Readathon Wrap-up

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Our very first Readathon is now officially over! Awards will be posted in a separate thread very soon! We hope you have enjoyed the sprint to the finish line over the last two weeks as much as we have.

We are interested in hearing about your experience with this so please answer the questions below and we will take your comments into consideration if/when we host a Readathon again.

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?

[Alyana]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? - The motivation to read more.
Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? - Yes!!! My initial goal was 2-3 books and I ended up with 10 books :)
What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? - The Push
What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? - Don't have anything to suggest. I think everything went well.
How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? 2-3 times a year??
If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? N/A.
Would you do it again? YES DEFINITELY!!!

[Niharika✩]

What was your favourite aspect of the Readathon?
Definitely working as a team and watching wildcards grow and prompts being met!

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
My personal goal was 75 and now I've read 76 books! I increased it to 100!

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Wonder! It was the best out of the lot.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
A Wrinkle in time. It was the worst part of these last two weeks.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
Well, everything can be improved, including this. But right now there's nothing.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
I would skip a few because this puts me under pressure a lot of time and even though it puts me on a reading streak, it also doesn't let me read too fast.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
I was assistant of House Ravenclaw and honestly, I didn't so much. But whatever I did, checking the spreadsheet, moving books around, anything, it made me feel amazing!

Would you do it again?
DEFINETELY!!

[Theresa, Readathons]

-I liked the challenge of looking for books that fit the prompts, whether on my tbr list or not.
-I think, in part, because of the readathon, I will have read more books this year, than last year. Last year was the biggest year for me in reading.
-My favorite book, read or listened to, for the readathon was You'll Never Know, Dear.
-My least favorite book was Love in a Nutshell. In all fairness, maybe trying to rush through it affects my opinion, to a certain degree.
-I can't think of anything, at the moment to do differently.
-Maybe 2-3 times a year, to give members that can't participate, for whatever reason, the opportunity to participate "next time."
-I didn't need to do much, as the assistant. It was a good experience. I would do it again.

[L Y N N]

Again, let me reiterate, you guys did an absolutely awesome job of organizing and facilitating this event!! Really! AWESOME!

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Working together as a team. That can prove challenging, but also very rewarding! Getting to know some other group members better was awesome!

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Uhm. Definitely! I read 13 books in two weeks! That's never happened before! LOL Now it will probably require another two weeks for me to record all of those in the various challenges in which I am participating! 😛

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Damn. It is always virtually impossible for me to select just ONE favorite book ever... Uh...
A Night to Remember
Calico Joe
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
Saving Shiloh
A Shiloh Christmas
Magpie Murders
See? I told you I suck at selecting just ONE favorite! 🤣

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
This one is much easier for me to answer with just one! LOL
The Secret History
Tartt's writing was well done, as usual, but this was just too noirish for me!

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
Gosh! I can't really think of anything, unless you can magically lengthen our days beyond 24 hours for those two weeks! LOL

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
If I didn't have to juggle caring for my husband and working full-time once every 3 months or so would work, but...since life actually interferes with my reading time, I would say no more than once every 6 months/twice a year.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
I was a leader. (Thanks for entrusting me with that awesome challenge!) 😊 I definitely learned a lot and would do things a bit differently. Now that I've experienced it once, hopefully, I would prove to be a more effective 'leader'/team member next time! :)

Here is what I had posted regarding knowledge gained:
(1) As much as possible, try to select relatively short books (at least 100 pages in length) to fulfill prompts. (I included two that were longer because they were already planned for Buddy Reads,)
(2) Once a team member commits to reading a specific book for a specific prompt, enter that into the "tracking" spreadsheet.
(3) On the "tracking" spreadsheet, select one color for "committed reads" and another color for "completed prompts" so you can easily see which prompts lack a committed book and which are already completed.
(4) Keep the "planning" spreadsheet for a place to list every prompt each book could possibly fulfill that each team member is planning to read.
(5) Be flexible! In the future my preparatory goal will be selecting a shorter book for each prompt that I know would be accessible for me to read during the readathon, whether available from the library or a book owned or whatever... Then I will be ready to help out wherever needed, time permitting!

