Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon - The How, What, Whys #cookiereads

So I did the Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon this year (October 20-21, 2017), considering it was my first ever readathon of any sort (and one that I actually completed), I’m excited enough to blog about it :P

I found out about it through Shantala’s post earlier this year and wanted to be part of the April edition. But scatterbrain that I am, I completely forgot till the last possible minute and then was too freaked out to join because I didn’t have a plan. So Shantala was sweet enough to remind me about the October edition, giving me plenty of time to plan the day. It also happened to be their 10th-anniversary edition.  

What

Barebones version: It is a bi-annual readathon that goes on from 5.30 p.m IST (8 a.m EDT) on a Saturday (predetermined) to the same time next day, aka 24 hours. You can read for as many hours as you want and as many books as you want in whatever formats (audio, Kindle, paperback) you want. Basically, this readathon affords you a lot of freedom. 

There are mini-challenges and contests (and prizes too, of course) across blogs, Twitter, and Instagram for those interested, as well. 

Source

Feel free to check out their website for more details.

My Why 

I wanted to give it a shot because I love the sense of community, the feeling of so many people reading at the same time, having the same reader problems, the same sort of goals. 

Think of it, knowing that 1,500+ other people across time zones curled up like you and reading their hearts out and talking about them on social media… the bookworm in me was doing a little two-step throughout. 

My TBR 

I didn’t have a TBR. 

It was on purpose because I have a history of jinxing myself by planning what to read ahead and then not reading at all (yes, super weird reading habits – planning an entire post around this, that’s how bad it is). This happened TWICE with Erin’s challenge and I didn’t want that again. Hence, no TBR. 

What I DID do was order some books off of Amazon (despite my supposed book ban this year) and casually arrange a big pile (new + old) on an ottoman in the middle of the room a couple of days before D-day. This worked out to be a pretty good idea because constantly see the pile sort of gave me an idea on what I wanted to read in this short span of time.   

My Actually-Read (a curiously motley list): 

1) Kingdom Come, Mark Waid, Alex Ross (Illustrator) (232 pages)
2) The One Who Swam with the Fishes: Girls of the Mahabharata, Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan (160 pages)
3) The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, Twinkle Khanna (233 pages)
4) Turtles All the Way Down, John Green (286 pages)
5) How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, Lilly Singh (304 pages)

The books I read ranged from meh to OMGKILLMENOWITSAMAZING. I’ll probably do mini-reviews for them in another post. But I’m quite happy that NONE of them were terrible reads; it’d have really sucked if I’d had to waste precious time on a shitty book (because there’s no way I could abandon in the middle of a readathon).

My Stats: 

Number of pages read: 1,215
Number of hours: 17:22:03
Number of books completed: 5 

Not bad for a first-timer, eh? Next time, I'm going in for the full 24 hours, hopefully. 

My Experience: 

Going in, I’d already decided to not stay up all night reading because I knew I wouldn’t enjoy the last leg then. This helped immensely. 

I also caught myself skimming the last few pages of my last book, so I went back and read the pages again, in the interest of fairness. It was probably because my brain was tired of processing words on a page because I couldn’t look at another book for three whole days after that. 

I’d have really loved to be in the time zone of the original challenge because just when things were getting heated, I went to bed, and by the time I woke up, everyone was tired from a whole day of reading. But unless someone wants to sponsor one-day tickets to NY in April ’18, I guess I’ll just have to deal with the time difference :P 

All in all, I absolutely loved it. Need I even say? The hosts on Twitter were super sweet and engaging. Despite hating Twitter as a platform (don’t even) and wanting to focus on the reading alone (so I get through the day), I posted updates on Instagram stories and on Twitter, simply because the company was so very good. I’ve found new bookworms all over the world and what can really be better than that? 

Have I piqued your interest enough to join in the next time?