I tried the #24hourreadathon (so you don't have to?)
So.
I've had heard of people doing the 24 hour readathon before and I was always in awe as well as curious whether I could do it as well. For months, probably years I made excuses not to do it because, work and uni and social stuff, you know.
Well.
There were really not a lot of excuses this time around. (Disclaimer, I do still work at a front line job a couple times a week and I do have online uni courses but I do still have a lot more free time now)
So I decided to give the 24 hour readathon a try.
But before I tell you how they went (yes, there were multiple attempts) let's look at what a readathon is.
What is a readathon?
Basically a readathon is anything from reading as many books as you can in a set amount of hours (like the 24 hour readathon) to a well planned out list of specific books, specific prompts or themes (I'm thinking of the Owl's magical readathon for example). There are a bunch of different ones out there with a bunch of different rules, so if you want to try one out, maybe check out Little Book Owl's Readathon Calendar (http://www.littlebookowl.com/p/read-thon-calendar.html) or make up your own with your own rules.
What do you need?
All you really need is your never ending TBR pile, snacks, a hot beverage and time set aside to actually read. I would also suggest to have some sort of tracking system, but I will get into that in the next bit, as well as maybe trying to do a community readathon if you struggle to keep yourself accountable. Discussing your progress with other people as well as talking about the books you are reading, can really help with staying motivated and with keeping Netflix and other distractions turned off.
My 24 hour readathon experience
As the name suggests, it is a challenge to read for 24 hours and then see how much you read. You can read for 24 hours at once or you can decide to sleep/work/socialize in that time as well. My goal for the readathon was in general to finish as many of my already started books as I could. I think before I started this I had between 10 to 15 novels in various stages until finished.
To keep track of my reading I had two different systems. Obviously I used goodreads to track my progress, but since goodreads doesn't show you how many pages you read in a sitting I also wrote it down on a regular piece of paper. Just the page that I started reading on and then either the last page of the novel or the page that I stopped reading on. This way I felt like I had the most accurate result. For Audio books I calculated the percent that I had already listened to into the corresponding page count. A little tedious, but worth it for me.
I knew for the first attempt I wouldn't go for the full 24 hours but instead I would start in the afternoon of the first day, then go to sleep and continue the next day until the 24 hour window was over. I think I managed to read for 5 or so hours and then I just forgot about it the next day. As I said, it took several attempts. I guess it is no surprise then that I only finished one novel that I had already started before and read a total of 466 pages. Not bad, but also not at all the full "24 hour success."
For attempt two I thought I would outsmart myself by setting the window later during the day. My idea was to start at nine pm, read until I couldn't stay up anymore and then have all day of my day off to read. It worked a little better, I was definitely more on track and I didn't forget that I had to continue the next day. (I honestly had no idea why I had forgotten about it before, my brain is really not at full speed lately) I finished 3 books (again I have a lot of unfinished books to read, only one of them was a new one) and read 616 pages. This second time I actually had both physical copies and audio books and I think the audio book is definitely an ace because I had it running the entire time I was cooking, tidying and even brushing my teeth, so I definitely spent more time "reading" even if it meant listening to something.
I did try a third time to see if I could do the full 24 hours, but I was so stupid to do it on a day where I had already done a nine hour shift at work and was already tired, so even though I finished 3 books, I read way less pages (456) and ended up sleeping for way longer then I would have normally because I was so exhausted. So I can't call this a success.
My verdict.
Would I recommend this particular challenge? I don't know, honestly. I thought about pushing this post back even further and trying another time, but I know that I will never do the full 24 hours, so why pretend. I am the kind of person that needs sleep. A couple of hours at least. And I firmly believe that I function so much better if I get five hours of sleep into this challenge than if I am an exhausted zombie in the last ten hours of the day.
But did this get me to read more? Hell yes! I finished 8 books in the week that I had these three attempts. 8!
So if I take anything away from this, then it is that I definitely can make time to read and if I spent less hours on Twitter or Netflix then I can read as much as I want.
