Hour 23 – The Home Stretch

The 2021 Reverse Readathon is almost over. Did your readathon plans work out as expected?

I started, as always, with a large TBR stack, far more books than could ever fit into a weekend, maybe not even a week. I finished a few books, including some I had particularly hoped to finish, and made progress in several more. The books I didn’t finish will simply roll over into my TBR for August, and for other reading events coming up. I am also one of the admins for a much smaller readathon that happens monthly, and that one is next weekend, so I’ll definitely finish more books from my stacks soon.

What will you do when the readathon is over? Here are some of the things on my To Do list:

• Sleep
• Stretch
• Pet the cats
• Clean litter boxes, wash dishes, etc. (aka all the chores I postponed while reading)
• Log all my finished books in the Dewey’s Completed Books database (see link at the end of this post)
• More sleep
• Pet the cats
• Wrap up my readathon log on Goodreads.
• Read some more
• Start planning for our next readathon, which will be in the standard 24hr format, in October
• Stretch
• Finish assembling a granny square blanket
• Pet the cats
• Read more books

What will you be doing after the readathon?

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 21 – Food for the Reading Brain (literally and figuratively)

Hey!
My name is Flavia and I am a reader all the way in Germany.
I’ve been participating in Dewey’s since 2016 but this is actually my first Reverse Readathon.

Dewey’s is usually a chance for me to go all out on reading. (Sadly not this time around as I’m working on my Bachelor’s thesis and have an early train to catch tomorrow.)
And I get VERY ambitious about it.

I don’t think I’ve ever managed to stay awake for the entire 24 hours. But I’ve read a good 1000 pages or more most times (like 8 books) in the hours that I was awake.

And there’s a few things that really help that I would put into 2 categories:
1. What to read?
2. Fooooooood

Now I’m not the first person to suggest this but switching up your format can help you read A LOT more. While some people can absolutely take the weekend just to read which is amazing. Sometimes there is other stuff to get done. So if you can, take advantage of the glorious world that is audiobooks. And since I love free stuff, just letting you know here that there are free ones on Spotify. My favorites include: George, You Should See Me In A Crown and A Princess In Theory.
Another great readathon tool are graphic novels. Which I know can get pricey. But checking your local library’s (digital) collection is always worth a shot.

Now food!
To eat or not to eat while reading is muy, muy controversial. I know, I know. And to be honest I don’t usually eat while reading but during Dewey’s it sometimes just has to happen. My two favorite book safe foods are grapes and Cheerios.

Generally speaking I think it’s essential to have easy and quick things at hand. Being overly full makes you (or at least me) tired, so consider more small meals instead of a few big ones.
Also this is the day to have the snacks you want all for yourself :D. But I mean in the end just do what feels good to you…

So tell me:
Do you eat while reading?
What are your favorite snacks?
What formats do you read in?
(also if you are hungry and haven’t moved in hours consider my little bake and stretch challenge from a past Dewey’s)

I hope your readathon is going well and you have an awesome day no matter how much reading you get done. You can find on social media under the username flaviaaalouise.

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 17 – Readathon Reading Companions

Here we are in Hour 17! We have gone more than half way. How are you doing with your reading? I’m Kelley and I am one of the new organizers of Dewey’s Readathon. I am as excited as I am nervous about being one of the people responsible for the legend that is Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. I will be your host for this hour.

For this hour, I want to hear about your reading companions! Mine are the four footed and furry kind, who love to purr and get into everything. 🙂 And I would not have it any other way. They challenge my ability to get reading done at times, as evidenced here…

Elizabeth, AKA Lizzie Bit,

And here…

Mr. Darcy

Other times, they just want to hang out and keep me company while I read or update social media…

Snickers

My grumpy old man, Amun (16 years old!)

Jakey Baby, my snuggle bug

Now it’s your turn! Tell me about who is keeping you company during the readathon. 

Happy reading! I hope you are having a great readathon so far.

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 15 – Data Nerds Unite

Hello! This is Janani, aka TheShrinkette, and welcome to Hour 15! At this point I’m sure you’ve gotten some reading done no matter where in the world you are, so kudos!

This post is dedicated to my reading nerds. I’m talking reading journals, spreadsheets, Goodreads, stopwatch—all of you who use some form of technology to track your reading and reading time. Readathons are the perfect time to bust them out, so I thought I’d share three of my favorites from over the years. 

Book Riot’s Ultimate Tracking Spreadsheet: I have loved watching this one evolve over the years, and it’s great for folks who want to see what kind of books and authors they gravitate towards over the course of the year. Super easy to use, everything’s already set up for you, and your reward at the end of the year comes in the form of GLORIOUS PIECHARTS.

Storygraph: This was definitely my favorite find of 2020. Here’s why you should be using it. One, its a superior alternative to Goodreads, which is an Amazon product, and I know a lot of folks are actively trying to not give their money to Amazon if they have the capacity. Two, it’s prettier; Goodreads’ interface belongs in the previous century. Three, you get tailored recommendations, and can look for books by mood. Four, you’ll be supporting a Black woman and a small business! Five, PIE CHARTS. It’s a win win win win win!

