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Read-a-Thon #1 - Wrap-Up
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1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? Finished 3 books and 965 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? I wanted to read 4 but didn't finish the last one. Biggest distraction is getting distracted and also getting sleepy.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I had a great time. I enjoyed getting some reading done. Team Asia was great and the side games as always were fun.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
Ghosted
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons? I think that the mods do an amazing job can't think of anything.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
you bet can't wait!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? 13 books (two started before the challenge) and 4505 pages2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
My goals were to read a lot and have fun, so yes! I got a bit busy during the week, so didn't keep up with all of the daily posts, but overall was happy to participate.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I did - I really enjoyed participating with a team for the first time and tracking my reading more closely this week.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
Britt-Marie Was Here
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I think everything was great, so I don't have any suggestions to add. Thanks!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Absolutely, yes!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?7 books 1974 pages. Two of the books were started before the read-a-thon. This is much faster than my normal pace.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I exceeded my reading goals and other than some beautiful weather that called me outside, there were no distractions. All that reading helped me make a serious dent in several of my reading challenges.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
YES. So much fun. Loved watching the map fill up... and looking through my tbr list to see what I might read that could help the team.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
A Place for Us
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I much prefer the "miles of reading" done in previous read-a-thons. I looked forward to seeing where we landed and what books one might read related to that place. The millions of miles away from the sun just didn't have the same allure for me.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Absolutely - this was so much fun. Thanks to all the moderators!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? I completed 8 books, 12 short stories, and read 50% of 2 books on the last day. I read 2903 pages. 2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? Yes, I met my goal. I had this vague goal or 208 pages per day (which is what I need for the rest of the year to complete all of my lists).
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Had a great time. I join in as much as possible.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
I really loved a strange little book called Being There by Jerzy Kosinski.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons? I kind of wish we knew what the general theme would be in advance, but I know that would be hard to coordinate. The read-a-thons are great fun and a good time to bond with other reading nuts!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Of course!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I read 11 books totaling 3,529 pages.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I did. I found a podcast with book reviews. I listened to that instead of reading for a bit.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I did! I like the little games on the side.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
The Indigo Girl
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
None. Great job by everyone!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Definitely!!!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I finished 8 books totalling 1704 pages.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I didn't finish the book I had planned because I decided I wanted to take my time with it. (Independent People) I wanted to read more shorter books so I could help Team Africa. I did finish two other ATY books which was good.
Distractions - the usual which is being tired, working, and playing Words With Friends!
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes I had fun. I really enjoy picking up the pace of my reading. It's also fun to work on a team with others toward a goal.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I liked it the way it was. Thanks to all the mods for planning and executing a great Read-a-thon.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? I finished 7 books, 1735 pages2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? yes, I actually read more than I thought I would. Distracted by work
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts? Yes, I was so happy to get back in the habit of reading
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon? The Death of Mrs. Westaway
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons? No changes needed!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons? Yes!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?6 books, for a total of 2140 pages.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
My goals were quite vague. All I wanted was to read as much as I could, so I think 6 books in a week is very good! My biggest distraction was just being busier than expected during the week, which meant I didn't check in as often as I had planned with my team. There were several days where I ended up checking in quite late, and didn't have the time/energy to put much effort into seeing where my books might fit (sorry, team!).
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
In general, I enjoyed it but I also felt a bit more disconnected from it compared to previous read-a-thons. I think that had more to do with me than the read-a-thon itself though. I often found myself posting in the threads with my progress, etc. but not having enough time to engage as completely as I would have liked (ie. I'd post in the Miles of Pages thread but never looked at where we ended up, or posted in my team's thread but didn't have much patience for figuring out countries).
I find the team Bingo games a bit easier to keep track of. I really liked the games, especially the Sort Your TBR, Book Emojis, and Synonyms/Antonyms game.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
Long Way Down and A Court of Frost and Starlight.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
First, I want to thank the mods for their hard work and for the creativity in switching this one up a bit. I liked that this read-a-thon was such a change from the past team Bingo games, and it was nice to see something different. I personally prefer the Bingo games because I found them much easier for me to take part in, given the amount of time I usually have to devote to read-a-thons.
I got kind of overwhelmed trying to figure out which countries my books might fit, especially when it came to the flags. I found myself looking for the same first letter first, then author's initials, and then using the flag colours as a very last resort. Again, I'm sure that has more to do with me than the challenge itself. I get that these kinds of challenges might need some level of work on our part, but I ended up feeling a bit stressed when I didn't have the time to look into where my books might fit/felt like I wasn't helping my team as much as I "should" be.
I also really liked the games, especially to see some of my favourites again like the Book Emojis or the Synonyms/Antonyms. I did find a bit less incentive to participate in the games this time around. Normally, they are linked to the group game because of a Bingo square requiring at least one person from the team to play all games. I still played and enjoyed them because most of them were fun (although I have to say, I wasn't a huge fan of the Story Chain), but I wasn't quite as motivated as in the past. I also really like the Individual Bingo card because that's something everyone can get involved in (and I love to cross items off lists, lol!).
My one suggestion is to offer a thread or something for anyone who is not on a team to chat about the read-a-thon and the books they are reading. Those of us who were on a team have our team threads, so I wonder if the individual players might like somewhere to have a more casual group discussion, without the pressure of having to contribute to the team games.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes, provided I have the time to devote to them.
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?4 books, I'm not sure about pages because one was a choose your own adventure book and two were audiobooks.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Nope, I barely got any reading done. I went camping at the weekend and ended up spending more time planning for that than reading, then the weather wasn't co-operating so I didn't get to spend time reading outside.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I liked the group participation but I felt a bit like I was letting my team down as I had started a long, slow fantasy just before I found out about the readathon.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
The Kingdom of Copper even though it slowed me down.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I'd like to know what the team game is in advance so I know if it's something I can easily contribute to or if I'm better off just going solo. I've only done two ATY readathons so I didn't have a chance to get tired of the bingo card format, but it felt that that was easier to contribute towards (eg. the cumulative count of pages read).
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes, hopefully on a week where I have more time/brainpower!
Mod
- I read 5. FIVE! That's amazing! (I was off of work all week, so that helped.)
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
- I wanted to read 3-4 books and ended up reading 5, so I surpassed my goal. Work should have been a bigger distraction, though, judging from the panic attack when getting back to work yesterday haha.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
- I did! I love the team aspect so much. It makes me want to read more for the team, and I picked up a couple books I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. I really liked reading the continents this time!
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
- Tough one! I rated The Glass Ocean, My Sister, the Serial Killer, and Five Feet Apart all 4.5 stars.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
- I really liked the switch up from the previous couple of Read-A-Thons, and I thought it was really easy to slot in books we wanted to read while pushing us to read books from countries we might not typically read (if we wanted to). I do think it was just a bit long... and, again, maybe it's because I was off of work all week so I didn't have much else to do, but I feel like 10 days is just a long time to be furiously reading. Maybe going a Saturday morning to Sunday night (rather than starting on the Friday) would help that? Or even having some "preliminary" games and such on the Saturday then starting on the Sunday could hype us up (and get us planning?) before we actually dive into the books. I had fun, but I know that my group read wayyyyyy more at the beginning than at the end.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
- Yes! I love them so much!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? 5 finished, some started before the readathon started. 890 pages, plus audio representing about 860 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I didn't have specific goals, though I never did finish the one nonfiction I was hoping the team goals would nudge me to finish... It ended up being a week with social stuff going on almost every night, so most of my reading happened on the weekend.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I enjoyed the team challenge and most of the games, so I'll go with yes, I had fun. I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd had a chance to focus on my reading a little more. I think my most favorite parts were actually the question threads like 'sort your TBR'.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
Reamde
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I really liked checking off countries, but I hadn't ever participated before, and I can see how bingo might be easier to follow along with. I liked the feel of this one, and I actually really liked that it was so long because the weekend readathons I feel like I can only participate in half of it because Sunday I'm focused on church. (I realize this might be a little ironic since I already mentioned I got most of my reading done on the weekend for this one... On the other hand, having it go through the week really motivated me to motor through some audio books when I didn't have time for print reading.)
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Probably! Totally depends on scheduling and mood and all that, but I definitely enjoyed this experience enough to try it again.
