Dewey’s Read-a-thon: April 2015

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon badge

Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-thon took place on Sunday, Australian time. For those who have somehow managed to miss my incessant posting about it, the event is basically a chance for book geeks across the world to get together and read as much as possible. It is also held in honour of its founder, a book blogger who went by the name Dewey, who passed away several years ago. I participated in my very first read-a-thon in April 2011 and haven’t looked back since.

Usually, I start the read-a-thon with a pile of books, but this time around I thought I’d try something different.

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I’d started Vanity Fair a few weeks ago. Although I found it reasonably engaging, I had to put it down a couple of times in order to tackle some review books and it always took me a little bit to pick up the threads again. I figured the read-a-thon would be a good chance for me to put a serious dent in it. I had Kaleidoscope to fall back on if I needed some short stories to break things up.

So how did it go?

The read-a-thon started at 10PM local time which is about the time I was going to sleep. I picked up around Hour 10.

Starting mark:

For some people, snacks are a key ingredient of the read-a-thon. For me, it’s tea. I’m sure no one is surprised by that. I kicked off with a plain green.

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It was time to go a bit darker with some Turkish Black tea and a copy of the first Malifaux rulebook on loan from Matthew Farrer.

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I’d previously started reading the rulebook and figured it wouldn’t take me long to finish it off. Besides, I like to prioritise borrowed books.

I’d been saving the last of the Turkish Black especially for the read-a-thon because it was decently strong on caffeine and one pot lasted me the whole day.

With two cups of tea down, it was time to switch to water. IMG_4357

Errm… no comment. (Except to say thank you to Holly and to mention the book in question was Haven Lost by Josh de Lioncourt.)

The long hours were starting to get to some of us.

Lunch and reading got me distracted for a little while.

The cheerleaders did a great job of keeping us all motivated. With so many participants, we were broken up into teams to keep things manageable for the cheerleaders. Of course these teams were named after literary figures.

Is anyone else a fan of the March Family Letters? It’s a modernised, transmedia adaption of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Which means the characters have Twitter accounts.

There were also the unofficial cheerleaders: Team Rogue, headed up by Terri of Terri Talks Books.

It wasn’t just the readers getting in on the party.

I believe that’s a new record.

I managed to outlast my reading buddy…

IMG_4361 And others were clearly trying to keep themselves awake…

A read-a-thon comes with its own perils.

Fortunately, it was still edible.

It was coming down to the wire. Was I going to get this rulebook read?

So my final thoughts on this read-a-thon? I was surprised the rulebook slowed me up as much as it did, but in retrospect the reasons why are obvious. It was somewhat technical and had me thinking a lot about application and strategy. If I hadn’t wanted to finish it off so much, I probably would have set it aside.

The read-a-thon certainly helped me sink my teeth into Vanity Fair, as I had intended. However, I missed the satisfaction of finishing books like I did in previous read-a-thons, so I’ll be keeping that in mind for the future.

Speaking of which, the date for the next read-a-thon has not yet been set but will take place in October. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on that front or you can keep an eye on the website.

A big thank-you to Andi of Estella’s Revenge and Heather of Capricious Reader for all the hard work they put into organising and running the event. Truly, you ladies are amazing. I’m already looking forward to the next one.


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2 thoughts on “Dewey’s Read-a-thon: April 2015”

  1. Hey there! Thank you so much for joining us this past weekend. I’m so glad you had fun. I really enjoyed reading all your updates! I wish everyone would do this; it’s so easy to miss it all.

    See you in October, I hope!

    1. You’ll most definitely see me in October! I’ve already got it in my calendar, though I wasn’t quick enough to get it into the post here.

      Again, thank you so much for all the hard work you put into organising the read-a-thons. I have no doubt it is a big job, especially when there are so many readers.

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