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Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)


Athena

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I came across this idea on YouTube. A read-a-thon (a marathon for books) is where, for 24 hours, several days or a week you try to do a lot of reading, with a group of people.

 

I'm posting this because I was wondering if anyone else would be interested in doing a read-a-thon for a day, two days or a week. I did a search for readathon but only three topics came up and in them it doesn't seem like a read-a-thon happened with forum members.

 

I thought this could be an interesting idea, often I would like to do more reading but I end up doing other things instead. Normally I need some time after each book to process the story, I don't know if it would work for me. It may be a nice distraction though, from stress etc. (I couldn't do a marathon in ie. watching tv shows, films or video games. Too much (sound) input would overwhelm me (it might happen during the readathon, too, tbh))

 

I'm by no means suggesting you give up important things, you should do work, spend time with your partner, children, family, pets and not neglect anything important. I couldn't do with much less sleep than I sleep atm, so I won't be staying up late or anything like that (you can if you want to, of course).

 

It's not the goal who reads the most books or pages (though it would be fun to post statistics at the end, but I am a statistics nut :giggle:). Books read can be TBR, re-reads, ebooks, paperbooks, fiction, non-fiction, any book you like, as long as you want to read it. Personally I plan to read both paperbooks and Kindle books as well as TBR and maybe a reread to make things slightly easier. I'd suggest picking books of various lengths and genres, ie. shorter and longer books and from different genres or playing in different time periods or locations, to make things more interesting and varied. Of course if you only like one genre then be sure to read that.

 

I didn't have a specific time/date(s) in my mind for this, it could be soon or a few months away (of course I'm not available all the time, but that holds for everyone). During the read-a-thon (whether it'd be for a day, two or several days, or a week) we could post about our progress (though I realise we could also just do this in the What are you reading topic).

 

Anyway, would anyone be interested in a thing like this? If not, I'll do it on my own sometime perhaps, thought I'd ask my favourite booklovers though to see if anyone'd be interested :).

 

EDIT: For the next read-a-thons we have agreed that it take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday each month, on the dates that it's the first Friday of the month.

Edited by Athena
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I'm in. I'm free for a big chunk of the next few months (obviously with certain dates where I'm not) but this sounds great. I don't sleep much anyway and it'd probably do me good to have a short-term reading goal so just let me know what you decide and count me in.

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I love love love this idea!! I've done TV marathons by myself and with other people and it's great fun, but I've never done a read-a-thon, but it sounds like a great idea and I would love to do more reading. I'm so in :yes:

 

Edit: This is just my suggestion, but I think that if we were to do this as a group on here, we could start with one day, and see how it goes. And who knows, maybe we like it so much we want to do it again. I also think and would suggest that when we do this, we could start a special thread for it, to see who's joining us, what goals we have (if any), and then see how we get on. I'm a bit of a statistics nut myself, so I'd love to do a bit of recorging of what I read and also I'd love to see what others read, too.

 

(I'm only afraid that when we actually start the read-a-thon, I won't be able to leave the computer and just read other people's reports, because I'm too excited to actually read any books :D)

Edited by frankie
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Great that you two are interested :D.

 

I agree, frankie, one day might be best to start off with. A special thread sounds good. :)

 

XD I'm excited too, I thought it was just me being silly but nice to hear you feel the same!

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No, you weren't being silly at all, I think it's a splendid idea and I was thinking about it on the bus, getting home to Joensuu from my parents, and I was all excited about it :lol:

 

I think we can't be the only ones interested, I think more people would love to join in when they read about this, not everyone's seen the thread yet. Then it's a matter of choosing a suitable time. I wonder in which section it would be most suitable to start the thread in. I hope you, Athena, take it upon yourself to start the thread when we set off, being the 'god fairy' of the idea! :cool:

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:lol:

 

I hope more people will find the topic eventually, I don't mind waiting.

