Author: Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader

Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 18 Comments

I’m a wee bit tired and headachey this morning. But I made it to hour 23 and I have to say that I’m quite proud of myself. I updated my blog periodically with my progress yesterday. You can see by the end that I was half out of my mind!

End of Event Meme

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? I was all good until the very wee hours of the morning. Hours 20 and 21 just about slayed me.
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I think short is the way to go. If I had read one long book right away I think I would have been discourage. Next time around I’m definitely going for more graphic novels. Blankets kinda saved me.
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nothing comes to mind, it was rad. (Haven’t used that particular word in a decade or two, ha) Personally? I might invest in a few energy drinks and a bigger variety of snacks.
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The cheerleading and support on Twitter was fantastic! The hourly updates on the site really kept my mojo up as well.
  5. How many books did you read? Almost 6, yay!
  6. What were the names of the books you read? How Reading Changed my Life, Push, The Chocolate War, Blankets, The Violin of Auschwitz and 3/4 of The Empty Family
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? Oh wow, honestly I don’t know if I can pick. The Chocolate War and Push were both crazy good. Blankets was ultra beautiful!
  8. Which did you enjoy least? The Violin of Auschwitz. It’s a lovely book, but didn’t fit into my Read-a-Thon happiness!
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? Maybe more blog comments? Especially in the later hours. 
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Oh dude, I am so in. I really enjoyed being a reader but I wouldn’t mind hosting a mini-challenge. I was kinda late to the party, but next time I’d like to donate a prize or two as well. 
Thank you to the hosts, the mini-challenge hosts, the cheerleaders and the readers. What a fantabulous event! 
Now I’m off to explore some of the blogs I discovered yesterday and to answer comments and all of the stuff that makes the book blogging world go ’round. 
Have a great day. Get some sleep for pete’s sake!

Relentless Reader Readathon Updates!

~ Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader ~ 19 Comments
Good morning! Happy Read-A-Thon! 
I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with all the wonderfulness.
My alarm went off at 6:45. I let out the dogs, poured myself a giant cup of coffee and now it’s time to start reading my heart out!
Best wishes to my fellow Read-A-Thoners! Thoners? That’s not really a word. No one minds, right?
Let’s do it!

Introductory Questions:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I’m in the lovely state of Wisconsin, in the lovely USA

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Blankets by Craig Thompson (My very first graphic novel)

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Little pizzas made out of Pillsbury biscuits and whatever I want to put on top, mmm.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I’m Jennifer, book nerd extraordinaire! I’m a fairly new blogger, a homeschooling mom and a bleeding heart liberal. I’m so glad to have found and joined the book blogging community. You guys get me. That feeling of inclusion is hard to come by..or it was for me. Until now. Bless you book lovers, you are my brothers and sisters! 

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?
This is my first time. I’m most looking forward to reading for ALL OF THE HOURS and having the excuse that it is for an event, dammit, an event!


10:18 AM Update:
Uh oh, I’ve yawned a few times! Probably because I woke up an hour earlier than normal?

So far I’ve read How Reading Changed my Life by Anna Quindlen. It’s a book I’ve had forever, it’s so full of readerly goodness! It was an inspiring way to start the day.

I’m a little over half way done with Push by Sapphire.

Back to the books…

3:47 PM Update:
I don’t want to stop reading, even to update! I am in the zone people!

I finished Push by Sapphire, wowza! That is some crazy business right there. But I’ll chat about that at a later time.

Book #3 was The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

And looky! I had fruit! Ha ha, and you thought it would be all Raisinets didn’t you? Well there were those too.

Healthy! Mmm sooo healthy!

Now I’m going to move on to book #4 The Violin of Auschwitz by Maria Angels Anglada. That should be a pick me up. Gulp.

Keep on reading ladies and gents! I’ll see you again in a few hours…

8:04 PM Update:
Good evening Read-a-Thoners! A few exciting things have happened since I last updated. I had dinner, I read and I took a nap. Ok, not very exciting.

The family and I flattened out some biscuits and made our own little homemade pizzas. I’ll be honest. They weren’t that great.

I just designed this bookmark for a mini-challenge for Nisaba be Praised. It took a lot of time and effort. Applause please. Ha!

I took a 2 hour nap in the hopes that I’ll be able to make it awake and booking it until the wee hours of the morning.

Keep up the fab work Read-a-Thon folks. We kick ass.

12:01 AM Update:
First, I’m posting my 6 word story here for the mini-challenge from Estella’s Revenge:

In the spirit of six-word memoirs or six-word stories, I thought Dewey’s Read-a-Thon a perfect opportunity to offer a six-word celebration to show our appreciation to Dewey for starting this thing in 2008 and to our ongoing book blogger community for making it such a monumental event and such a great time twice per year.

Your challenge is to creative a six-word celebration of Dewey’s Read-a-Thon.

The first thing that popped right into my head was this, “I wish I had known her”

Moving on to my next book, The Empty Family by Colm Toibin.

We’re in hour 18. Thank goodness I took that nap earlier! I need some ibuprofen. My head hurts.

But I’m still in it to win it dawg! Randy Jackson is inspiring me right now. I guess? I think I’m getting punchy from ALL OF THE WORDS.

Go forth and read!

2:19 AM Update:
I’m on page 87 of The Empty Family by Colm Toibin. I’m so tired. I’m going to do some calisthenics and see what happens.

You know, I’m not sure if I’m really tired or if it’s just too creepily quiet around now that my family is all sleeping?

Sweet Jesus, is that Randy Jackson up there? What was I thinking?

I’m going to go read some more, for as long as I can. I don’t know that I’ll updating again tonight (this morning?) but you’ll hear from me tomorrow for sure.

3:22 AM Update:
My favorite place to read is in bed. I’ve been avoiding said place for hours now. I was afraid that if I got all snuggly I’d zonk out.

But it is now that time. I’m going to turn on my electric blanket, crawl in bed with my current read and see how long I can last until the words start swimming. (I’m hoping to make it to hour 22 at 4:00 AM)

This has been an amazing day. A giant thank you to the hosts and cheerleaders and to my fellow readers.

Sweet dreams!