But I also take away that I like sleep too much to sacrifice it for a challenge like this. Even if it is for a blog post.
Who knows, maybe one day I decide that I want to try it again and then I will do a part two for this. It was very motivating to read this much even if it wasn't in one go and I think I will do maybe a 16 hour reading challenges for myself more often.
My tips for you
If this has now convinced you to try this challenge out yourself, here are some tips:
- Read in sprints/intervalls: You need to get up from your reading chair every now and then, drink some water or tea, stretch or get a snack, so I recommend to set a timer for anything from 30 to 45 minutes, but not longer then this. I promise you, you will not like how you feel if you sit for so long. (This advice also applies to any writer who sits at their desk for hours on end.)
- Use different types of books to read: e-books, audio books, good old print, try to mix it up. As I said above, audio books really were a great tool to keep reading (and in a good speed since I listen to audio books on 1,5 times speed) while I did other things. I did yoga, washed my dishes, I cooked and even wanted to go on a walk but the weather had been awful. E-books, at least for me, are more straining on my eyes, so it is nice to switch to a paper back every now and then.
If you can't switch between stories I would still recommend to maybe try and have a fiction and a none fiction book to read and change between type of book that way.
- Don't put too much pressure on yourself: Reading is still supposed to be fun (unless it is for uni, then it can suck sometimes) and if you want to take part in a reading challenge you need to stay aware that it is not all about the page count. It is about reading a great story, taking time to do something you haven't done in a while and get invested in the story you are reading. So don't feel like you have to speed through a book or feel bad for not reading as much as you wanted to. Your goal should be to read. Period.
Wow, I don't think I have written a blog post this long in while. I hope you found this post inspiring and if you have any more advice, tips or experience, let me know.
Also, I know a lot of my content is reading based and less about writing at the moment, but I guess that is just what I feel like writing at the moment. There is really no other reason.
As always, stay healthy, take care and read on.
Lena
Follow me and stay in touch:
Twitter: @lena_fiala
Instagram: @lena_fiala_
Business inquiries: lena.fiala99@gmail.com
I've had heard of people doing the 24 hour readathon before and I was always in awe as well as curious whether I could do it as well. For months, probably years I made excuses not to do it because, work and uni and social stuff, you know.
Well.
There were really not a lot of excuses this time around. (Disclaimer, I do still work at a front line job a couple times a week and I do have online uni courses but I do still have a lot more free time now)
So I decided to give the 24 hour readathon a try.
But before I tell you how they went (yes, there were multiple attempts) let's look at what a readathon is.
What is a readathon?
Basically a readathon is anything from reading as many books as you can in a set amount of hours (like the 24 hour readathon) to a well planned out list of specific books, specific prompts or themes (I'm thinking of the Owl's magical readathon for example). There are a bunch of different ones out there with a bunch of different rules, so if you want to try one out, maybe check out Little Book Owl's Readathon Calendar (http://www.littlebookowl.com/p/read-thon-calendar.html) or make up your own with your own rules.
What do you need?
All you really need is your never ending TBR pile, snacks, a hot beverage and time set aside to actually read. I would also suggest to have some sort of tracking system, but I will get into that in the next bit, as well as maybe trying to do a community readathon if you struggle to keep yourself accountable. Discussing your progress with other people as well as talking about the books you are reading, can really help with staying motivated and with keeping Netflix and other distractions turned off.
My 24 hour readathon experience
As the name suggests, it is a challenge to read for 24 hours and then see how much you read. You can read for 24 hours at once or you can decide to sleep/work/socialize in that time as well. My goal for the readathon was in general to finish as many of my already started books as I could. I think before I started this I had between 10 to 15 novels in various stages until finished.
To keep track of my reading I had two different systems. Obviously I used goodreads to track my progress, but since goodreads doesn't show you how many pages you read in a sitting I also wrote it down on a regular piece of paper. Just the page that I started reading on and then either the last page of the novel or the page that I stopped reading on. This way I felt like I had the most accurate result. For Audio books I calculated the percent that I had already listened to into the corresponding page count. A little tedious, but worth it for me.
