer. Henrietta kept me laughing (what a wonderful pen-pal she’d make!) but eventually I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.
10:49 p.m. – Book closed, lights out, readathon done, at least for me. 6 hours and 28 minutes of reading is more than I expected to do, not as much as most of the readathon participants did, but good for a busy mom who wasn’t committed enough to make it 24 hours but wanted to play along, at least once.
Will I readathon again? You betcha! Dewey’s readathon was well organized, and I got lots of encouraging messages and “likes” on Instagram and Twitter all day from the cheerleaders. There’s another one coming up in October, and I’d love to really commit and try to make it longer. Unless it’s marathon weekend, in which case… well, maybe an audiobook.
Did you participate in the Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon this weekend? How’d you do?
Mother Goose is a large, aggressive bird who sips tea and haunts children’s dreams. This is something you might not know about geese, but it’s true. They are angry, violent birds with a talent for making up terrifying rhymes. That’s why, when my mom asked me what I would like to talk about for National Poetry Month, I picked Mother Goose. Because what is the point of poetry if it’s not to make children cry and cling to their mothers? (Their real mothers, not their bird mothers. As a matter of fact, let’s get this one thing straight right now, before we go any further: Mother Goose, YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER.)
covered in flour 