Bookly: This is for my readers who are trying to actively allocate consistent time for reading, would like to read more, or would like to track how long it takes them to finish a book. The data give you fantastic insight into your reading patterns and behaviors, especially useful when you’re trying to establish a habit. There’s free and paid versions, Android and Apple apps. 

I hope y’all find these useful, and if you’re already users, I’d love to hear your experiences! Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the readathon, and shoutout to everyone who has managed any amount of reading today!

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 13 – There’s a Quote for That!

Love to read?  Love books?  Love the Readathon?  Well, there’s a quote for that — from the serious to the laugh-out-loud, from Somerset Maugham to Lisa Simpson and beyond!  To inspire and cheer your Readathon, here are a few of the quotes about reading and books I’ve collected.  Do you have any favorites to share?  

Seriously — 

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”    W. Somerset Maugham, Books and You

Less seriously–

Do you agree?

From the most literary quote–

To the not most literary quote–

Let’s give the last word to my favorite quote, Anonymous–

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 11 – Hobbies in Books

My biggest non-bookish hobbies are crochet and kitten rescue. And if you came to my house and looked at my books, you could probably guess at least the cat part by my books. I have a lot of the Cat Who mysteries, of course, by Lillian Jackson Braun, but I also pick up random other murder mysteries with cats on the cover or in the title, whenever they show up in Little Free Libraries or library free-books shelves. Any time a bookish game has a ‘read a book with an animal/cat on the cover’, I have plenty to choose from. I even had one murder mystery set at a cat rescue, though I gave that one away to a friend last year.

Crochet is a bit harder, for some reason. I have pattern books, of course, but I have not yet found good murder mysteries with a crochet theme. Knit, yes. Crochet, no. Every once in a while though crochet is mentioned in a book I am reading. One of the women picked up for breaking curfew in Night Watch(Terry Pratchett) is a seamstress who also does crochet, and I am pretty sure one of the inspector’s wives in one of the series I was reading earlier this year does crochet. And while Miss Marple does more knitting, I always enjoy the scenes where she is shopping for more yarn (‘wool’) while also gathering clues, or when she has someone holding hanks for her while she winds them.

What are your hobbies? Do you have books that feature them? Do you know of any good murder mysteries featuring a crochet theme?

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 9 – Summer Book Recommendations

Summer Book Recommendations

Hi, It’s Katherine here from https://justkatherineblog.wordpress.com and I’m so happy to be your host for hour 9.

Summer is a time to relax and do what you love. If you love reading then there’s no doubt you’ll be looking for some book recommendations.

Here are some of mine from those I have reviewed:

One Summer Sunrise by Shari Low

The Orange Grove, The Villa and Bay of Secrets by Rosanna Ley

The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan

Summer at the Château by Jennifer Bohnet

The Promise of Summer by Bella Osborne

My Greek Island Summer, One Last Greek Summer and Staying Out for the Summer by Mandy Baggot

Summertime Guests by Wendy Francis

A Summer on the Italian Lakes and Summer in Andalucía by Lucy Coleman

That Summer in Maine by Brianna Wolfson

She’s Faking It by Kristin Rockaway

The Summer Island Swap by Samantha Tonge

The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader

Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab

The Summer Villa by Melissa Hill

Summer in a Cornish Cove by Kate Ryder

There are so many fantastic summer reads out there that I am sure everyone will find something.

You can find all these reviews and more on my blog https://justkatherineblog.wordpress.com

I review women’s fiction, romance and thrillers mostly with a mix of other genres, and my book is also a lifestyle blog.

Follow me on Twitter and Goodreads https://twitter.com/theglitzqueen https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4252616-katherine-hayward-p-rez

I hope you have a fabulous reverse Readathon.

What are your favourite summer reads?

Comment below and don’t forget to enter your finished books into the database, cheer people on or check out the action on social networks. Have fun, too!

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 7 – How Do You Read?

Dear readathoners,

Hello there! My name is Cindarella and I’m a book blogger, lover of books, bookaholic, book
hoarder and I love studying languages. I live in Finland, but I used to live in Sweden and study
English and other languages at the university of Stockholm. In 2016 I started my book blog
and update it every now and then. I have been blogging since 2007 about my life, my cats and
hobbies. My favorite kind of book is a big one, I read mostly in English.

My favorite thing about the reverse readathon is that it starts at 4 a.m. Finnish time, so I can
jump in early in the morning, since I am an early riser. Come rain or shine, weekend or weekday,
I usually always wake up at 6-7 a.m. My cats help me, they are often hungry, meowing and
demanding an early breakfast.

My TBR for this readathon is kinda short but sweet. I’m often overly ambitious and try to read a
lot more than I ever could. Nowadays I have many audio books that help me read a lot faster and
retain more information. My TBR is:

Physical books
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Green Mile by Stephen King

Audio book
The House in the Cerulean Sea

What books are on your TBR for this reverse readathon?

