Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon happens 2x a year. It’s a great way to knock books off your TBR shelf or, as it is in my case, finish all those books you started.
The last readathon I did was in 2018. I blogged about my past participation over at my sister site, The Paw Report. This time I’ll be blogging from here, with updates and reviews. I also plan to tweet about the readathon at my Serpent Club twitter.
Of course, the readathon is supposed to be time spent for reading, not blogging. So what do I plan to read? Well, I have about five books I’m in the middle of — yes, I am one of those people who start multiple books at a time. It’s never really been a problem for me to stay on track with my books and I’ve been able to avoid getting my plots and characters mixed up. I also make it a point to simultaneously read books that are quite different from each other, either in genre or story, which helps to keep them separate in my mind.
And, a confession: I’ve never read for the full 24 hours. I got close, but didn’t happen. And I’m perfectly fine with that. My goal is to simply finish a certain amount of books and to raise money for a cause, which I explain below.
Books in Progress
It’s unlikely that I’ll get to finish any of these before the readathon starts. Therefore, my main goal is to complete these books:
- The Dark Horse Book of Horror
- The Republic of Birds
- Equal Rites (Discworld, #3)
- 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die
- Vampyrrhic
I’m sure I’ll be able to knock out one or two more books from my collection at home. A couple of months back I bought The Wytch Hunters’ Manual and this would be a great time to start it. I also recently received Folktales Of The Cryptids, as well as volume 2 because I backed AfterLight Comics kickstarter for it. I plan on at least getting through Volume 1.
If I manage to finish all of those, I have plenty of other books on my shelf that I can add. You may be thinking it’s impossible to finish what I’ve listed, but keep in mind that these are books in progress. I’ve already read good chunks of some of these, and two of them are comics.
Blogging and Updating
As I said, the point is to read, not to blog. However, it’s fun to blog, and it’s also fun to be a part of the readathon community. What I did for the last readathon was update in 2 hour increments. I think that worked well for me. I’ll likely have two posts for this, one for the first 12 hours and one for the next 12 hours. I also plan on updating my reading progress through my Instagram stories, and posting photos of completed books there as well.
Using the Readathon as a Fundraiser
In previous readathons, I incorporated fundraising in my goals. The first year I raised money for Hurricane Maria victims via GoFundMe. What I learned that year is that it’s difficult to get people to care and donate to a cause. And I get it, to an extent – there are scammers out there raising money and using sites like GoFundMe to do so. The money I raised went directly to the charity, not my bank account, and I had hoped that factor would entice people to donate. I did get some donations, but not as much as I hoped. Consequently, my next readathon fundraising went differently: I pledged to donate a certain amount of money per book completed. That year I raised money for the animal shelter in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I have family there, and right before the readathon took place, our dog died. So I wanted to give back to the Las Cruces community, and honor Penny’s memory.
This Year’s Fundraising Goal
I pledge ten dollars per book completed, with the goal of finishing at least 5 books. Considering how far along I am in my in-progress books, and that a couple of my planned books are comics, finishing at least five books should be relatively easy. However, I’ve yet to decide where I will donate to. Organizations working in response to Covid-19 are an obvious choice, and I have been using Charity Navigator to look for one. But I’m also considering donating to an animal sanctuary (or multiple sanctuaries) because I know many are suffering due to lack of volunteers and visitors during the pandemic. I have less than a week to decide about who to donate to, but I’ll definitely be donating.
If you’d like to sign up for the readathon, here’s a link to the Google form. I encourage anyone to sign up, even if you don’t plan on reading for the full 24 hours.