Readathon live updates!

HOUR ONE: It begins!

Good morning! It's finally time for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and I could not be more excited! As always, my planning went a little awry - I talked about my plans in this post a couple weeks ago. I thought I'd be finishing up other books in time to devote myself entirely to my planned pile of books. But then I picked up Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on a whim and it's taken a lot longer than I thought. So - in addition to the other books I planned on reading, I'll be (slowly) working through that.

This morning, I'll be starting with All Systems Red and then spending some time finishing up Another Fine Myth. These are both pretty short (and I'm already most of the way through Another Fine Myth), so I think it'll give me some success early in the day and lots of motivation to continue reading. Plus, tweeting about my successes (@mynameis_anna) and thinking about the reviews will give me a nice break.

  

I'll check in here every few hours, but you can hang out with me during hour 4 while I moderate the Goodreads group and do some discussions there! Happy reading!

HOUR 3: Chuggin' along

So far, so good! I finished All Systems Red and am continuing on with Another Fine Myth. What I'm most loving is checking Twitter every few chapters to see what my fellow readers are up to - there are so many books out there that people are devouring and I'm so happy to see so much reading getting done!

If you aren't already aware, one part of this readathon is the quest to reach 1 million pages read between everyone participating. You can log your pages here! 

Also, come visit me during hour 4 on the Goodreads group, where we'll chat a bit about what books you're excited to be reading today.

May you enjoy your current read and finish it quickly!

HOUR 5: Break time!

I've spent the last hour talking with all you delightful people on Twitter and Goodreads (and sneaking in a little reading here and there when things got quiet) and now I'm ready to take a short break from the internets - with my book, of course. I started Stoner by John Williams just before my hour 4 duties and I'm finding it to be an interesting book that differs quite a bit from what I've been reading this morning. It's refreshing to have something completely new to be working through.

If you want some music to pair with your next read, check out my Goodreads discussion thread - I got some new music to try out and also some differing opinions on whether it's appropriate and helpful to listen to music while you read. Also check out the other hourly discussion posts!

Keep reading and I'll see you all in a few more hours!

HOUR 8: Back to the half-read books

I started this morning by reading All Systems Red, finishing Another Fine Myth, reading Stoner, and then taking a graphic novel break to read Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family by Greg Rucka (which I highly recommend - it intrigued and refreshed me enough that I quickly checked out the next 3 volumes on my kindle). 

I thought I'd be feeling much more tired at this point, but I still feel excited and interested in reading. I'm sure I'll be a mess tomorrow (especially when it comes to starting all those reviews....), but for now, I'm loving this. We are about 1/3 done with this challenge and the goal to read 1 million pages seems far off (last I checked, they had just about 90,000 pages recorded), but it's still a worthy goal and an excellent way to begin measuring group progress! And hey - maybe next time, it'll be met! 

I am currently returning to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I originally was thinking that I may not be able to finish it today and that it might not be worth my time to even delve into it, but now that I am 60% of the way through, I think I need to power on through and finish it - even if it takes hours. As always, I'm excited to continue this adventure and to get so many books read. Happy reading!

HOUR 13: Success!

I have finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell! This was one book I didn't think I'd be able to finish today, and yet, I was able to read the last half in just 5 hours! I definitely count that as a win for today. I also read the Lazarus, Vol. 2: Lift by Greg Rucka and began Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld - which is a nice change of pace. It's a big book, so I don't entirely expect to finish it today, but I hope to make a good dent. I'll also probably take a break to read more of the Lazarus books - I've really enjoyed them so far.

  

I didn't expect that I'd last this long reading non-stop, but I've actually done a fairly good job! I'm beginning to want more of break (which I may take for dinner), but I think the change in book and genre will do me a lot of good. Keep reading! We still have several hours in which to tackle our TBRs!

Hour 18: Bedtime

This has been an incredibly relaxing and yet productive day. Why haven't I done a readathon before? Not only did I get to connect with the amazing bookish community, but I got SO much reading done. Here are the books I finished today:

      

  

    

(and I'm one quarter through this:)

All in all, I read:

• 8 1/4 books
• 1674 pages
• 17 hours (with a couple short breaks here and there and a 30 minute dinner break around hour 14)
• 2 cans of Mountain Dew Baja Blast
• 10 tweets (and endless responses to other people's tweets)
• And I didn't even open my bag of Doritos

At this point, I'm ready for bed. It's been a fun, productive day and I'm excited to do this again next time. Thank you Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon for hosting (and keep your eye on their page and book count - as I write this, they're at 309,967 pages read and 1600 books finished)!

How did your readathon go? What were your readathon ups and downs? Best book you read? Book you wish you'd been able to read? And share your readathon posts with me so we can chat:)