Sunday Salon: The Readathon Is Coming!

One week from today, I’ll be waking up groggy and tired and a little sad that the readathon is, once again, over. But six days from today? I’ll be reading my eyes out! (Don’t know about Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon? Get the details here.)

The Plan

This prep post will be very much like the one I wrote up for last October’s readathon, since I’ve found a few ways of doing things that really work for me. Those things are:

• Have no plans. I really like the whole day to be about reading, if I can swing it. And this time around, I can!
• Don’t worry about starting on time. Yeah, it’s fun to be up in time to kick off the event. But now that I live on the west coast, where the start time is 5am instead of 8am, starting so early means I lose steam sooner. If I’m up, I’m up; if not, that’s ok.
• Go to bed (or nap) when needed. I’ve done readathons where I force myself to stay up as late as possible. But honestly, I just get grumpy and frustrated, and I hardly remember what I read anyway! So now, I read for as long as I’m feeling fresh enough to do so. Naps are allowed, and when I’m too tired to read, I go to bed (hard as it is to tear myself away!).
• Keep updates in one giant post. It means fewer encouraging comments because no new posts pop up, but I like having everything consolidated into a single updates post. I tend to update it every three or four hours with any new reading news, mini-challenges, or memes I’ve done.
• Don’t go stats-crazy. It’s tempting to track eeeeeeverything! But then I end up spending half my time wrangling stats when I could be reading. Instead, I’ll be reporting the following with each update: currently reading, currently listening to, total pages read, total time spent reading, and total time spend listening.
• Prioritize books. For my first few readathons, I’d make a big pile of books to choose from. I’m a slow reader, though, and usually only made it through a book or two — discouraging! Now I pick a few books (usually 2-3 in print and one on audio) I really want to get to.

The sharing of snacks seems to be a favorite readathon pastime. However, I can’t eat wheat or dairy, which effectively knocks out a whole bunch of the best snack foods! So, food planning has never been a big part of the readathon for me. I don’t mind having to prep food during the event, either, as I just switch to my audiobook while I do so. That means readathon eating looks a lot like regular eating for me!

My reading spot for most of the day will be our fantastic L-shaped couch. Before we got this couch, I didn’t have a favorite reading spot — but now I most certainly do! It’s comfy enough that I can stay there all day. And the two big windows behind it (plus our sunny California weather) mean plenty of natural light to read by during the daylight hours.

As for reading companions, I will, as usual, have my cat around. This time my husband is planning to do at least part of the event with me, too, which will be fun! It’s always nice to have allies, hehe…

The Books

Here’s my readathon short list for Saturday:

• Diaries of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield (print) — I wanted to include something from my Classics Club list, and this one seemed like a good candidate. I’m hoping it’ll be a quicker read.
• Everything You Ever Wanted by Jillian Lauren (print) — I received this memoir through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. It looks interesting enough to keep me going through hours of reading.
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (print) — As I looked back at October’s readathon list, I noticed this book was there, as well. I never got to it! Now I’m partway through the book, so if I need backup, this’ll probably be what I choose.
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (audio) — Trish’s glowing review of this audiobook prompted me to check for it at my library. My turn just came around on the wait list, so this’ll be my readathon listen!

What about you?

Will you be reading with us come Saturday? If so, which book on your list are you most looking forward to?