[Amy (Other Amy)]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
The way our team came together to fill prompts. In any set of prompts there are always a few that I have absolutely no way to fill, and it was a delight to see my teammates checking those off. I also loved our team thread, and the bookshelf I made for our 'decimated' books. (Also our team had the best name ;-)

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Oh yes, definitely. I made a dedicated effort to get in a novella almost every night for the last two weeks. I haven't read this many traditionally published books in a long, long time. I also made a nice dent in my backlog for my favorite author, and got a third of the way through my annual color challenge, and checked off a few for Pop Sugar. And I got the entire Wayward Children series read. So all around, really great progress.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Drowning Girl was an absolutely unexpected and unlooked for gem that I read for a book published in 2012. I had it on my TBR, but it was nowhere near the top, and I am so, so glad I decided to read it for this prompt.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
In the Shadow of Spindrift House, which was cosmic horror. I knew it wouldn't be my favorite, but one of my personal goals for the readathon was to clear my backlog of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire novellas, which I made great progress on, so I'm still glad I read it.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
The timing was a little odd with beginning and ending in the middle of the week. I know it was the last week of March and the first week of April, but several of my team noted they would have preferred to have it end at a weekend because that's when they have the time to read. The midweek ending caught a couple of us by surprise with other obligations. I think ending on a Sunday midnight makes more sense for most people.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
I could do this quarterly, I think. I wouldn't want to do it more often than that. The dedicated reading itself was a nice stretch, but it was a stretch. And since I focused on just reading the last two weeks, I have a backlog of reviews now for the things I couldn't review quickly the next day, and I had to put off reading some of the books that holds came in for at the library (graphic novels). And I put off other books because I want to read them more slowly and savor them. So there is some clean up work associated with the effort. But I would love to do this about once a quarter. I could get so many more novellas cleared!

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
Yes definitely I would. It was really painless honestly. The spreadsheet worked really well. I did do some manual tracking in our thread, because that's what I'm used to, but I don't think it was probably necessary. I also had a really great team that worked well together and all checked in almost every day, and that of course made it very easy, too.

[Ilse]

Again mods, thanks for organizing this, it was awesome!!

What was your favourite aspect of the Readathon?
Everything! But I especially loved the way we worked together as a team (go Direwolves!). We helped each other with finishing prompts and it was great to see the others finishing books!

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
It did! I was able to finish a book I've wanted to finish for a looooong time so it was great to finally be able to do that!

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Definitely Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It might even be my all-time favorite book.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
Vernon God Little, but I had to read it for school, so I didn't really have a choice.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
Only the timing! It would've been more convenient if it ended and started in the weekend, because then we'd have more time to finish our last few prompts. Besides that, nothing really. It was well-organized and easy to do.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Maybe quarterly? I think doing it every month would be too much, but every 3 months is great!

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
I wasn't a leader or assistant, but I definitely would be up for being one next time :)

Would you do it again?
YES 100%

[Iton]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? I had a lot of fun working to complete prompts with my teammates and updating each other on our progress. I was able to finish books I previously started. I listened to more audiobooks than I read books due to my busy schedule during the week.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? Definitely surpassed my reading goal. I originally planned to read 3-8 books and ended up reading 12. I think once I finished books I initially chose, I looked for others that would help my team complete prompts. I think this was the most books I completed in a short time. Audiobooks were a life-saver.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? Anna Karenina

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? Like Amy (Other Amy) [my team leader] stated, possibly starting and ending on a weekend.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons 2-3 times a year.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience N/A

Would you do it again? Yes!

[Carmen]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? I usually am a lone wolf but this time I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a pack of Direwolves (great team names by the way) and all the camaraderie and team spirit.
Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? I signed up for 8 books and I ended reading 15, so yes, I think it helped to increase my personal goal.
What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? I had four 5 stars and a lot of 4 stars. My favorite books:
Mayombe
Final Curtain
The Tiger in the Smoke
Interpreter of Maladies
What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? I didn't enjoy Years very much (only 2 stars)
What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? It was perfect for me
How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? One per season, maybe
If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? N/A
Would you do it again? Yes, of course.

[Ushashi]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Working as a team. Reading is generally a solo activity, but here although we were all reading different books, it was a team activity. That gave a sense of companionship which I loved. And I got to know some amazing readers.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
I planned on reading maximum 5 books, ended up reading 7. So yes it helped a lot.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Fellowship of the Ring.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
Homo Deus.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
As multiple people already pointed out, starting and ending on weekends might be better. But everything was pretty great anyways.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
2-3 times a year.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
I was the captain in Reading Direwolves and had tremendous fun. I had a great team to work with. I loved the whole process of sorting out books for prompts. Seeing the wildcards increase and prompts getting completed was also fun and motivating. I would gladly do it again.