 

I'm not sure about the planning yet, which day would be the best for people generally? (I mean ie. a Monday, Saturday.. and how soon should it be)

 

I was planning on starting the thread when it's time, yes :), I'd be happy to do that :smile2:.

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I guess most people work from Mon-Fri...? So bearing that in mind, I think a weekend day would be good. But it's really difficult to say because it's summer for a lot of people on here and it's time for some people's holidays etc... Personally I'd be happy with any day, although I'm most likely busiest on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

Edit: I'll be away 8.-15.6 so I won't be able to participate then. But should you others go for some day during that week, I can do it some other time with you :)

Edited by frankie
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That week isn't good for me either, frankie. I have to hand in my thesis on the 15th so will be busy the week before making it (hopefully) great. So I wasn't going to suggest a day in that week. Based on what you say and my own preferences, a Sunday might be a good idea?

 

EDIT: Of course the week before the 8th I'll still be busy making it great, I didn't mean to imply I'll be slacking off at any given time! But it's nice to have the time in the week before the 15th, reserved in case I need it.

Edited by Athena
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Yay, I'm selfishly happy that you are busy that week, too, so I can take part in the read-a-thon :giggle2:

 

I could go for Sunday, yes :yes: Do you recon we wait til you have finished your thesis and handed it over to your 'master' ...? I bet that would be nicer for you :)

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@ frankie

Well after handing in my thesis, I have a few weeks to work on my presentation. I presume after I've given it, I'll have lots of time for a little while. I give the talk beginning of July (hopefully on the 2nd, if necessary I can postpone it a week, to the 9th). I'm not sure what would be handy, it could also be a nice distraction from my work, or it could be nice to wait. I'll have to think about it :). I don't have much to do on the upcoming Sundays other than doing a bit of uni work (not as much as during the week), feeding the animals (I do this every day) and spending a bit of time with my family. So it's not too bad atm. In July, my boyfriend will be here some of the time, I'm sure though if I'd ask him he'd not mind me doing a read-a-thon. It'll be hard for me though to not spend a bit of time with him. I'm not sure what would be handy when XD. I was going to wait until we have some people and we can then see when most people would be available. Oh yeah, the week before the 2nd of July (so from around the 26-06 until after 02-07) is not good for me either, because I'll be busy with the presentation and there's also RoboCup going on. I plan to visit and see one or two games (RoboCup is a competition between soccer playing robots (see here)).

 

Possible Sundays (for me):

 

27-05

02-06

16-06

14-07

and later

(23-06 I'm unsure about at this point in time)

 

@ Alexi

Nice to hear that :).

Edited by Athena
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Okay, so in a way it would be okay for you, and on the other hand it might not be, going by if you need a bit of distraction from uni stuff, or if you think it would be too much of a distraction.... Boyfriends must be taken into consideration, so I wouldn't want us to take up your time when he's visiting you :D

 

Yes, I suspect the idea was to wait to see how many people would be interested in this, so I'll try and and not get too excited too soon, we'll want others to have the opportunity to join in as well :giggle2:

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I would definitely be interested in this - the date doesn't bother me - I work every other weekend, with a three day weekend on my weekends off (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), so one of my weekends off would be good. I have just had a weekend off, so the next one will be 31st May, 1st and 2nd June. Then its every other weekend after that, so 14th, 15th and 16th June, 28th, 29th and 30th June and then 12th, 13th and 14th July, which is the weekend I go for my 2 week summer holiday. I expect to do A LOT of reading during that time ! :smile:

 

As for my partner, she reads almost as much as I do anyway - we call ourselves the Kindle Kids !       

Edited by Talisman
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Glad to hear you're interested :D!

 

This is just a quick post as I have to go back to cooking, but I just received an email that might mean changing my uni planning. I'll let you know in a few days, if anything changes.

