Weekly Geeks: Dewey's Readathon

In just 24 hours, Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon begins, and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. Being able to dedicate an entire day to reading - and nothing but reading - makes me feel all tingly inside. Since Weekly Geeks is focused on plans for the readathon this week, and since I am woefully unprepared at this time, I thought a blog post dedicated to getting my act together was a good idea.

Before I get to the what I'm going to read portion, I thought I would focus on a different question posed over at Weekly Geeks: What is your strategy for the readathon?

Fantastic question. I did not have a plan last year: I spent 14 hours 8 minutes reading, and yes I did keep a very specific and correct account. I read 8 books and 1771 pages. Eight hours and 11 minutes were spent blogging where I completed 9 mini-challenges and left 150 comments on others' blogs. I also hosted a mini-challenge and somewhere in there managed to shower and eat a butterscotch sundae.

I'm going in with the same non-plan plan this year. I'll have it a bit easier as my overworked brain couldn't think up a fun mini-challenge, so I'm just reading and cheerleading this time around. My family, students, and friends have been notified I will be MIA this weekend. The hubby will more than likely eat dinner and head out with friends, so I should be good to go for 24 solitary hours of reading. I even nixed the possibility of phone calls for that period of time!

Here are the books I really want to get to during the readathon:

The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter
A cultural satire, FLP stars an out-of-work, going broke bloke who comes up with an unusual and illegal way to make some cash.

The Dark is Rising Trilogy by Susan Cooper
I have heard wonderful things about this series, and I finally own it.  With all three installments, nicely packaged in one book, I'm ready to go.

Vanishing by Deborah Willis
A collection of short stories which has been given big thumbs up by many bloggers, this is one I'm really excited to get to.


The Virago Book of Ghost Stories ed. by Richard Dalby
As the title clearly indicates, this is a collection of ghost stories which I think is a perfect way for me to get in the Halloween spirit!

Here are some books I plan on using as breaks from the more text-heavy reads:

The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex by Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist
This is "the ultimate guide to getting your rocks off" and so far I'm loving it. I think it will be a great 'need a break' book since it's told in small snippets of funny.

Sandman Vol. 4:  Seasons of Mist by Neil Gaiman
A graphic novel and the fourth in an awesome series, Seasons of Mist is an obvious break book.

Why We Love and Why We Fight by Simon Van Booy
Full of short, thought-provoking selections on the titled topic, these two books will be fun reads if they are anything like Why Our Decisions Don't Matter...which they will be...seriously, there's no doubt they will be just like that one...


Cirque du Freak nos. 9 through 12 by Darren Shan
These are very fast, easy reads and will be perfect for the later hours of the readathon when my brain starts going fuzzy.

As I have hundreds of books on the TBR shelves, there is really no guarantee that these will be the books I end up reading - I'm too much of a spontaneous reader to limit myself to a list - but these are my thoughts right now.


So anyone else doing the readathon - and planning making it all 24 hours!?!?!?!