[Sunny]

This was my 1st experience in a readathon and I'm really glad Oshizu encouraged me to participate!

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? I really enjoyed the being part of the team, getting to know people I might not otherwise have known.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? I usually manage to read 3-4 books a week on a normal basis and read 5 books that filled prompts plus a couple of more that went toward page count. So it was pretty normal for me as far as reading.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? They were all good reads one of the ones I rated 4 stars: The Greek Coffin Mystery

What was your least favorite book read for the ReadathonT his is the one I rated 3 stars: Coward's Kiss

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? I don't really see anything that could be done differently. It seems to have worked well as is.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons 2 a year sounds good. Spring and Fall.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? N/A

Would you do it again? Most certainly!

[Connie]

TEAM DIREWOLVES

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? Working as a team. Team Direwolves was awesome. Our leaders were very organized and loved being a part of the team.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? Yes it did. It also helped push me out of my comfort zone.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? Bury the Lead

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? Lowcountry Bookshop

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? Ending on the weekends would be helpful.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? I would totally participate every 3 months.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? N/A

Would you do it again? I would gladly participate in future Readathons.

[Alison]

Kudos to our Awesome Organizers/Facilitators for a superb job done! :)

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
I loved working with Team Tome Raiders and planning out books to fit the various prompts! I thought I had all my books planned out to start the Readathon but my plans got thrown out the window after seeing what everyone on the team was reading...and that was what made the Readathon fun (how to work together to achieve our goal :)

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Oh Yes! I read more books than I had planned and different ones at that! I also fulfilled some prompts in other reading challenges that I wasn't expecting!

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
A Dangerous Collaboration
The Broken Girls

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
Year One...this was actually a DNF for me (which is rare)! I got 30% into this book and couldn't take the plague driven narrative! I am usually not bothered by this kind of book but for some reason, I just didn't enjoy this one! I replaced this book with Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter which had me smiling and laughing....

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
I wouldn't change anything

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Spring and Fall would be great! Spring seems to jumpstart reading (coming out of Winter) and Fall has a lot of holidays/people are getting ready to settle into cold weather/vacations may be done for a few months...

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
I really enjoyed leading but I feel that my team made that possible! I was initially "scared" of manipulating the spreadsheet and messing things up but got over that pretty quickly ;) I would definitely lead again!

[Dominique]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? The team and seeing what everyboy was going to read

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? Wanted to read 5 books and did

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? The Night Circus

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? Didn't have any

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? The option that a couple of propmpts can be read by two teammates

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? Anytime

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Wasn't one

Would you do it again? Yes

[Karin]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Getting to know the members of my team, who were fabulous.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Sure, since I said 10 and read more than that.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Not good at favourites.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
I only gave 2 stars to Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?

Personally, I'd have liked more time to get to know my team before the spreadsheet was put out so we can chat, etc; for those who work or have certain schedules, having them one day after the other was a bit fast with such an enthusiastic team :)

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?

Twice a year depending on the timing :)

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?

Since I started with a humdinger of a migraine (one of my worst ever--usually I can function much better with them), I was very grateful to have an assistant. as well as a group moderator on my team. Not only was there was a morning I couldn't be here when she did a fabulous job of covering for me, but when we got the bonus tasks at the end and Angie (my assistant) and Trish, who know when I could be on and when I couldn't, pitched in helped with those who had the time to do a lot of reading at the end.

Having Trish, a mod, on our team was very helpful, but I would have like to have had a PM or something with a bit of information about how the spreadsheets worked, etc, the same day that the teams were announced if it's not too much trouble.

I felt badly sometimes when too many people wanted to read for certain tasks and I couldn't let them all, but of course, that's part of the game and our team really rallied!

Would you do it again?

Yes, if my schedule allowed it.

[[deleted user]]

➡️ What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Feeling like I contributed to the team’s success.

➡️ Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
I was in a definite reading slump at the start of the challenge and it definitely got my reading back on track. I initially signed up with 4 books, but read 7. Two of those were read/finished on the last day for Bonus prompts. It was harrowing, but fun.

➡️What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Last Policeman This was such a fun book. If I hadn’t been looking for a book published in 2012, I probably wouldn’t have come across this novel. I’m definitely going to complete the series.

➡️ What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
Klara and the Sun It isn’t bad, but it was disappointing.

➡️ What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
As has already been mentioned, the midweek start and end times. I think I’d also prefer that a challenge like this start and end on the same day of the week.

➡️ How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Maybe twice a year?

➡️If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
I didn’t, but Almeta and Ziggy did a fantastic job!

