Today is the 24 hour readathon! I am so excited. Here on this page I will post my updates. I will just update this post. Happy reading!

Hour 0

And it has begun! I am still excited, though I write this a quarter of an hour late. I needed to throw away the garbage and put my clothes in the washing machine. Here is my piece for the opening survey:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I am reading from my student apartment in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The written by Darren Shan. This is the 10th book in the series and I really want to know what happens next.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
Oh oh oh. So much to choose from. I have cookies, mini spring rolls, noodles and my own favourite, croquette cake with satay sauce. Mjam.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I am Rianne, I live in the Netherlands and I study economics in Nijmegen. I love to read, write and run.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This time I am not going to stay awake for 24 hours. I have a busy weekend, so staying awake all day is not a good idea.

Hour 4

Here I am! I was busy reading and getting myself more food. Now I am having a little break. I just ordered dinner, so I hope it will be here soon. I made a photo of my To Be Read pile for this readathon. It is not that big, but it is a nice pile.

Also I have done a mini-challenge. We had to draw a cover of a book. And not just drawing, we had to do it without looking at the cover. Oh man. I am not good at drawing, especially when I have to remember it myself. But it is not too bad, right?

Hour 6

And we are still reading. I am feeling good. My book is nice and the time goes by soooo fast. My pizza was yummy and I want to read moooore. I will throw away some of the mess I made away so I can go on reading nice and clean.

For the mini challenge Six Word Story we had to make a story with six words about celebrating Dewey’s Readathon. I chose for: A day living in another world. Because we read and we live in another world for these 24 hours.

Hour 8

I finished my first book! The Lake of Souls was awesome and now I want to read more of the series. But first I want to read some other books. I think the next one will be Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but I am not sure yet. First I want to take a little walk while it is still light outside. It would be nice to be outside for some time.

This is a small picture of the book Carry On written by Rainbow Rowell with showing the weather outside. It is for the hour 6 mini challenge. It is nice, because there is blue in the sky and the sun is going under, so the sky is also a bit yellowish from that, which matches the colours of the book.

Hour 9

And I started reading in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! I am quite excited now. The book captivates me more than I had thought when I started, so it is just easy to breeze through the book. I did not have a walk outside yet, except for the photo of hour 8, so I will go for a walk soon with a friend of mine. Until then I will read more and more and more and more and more. And I post a picture of me with a book in my hand.

This photo is for the hour 7 mini challenge. Photo yourself in a book. I feel like this one turned up better than I imagined. Maybe I really need to have pink flowers in my hair. I hope you are all doing well and good luck reading!

Hour 10

And we are still reading. I am slowly getting sleepy, so I won’t be up for long I think, but I still like Harry Potter (duh..) and I have snacks!

Hour 20

I have to admit. I went to bed. Well it is what I expected and I really needed it. My eyes started to close a few times and I would scare awake, so I figured it was time for me to go to bed. I went to bed at 1 am (starting of hour 12) and I awoke at a quarter to 8. Then I started to read again for about one hour. Now I am having breakfast and then I am going to read again.

Also there was a mini-challenge I wanted to do: What’s your favourite book? And if you could rewrite its ending and give it an unexpected twist, what would it be?
I thought about this for a while and I figured my favourite book is Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The Percy Jackson series is my all time favourite, so that would be my favourite book. I would change the ending in such a way that Percy Jackson suddenly had a half-brother or sister, being another child of his own mother. This would certainly give another twist at the book and the series, because there is suddenly another character that is important in the life of Percy.

So, now I am going to read again. Hope you are all still having fun.

Hour 24

And then suddenly it ended. It has been 2 pm here and the readathon is over. I was in the train at that moment, so I could not write then, but now I am home I can write you all how it went. I went with public transport a few hours ago, so I could be at home with my parents for the rest of the day. Therefore I read the last few hours in the train. It was nice. It was nice to just sit down and read. I finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! I finished it an hour early, so I also started reading The Sleepwalker written by Robert Muchamore. That was also nice. Just reading for another hour without the rush of finishing the book.

And therefore it is time for the ending survey. Here are my answers:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Hour 12 I guess. That was the moment I started to doze and nod. That was also the moment I realized that I really needed to go to bed.

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a reader engaged for next year?
Easy reads, more children books. The most difficult books are the books that are too difficult to read for a long time in a row. A children’s book or Young Adult will be more easier to read and give you the opportunity to breeze through the book.

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next season?
Times and dates are difficult. I sensed that there were a few people who did not really now what time the readathon would start. Making this more obvious would really help. Also I would like to see a time on the publishing of the updates through the readathon. I was really confused about which hour it was and for what hour the blogpost was meant.

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
I loved the mini challenges. They were easy but not too easy. I like that.

5. How many books did you read?
2!

6. What were the names of the books you read?
The Lake of Souls written by Darren Shan and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone written by J.K. Rowling.

7. Which book did you enjoy most?
I am just not going to do that. The two books are very different and it would be mean to choose between the to.

8. Which did you enjoy least?
Same

9. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
Well, my father has is birthday the day before, so I don’t know how it would turn out, but if I am going to participate than I would read again. Probably again without being the full 24 hours awake. It is really sad that all these readathons take place at special dates. Around my father’s birthday, my parents’ anniversary and my own birthday, but I will see what I can do.

So, that was it. I had very much fun and hopefully I will see you again next time.