Readathon Recap!

I can’t believe the first FFP 24 Hour Readathon is over. I’ve been attempting to catch up on lost sleep (no success there yet!), hence this post is a bit delayed — it’s the first time I ever readathoned for a full 24 hours, and it felt a lot longer than that to me!

I had a long list of books I planned to read, but I was only able to read five. I finished my halftime blog post slash eating break at around 3 am, and by that time I’d already finished Vespers Rising and The Insult and Curse Book. I lay down on Gege’s Thai futon (the kind with a mattress attached to a triangular pillow) and started reading Sweet Valley Confidential. It was unusually chilly (it was raining outside and dust allergies be darned I had to grab the sarong covering the boxes in one corner at Libreria to use as a blanket), and it was getting harder to stay awake, especially when people were starting to fall asleep. I think it was my violent reactions to SVC  (hahaha, you’ll be reading about it in a later post) that kept me awake, and I finished that book at around half past six.

That’s me with Newton (my Nook)

Readathon = Eat A Ton?!?

Coffee count: 6 cups in 24 hours

Eyebags galore!

We were waiting for the rain to stop so we could head out to breakfast, and during that time I read through Babymouse #1, and then grabbed Kiki’s Delivery Service to start over breakfast at Butter Diner. I wasn’t able to read until we returned to Libreria and had another cup of coffee (Butter Diner coffee = bleagh), and plod through until lunch time, when it started raining again and I had to head over to the Vespers Rising launch party where I was moderating a book talk (more on that in my next post — those kids are amazing!).

By the time I returned to the Readathon, we were all pretty much worn out, and I was halfway through Kiki’s Delivery Service but I was trying to read more because I was  reading for a charity: Kythe Foundation. I pledged to donate 10 books for every 100 pages I read, and I was targeting 800 pages, but by the last hour, we were all too exhausted so we cleared the tables and sat down to dinner. My total page count was 717, translating to 70 books for Kythe, but the good news is that I got more people to pledge books towards my reading. Added to the books I’ve already packed in boxes (yep, two boxes full yesterday!), I think I’ll be able to pool together 100 books to give to the Kythe kids (donations still welcome!).

It’s the fourth Readathon I’ve joined, but the first time I’ve stayed up for 24 hours straight and the first time I’ve read for a charity, and I have to say that having other people reading with you really helps — I never would’ve stuck to reading for so long!Cecille and I took home the Readathon honor  for the most pages read, and Gege and Triccie for the longest time spent at the Readathon.

All in all, I think it was an admirable effort for our first Readathon, and I think we’ve learned a lot, especially regarding, erm, ‘hygiene” logistics, reading commitments, round the clock blogging, taking breaks, and other Readathon-related concerns. We’ll surely be better prepared for the next FFP 24 Hour Readathon.

I have a long list of blog posts to catch up on, so I’ll finish off with a hearty congratulations to all the Readathoners (both for FFP and Dewey’s). See you at the next Readathon!  :)