Do you remember the fundraisers we had in school? From selling chocolate bars to anything-a-thon. My favorites were the Readathons. Who doesn’t like to curl up with a book and read as much as you can? My parents always pledged a penny a page.
Last weekend, I participated in the adult version of that, Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. It takes place twice a year and is an excuse to gather up with your books for 24 hours. The Readathon starts at the same time all over the world, for me that was 7 a.m. on Saturday to 7 a.m. on Sunday.

So what did that really look like for me? I started at 7 a.m. on Saturday, picked up my book and read until 10:30 when I had to shower and get ready for the day. Rich had brought me coffee around 9 so I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet. After shower was a trip to Velvet Tacos in Fort Worth (wow!) and then we were off to a party. Not just any old party, this one would last all day long – no reading here, there were people to talk to!

We finally were home again around 10 and I thought I should just go to sleep I’ll catch the Readathon in the fall and see if I do better, I’d had a couple cocktails through the day, so I was sleepy. I tossed and turned for an hour though, I’m sure it’s because my brain knew I had made a commitment and I wasn’t fulfilling it. So, on went my reading light and I read until 5:45 a.m. Just an hour shy of the final deadline. I did ok, finished one book – although my TBR (to-be-read) stack had eight books in it, I always set out as an overachiever.

So, it might sound like this event is all about reading, and while that is the focus, there is another one just as important. The social aspect of this Readathon matters. Yes, reading can be social! There was a challenge every hour online that you could participate in on the social platform of your choice. I used Instagram. Each hour brought an opportunity to enter contests, write mashups, poetry, take pictures. It kept the hours moving, just a little check on my phone here and there to see what was up next, do the challenge, check out what others were reading, find some new friends to follow and then right back to work.

I’m so glad I took part – maybe next time it’ll be on a day I don’t already have something planned, but knowing our life, that’s doubtful. Next Readathon is October 21 – just checked my calendar, that’s Gala Day for the Rebelle Rally – maybe I’ll just put two books in my TBR stack 🙂