[KaraBeta]

A huge Thank you! to the mods for the readthon!
It was my first ever readathon and it was great!

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
Browsing my physical and virtual shelves for books to meet the prompts, focusing on reading for two weeks, working together as a team to fulfill as many prompts as possible and the flexibility of everyone with shifting prompts and books around, Team House Ravenclaw you were awesome! In short: everything! :-D


Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
I opted for 3 books, maybe one or two more and ended with 12! read books. Yes, the readathon was a booster!

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
I rated three books 5*
The One and Only Ivan
Die Verlobten des Winters
Die Beschenkte, this was kind of an extra treat. I listened to the audiobook in 2012 but always had the feeling that it didn't do justice to the book and I wanted to reread it for some time since but always put it off because of the abundance of unread books. So you can count the reread prompt to the favourite aspects of the readathon, too. :-)

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
Two 2* books:
Die Apfelprinzessin
Asche, Schnee und Blut
I love fairytale retellings but these were lame, boring and badly written

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
If anything at all then maybe ending day on a weekend to be more flexible to catch up and/or tackle the remaining tasks.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Twice a year

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
No leadership or assistant role.
But I like to say that I loved how team members in our group jumped in if needed and helped to organize and motivate!

Would you do it again?
Yes!

[Angie]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
I had a lot of fun "hunting" for books to match the prompts, I liked nosing about the threads to see what others were reading and I really enjoyed the game aspect (several teams competing to meet a certain goal) of the readathon.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Yes! I signed up for 2-3 books and ended up reading/listening to 5.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Magpie Murders

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
I don't see much that needs to be done differently. It was meticulously planned and very well executed. You did a fantastic job moderators!

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
I think I wouldn't be able to do it more than twice a year.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
I was assistant on team Guardians of the Library. We had a brilliant captain, Karin, who did all the hard work, so I had a pretty easy job.

Would you do it again?
Yes, definitely.

Although next time, I would try to carve out more free time for reading. Juggling real-life and the readathon was quite challenging. This readathon was much more intense than I expected and as a slow reader I found it difficult to keep up with my teammates' reading pace at times.

[Mie]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
- Great thought out prompts (some easy, some hard), that made it possible to find books to fit multiple prompts (thanks for the tips&tricks for us newbies!)
- Being part of an awesome team!


Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
- Yes, read more than I thought I would.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
- A cozy mystery: The Murder of Twelve

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
- Hmm, if I HAVE to pick one... Death in Ecstasy, I still liked it, though.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
- 10 days would have been enough for me.
- Wasn’t keen on the pre-assigning prompts thing... But with a good and active team leader and flexible teammates, it worked fine.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
- Twice a year (spring/autumn) sounds good to me.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
- N/A

Would you do it again?
- Depending on the theme/prompts/layout, yes!

[Joan]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? I like doing team challenges. It's fun to plan with other teammates what books to read to get the prompts completed.
Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? It helped me get ahead in my annual challenge in another group. I'm currently 5 books ahead this year.
What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - I listened to it on audio.
What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? By my ratings it was The Light We Lost. It wasn't a bad book I just was not a fan of the ending.
What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? I thought the readathon was planned out well. Some of the prompts were just a little hard because they centered around the number 25 because we hit 25,000 members.
How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? Probably quarterly I would think maybe every other month.
If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? n/a
Would you do it again? I would definitely participate in another readathon. They help me get caught up or ahead in my annual reading plan for the year.

[Michelle]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
I loved the motivation to read. I read much more than I usually do and it really got me out of the reading slump. I also loved to just chat in the topic and see how everyone else was doing. I love how supportive everyone was! :)

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Yes! I had planned to read two books over the two-week period and that's more than I normally plan for. However, I somehow read FOUR books!!

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Probably Zwart: de geboorte van het kwaad (In English: Black: The Birth of Evil) by Ted Dekker. I have been wanting to read something from this series for quite some time and am glad I finally did. I also reserved the next part of the series to pick up on monday!

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Guest List by Lucy Foley. So many people said it was a great book. However, I found it a bit slow-paced and though in the ending everything came together nicely, I didn't feel like it was very special..

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
I don't have any suggestions (it was also my first readathon). I really enjoyed myself! :)

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
I would definitely participate as often as I could, as long as it is not very close or in exam periods. I would love one over the summer (hint?)

