The Sunday Salon: Readathon Wrap Up

So, my first readathon over with, and what do I think? I thought it was great fun and went by WAY too fast! I learned that I'm a fairly slow reader, actually, and that I'm too distracted by stuff that's happening on the computer. I also learned that keeping track of number isn't my favorite part of the whole experience!

But reading with the kids for a whole day was really kinda cool, and I loved it.

Here are our final stats:

Suey

Books read: Three

Pages read: 730

Hours read: 10 to 11 or so

Hours blogged:3 or so (dumb computer started to not cooperate and that made things go so slow)

JJ (age 17)

Books read: One (Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen)

Pages read: 383

Hours read: 6 (not including her stop to watch TV and make food)

Moder (age 14)

Books read: none

Pages read: 20 (from The Maze Runner by James Dashner)

Hours read: 45 minutes

Toto (age 10)

Books read: One whole book (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days), the second half another(The Lightning Thief), and the first half of another (Boys are Dogs)

Pages read:435

Hours read: 10 with lots of stops for food, but not including her stop to play outside with friends

Here's some questions posted by the official blog:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?

I don't know what "hour" it was but for me it was the mid afternoon time that I really started getting sleepy. Right around 2 and 3:00 p.m. So very hard to keep my eyes open then. I loved reading in the early morning (hours 1 to 3 or so) and I got a second wind for the evening... that is until I hit the wall around 11:00 p.m. and knew I was pretty much done. I was hoping to last a little longer, but I decided to not push it.

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

I think picking YA books works. Picking great page turning ones like The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and those like that would be wonderful for the readathon.

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

I thought it was very well organized this year, so I can't think of any improvements.

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

The mini-challenges were fun. I think I ended up doing 7 or 8 or so. I didn't keep track very well on that.

5. How many books did you read?

I only read three books. I wish it were possible to read more. Maybe I'll try more graphic novels next year and that would help the book count to be higher. But to look at the stacks I made and then only do three? Sheesh. That's sad.

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

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

The Amaranth Enchantment

The Seer of Shadows

7. Which book did you enjoy most?

I liked the first two the best, and Seer was okay.

8. Which did you enjoy least?

See previous answer!

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

not a cheerleader this year, but they did a great job!

10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again?

I will for sure if it lands on a weekend that I'm home and don't have any major events going on. I think my two girls really enjoyed participating, especially my 10 year old. My son, not so much. Couldn't get him to really settle down and join the party. He bounced around us a lot though, and got after us if we stopped for any reason. It was "cheating" to get up and get food, you see!

Here's one more picture of Toto reading and you can see how her spot changed over the course of the day, from how it looked like at the beginning, which is on one of my previous mini challenge posts: