Readathon - The Finale

I read for about half an hour and then went to sleep so I could get up early today. Alright 9am probably isn't early for most of you, but my Sundays usually include sleeping until 12. I finished 'Demonglass' just now and all I can say is that Rachel Hawkins is evil, but if there was ever a way to get me to pre-order your next book (and make me want to weep a little) the cliffhanger extraordinary is probably the sharpest tool you have.

I just wanted to reflect a little on my readathon experience before going off to do a last bit of cheering for those still awake.

This year I totally focused on my reading, probably because we had such nice weather here. I didn't want to be on the computer a lot. Peta I didn't burn btw and if you saw me you'd understand why that's so surprising - whitest white girl ever (sorry that you got burnt!). That meant I didn't do a lot of mini-challenges, or online joining in (though I cheered for what turned into a couple of late night hours instead of the one I pledged) and I had some technical browser issues which kept me off the readathon site. At the same time I still felt really connected to the challenge. Knowing other people were taking part in the readathon, all around the world gave me the warm fuzzies even if I didn't do a lot of interacting with people during the 24 hours. My experience was, I imagine, kind of like running a marathon. You're surrounded by tons of runners, but focused on your own race and maybe you smile at people along the way but mostly you run. I kind of liked it this way and I think from now on (assuming I can take part in both) I'll keep the spring readathon really reading focused, with late night hours saved for cheering and during the autumn one maybe I'll sign up to cheer for more hours, as the cold will keep me in the house anyway.

Also I wasn't really focused on making it to the 24 hour mark. That was never a goal this year, I just wanted to have fun. Next spring readathon I think I'd like to pull an Amanda and go away for readathon, to try and make it a bit more of an endurance test. There's nothing worse than coming off readathon after I've stayed up all night and grumping at everyone in my house, so I tend to like to get some decent sleep in if I'm at home.

Overall I just had a lot of fun this year :) I enjoyed seeing what everyone had been up to while I cheered (I really liked the book origami challenge, so fab) and my books were kind of perfect - engaging, reasonably fast reads and really well written. Fantasy kind of rocks for readathon.

Thanks so much to the organisers - they always run such a fun event and put soooo much work in behind the scenes. I kind of think they deserve their own seperate readathon where they can just chill and read while other bring them exotic drinks. Great readathon organisers!

Right that's it for me and April readathon. Off to cheer a little bit and then...well I'll be doing some more reading in the garden. I know, I know, I'm a reading glutton, but it's too nice a day to spend inside doing anything else.