I knew for the first attempt I wouldn't go for the full 24 hours but instead I would start in the afternoon of the first day, then go to sleep and continue the next day until the 24 hour window was over. I think I managed to read for 5 or so hours and then I just forgot about it the next day. As I said, it took several attempts. I guess it is no surprise then that I only finished one novel that I had already started before and read a total of 466 pages. Not bad, but also not at all the full "24 hour success."
For attempt two I thought I would outsmart myself by setting the window later during the day. My idea was to start at nine pm, read until I couldn't stay up anymore and then have all day of my day off to read. It worked a little better, I was definitely more on track and I didn't forget that I had to continue the next day. (I honestly had no idea why I had forgotten about it before, my brain is really not at full speed lately) I finished 3 books (again I have a lot of unfinished books to read, only one of them was a new one) and read 616 pages. This second time I actually had both physical copies and audio books and I think the audio book is definitely an ace because I had it running the entire time I was cooking, tidying and even brushing my teeth, so I definitely spent more time "reading" even if it meant listening to something.
I did try a third time to see if I could do the full 24 hours, but I was so stupid to do it on a day where I had already done a nine hour shift at work and was already tired, so even though I finished 3 books, I read way less pages (456) and ended up sleeping for way longer then I would have normally because I was so exhausted. So I can't call this a success.
My verdict.
Would I recommend this particular challenge? I don't know, honestly. I thought about pushing this post back even further and trying another time, but I know that I will never do the full 24 hours, so why pretend. I am the kind of person that needs sleep. A couple of hours at least. And I firmly believe that I function so much better if I get five hours of sleep into this challenge than if I am an exhausted zombie in the last ten hours of the day.
But did this get me to read more? Hell yes! I finished 8 books in the week that I had these three attempts. 8!
So if I take anything away from this, then it is that I definitely can make time to read and if I spent less hours on Twitter or Netflix then I can read as much as I want.
But I also take away that I like sleep too much to sacrifice it for a challenge like this. Even if it is for a blog post.
Who knows, maybe one day I decide that I want to try it again and then I will do a part two for this. It was very motivating to read this much even if it wasn't in one go and I think I will do maybe a 16 hour reading challenges for myself more often.
My tips for you
If this has now convinced you to try this challenge out yourself, here are some tips:
- Read in sprints/intervalls: You need to get up from your reading chair every now and then, drink some water or tea, stretch or get a snack, so I recommend to set a timer for anything from 30 to 45 minutes, but not longer then this. I promise you, you will not like how you feel if you sit for so long. (This advice also applies to any writer who sits at their desk for hours on end.)
- Use different types of books to read: e-books, audio books, good old print, try to mix it up. As I said above, audio books really were a great tool to keep reading (and in a good speed since I listen to audio books on 1,5 times speed) while I did other things. I did yoga, washed my dishes, I cooked and even wanted to go on a walk but the weather had been awful. E-books, at least for me, are more straining on my eyes, so it is nice to switch to a paper back every now and then.
If you can't switch between stories I would still recommend to maybe try and have a fiction and a none fiction book to read and change between type of book that way.
- Don't put too much pressure on yourself: Reading is still supposed to be fun (unless it is for uni, then it can suck sometimes) and if you want to take part in a reading challenge you need to stay aware that it is not all about the page count. It is about reading a great story, taking time to do something you haven't done in a while and get invested in the story you are reading. So don't feel like you have to speed through a book or feel bad for not reading as much as you wanted to. Your goal should be to read. Period.
Wow, I don't think I have written a blog post this long in while. I hope you found this post inspiring and if you have any more advice, tips or experience, let me know.
Also, I know a lot of my content is reading based and less about writing at the moment, but I guess that is just what I feel like writing at the moment. There is really no other reason.
As always, stay healthy, take care and read on.
Lena
Follow me and stay in touch:
Twitter: @lena_fiala
Instagram: @lena_fiala_
Business inquiries: lena.fiala99@gmail.com
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