The Spring 2015 Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon is complete, and that means it's time for recovery and the end of event survey. Behold!
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Probably around 1:30 AM. I guess that was Hour 19 for me? I had been commenting on blogs for about five hours and still hadn't visited everyone on Team Sherlock, but I just couldn't do it anymore. Even Sofie was totally done.
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| Sofie is so done with cheerleading. |
After that, I tried to read for a bit but didn't make much progress before my brother's alarm went off at 5 AM. My brother's alarm is like the clock striking midnight in Cinderella: it means I have officially stayed up too late and it's time to get to bed.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Think of England by KJ Charles was the absolutely perfect book for the Readathon! I didn't want to put it down and I had so much fun reading it.
I didn't get very far into What Did You Eat Yesterday?, but I think that would also be a good choice. Except for the hunger. The terrible hunger.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
From the perspective of a cheerleading captain, I think somehow language needs to be taken into consideration. There were a lot of blogs I visited that weren't in English! Maybe match up non-English blogs with people who can speak the language, if that's possible.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Loved all the Instagram challenges. It seemed like the minichallenges were really popular this year, which is awesome!
5. How many books did you read?
One. I only ever read one.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Think of England by KJ Charles
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
See above.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
Not really applicable.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
Yes–have fun and spread the book love.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will definitely participate next time! This was the best Readathon I've had in a long time; it was perfect. It was a gorgeous day so I spent most of it outside, reading a great book. Today the weather's cold and rainy, so it's the perfect day to spend inside, recovering!
As for roles, I pretty much always read. I may or may not sign up to do other things, depending on how stressed out I am at the time. Being a cheerleading captain was fun and surprisingly low-stress, if you're interested in going that route.
FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Consumed: After the mid-event update, I ate one bison burger, drank several (cough) martinis, put together a cheese and cracker plate for me and my mom, and finished the night off with a glass of rosé cava. Because rosé cava.
Minichallenges: I participated in the Hour 17 Goodreads Challenge. I tried to explain minichallenges to my mom, but she got confused, so I helped her enter the Shelfie challenge. (Explaining minichallenges to my mom was kind of like my own personal minichallenge this Readathon.)
And now for non-Readathon things!
Reviews posted this week:
I compared two New Adult novels I read recently, Attraction by Penny Reid, and Undeclared by Jen Frederick.
Posts in the queue:
I didn't get around to writing a review of The Imitation Game this week (if you remember my Sunday Snapshot from two weeks ago, I had some major problems with it), but the lovely and perceptive Anachronist from Portable Pieces of Thought did, and she offered to let me share it here. Check it out on Monday!
Subscription boxes received this week:
I got my second Stitch Fix on Thursday. This time I took some of my fellow bloggers' advice and was very specific about what I wanted: I asked for one fashionable spring scarf; a pair of dark, skinny blue jeans; a handbag large enough to hold a book (I felt like I had to include that last bit); and two fun, weekend-casual dresses I could wear with flats.
To be honest, this Stitch Fix was not as successful for me as the first. The jeans fit perfectly and were exactly what I wanted, but the purple shirt dress was awful and made me feel fat (side note: when have I ever worn a shirt dress? That would be a never). Not the greatest feeling. The bag was very nice, but when was the last time you saw someone wearing a cross-body handbag as opposed to, like, a messenger bag or diaper bag or something? 2001? I find them uncomfortable and not on-trend. The scarf and maxi dress were okay enough for me to keep them, but I almost sent 4 pieces back.
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| Me cuddling Sofie and trying out my new scarf. |
Basically, I'm growing less and less impressed with Stitch Fix. Rocks Box is cheaper, better, and I don't have to tell them exactly what I want every single time in order to get great pieces. In fact, I've never told them what I want, they just guess based on what I like on Instagram. If I do order another Stitch Fix–IF–I'm going to just leave it up to the stylists and see what happens.
Theme of the week:
Learning new things! So the owner of the gun shop where I work bought a digital LED billboard–you know, the ones that play video and stuff–and tasked me with programming it. I was like, "This is going to be interesting," because I've never programmed anything, let alone a billboard. But the basics turned out to be pretty easy and I spent the week designing and downloading images to attract customers. So far their favorite is this gif of a kitten shooting an AK-47:
Bonus:
Gosh, I feel like if you've made it to the end of this post you deserve a medal or something. I guess maybe out this cool story about a PhD chemistry student who illustrated her thesis like a comic book.
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