Read-a-Thon Feb 2022: Wrap-Up

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

Our bake-a-thon is over! Let's have a look back at all we accomplished!

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 book 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?

[Elizabeth]

1. 11 books, 542 pages and 56 hours
2. Way over what I thought I'd read. We had family in on the last couple days of the readathon and a pokemon go event. Haha
3. Loved it! I love the GBBO and so this was really cool for me.
4. Probably Beneath the Sugar Sky. I love that series so much and that particular book was pretty food heavy, so a great addition to the challenge.
5. I loved doing a food related readathon, so I'd be down for more of that. Or seasonal themed.
6. Definitely! Can't wait for the next one.

[LeahS]

1. 14 plus a short story. 3,898 pages.
2. Yes. A really undistracted week - very, very little on the television that I wanted to watch, friend I walk with away, class cancelled for half-term.....
3. Yes, though it was pretty tiring. No particular favourite part.
4. The Vanishing Half.
5. Nothing to add here.
6. Yes, as individual.

[Laurel]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
7 books and 2,631 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes. No real distractions this week
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Lots of fun! I loved the Miles of Pages commentary this round
4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I had several 4-star books during the read-a-thon, but my favorite was A Light Beyond the Trenches by Alan Hlad
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 suggestions
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Definitely!

[Kathy]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I finished 9 books, 2144 pages

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes, I met my goals. I usually read some short books not on any challenge plans. Biggest distractions were family events for three of the days.

3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes, loved working on Team Spatula. I liked the Food Fusion game. Very funny. And the miles of pages - thanks, Jackie!

4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

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?
It was really fun and I have no suggestions. Thank you, Mods!

6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes, definitely!

[Kendra]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
11 books finished, 2 unfinished for a total of 3299 pages.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I had saved up a bunch of books for the read-a-thon and I got through all of them except 1 (Well, 1 I started and didn't finish but that's the books fault. 😏) I did end up having a couple of family things to go to, but after the last 2 years, I don't take those for granted!!

3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
The Miles of Pages journey was my favorite part, as usual. Thankyou so much, Jackie!!!!

4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I have to pick just 1? The Poet X, Tales from the Café,Red, White, and Whole, Hunt the Stars, The Housekeeper and the Professor, and The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music were all wonderful.

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 like being able to earn wild cards to fill in harder prompts.

6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yep.

[JessicaMHR]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I finished 8 books, 3 unfinished; 1068 pages and 41 hours and 22 minutes
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I exceeded them. I had only hoped to finish about 3 or 4 books.
I think I was my biggest distraction. I decided to do yardwork one day and watch tv on another, things like that.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes, I had fun. I liked the side games but, mostly just the challenge of reading as much as possible.
4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
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 and not sure.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
I'm still unsure. It was a lot of pressure and not sure if I'll have the time when the next one comes around.

[Tracy]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
5 books, 4 graphic novels, a short story and 7 hours of my audio book- 3008 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes!! I estimated 5-7 books so I met my goal. Biggest distractions were work and the last weekend was a little busy with my girls, getting them back and forth to play dates and just general house cleaning. Also, my cousin has been critically ill in the ICU all month, so I was getting A LOT of texts in the family group chat.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I always LOVE the read-a -thons, so I did have fun. I haven't really picked up a book since we finished it though- trying to catch up on everything I put off and just a little exhausted LOL. Fav parts were Jackies miles of pages story and the fusion cooking game.
4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
GAH!! No Fair!! I had 3 five star reads.Summer of Salt , The Last House on Needless Street, and The Grace Year
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 Suggestions, just can't wait for the next one.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
YES!!!

[Katherine]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? 9 books finished! 1916 pages read and 8 hours of audio
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes! Since this was my first read-a-thon I didn't really know what to expect. I thought I'd read a lot less than I actually did. Also was able to tick off several ATY prompts while doing this. No big distractions since this fell on a 3-day weekend and my weekday was less busy than usual.
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Definitely! I liked that I was inspired to read some of the books I have had on my Kindle for a LOOOOONG time (because they fit prompts). I also found some new books and put a bunch of books that my team members read on my TBR list. I also liked the individual challenge.
4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Hmmm... I really liked The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State and Go.
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?
Nope.
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes, depending on the weeks they fall on. This was fun! :-)

[Kahlia]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I only finished 2 full books, but I made progress on about 3 others that I was slowly chipping away at
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I was out of town for the first weekend, so I had to play catch up after that
3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
I really like team based readathons and seeing everyone discuss where to slot different books like a puzzle
4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I didn't finish it during the readathon though I did make substantive progress, but I'm going to pick League of Dragons by Naomi Novik, which was a fitting end to a series I've been reading over a longer time period
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 did find that some of the challenges were harder to fill than others (in terms of landing the right books) so maybe a once-over to make sure they are all equally achievable if you run a similar style of challenge again?
6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Yes, if I'm available

[Irene]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
7 books, 1850 pages

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes! My goal was 5-7. I'll echo Jessica and say that I was my biggest distraction since I would spend my time doing things other than reading. I did have work to do, but I already knew that going in.

3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
Yes! I liked that my team was active and that there were always new updates in our group. I also loved the theme since GBBO might actually be my favorite tv show.

4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds. It wasn't what I expected based purely on the title and cover (I thought it was going to be about people in an elevator in the seconds it takes for it to plummet to the ground) so it was cool to realize how different it was from what I was expecting. And it was just some awesome writing, and I personally adore ambiguous endings.

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'm not sure if this is even within the realm of possibility and I've suggested it before, but maybe a prize for the winning team? Something like being able to choose the theme or even just a single prompt for the next read-a-thon? The mods could narrow down some theme ideas and ask the group to choose one (or just have the group choose it in general), or get prompt suggestions without revealing the theme. Since our groups already have lots of teamwork/camaraderie going on, it'd be fun to revisit our book discussions by thinking of a theme or prompt together! It's a little thing but I think it would make the read-a-thons even more fun :)

6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
For sure! :D

[Edie]

1. 4 books completed, 1,163 pages and 3.89 hours read
2. I met my goals. The biggest (very pleasant) distractions was time spent with family.
3. Read-a-thons are fun because of the interaction with your team. It is interesting to see the great variety in what people are reading.
4. Parts of Nick although set in WWI seemed particularly given the invasion of Ukraine.
5. I was a bit frustrated that the books I had set up to read fit only a few prompts. I would have liked there to be some genre related prompts. But. hey, love that the mods spend all this time creating this for us.
6. Will participate again.

[L Y N N]

,b>1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
6 books and 1,639 pages!

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Kinda. I would have liked to read more, but had a headache that last Saturday which kept me from reading more...

3. Did you have fun? What were your favorite parts?
ALWAYS!! The reading and sharing with other team members what we were all reading!

4. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Tie between The Chase and Back Bay
Two very different books but I loved them both!

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?
Not really. You guys always make it great!

6. Do you plan to participate in future group read-a-thons?
Just try to stop me! LOL