My Own Social Distancing Readathon

Next weekend, Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, the hosts of 24in48 Readathon are having a special Social Distancing Edition starting at 12 a.m. EST in the U.S. As they said in their post:

…as more and more countries are implementing social distancing recommendations (if not actual quarantines), we decided it was time to find comfort in books and the community that loves them.

Which brings us to the Social Distancing Readathon. Stay home. Wash your hands. Read books. March 21 & 22. 

It’s that simple. No prizes. No hourly challenges. No requirements. Just a chance to reconnect with this amazing bookish community (online! no hand sanitizer required!), read some good books, and talk about them with other readers.

If sharing your journey online, they ask you use the hashtag #StayHome24in48.

As soon as I saw their announcement two days ago on an Instagram story, I knew I was in. I wasn’t working next Saturday or Sunday so it just happened to work out that I could join. Now, though, in light of news that libraries across our state are closing for two weeks and that I work at a small town library in our state, and that I won’t be working much of that time (going to be on a rotation to check the book drop daily and a staff training day), I’m unofficially extending the readathon for myself starting today until Sunday, March 29. It won’t be 24in48. It will be more like 180in360. Ha.

I have two dozen books on the potential list. The first dozen are in print:

From top to bottom they are:

1. The Unforeseen by Dorothy Macardle
2. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
3. Look to the Lady, the third Albert Campion mystery, by Margery Allingham
4. Police at the Funeral, the fourth Albert Campion mystery, also by Allingham
5. Slayground: A Parker Novel by Richard Stark
6. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating: A True Story by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
7. Three Complete Novels: Call for the Dead, A Murder of Quality, and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré
8. Four Novels: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For The Whom Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (I already read The Sun Also Rises last year and now plan to read/reread the other three).

The second dozen are on ebook:

Starting from the top left to the collection to the right are:

1. Sherlock Holmes, The Complete Novels and Short Stories, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Sherlock Holmes Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK Publishing and Leslie L. Klinger
3. A Morbid Tale of Bones, the First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, by Ellis Peters
4. Smallbone Deceased: A London Mystery by Michael Gilbert
5. Mud, Muck, and Dead Things: A Campbell & Carter Mystery by Ann Granger
6. Coffin Scarcely Used: A Flaxborough Mystery, by Colin Watson
7. Ruth Galloway Series: The First Three Novels by Ruth Galloway
8. Inspector Morse: The First Three Novels by Colin Dexter

The first seven ebooks are on my Kindle and the last is on Google Play Books, which I can access on my phone.

I’m already in the middle of reading the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels, using The Sherlock Holmes Book as a companion volume, as recommended by Emma of the blog Words and Peace. I’ve also read one of the four novels, but I’ve never read any of the rest. My friend John gave me the Allingham and Macardle books. Erin of the blog Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs recommended The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating; Amanda of the blog The Zen Leaf, the Ruth Galloway mysteries. I picked up the three British murder mysteries in the middle of the above photo of the ebooks as Kindle deals. As for the le Carré, I’ve always wanted to read the George Smiley series, but never have. I’m a stickler for reading a series in order (most of the time), though, so had to wait until our library got the first two in print (which we got through a donation recently) and now I’m giving it a try as I’ve already started the first novel.

Now all this said, let’s be honest, I’ll be lucky if I get to much of anything beyond the Sherlock Holmes books, which I’m already reading, Call for the Dead and maybe The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (a nature book in honor of the first day of Spring later this week). After all, we have streaming options in Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu. However, as with everything, and especially good to remember during these trying times, there is hope.