Dewey Read-a-Thon!

**UPDATED AT HOUR 24**  

Pages Read: 1,332

Currently Reading: Swallows and Amazons, Bridget Jones's Diary

Books Finished: 5 (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, Sandman Vol. III: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman, Coriolanus by William Shakespeare)

Breaks Taken: 1st break to help clean out my great aunt's house (she passed away last month). It ended up taking almost 5 hours, so most of my morning was not spent reading, but I'm back now! 2nd break to spend a few evening hours cheering! 

Snacks Eaten: Oatmeal, lunch at IHOP, 2 cups of coffee, Starbucks Doubleshot, KitKat, turkey quesadilla and cucumber slices

Music Listened To: Iron and Wine

Mini-Challenges Completed: 11 

Blogs Visited and Commented On: 78

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The 21st hour, I feel asleep and that was the end of me. 

2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein, Persepolis, Bridget Jones's Diary; anything that's fun and a bit different, like poetry, play, graphic novel, etc. works for me!

3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Tell readers to turn off the word verification on their blogs! You guys already do it a million times, but maybe make it a million and one. 

4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The mini-challenges were fun and the hourly hosts did a wonderful job!

5. How many books did you read? 5 completed and more than halfway in 2 more

6. What were the names of the books you read? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, Sandman Vol. III: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman, Coriolanus by William Shakespeare, Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome 

7. Which book did you enjoy most? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

8. Which did you enjoy least? Gregor the Overlander, didn't hate it I just had high hopes because of The Hunger Games.

9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? This was my first year cheering. I made a text document of all the blogs I needed to cheer at, then I did about 10 an hour so I could getting some reading done too. That way I could mark them off when I was complete and not miss anyone.  

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? I absolutely will! What role would you be likely to take next time? I've hosted a mini-challenge and I've been a cheerleader, my main goal is always reading, but I will do either or both of those again. 

Mid-Event Survey:

1) How are you doing? Sleepy? I feel like I've gotten a second wind, so I'm going strong! I uually hit a wall around 11 pm. 

2) What have you finished reading? Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein, Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, and Sandman Vol. III: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman

3) What is your favorite read so far? I really loved Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. What a painful picture of loneliness! 

4) What about your favorite snacks?  Lays Potato Chips and Cottage Cheese, I know it sounds gross, but it's incredible. Lays chips are my favorite, but I only have them on special occasions, so read-a-thons and road trips! 

5) Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? I discover Sheila at Book Journey because of her fun mini-challenge Book Appetit! 

It's Dewey Read-a-Thon Day!!! Twice a year, once in April and once in October, I participate in the Dewey 24 hour read-a-thon. I've been in a reading slump this month, so I've really been looking forward to this. Unfortunately I have something I have to be at for a couple hours this morning, but other than that interruption I’m planning to read all day.

That's my pup Ollie with a stack of potential books to read today. We'll see what I end up getting to, I'm always a bit too ambitious. I'll be checking in every hour or so and updating this post. Good luck everybody!

Mini-Challenge: Picture It hosted by The Book Monster.
Where I'm reading right now, my library...

Mini-Challenge Introduction:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Indianapolis, IN 
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Re-reading Bridget Jones's Diary. It's been about 10 years sine I read it and I think it will be a fun one. 
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? An Almond Joy and apple slices with almond butter. 
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I got to meet Ann Patchett last night! (author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder)5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? This is my 5th read-a-thon and my first as a cheerleader! I'm looking forward to encouraging others later today. 

Mini-Challenge hosted by The Estella Society: Self-Portrait 

(Ollie is not impressed)

Book Appetit Mini-Challenge hosted by Sheila: Make up a menu for a book you're reading.

1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

2.  Fried Chicken and grits and a birthday cake for Big Daddy! It's a southern birthday party! We'll hang some paper lanterns and a lace table cloth for the "no-neck" kids to ruin. 

3.  A cocktail of course, Brick drinks throughout the book! A whiskey with a splash of tonic water and ice for those hot southern nights. We'll call it "Maggie's Loneliness." 

Hour 4 Mini-Challange: Re-Title Your Current Read hosted by Geeky Blogger's Book Blog:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

New Title: Everyone is Lonely 

Mini-Challenge Book Sentence hosted by Midnight Book Girl: 

A Long Time Ago / Ordinary People / Sing Them Home.

Mini-Challenge: Yoga Break hosted by Elizabeth Michelle.
This might be my favorite mini-challenge so far. I did the yoga poses she listed in her post and it was such a perfect break. Cat pose and Bridge pose were the two best stretches for me. I did yoga for about 10 minutes and it was perfect. 

Photos by moi.