Tips to having a great read-a-thon

With Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon coming up this Saturday, I thought it might be helpful to write yet another read-a-thon tips post. Some of these tips are the same while others are things I’ve learned since April’s read-a-thon.

Plan Ahead

1. Figure out what you want your read-a-thon experience to be like. Some people join the read-a-thon strictly for the reading part. Others join to read and the social aspects such as the conversations on Twitter and Facebook. Figure out what you want to do during the event so when Sunday morning rolls around, you’re not disappointed and wishing you did things differently. At first, I thought about joining the event just to read but decided that I wanted to be more involved in the event, so I plan to read, cheer, and maybe even host a mini-challenge. The Twitter conversations are great opportunities to “meet” other readers.
2. Go grocery shopping before the event. There’s nothing worse than looking up from your current read, starving, and realizing that there’s nothing in the house to eat.
3. Let your friends and family know in advance that you’re participating. Even if they don’t understand why anyone would spend a Saturday reading, they’ll know not to call you. If they do call, don’t pick up the phone. My family knows that read-a-thon Saturday is my day. It’s Christmas, Easter, my birthday, and the last day of school rolled up into 24 hours. If my family bothers me for more than the occasional question, they’re sure to pay for it later on.

The Stack

1. Start putting a stack of books together days before the event. For me, there’s no better feeling than having my stack ready. That doesn’t mean I won’t change my mind throughout the day, but it’s nice to not have go to the library or bookstore for a new read.
2. Keep your books short and no fuss. It’s crazy to try and read The Brothers Karamazov or Midnight’s Children from start to finish during the 24 hours you have. Unless you like that kind of stuff. Some people do devote the read-a-thon to reading a chunkster. I don’t think that’s bad but you might get tired of what you’re reading. This brings me to my next tip.
3. Variety is your friend. Make sure the books in your read-a-thon stack are a variety of genres, formats, and sizes. In my stack you can usually find a collection of short stories and essays, a volume of poetry, a few novellas and graphic novels, picture books, and a novel or two or three. Some of my books will be review copies while others will be library books and some I’ve own for a while now. I don’t expect to read a whole collection of essays or volume of poetry in a day but when I need a break from whatever book I’m in, reading something really different helps.  I also have several interesting books on my Nook, just in case I want to stretch my legs and read at the park or at Starbucks or some other outside place.
4. Make sure you have a few books in your stack that are fast-pace. The read-a-thon is not the time to start reading something like Marianne Robinson’s Housekeeping. Not that it’s a bad book but time is going to crawl by in a way that you don’t want it to, making you feel like you’re been reading the same page for a few hours.

The Food

1. The only thing as important as your reading stack is what you’re eating! It doesn’t matter if you’re joining the read-a-thon for two hours or all twenty-four, you’re not going to be able to enjoy yourself if all you’re doing is eating junk food. I learned this the hard way. It’s good to have some cut up fruits and vegetables at your disposal. My house will be stocked with sliced fruits and vegetables along with any other healthy foods that I can think of.

Everything else

1. Never underestimate the power of a nap. I always take a nap during the read-a-thon. When I first participated in the read-a-thon many moons ago, I used to hate that. Now, I’ve come to love and expect to take a nap.
2. Please turn comment moderation and Captcha off during the event. You can turn it back on after it’s over. When you have comment moderation on, the people who cheer you on have no way of knowing if you’re receiving comments or not. After awhile, cheerleaders will move on to other blogs. Plus, consider updating your read-a-thon post every now and then. If you started the read-a-thon and you haven’t updated the post after ten hours, cheerleaders don’t know if you’re still reading. A quick update saying that’s you’re still in or you’re out, helps us a lot. You don’t have to update every hour or so but once or twice during the event really helps.
3. Make sure to have fun. That’s what this is event is about; it’s a day to do something that you really enjoy. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to read x amount of books. If you finish two books, that’s great. If you end up talking on Twitter the whole time and making a ton of new friends, that’s great too. Take pictures of the books you’re reading, or your current reading spot. Go cheer other readers on or thank the cheerleaders who’ve been cheering you on. Take a walk. Stretch. Whatever makes this a great experience for you, do it. Dewey, the late blogger who started this event, wanted the read-a-thon to be fun.

Are there any tips that you would add to this list? Are you joining Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thon?