Something terrible happened to me this month: I wasn’t interested in reading anything at all, and everytime I picked up a book I couldn’t focus on the page for more than two words, so obviously I thought I was dying from some very lethal and uncurable disease.
I looked it up online.
Nope!
Not dying! (Phew! I gots books to write, no time to die, pals!)
Turns out it was just a regular, yet very annoying, reading slump. I tried everything imaginable to get out of this slump, to no avail, so when the wonderful Nimika, from Wordhaven, asked me to join her in a 24-hour Readathon, it felt like the perfect idea.
I would force myself to read for 24 hours, no matter what, until I beat that slump.
And it worked!
It was my first Readathon ever, and if you’ve never heard of that, it works like this: You read for 24 hours, period.
Of course you can take breaks if you want (but why would you want that?), though the goal is to read as much as you can during these 24 hours.
Here’s how my 24 hours went:
Hour 1
- Wasted 15 minutes taking a photo to tweet about the #BloggerReadathon!
- Picked up A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle.
Hour 2
- Read.
Hour 3
- Read.
Hour 4
- Read.
Hour 5
- Ate a lot of food I shouldn’t have eaten and regretted it instantly.
- Also, I would do it again.
Hour 6
- Finished reading A Wrinkle in Time!
- Wrote a post about it here, to start a book discussion because, if you hadn’t guessed that already, I love to talk books.
Hour 7
- Started reading Our Dark Duet, by Victoria Schwab.
- Changed my mind.
- Started reading a play by Shakespeare.
- Changed my mind.
- Started reading The Winner’s Curse, by Marie Rutkoski.
Hour 8
- Fell in love with Arin and the words of Marie Rutkoski.
- Mostly Arin, let’s be real.
Hour 9
- Felt my eyes getting heavy and my body starting to hate me.
- Told them to shut it and kept reading.
Hour 10
- Fatigue got real.
- Thought I would just close my eyes for 10 minutes.
Hour 19
- Woke up 9 hours later like:
Hour 20
- Decided to start Our Dark Duet because Nimika said the ending would blow my mind and I couldn’t wait.
Hour 21
- Read as I ate.
Hour 22
- Read as I took a bath.
Hour 23
- Read as I walked.
Hour 24
- Read as I tweeted.
- Time’s up!
So my grand total wasn’t that grand (I’m a very slow reader haha). In 24 hours, I ended up finishing A Wrinkle in Time, reading 100 pages of The Winner’s Curse, and 100 pages of Our Dark Duet. But I felt like a champion because I was out of the slump! And really looking forward to finishing those two books!
(I finished TWC yesterday and omg it tore at my heart I need the sequel!)
Thank you Nimika for asking me to join you in this! It was so much fun!
And if you guys ever want to participate in a future Readathon, let us know! We’d love to complain about our lack of sleep with you on Twitter! Oh, and rave about books, of course!
(Nimika’s Twitter! And mine!)
Happy reading, everyone!
And if you read this post all the way to here, you deserve a kiss!
What’s that?
You say you still have a few minutes and you want to read something I wrote?
Oh my god!
My, thank you!
How about the first episode of my dystopian adventure starring a pair of untamable lovers? I’d love to hear what you think of it!
Start reading Dean & Lily right here!
You’re awesome!
lmao, the 9 hours of sleep – that would be me, too. It’s been far too long since my last college all-nighter and I just can’t do that anymore haha.
If I ever hit a reading slump, I’ll keep this in mind! (or at least just spend a whole weekend reading as much as possible)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope you never have a slump, Marica, and that you never need to use such extreme measures, haha!
But honestly it’s a lot of fun! Though I don’t know how some people do these without ever sleeping. I’m not a ”good” reader when I’m too tired. I just read words but don’t register them!
LikeLike
This is such a good idea to get out of a reading slump!
I’ve been in one pretty bad since coming from taking a month off of the book world and I think I’ve finally broken it by forcing myself to read for quite a few hours last night!
You should definitely finish Our Dark Duet though, its amazing and that ending will throw you for a loop I promise!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you’re finally fighting through the slump!
And I’m definitely going to finish ODD! I’ve reached 250 pages today and I think I’m going to get it done by tomorrow! 😀 Can’t wait for that ending everyone’s talking about, haaaaa!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I won’t give anything away but I would love to know what you think when you’re finished!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll definitely let you know then! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is so cool! Congrats on reading so much! ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always sleep normally when I do a 24-hour readathon. I tend to read slower and not pay attention if I don’t I am so happy that doing this helped you get over your reading slump! It feels so grand when you get over one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does! I feel like I can finally tackle my TBR! 😀
And same for me, I would be rereading the same sentence over and over again if I didn’t sleep!
LikeLiked by 1 person
wow wow wow! i’ve never done a 24 hour readathon but i’m in the slump of a lifetime so maybe i’ll try it out?? nice work!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You definitely should try it! I hope it helps you like it helped me!
I was thinking of doing another one in May; let me know if you might want to join! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ayyyy, it was truly so fun to do it! I’m such a “read it in one sitting” reader (I literally just got done with Wanderlost rn and I started it at 12 PM) so a 24 Hour Readathon is the perfect excuse to do it. I loved doing this so I’m definitely in for another readathon. Also, I Iove your hour by hour analysis- so cool! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reading a book in one-sitting is the best! But I have to be really engrossed in the world otherwise my eyes grow tired and I can’t stop thinking about food haha. Distractions, distractions!
Thanks! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds awesome! I normally pick up a book and get super invested and yell at someone who tries to engage with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I want to try a 24 hour readathon, but I just know that I don’t have the time and that saddens me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I was lucky I had so much free time in March to do that. I hope you’ll get to do one someday!
Yep, I totally know the feeling, girl. ”I’m reading, go away.” XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Totally 🙂 but you know summer vacation is my translation for uninterrupted beach reading because water is normally too cold so yayyyyy
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha perfect for you then! 😀
LikeLike