Sunday, April 11, 2010

A learning experience: Wrap-up of my first Read-a-Thon

My first 24 Hour Read-a-Thon is done, and I'm sorry to say this top part is gonna be a mess because it's Sunday night and I need to get ready for bed -- back to work tomorrow! I did answer the questions for the "End of Event meme" already (below), so hopefully the bottom part of the blog is more orderly. :-)

The Q&A covers a lot of what I might want to say. Additional notes: I read a pitiful 204 pages (approximately), though the 75 or so pages from On Beauty correspond to a full-size hardcover. (I own the hardcover but am listening to the audio; I just looked at the pages closest to where I started listening on Saturday and where I ended.) In a way, I'm disappointed that I didn't get more read, but mostly I feel like it's my own fault, so I'm disappointed in myself. As I say in the title, though, it was a learning experience; I'm not going to beat myself up about it, and I REALLY ENJOYED the time I was able to spend reading. (No, I didn't track time spent reading, didn't even try.)

One cool thing: last night around 10pm, I sat in the living room with my two boys, and all three of us were reading. A few minutes after we all started, my husband -- YES, my husband, who has been unemployed for six months and STILL hasn't read the one book I told him he really should read since he has all this extra time, To Kill a Mockingbird -- EVEN MY HUSBAND came down to the living room with a basketball book and sat down and read for a while. This "whole family reading" happens so rarely, I can't say the last time it might have happened before last night. After a couple chaotic hours in the evening, it was wonderful and peaceful, even if it was only 20 minutes or half an hour. There's some hope for my boys yet!

Now I'm thinking I'm forgetting something ... and darn it, just when I was thinking my husband can be so great (see above), he comes down and says, "You really have to just stop and turn off the laptop now and get to bed." ARGH!! Whatever I was thinking of saying must remain forgotten and unsaid --- but I've covered enough, you get the picture.

End of Event Meme Questions

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

Most of the times when I wasn't actually reading. Part of the evening was very stressful, after husband and sons got home from baseball practice and we all took turns being in foul moods. :-(
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
One of my books was King Dork, a YA novel by Frank Portman, and it made me laugh out loud multiple times. One I read a few weeks ago that would be great for the Read-a-Thon is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Not really, things seemed to go along pretty swimmingly from what I could see. But one observation: you can never have too many cheerleaders! ;-)
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
This was my first one, so I don't have anything to compare it to. One good idea: on my cheerleading team, the head cheerleader assigned a group of cheerleaders to cheer for readers whose names began with the same letter. I was one of the handful of cheerleaders assigned to readers in the "M" group. It was VERY helpful to have a small subset of readers to focus on.
5. How many books did you read?
I read parts of two novels, sadly I didn't finish either one.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
In addition to King Dork, I listened to the audiobook of On Beauty by Zadie Smith.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I'm really enjoying both of them, but I have to give the edge to Zadie Smith.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
See # 7.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Granted it was my first time, but I found that cheering can take longer and be more "involved" than one might think.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
If my schedule allows in the fall and/or next year, I really hope to participate in the Read-a-Thon again. At least for my next one, I'd probably focus on reading, and not sign up to be a cheerleader -- just hop around some of the blogs and leave comments "unofficially" without COMMITTING to cheer, and of course do some tweeting, which wasn't as stressful for me. ;-)


Finally, I am truly thrilled that this event exists and is so popular with book bloggers, because it makes me very happy to know that others value books and reading as much as I do. Thank you a thousand times to the organizers, cheerleaders, mini-challenge hosts, and everyone involved, for making time to READ, and to share and promote our devotion to books and reading. YAY, TEAM READ-A-THON!

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