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I finished seven books, read 1,659 pages, and listened to seven hours of audiobooks.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Pretty much. I had a busy weekend at the end, so didn't finish as strongly as I liked, but I read really diversely (Nigerian, Sudanese, Ghanaian, Jamaican) and brought my American percent for the year down from 71% to 51% - the eight Lemony Snicket books we've read this year have seriously skewed my statistics!
3. Did you have fun? What were your favourite parts?
I absolutely loved the new format, with the continents. It was super fun, and really encouraged me to branch out with my author nationality. And our team was fantastic, it was really active and lively. Go Team Africa! I always love the BINGO too.
4. What was your favourite read of the read-a-thon?
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I'd really love another one like this one. Not necessarily the next one (not that I'd mind but I guess others might like some variety) but one a year of these would be awesome!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I finished 7 books and read in 3 more that I didn´t finish. 1265 pages and 6,5 hours of audio.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I didn´t have any specific goals other than to just read as much as possible and have fun. I was very satisfied with my reading the first week, but lost momentum in the last weekend, where I had a couple of social events and a hangover, that put a halt to my good reading streak.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes! I love the interaction in the group challenge, and seeing how much we can accomplish together.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
Difficult for me too say, I read really different books. The two books that will stay with me for different reasons, are: Når man forveksler kærlighed med en saks by Tomas Lagermand Lundme (When you confuse love for scissors) and And the Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
Great work mods!
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
YES! I am already looking forward to the next one.
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?5 books and 1,515 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
yes!! it definitely got me reading which was the goal. Got a little distracted the last few days with the girls being home, my daughter being sick and then feeling a little down when they left to go to their fathers house, so I did some netflix binging over the weekend instead of reading.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I always have fun!! I love checking in with the team and all of the games.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
LOVED The Silent Patient
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I think the mods do a fantastic job. As always, can't think of any recommendations :-)
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Of course!! Cant wait for the next one!
Johanne wrote: "When you confuse love for scissors"I have a lot of questions.
Jody wrote: "Johanne wrote: "When you confuse love for scissors"I have a lot of questions."
"When you confuse love for scissors" is the title of the book, that might not have been clear :) ("Når man forveksler kærlighed med en saks" in Danish).
It´s a very weird title, that I am also using for that prompt. It actually is really sad; the title refers to the character, a neglected boy who we follow as a young child and later as a teen/almost adult, hungry for love with a destructive self-harming behaviour (hence the scissors).
No, I got that it was the title, but it raised a lot of questions! That sounds so sad. Was it good? Would you recommend it?
I would recommend it, if you like heartbreaking, just on the border of what you can take, YA. It doesn´t overdo the MC´s troubles, they´re just there - a part of him. And the title is really fitting because the book is very much about the lack of love, and desperate want for love, and the void that leaves is partially filled with selfharm, partially with the love for his boyfriend, an older man. The author has a similar background, so he uses some of that in a fictional context. It´s only in Danish, so that limits the recommendation.
Hmm. I might have to brush up on my Danish. The only word I know is Hygge. I love heartbreaking. It’s my go-to. Although I’m currently listening to The Rape of Nanking, and it’s tearing me to shreds. It’s absolutely horrific.
Yeah, there isn't a lot of hygge in that book...
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I finished 5 books (2 audio, 1 non-fiction, 1 short story (plus 1 too short to count and other random pages from collections, etc.) I had hoped to get another one in there but time flew by. By my calculations (audio), I fit in 1502 pages.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I'm not sure I set an overall goal, but I'm happy with what I read. My biggest distractions were some major organization projects.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was fun figuring out where to put the books, and trying to "finish a country" before someone else did it. I think I got the biggest (China) and smallest (Vatican City) countries for my group, so that's my claim to fame.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices was a wonderful surprise. I knew the topic was important and the book could be enlightening, but it is shockingly readable for such difficult tales.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
Make it a little longer--like 14 or 15 days. I thought the games were fun, so maybe more of that. And the Countries theme, which allowed the visual maps for progress, was a plus so I definitely vote for graphs, maps, and charts.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Whenever I can. The extra time used for logging was worth the time away from reading.
Thanks to all you worker bees who made it so fun, especially Katie and Asia Team Leader Carmen.
Mod
I really do like the idea of having a "kick-off" where we start doing some warm-up games and then having the actual, official "reading kick-off" 1-2 days later. That would allow people to really strategically pick books and sign up for challenges.
