Sunday, April 22, 2012

Dewey's #Readathon Wrap-Up

After participating in Dewey's Read-a-thon for the third time, I just wanted to wrap-up and share some quick thoughts while everything was fresh on my mind.

First, this has to be my favorite bookish event.  I really love setting aside a day and telling everyone to leave me alone while I do what I do best, read.  On top of that, other book lovers are doing the same thing at the same time so it's a social event as well.  I just love it and I can't wait for the next one.  

This was my first time actually sticking it through till the very end and let me say, that was so hard.  I almost felt abused.  Lol.  Part of my problem is that I didn't get but three or four hours of sleep the night before so I really struggled.  This time I was able to convince both my mom and my grandmother to participate and we had a blast.  Grandma made it to hour 18 and Mom made it to hour 22.

I finished four books:  Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Veil of Night by Linda Howard, The Sweetheart Hoax by Christy Hayes, and The Bungalow by Sarah Jio.  I started but did not finish Soulless by Gail Carriger.

Favorite mini-challenge: I don't remember what it was called but it was the food fight one.  It was late and when Ashley said she would throw spaghetti at me, I had to come up with something good. It was extra funny when mom and I were trying to come up with something and our brains were so fried.  That one really woke me up and brought lots of laughter.

A few lessons learned this time around:
  • I need to stop fighting my love for socializing.  Once I stop feeling guilty about blog hopping and tweeting (a lot), I had more fun.
  • SLEEP THE NIGHT BEFORE!  Next time I'm self-medicating.
  • There needs to be a CAPTCHA intervention.  Really.  Mom was a cheerleader and I felt bad for her.  She was getting so frustrated.  I finally just told her to stop.  One of the problems with Captcha is it often doesn't show up until after you try to post the comment.  Uhhh she signed up for 3 hours of cheerleading and those were the most frustrating hours for me as well.
  • It's important to do quick updates every hour I think because toward the end, it is hard to tell who is awake.
  • Plan for recovery!!  I had to wake up and get on the road to get back to school and didn't really think much about the after part.  
  • Physical books for the later hours...my eyes were so tired.
Honestly, there are different things about each readathon that are better than others..  But one of the consistent things is the fun you have and friendships you make while participating.  Especially during the later hours.  You have this "we are all in this together" mentality.  I also discover new bloggers.  It is really my favorite part.

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18 comments:

  1. What's - CAPTCHA?

    I thought you did great this time!
    I just have my 6 - 8 blogger friends that I go to and comment, I used to try to do more, but yeah it would drive me crazy and I was on the computer too much. Now I just stick to my friends.
    I try to do hourly or bi-hourly updates.
    Ashley and I went out for pancakes Sunday around 10:00, then she went home. I took a good 2 -3 hr nap Sun. afternoon.
    I slept well last night and I feel pretty good now!
    I couldn't sleep good the night before!!! I kept waking up! Next time its Camomile tea for me.

    It was fun and I am so glad you are one of my RATty friends! LOL

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    1. Thanks! I think it is important to keep it down to. It's hard to keep up with everyone. It is easier at the end of night when people start falling asleep though. Same for me...Camomile tea it is.

      I did better this time! I'm glad you noticed. I had so much fun with you and Ashley.

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  2. I wish I had done a little more online socializing this past readathon, but I did do readathon with my two blogger friends, and we had a blast. I love that your grandma and mom participated with you, how awesome!

    And CAPTCHA must be eliminated! I was a cheerleader too, and it was beyond frustrating. It took a lot of the fun out of cheering and commenting.

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    1. Oh that does sound like a blast. Yes they were great, especially my mom. She is soooo funny when she is sleepy. I don't know what we can do about CAPTCHA but it is the most frustrating thing ever!

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  3. I don't know how you did it with so little sleep the night before!!

    I actually managed to recover pretty well after. I slept from about 7:30 to 3:00 (except for a brief time when I kinda sleepwalked out of bed, all confused, but my boyfriend guided me back lol), and I still managed to fall asleep reasonably close to a normal bed time on Sunday night. So I'm doing alright!

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    1. I had to get on the road to get back to school and get to studying so I didn't get much sleep. Good thing you had your boyfriend to guide you back. That's cute. I had to smile.

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  4. Do not even mention captcha, I freaking hate it. Your poor mum

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    1. I know! I think I will start telling people they have it or something.

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  5. I so wanted to participate in the Read-a-thon this time but couldn't! I vow to partake next time. Seriously!

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    1. I hope you do! It's is such fun and I always meet new people (over the internet of course).

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  6. Your poor Mom! And the bad things is many of the bloggers don't even realize it's turned on, so they don't know how frustrating they are making commenting for people. I was flailing by hour 23. I had to go sit at my desk or I would have gone to sleep before the end. And poor you trying to do this with only 3 hours of sleep.

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    1. I was sitting on the floor and it was still difficult. I felt so bad for my mom because she was trying so hard but it was really taking the fun out of it when she could have been reading.

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  7. I totally agree that this was a blast! Captcha was one of the reasons I moved off of Blogger---anytime you updated anything in the template it would turn back on. It took me a bit to realize that but it is a huge pain. I am convinced that half the bloggers don't even realize that it is on.

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    1. I agree. I feel like I need to tell people they have CAPTCHA. It's just that important.

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  8. I wasn't able to participate in Dewey's this year because I knew I was going to be out of town for the weekend, and that really bummed me out because I love this read-a-thon. The challenges are so fun, and it sounds like I really missed out on that food fight one.

    You did great though. I would never have been able to finish four books!

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    1. I didn't expect to finish four either. It came as a surprise. This is my favorite Bookish event. I look forward to it. I'm sad you didn't get to participate. There's October though :)

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  9. Nicely done! I'm really impressed that you can do this...I start getting really crabby when I get tired, and then no one wants to be around me, so it's probably best if I stay away!

    As for Captcha, it still shocks me that so many blogs use it, especially as it's always tops on all those "be a better blog" lists, and frequently mentioned on Twitter as a big negative for any blog. I sometimes wonder if people don't even realize they have it activated? Regardless, your mom rocks for soldiering on in the face of the evil Captcha.

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  10. Oh MY God !! I forgot about this!! I suuuuuuuuck :| You need to remind me about it in October, I'm so memory-impaired it's ridiculous. :(

    That's so cool, yo had your mom AND grandma do the read-a-thon, totally awesomeness. And congrats on actually making the full run, last time I zonked out at like hour 20 or something, it's really hard to pull it off.
    You're a champion! *hugs*

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