Last Saturday and Sunday, I participated in the 24 in 48 readathon. Tonight, starting at 8 p.m., to tomorrow night at 8 p.m., I’ll be participating in the reverse Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon and will be posting updates here and on Instagram throughout the night and day. My initial intention was to read diversely for both readathons, but this past Monday, I looked at books I have checked out or on hold and decided that I’m going to read crime fiction instead. I do have the genders represented almost equally: male, six books; female, eight books.

The List

My new potential list (in alphabetical order) is:

1. Bluebird, Bluebird: A Novel by Attica Locke
2. Crocodile on the Sandbank: An Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters
3. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
4. Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
5. Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart
6. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
7. Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart
8. Queenpin: A Novel by Megan Abbott
9. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke (author/illustrator), Richard Stark (source)
10. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke (author/illustrator), Richard Stark (source)
11. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke (author/illustrator), Richard Stark (source)
12. Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground by Darwyn Cooke (author/illustrator), Richard Stark (source)
13. She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
14. Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda

I won’t read all of these, of course. I just would be happy to read half, and considering four are graphic novels, I think I should be able to attain that number. Likewise, I don’t plan to read for the full 24 hours; again, I just will be happy if I can read half the time. To that end, I have broken down the 24 hours into a schedule. Initially, I was planning to start at 8 p.m., but then I was given a free ticket to a classical music concert that is part of a local music festival tonight and I couldn’t pass that up. So now I plan to start at 11 p.m.

My planned schedule is as follows:

8 p.m. to 11 p.m. – Concert
11 p.m. to 2 a.m. – Read
2 a.m. to 8 a.m. – Sleep
8 a.m. to 9 a.m. – Breakfast/Online for readathon
9 a.m. to noon – Read
Noon to 1 p.m. – Lunch/Online for readathon
1 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Read
5 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Dinner/Online for readathon
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. – Read

That will allow for 12 hours of reading, which seems doable, considering for last weekend’s 24 in 48 Readathon, I read 12 and a half hours.

Opening Survey

1.  What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Pennsylvania. Northcentral Pennsylvania.
2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Queenpin. I love myself some good noir.
3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? Utz’s Crab Cheese Balls. Photo later.
4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I listen to what my wife likes to call “machine music.” Samples later.
5.  This is our VERY first Reverse Readathon! How does it feel in your time zone? Humid, but that’s only because I just got back from a concert, but the windows are open and it should be cooling down here soon as I start up my readathon at 11 p.m. on the East Coast of the U.S.

3 a.m. Check In

It’s 3 a.m. and just under two hours of reading in. As noted earlier, I wanted to have three hours of reading in, but it’s doubtful I’ll be able to stay up another hour, plus I’m cutting into sleep (and reading) time. Oh, well, it’s not like it’s a contest. I just want to have fun reading, so probably will check in after a bit of shuteye.

(A Bit Past) Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now? I have only been about half an hour here. It’s almost 9 a.m. and I haven’t had my coffee yet, but I plan on continuing with the Parker graphic novels with the last one in that series Slayground. I enjoyed the first two, and the third was okay (I took a star off for the excessive use of the color yellow, no, really), so now I’m heading on to the fourth one.
2. How many books have you read so far? Three.
3.  What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? Still Queenpin.
4.  Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? The main interruption was sleep. I dealt with it by sleeping through it.
5.  What surprises you most about the Reverse Readathon so far? Nothing. I knew I wouldn’t keep to my schedule and I haven’t. So no shock there. However, that’s okay as I still have a whole day before 8 p.m. and plenty of time to read (not catch up, but still read and have fun doing it! Yay? Yes, yay!

 Noonish

It’s actually 12:30 as I start to type this and I’ve now finished four books: the Parker graphic novels and am midway through my fifth book, Queenpin by Megan Abbott. I’m enjoying it thus far. I was going to take a nap but couldn’t sleep so I’m going to grab some lunch and then go visit a friend who has a 1965 Mustang at a car show in our town. I’m not sure how long I’ll be, but I’ll post photos from there too.

By now I had planned on getting six hours of reading in, but actually I’m at about 3 hours and 19 minutes, minus about four seconds. The last readathon I did back in April, I finished just under 7 hours at 6 hours and 48 minutes. I’m thinking maybe now I can equal that, but I’m not really worried about it. I’m still having fun and have visited some bloggs and Instagram accounts, so it’s all good. To me, it’s not about the numbers, but just that I’m reading, period. Factoring in last weekend’s 24 in 48 readathon, I’ll still have read more books this month than I’ve probably read in one month all year.

4:30 p.m.

I’m done, but I’m going to cheer on a few more folks that are still “in the game.” I’ll have my own post-game analysis later tonight or tomorrow morning…not at all what I planned, but sometimes the best laid plans…

Closing Survey!

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? 3 a.m. because I should have stuck to my initial schedule and gone to bed at 2 a.m. instead of pushing on and trying to play catchup when a little bit behind.
2. Tell us ALLLLL the books you read! Queenpin: A Novel by Megan Abbott and Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter; Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit; Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score; Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground by Daqrwyn Cooke (author/illustrator), Richard Stark (source).
3. Which books would you recommend to other Read-a-thoners? Queenpin.
4. How did you feel about this first-ever Reverse Readathon? Should we do it again? I’ll be honest I prefer the regular readathon because at least I can get sleep the night before to start it. However, I know that’s because the “regular” readathons are geared toward those of us on the East Coast of the U.S. Personally, I think with two readathons a year usually (one in April and one in October), one should be geared toward international readers; the other towards those in the U.S., but still invite everyone to participate, maybe have one group cheer on the other?
5. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? Would you be interested in volunteering to help organize and prep in October? I will be participating again, probably in October if I’m not working that weekend. I would be interested in volunteering to help organize and prep. Just let me know, ladies.

I do have other thoughts on readathons in general, but I’ll save that for another post sometime.  For now, I’ll just finish this post…

So for those of you who did participate in the readathon? How did you do? What was your favorite book? For those who didn’t, read anything good this past week? Share in the comments.