I'll admit that March definitely snuck up on me, and I'm sure the other mods, so it was "fly by the seat of our pants".
We also will likely try out a "24in48" style, quick read-a-thon in the next month or so.
Laura wrote: "...We also will likely try out a "24in48" style, quick read-a-thon in the next month or so. ..."Oh yes!
Laura wrote: "It's always very tough to get the sweet spot as far as the length of the event. I really do like the idea of having a "kick-off" where we start doing some warm-up games and then having the actual..."
I say it worked out great, whatever you were flying by
Johanne wrote: "Laura wrote: "...We also will likely try out a "24in48" style, quick read-a-thon in the next month or so. ..."Oh yes!"
🙌🏻
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?5 books, 1,313 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I was able to read the 3 books I had planned, plus 2 shorter books. So I finished more books than expected despite a couple of unplanned social outings.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes, I enjoyed being a part of the Team Challenge.
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thin?
The Best We Could Do and Six Degrees of Separation were very good (5 stars), and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows gets honorable mention (4 stars).
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thins?
No suggestions.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thins?
Yes!
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?I read 5: one started before the challenge, one had 500+ pages, and another one close to 500. The page total was 1,838 pages which is way more than I usually read.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I didn't meet my goal as far as number of books, but I didn't notice that 2 of my books had a lot of pages until I had already read a big chunk of them and really wanted to finish them for the challenge. I could have read more if the books had been shorter. My biggest distraction were the typical adult activities like laundry, dishes, work, etc. lol
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I loved the read-a-thon! I kept me focus and made me finish the two big books. Without the read-a-thon, I would have procrastinated and maybe not even have finished the two books. The best part was having accountability partner, I mean a whole accountability TEAM! That was fun!
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
My favorite read was The Read-Aloud Handbook. I love personal development books and this one was very interesting. Station Eleven takes the trophy as best fiction read.
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
I love the bingo idea, but guessing the author and covering a map was absolute fun. This was my first read-a-thon and it will definitely not be my last.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
YES!!!!!!
I keep missing the read-a-thons. I think the last 2 or 3 I found either halfway through or at the end....is there any way I can subscribe to this section so I get notified when sign ups are on? I do visit this group regularly, but mustn't be scrolling down far enough regularly.
Mod
I do think we send much less actual messages to members than other groups.
I know that personally, I never read messages. Would people prefer to get actual messages when there are major events?
I personally would prefer messages. I almost missed this read-a-thon.
I like the messages idea! I often skim the monthly updates and such from other groups, but I at least open them, so I'd notice if the message had actual information in it.
Thanks for the tip to subscribe to the announcement thread - that will help! (Not being well acquainted with all of the goodreads features, I've only recently figured out how to change my alert settings on a per discussion thread basis.)I think sending a 'heads up' message to look for read-a-thon related posts would help alert more interested folks too.
I personally don't care about getting a message to my inbox. I don't often read the ones that I do get (maybe skim, if anything) so I don't think I'm any more likely to notice read-a-thon details in there than elsewhere on the board.
Would adding readathons as an event in the group make the info show up more prominently on the main group page or would that just send out a message?
Mod
I was just primarily focused on me writing a "newsletter" style message that announces the read-a-thon, that could go out to group members. I would also be open to monthly newsletters if people think they would actually read them. That could include any group updates and maybe some popular topics (book discussions, new threads, etc.)
Laura wrote: "I honestly have no clue how group events work. We could try it out for the next one. I was just primarily focused on me writing a "newsletter" style message that announces the read-a-thon, that c..."
Speaking just for myself, I might read a newsletter the first month or two but then I would start slacking and not read them after that. For me it would take as much or more time to read the newsletter as it would to just visit the group and see what is going on for myself. Again, that's just me though.
Mod
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Station Eleven (other topics)The Read-Aloud Handbook (other topics)
The Best We Could Do (other topics)
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (other topics)
Six Degrees of Separation: A Play (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Tomas Lagermand Lundme (other topics)Patrick Ness (other topics)
Lemony Snicket (other topics)
Here are a few questions to wrap everything up:
1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
4. What was your favorite read of the read-a-thon?
5. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons?
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
You're welcome to go back and do any of the challenges/games you're interested in that you may have missed!