Have you ever wanted to read books all day and all night? Me too!! Saturday, Oct 21 I took part in the annual Dewey’s Read-A-Thon – the chance to read books for 24 straight hours! It was fun, there were snacks, I read lots of books, chatted with people on Twitter, and got to really enjoy wallowing in having tons of books around me to read!

This was my first #readathon experience, so I was a little nervous. I had a ton of books in paper format from the library, downloaded a few audio and eBooks from Overdrive, and even had two books sent to me through the ILL system to be sure I was really, really prepared. I was ready to read, no matter what genre or format I would decide I needed to read!

I had also read that snacks were an integral part of the reading experience, so was stocked up with a variety of things. (At one point I took an audio book out to the kitchen as I made my “famous” blueberry/dark chocolate chip pancakes for brunch. It seemed like a great time to splurge on fun foods!)

Everyone asked me what I would do when I needed to get up off the couch to do other things – and of course the answer was easy: Audio books can go anywhere with you! I had to go hiking on Saturday, and John Sandford’s newest book about Virgil Flowers went with me. (It seemed right, as Virgil also spends a lot of time trudging around Minnesota, and enjoying outdoor adventures.)

The event is flexible around your own schedule – so you can start and stop as you see fit. The idea for me was to know that I had a day I could really devote to reading, which was so fun. Everyone around the world read during the same 24 hour period, so you needed to know when it started in your own time zone. Our start time in Minnesota was 7am, and I was up and listening to an audio book right away. I shifted over to a paper book, after I got myself assembled on the couch with my breakfast and my tea. I read all day, and wrapped it up about 12:30am when I finished another book.

One of the first things I realized was that I was way overstocked on books! Of course, it seems obvious that even a full 24 hours will only allow so many books to be read – but I had (unrealistic) visions of flying through tons of reading. This was not actually a problem, and my book binging continued on Sunday as I wrapped up some more hours of reading!

What was my output?

• finished the audio version of Soulless
• finished Hollywood Nightmare
• read the entire audio book of Deep Freeze
• read the entire paper book Nightshades

Sunday I kept moving with the reading binging:

• read the entire audio of Exit West (it’s really short)
• kept reading eBook of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
• started paper book of Very Important Corpses (Ishmael Jones, #3)

It was – clearly – lots of fun!!

And I really enjoyed following along on social media to see what other readathon people were reading (and eating!), as well as getting pictures of their pets! You can follow the #readathon hashtag to see comments and pictures for yourself.

Do you need reading suggestions? Wish you had a few more books in your life? Or would you just like to be part of a no-stress book group? Be sure to join us in our Books And Beverages Podcast! New episodes drop each Tuesday! And you will want to tune in for our guest hosts, who come from public, academic, special, and school libraries. We even have a few non-library people! Join us by either downloading the episodes or streaming the on your computer or tablet.

Last week we looked at the genre of Romance, this week we explore Science Fiction, next week – for Halloween!  – we look at some Horror material. You won’t want to miss an episode!!