Readathon #4 :: 24 Hours of Words, Tweets, Blogs, and CAFFEINE

Today I’m participating in my fourth 24-Hour Readathon, along with hundreds of readers around the world. I’ve learned that I can never expect to read more than one complete book during this event, and I’ve come to be okay with that despite seeing others post about their thousands of pages read and dozen completed titles. I prefer full-length novels, and though I’m hardly a slow reader, I’ve learned that I don’t read at the speed that so many other participants seem to achieve. I’ve learned to embrace this opportunity to do nothing but focus on a book or two that I’ve not yet set aside time to read, and I know that there will be almost as much blogging involved as reading, so I no longer feel inferior to others during the event. The purpose of readathon is FUN! So I don’t lament the page count that never measures up to others, and I don’t feel guilty for taking a midday nap if my body needs it. I’m simply jumping into this with both feet and letting the day play out as it will. (Considering that I’ve been awake all night already, chances are very good that I’ll be taking a break in the middle of this year’s event.)

The event will officially begin at 7am for me (check out the start time for your area), and I’ll be checking in on this blog throughout the day and night with my own personal page count updates and various other posts as I participate in reading/blogging challenges. I’ve got my small stack of reading material lined up, and my snacks and meals are prepped and ready. I even spent a bit of time on Friday night preparing a couple of dishes so that I wasn’t always reaching for the junk food. Though I have one bestseller and one chick lit title at the ready, not to mention three months of unread Entertainment Weekly magazines, I plan to begin with The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. It has been on my reading wish list since its publication last year, and I’ve had it checked out from the library for over two weeks now without cracking it open. So today’s the day. I’ll also be picking up another library book this morning (which I failed to retrieve earlier this week), and hope to be well into reading it by the time the readathon concludes tomorrow morning. There will be more on that one later. For now, it’s time to do a little more work before the morning hour signals the beginning of this year’s Spring Readathon. Let me know if you’re joining us! I’d love to follow along with you on Twitter or your blog. Here’s to a happy day of reading!

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