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I sometimes think my life is a read-a-thon! :D

 

:D If anyone's is, I'm sure yours is! And I say that with the utmost respect and awe :lol:

 

Glad to have another planner and statistics nut joining us, the more the merrier :friends3:

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It depends on the book, If it's something short like Piers Anthony - Total Recall, which I read in a day i.e short or like Dexter or the early Thorne books, even fantasy fine. but if it's a classic or litrature then probably not. I wake up about 6 and do stay up late, but an early weekend start, wouldn't bother me too much. I'm now thinking Sherlock Holmes.

Maybe the Resnick and Rebus short stories as I have'nt read these yet.

Edited by dex
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Yeah, it's up to everyone what they decide to read :)

 

I wonder if anyone's going to go a bit 'crazy' and try something they wouldn't normally read. Like, someone might go for poetry, instead of prose. Oh the reports and statistics will be so much fun to read! :exc:

 

And I love it how this is something we'll be doing together, individually! It's a bit like reading circle meets chat, but the focus is on books :)

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I wonder if anyone's going to go a bit 'crazy' and try something they wouldn't normally read. Like, someone might go for poetry, instead of prose. Oh the reports and statistics will be so much fun to read! :exc:

 

I like this idea, I might try something a bit more out there than usual. I've been thinking about this all day.. don't worry about dates with me, I'll find some way of joining in.

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I sometimes think my life is a read-a-thon! :D

 

I would be interested in joining in, and a Sunday would work best for me.  Looking forward to planning my reading for the day already. :lol:

x

Glad to hear you can join! :)

I would love to have joined in but sadly I don't think I would have the time, kids and dogs are real time stealers! :D

I'll keep an eye out for the date though and see what is happening when the time comes around. :)

x

Sorry to hear you don't have much time, I hope you have fun with your kids and dogs though :).

I think the idea is that it's up to you what book(s) you decide to read, dex, not that we all read the same book.

x

Yes, indeed :)

I wonder if anyone's going to go a bit 'crazy' and try something they wouldn't normally read. Like, someone might go for poetry, instead of prose. Oh the reports and statistics will be so much fun to read! :exc:

 

And I love it how this is something we'll be doing together, individually! It's a bit like reading circle meets chat, but the focus is on books :)

x

I was going to read some things I don't normally read much of, ie. maybe a manga, classic and/or a detective, along with genres I do read a lot of, ie. a chick-lit or contemporary and a fantasy or science-fiction (EDIT: maybe also the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, or another paranormal or YA book). I also would like to read bits of an information book on Kindle but too much knowledge at one time hurts the brain, so I'll only read bits of it I think.

 

And yes, I really like that too! 

I like the idea of this but Sundays aren't really doable for me - I shall definitely be watching with interest though - the thread will make for great reading, I'm sure.  :D

x

Sorry to hear you don't have much time on Sundays, maybe next time (if this one is successful) we can do it on a different day :). I hope you'll have fun reading the thread. 

 

I'm definitaly interested in doing this as long as my life doesnt get in the way! Such a good idea though.

x

Thanks :)! I hope you'll have some time. 

x

I like this idea, I might try something a bit more out there than usual. I've been thinking about this all day.. don't worry about dates with me, I'll find some way of joining in.

x

That's great to hear :).

 

In relation to the planning, I may have to wait a little while for my answer on the uni planning. My graduation might be postponed and in that case I'll have more time in the upcoming.. times/dates. The week of the 26th is still not good due to RoboCup, the finals are on Sunday the 30th so I might go and watch (or follow the live-stream). I'll let you all know when I know more, until then the list I posted earlier is probably still in effect, if anything there'll be dates added to it and not removed so..

 

Just thinking of what I'll read is making me all giddy. I already have a few things in mind (most notably short books), but about the larger ones I'm not quite sure yet (I do love making a little TBR).

 

EDIT: How many hours do you all think you'll have to read throughout the day? How many books or pages do you think you'll get through? I think I have 8-14 hours depending on things. I can read 60-100 pages in an hour if I feel well, depending on the size of the pages and font size, etc. So I could get through some shorter books quickly, but if I pick more longer ones it'll take longer. Dilemmas!

Edited by Athena
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