Right now it’s early morning here in Southern California and the sun is not up yet. Sitting on my desk is a hot cup of coffee and today’s read, August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. I received it through PaperbackSwap for the read-a-thon but I’ve decided to read it now. Today will be spent visiting family, reading, and getting the kids ready for school tomorrow.
Last night on Twitter, Kailana stated that she’s only read 16 books so far this month. That made me check my calendar reading log to see how many books I’ve read this month. 3. That’s how many books I’ve read so far this month. Compare that to the 38 read in August or the 18 read in September, it makes October the worst reading month I’ve had in a long time. I’m hoping to get back into the reading groove by reading my butt off this week and during the read-a-thon.
If you’re on the fence about signing up for Dewey’s read-a-thon, you still have time. Even if you can’t participate for that many hours, it’s still a fun event to join. There’s games and prizes plus you find new blogging buddies too.
I have my strategy down for the big event. I have tons of short books and fast reads, waiting to be read. I’m planning a mini read-a-thon for my kids on Saturday to keep them busy. I also plan on snacking on fruits and quick foods so not to get bogged down cooking. At all. Pizza will probably be lunch and dinner on Saturday.
My goals:
To finish at least six books.
To cheer on each of the 200+ participants at least once.
To read the majority of the books in my pile even if it takes months
I don’t know which goal is going to be harder. I’ve already starting visiting participant’s read-a-thon pile posts to cheer them on a little. I have so many great books in my pile that I really want to read, so I’m going to try my best to read them before they’re due back at the library. If you’re participating in the event, do you bother setting goals?
Last week’s reads
Last week I read two of October’s three read books: Sea Change by Aimee Freedman and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Both were engaging books. I reviewed Sea Change but not Catching Fire. There’s no point when all my review is going to say is: Go read it now! Catching Fire was a great book but I love Hunger Games more. Either way I will be buying book three when it’s published next year.
So that’s it for this post. Are you participating in next week’s read-a-thon? If so, what book are you really looking forward to reading?
I read only 5 books this month as of now, compared with 21 in last month.
Yes, I am doing the readathon but as yet undecided what to read. Will do a readathon pile mid-week!
Sunday Salon: Post Diwali
I’ve got an enormous stack of children’s nonfiction picture books set to read for the Readathon. Guaranteed success. I know I will finish a lot of these.
Well, I usually do not read more than 2-3 books a month on a normal month LOL! I am quite impressed with the number of books others are able to read.
I have signed up for the readathon, but still don’t know if I am going to be a cheerleader or a reader or maybe both? And I haven’t scheduled any reads…yet that is.
Kelly’s scads of books made me hang my head in shame. I’ll polish off my fifth October book today. That seems about average for me these days. I’ve been in a reading funk since the start of September; I only read eight books total in all of September, which made it my worst reading month in about eight years. I hope to do at least a little better in October, though, thanks in part to the Read-a-thon!
Good luck with all your goals! I know I won’t read six books, but I’m hoping to finish at least two.
Meh! I’ve read several halves of books. Does that count?
I hope you have fun with it!
I’m one of those people who automatically thinks in goals and lists, so I do usually set goals.
In the past, my reading goal was always to break 2K pages (since I did it the first time!). And w/ cheerleading, my goal the first time (aka the 2nd read-a-thon) was to visit each participant every 3 hours; the second time (aka the 4th read-a-thon, w/ much bigger numbers!), I think I got to every participant 3-maybe 4-times.
The problem is this go ’round I’m also co-hosting. So while a part of my still wants to break 2K pages & visit all the participants at least twice (which would work out to 23 blogs an hour, which obviously isn’t going to happen), I KNOW that that’s not going to happen. And last read-a-thon, I felt SO stressed w/ the huge number of participants & trying to visit them all!
So…for this read-a-thon…my goals are
reading: break 1K pages
cheerleading: visit everyone once
blogging: include a picture every time I update-have at least 3 videos
That’s challenging, without being crazy-stressful.
Okay, Eva, here’s what I’m thinking. I’ll do the 23 blogs an hour and you just do everything else. Deal? =)
I am not participating in the readathon. I just can’t do it with a toddler. Maybe in a few years.. send the kid to Grandma’s. Even so I can’t imagine my husband truly understanding my dedication to it and interrupting me every chance he got, LOL! I wish you the best of luck with it, though
Hopefully October will pick up for you!
Gautami: Can’t wait to see your pile!
Debnance: Children’s books are the best for the read-a-thon. There’s something about that genre I love more than any other.
Louise: It’s amazing the stack of books that some bloggers read in a month.I hope you join the read-a-thon. You can read and cheer.
Memory: So many bloggers are going through reading slumps right now, so don’t feel bad. It may just be the weather.
Lu: I’ll count them! =)
Allison: Awww. I hope you can participate soon. I know how it is with a toddler.
Good luck with your reading goals for this month!
So – after reading Catching Fire – are you Team Peeta or Team Gale?
I haven’t officially signed up yet, but I’m going to this week, since I have a few books I want to finish, even though I won’t be participating for the full 24 hours. Its just for fun…that’s all that matters.
lol! I can’t let go of my type-A perfectionism.
But I’m so glad you’re going to be head cheerleader!
I’ve had a really lackluster reading year in terms of numbers, but October has actually picked things up a bit for me. Wishing you luck for the Read-a-Thon! I’ll be seeing ya.
Thanks for stopping by my blog to encourage me! This is my first read-a-thon and it comes at a good time. I think I’ve read fewer books than you this month! I think I may run up to Books a Million tonight and get a few short, quick reads in case it gets tough going.
I’ll stop back and check on you!
YIPPEE!! Thanks for being a head cheerleader! Waving my pompons! CHEERS! I’m already over-using the exclam pts, wahoo!
Boston Book fest is today so I can’t participate in the Readathon- but I hope you all have a great day!
I’m doing my own Readathon on Wednesday instead. 
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