Sunday 19 October 2008

Read-a-thon: Final Meme



Ahhhh. I'm after shower, I washed up and tidied a bit around and now it's time to do a wrap up of these very intense 24 hours of reading and blogging. I really enjoyed myself but if there's something I want to improve next time is the amount of reading. I think I took too many breaks and could have read another book easily. Also I should probably drink more coffee so I could stay awake more. I did 19 hours, I could have done all of them if I were a bit more caffeinated! I loved blogging about my reading straight after finishing a book. It helped to process what I had read and to prepare the ground for the next one. I think I should do that more often! Now for the questions...

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

Hour 15. It was 3 a.m., didn't have enough caffeine in me and decided it was time to sleep a bit. I set the alarm for 9 a.m. but I was already awake at 8!

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

Definitely Coraline by Neil Gaiman, all the Dangerous Angels series by Francesca Lia Block, and also Oranges in no man's land by Elizabeth Laird, because it's very short but satisfying.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

It was perfect the way it was.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

I was amaze how quick the new posts for each hour went up. There were prizes for everything which was great, and the support from the bloggers was always there. Loved it.

5. How many books did you read?

Four, but the first I had already started before the read-a-thon. So 3 and a half.

6. What were the names of the books you read?

The white tiger by Aravind Adiga, Oranges in no man's land by Elizabeth Laird, Cherokee Bat and the goat guys by Francesca Lia Block and Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

Cherokee Bat and the goat guys. But the rest were good too.

8. Which did you enjoy least?

The white tiger, for various reasons, but it kept my interest up so I didn't hate it.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

I wasn't one but I think Nymeth had a good idea about having a cheerleader assigned for certain blogs, although you will probably need a lot more cheerleaders to cover all the blogs the whole time. I wouldn't mind being one next time even for one hour!

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

Very likely! If I can I will. I want to be a reader, but I could do some cheerleading as well, for an hour or two.

9 comments:

Ana S. said...

I'm so glad you had fun, Valentina. And I know what you mean about taking too many breaks...I really enjoy the blogging side of the read-a-thon, but if I don't watch out it can easily take a whole hour.

I'm wondering if having clearly defined cheerleader shifts would encourage more readers to also sign up as cheerleaders. If it did and we got more of them, it'd make things much more manageable for each one.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I would totally sign up to be a cheerleader for an hour shift!!

Anyway, you did such a fantastic job Valentina!! Even being up for 19 hours is so great. I understand the time management thing, though. After my second time I'm still trying to figure out the right balance.

I'm glad you decided to do the read-a-thon and look forward to next time!

chrisa511 said...

Hey, there's nothing wrong with 19 hours! Congrats on getting as much accomplished as you did Valentina! I was amazed by how quick the posts went up too on Dewey's site...it just flew by at times.

Ivÿ said...

hey congratulations!

I've been reading around blogs that participated in the Read-A-Thon and seemed like a lot of readers had Coraline in their list. I'm not a Gaiman fan but I think I'll check this out. Thanks. :)

I finished 5 books in total for this event and I hope to participate for the 2nd time next year. :)

Anonymous said...

Next time I will try to put more of Gaiman or Pratchett books. They work out great!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

19 hours IS really great. That's amazing. i doubt i could do that much and you really did get a lot of reading in. that's good you know what to change for next time though!!

lauren

Anonymous said...

I loved the read-a-thon as well! I wish I could have stayed up all night tho. I agree about the blogging taking too much of my time. Congrats!!

Joanne ♦ The Book Zombie said...

Way to go, you did a great job! I would like to cheer next time as well as reading, this time I spent most of my time reading but I loved the blogs I did get around to.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed yourself!

valentina said...

nymeth, blogging definitely took more than one hour for me:P
next time I'll try to stay more focus on the reading side!

trish, thank you, next time I will work on my caffeine intake, definitely.

Chris, I don't think I read than much coz they were short books! while you actually read a big book like Nation! I still haven't started, I think I'm waiting for the right moment..

Ivan girl, five books is a Lot! that's really cool. Coraline is a lovely read, creepy enough for the dark hours and short enough to be satisfying for the read-a-thon.

Gautami, I think you're right there:)

Thanks Lauren, I'm loving these appreciations:D

Kristina, we have to work on being stronger next time!!!

Joanne, I think you did the right thing. Reading should be the main goal and blogging only a chance of small breaks in between, but some of us took it too far:P