I often listen and read simultaneously, this is my new favorite way to read. Books can be enjoyed
in many ways, there is no right or wrong way to enjoy a good book. I have started collecting
audio books on Audible and have a nice collection. Most books I also own as physical copies.
Anna Karenina is a Russian classic, I am reading it in Swedish, my mother tongue, since I don’t
know Russian. Good Omens is a fun book about the end of the world, totally silly. The Green Mile
is a thriller/horror book by the great author, that is much loved and respected. I have read a few
books by Stephen King and I have loved most of them. The Green Mile is a reread as is Good
Omens. I am a rereader… lol

Good luck with the readathon!
You can follow my progress on my blog:
http://cindersboo.blogspot.com/
Have a lovely reverse readathon!

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 5 – The Weirdest Place You’ve Read?

Hello all! Whitney here!

Reading is usually a solitary pursuit. We love to hunker down and get lost in other worlds, but when life tries to get in the way, we have to get creative. We may be surrounded by other people, in rooms buzzing with activity, and many of us will stay in the pages of our latest read. Since childhood, I’ve brought a book with me, wherever I go; it’s gotten me some odd looks over the years. Here are a few places I’ve read:

A display window in a GAP outlet store. It was the only place to sit in the whole joint, and my book demanded to be read. The store was filled to the brim with Black Friday shoppers, but it didn’t bother me.

Restaurants! I love reading while I eat. This one has gotten me more weird looks than most of the other places I’ve read, but it’s worth it. I once stopped to buy a new release I’d been dying for, on the way to a reastaurant! It was maybe 800 pages long, and in the days before ereaders were a thing. My family wasn’t so thrilled, but I don’t think they expected any less from me.

The DMV. ‘Nough said.

Lying flat on a trampoline, on a pretty day. I’ve been told this is not what trampolines are actually for. I remain skeptical. (It was weirdly comfortable…..go figure)

During class, all throughout school. If I finished an assignment quickly, I would pick up my book and dive in. My teachers never minded, as far as I know. If they did, none ever asked me to put the book down.

Detention! I expected them to tell me to stop, as doing my favorite thing in the world wasn’t the punishment I was there for, but they never did. I only ever had detention twice, though, so maybe this was coincidental. It was almost worth getting In School Detention………..

My own birthday party. I’m not super social in person, and the people close to me are used to it. I don’t think anyone was surprised to see me off to the side with my slice of cake, reading.

The grocery store.

While writing this post. I got stumped for a minute, so I read a few pages until it passed.

The shower, thanks to my waterproof kindle and a particularly addictive book that just wouldn’t let me put it down.

Now that I’ve come clean (no pun intended), tell us some of the weirdest places you’ve read! Have you ever gotten any looks or comments about it?

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels

Hour 3 – Exploring the Online Book World

Many years ago, when blogs were still just html programmed basic sites, many hosted on university servers on student/faculty accounts, I started my first blogs. One was about all the books I was reading. Goodreads did not exist yet, and there was no good database about books that I could link to when talking about books. In fact, I think most of the links I coded into my sites were just internal, linking from one section of my site to another. And, while I liked writing about books, I got a lot more interest for my collection of links to animated dancing critters sites (think Hamster Dance, but there were dozens of great ones back then).

Nowadays there are so many sites about books that one could explore the bookish online world forever and still maybe never take in everything. Goodreads has maybe set a standard for what bookish social media can be, and for folks who are not enthusiastic about that huge, complex site, there are quite a few smaller sites that also provide book-oriented social spaces. There are several sites where readers can sign up to volunteer as reviewers for books that have not been released yet (or that are new or underappreciated), sites like Netgalley and Online Book Club.

Readathons, which were a cool new idea still 15 years ago, popped up on all sorts of book blogs, along with yearly reading challenges and other bookish competitive games that I still have a hard time explaining to my mother. During Covid these sorts of activities and the social media groups that support them became a sort of psychological lifeline for a lot of booklovers who suddenly were stuck in quarantine with nothing much to do but reading (not such a terrible idea for many of us, at least when you put it that way 😉 ). Also during this past year, Covid inspired more book clubs to start up using sites like Zoom to get around the isolation of quarantine. Perhaps these Zoom based book clubs will last into the future as yet another way bookish people connect online. Dewey’s is one of the older readathons that is still running, and has adapted as social media has changed. Hopefully in another 10 years we’ll still be doing these readathons, though it will be interesting to see which social media sites we’ll be using by then.

What are some of your favorite bookish sites online? Do you have any book blogs or booktubers you like to follow for reading suggestions (or just for fun)? Do you have a book blog or other bookish social media site?

Enter your finished books into the DATABASE here!

Cheer your fellow readers!

Join our Goodreads or Facebook or Reddit groups!

Watch for posts and stories on our Instagram!

Tag your posts with #Readathon on all your social channels