SEVEN - CHECK OUT HERE - 2015 - Readathon Four - Date: August 22, 2015 - 8 AM ON AUGUST 23RD - FINAL CHECKOUT - THIS IS CHECKPOINT SEVEN - WHICH IS CHECKOUT - LAST STOP - MANDATORY FOR TOTALS - FINAL TALLIES - MANDATORY CHECKPOINT - ONLY CHECK OUT THREAD

[Ceroth]

Oh, and thank you for letting me participate. I've had a blast.

[Francie]

Bentley, I am always amazed with all you do for these read-a-thons. What great fun! So happy I was able to participate. Thanks for all you do ;)

[Rosalinda]

Completed: by
(No photo)Leslie Leigh

In progress:
byH.K. Savage

Final Tally - 218 pages
Total Time Reading: 3.25 hours
Genres: Fiction: Mystery & Fantasy
Total Checkpoints Utilised - 3 Checkpoints and One Checkout
Total Number of Books Competed - 1
Total Number of Books in Progress - 1
Location: AZ, MST

[Vicki, Assisting Moderator - Ancient Roman History]

Final Tally - 289 pages
Total Time Reading - 9.5 hours
Genres: Fiction - 1
Total Checkpoints Utilised - 5 Checkpoints and One Checkout
Total Number of Books Competed - 0
Total Number of Books in Progress - 1
Location: California, PDT

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
by Umberto Eco
This is a long and difficult, but interesting, book which I plan to finish this week. For the next Readathon I'll choose something I can finish in 24 hours.

[Maureen]

by James A. Michener
Genre: Historical Fiction
Final Tally: 40 pages
Total Time Read: approx. 3 hours
Total Books Read: 0
Total Books Progress: 1
Total Checkpoints: 1
Location: Atlanta, GA EST

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

I also want to say that I think this was the most successful readathon thus far. Many folks knew what they were doing right away and things went much more smoothly including folks from far off places being able to participate using their local timezones. Knowing in advance where folks are from and their timezones and if they will be participating makes all of the difference in doing something this way.

We are such a global community that I really am always pleased when all of us can read together for a common purpose and goal and for the love of books and reading.

Thank you all for participaing and check all of the check in threads to make sure your templates are A-OK and do not need any last minute tweeting. Fix things and then I can place you in the A-OK category.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

I will be getting to the Check Out thread soon so please post and Check Out if you have not already done so - use the Simon template.

[Kristen]

Checking out and cheers to all! Although I didn't read as much as planned I had a lot of fun - thank you for all your work Bentley!

My first HBC readathon:

by David I. Kertzer(no photo)

Final Tally: 84 pages
Total Reading Time: 4 hours and 10 minutes
Genre: Religion/History
Checkpoints: 1 - 4, plus checkout
Books completed 0
Books completed for 2015 readathons 0
Location: Camano Island, WA - Pacific Daylight Time

[Karen]

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the readathons, it really does help to have a dedicated time like this to read books on my TBR list.

[Leslie]

Bentley wrote: "Leslie, we want the details so that we can have a successful readathon - I wish we could just pop thinks into a database but we can't - I am doing it manually so it is very little effort to do an e..."

I just feel bad for you doing all of this manual work. :-) I know Goodreads could make this easier for both of us.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Thank you Rosa, Karen, and Leslie.

Leslie - the HBC Readathons are a rather new concept here this year and being the first year we are developing ways to involve the global community. That would be nice if things could be easier but often they are not and you just have to roll up your sleeves and get the job done. The templates are quite easy just do a copy and paste the first time and some of the info does not change and one just posts it in the next thread - filling in the blanks right before the timeslot closes. I admit there is a lot of work for me and that is why the consistency helps tremendously and makes things possible. And of course there are always language situations and understandings that must be worked on with global members who might not have been involved before and that is why the templates are an amazing help.

[Michele]

Thanks for doing such a great job hosting, Bentley. The templates made it much easier for me since this was my first read-a-thon. I have the template saved in a word file, this made it easier to keep track for the final total. Thanks again, Bentley.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

You are welcome Michele - I wish there was a way to enter the books completed with all of their information into a database as well as the other info but there is not so the template is the next best thing and it helps a lot. I guess it could be added to a shelf but I want it to be visible and I have plans for that to happen. Also with the full citations the powerful goodreads software keeps track on the right hand margin of all books and author's cited - how many times they were cited and on what threads these books and authors are being discussed - very powerful software as long as you do the citations.

Good idea about saving it in a word file.

And of course I am delighted that you joined us.

[Marc]

by Tim Harris (no photo)

Final Tally - 38 pages
Total Time Reading - 45 minutes
Genres: History (British)
Total Checkpoints Utilized - 2 Checkpoints and One Checkout
Total Number of Books Competed - 0
Total Number of Books in Progress - 1
Location: Golden CO (MST)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Thank you Marc -

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Jarrad wrote: "Yeah first readathon and got to say it's not my thing. Seems like it is less about reading a book and more about data collection.
I think to trying to do some of it from cell phone app didn't help."

Jarrad a readathon is about the sharing - the data collection is always important in any readathon - these are the check points which show that you are showing up and with us on this virtual journey of books. The checkpoints have a template so it is not difficult - just copy and paste the template and just fill in the blanks.

Out of 24 hours of reading, if you completed all checkpoints and the mandatory checkout - I guarantee it would take even a novice only about 3 minutes a checkpoint or 21 minutes total out of 24 hours - and that is if you stayed up for 24 hours. Think of it this way - it is a virtual way of saying hello - I am here - no matter where you are in the world and being able to be counted and be part of the journey. For the experienced - a checkpoint takes me about a minute of my reading time. So for the seven checkpoints - I spend about 7 minutes total out of 24 hours.

Yes, I am also sure that the cell phone app added to your frustration - not that user friendly. But our friendliness makes up for it (smile) - and most of our readers - read in some room of the house and just get up to stretch their legs or get a cold drink and just post their check in data and then go back to reading.

A readathon is a lot of fun and it gets everybody's pile of to read books that much smaller.

Hope you are able to give it another shot again - just have your notebook available at some point in time or your desk top.