Would you do it again?
Definitely! When? :)

[Willemijn]

I was hesitant to join the readathon at first, because I really don't read a lot, like some other people here. I mean, my goal for this whole year is 12 books... haha

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
It was a lot of fun to work towards a common goal with like-minded people from across the world. People checked in to our group thread often and chatted about the books, or the topics in them. It's much more fun than reading on your own. Besides, reading for a common goal helped me to read a lot more, because I really wanted to make sure I could help our team finish all the prompts.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
I said I'd read 2 books, maybe 3. In the end I finished 3 half read books, and read one whole book, which is definitely a lot more than I'd expected to read over the course of only two weeks. It was great to finally finish some books that I had left half read for far too long.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
I managed to read The Hobbit in German (Der kleine Hobbit). This is the first time I've ever read anything longer than a newspaper article in German and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could read it. I had never read The Hobbit before, and German is my third language (Dutch being my native language and English my second language). So this book wasn't just my favourite because it's a great book, but also because it was a bit of a personal victory.

Another book I'd like to mention is this one: Why The Dutch Are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands. I loved reading a perspective on my own country from someone who's not a native, and it is full of fascinating trivia. Anyone who would like to learn more about The Netherlands should read this one.

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
My least favourite book was The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, I literally only finished it so I could feel justified to rant about it in my review. I genuinely have no idea what the hype was all about a few years ago.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
The only thing I'd like to change is the timing of it. Like our group leader Amy has already mentioned, we felt it was a little awkward to end on a wednesday. Ending the readathon in a weekend would seem more fun to me. Most people tend to have more free time to read then, and it would feel much more like ending on a high note.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Twice, maybe thrice a year? It would be perfect if we could do one over the summer holiday (late july/early august), because maybe then I can convince a friend to join, who normally wouldn't have the time because of university.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience? Would you do it again?
I didn't have a leader or assistant role, and I think I'd like to keep it that way in the future. I'm far too busy for it on week days and had a hard enough time making sure I checked in with my team, so being a leader is probably not for me.

[Marleen]

-What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
I loved searching books for all the prompts, feeling an urgency to read every day, and interacting with my team. There was a great team spirit, both enthusiastic and easy-going, and I liked meeting some new faces in the group.

-Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Yes, I read twice as much as I had expected, and some of the prompts made me pick up books I had been wanting to read for a while but had put off.

-What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Lirael, 4 stars, liked it a lot more than I had expected from the previous book in the series.

-What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Time Machine, it was still a three star read though and I’m glad I read this classic.

-What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
Just the timing thing that others have already mentioned.

-How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
Once or twice a year.

[Shari]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon?
I liked 'meeting' my team members and looking for books to fill the prompts.

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals?
Not really, I originally signed up for 3 books because this was my first time to join a readathon and I wasn't sure how it would work. I ended up reading 4 books.

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon?
Fortune and Glory

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon?
The Tiger's Wife, I forced myself to finish this one.

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons?
Maybe provide the spreadsheet a little earlier. And agree with someone else who suggested the readathon end on a weekend instead of in the middle of the week.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons?
I would only join twice a year.

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
I was neither, but we had awesome people in these roles. They did a fantastic job keeping all us readers straight.

Would you do it again?
Yes.

[Ruthie]

What was your favorite aspect of the Readathon? Reading with others and the fact that we could earn wild cards based on daily reading

Did this Readathon help you achieve or surpass your personal reading goals? surpass

What was your favorite book read for the Readathon? I am Malala

What was your least favorite book read for the Readathon? Rebel of the Sands

What would you like to see done differently in future Readathons? The prompts were pretty hard. I know part of that was because it was our celebration of members so a lot of it had to do with numbers 12 and 25. But, I was hoping that I could fit the prompts in with the books I was already planning for March and April. Instead, I had to read books I wasn't planning on because of the prompts. That isn't a huge issue and other people may not have planned tbrs so they wouldn't care about this but thought I should still share. I'm in another group called Challenge Corner and that would be a good group to look at for prompt inspirations. Their prompts are specific and sometimes hard too but I can usually fit the prompt with books I've already planned because a lot of the prompts have to do with certain words in the text, letters in the title, author initials, certain things relating to synopsis like a fight/battle, etc. So even though they are specific and you have to think about it, it's still adaptable to the books you might already be planning.

How often would you like to participate in group Readathons? Maybe quarterly

If you had a leader or assistant role, how was your experience?
I was assistant. It was good, I'm not sure if I helped the leader as much as they would have wanted but most of the time the way I helped was updating the spreadsheet for other members.

Would you do it again? Yes!