Fall 2024 Read-a-thon Wrap Up

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

I hope you had a great week of reading! How'd everybody do?

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. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
4. 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?
5. Most importantly, did you have fun??

Don't forget, today is the last day to post your completed individual challenge for a raffle entry! The drawing will be tomorrow!

[Amy (Other Amy)]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
Six books plus some short stories that went with a series I finished during the challege. About 850 pages for the read-a-thon.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Definitely. I really just wanted to get some books that have been stuck on my currently reading for a long time finished and gone. Biggest distractions were just work and errands and life, but I had time to read most days last week, and I got three books off my currently reading plus three more that have been in the wings for a long time as well.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth

4. 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 prompts and the conceit of filling a backpack; I was trying to get as many supplies in there as I could LOL. I really don't have anything to suggest for the future.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
I had a lot of fun. This has not been a good year for reading for me for a few reasons, so it was nice to have one week where I actually managed it. Thanks as always for hosting and all the work you all put in to making these things happen.

[J]

1. A. How many books did you finish? Six, apparently.
1. B. How many pages did you read? 1600
2. A. Did you meet your reading goals? I didn't have any goals. That makes it easier to achieve.
2. B. What were your biggest distractions? Work.
3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon? The Ocean at the End of the Lane
4. Do you have any suggestions for how to make the read-a-thon better for next time? I dunno. Seems like they've been pretty well optimized.
4. B. What would you like to see more of in future read-a-thons? I'd be tempted to say more read-a-thons. But its possible that there are just the right amount. They are just so fun. Maybe what we need to do is convince more people to participate.
5. Most importantly, did you have fun?? Guilty.

[Andrea]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I read 13 books, 736 pages, and about 62 hours of audiobooks. Most of the books were short, so that's how I was able to read so many.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I did! I was able to read some books off my TBR, while reading books that ualified for the Fall Reading Challenge. I also read plenty of books from Hispanic authors to coincide with Hispanic Heritage month. I'm Latina myself, yet this is the one minority group I tend to read the least from 🫣 so I wanted to correct that. My biggest distraction was my grad school responsibilities.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
There are two that really stood out: The Twilight Zone and Rejection: Fiction

4. 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?
Can't think of anything at the moment. I was pleased with how the read-a-thon turned out and loved the school theme!

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
I did! I love crossing off prompts and feeling accomplished! Hopefully the next read-a-thon will take place during a school/work break so there's less distractions

[Samantha]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? 6 books, a few were short so more books than expected. 945 pages read and 20 hours of listening.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? Yes I read more than expected. I take medication that can make me tired and unfocused and it did make it hard on one or two days.
3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon? You're Always Welcome... At the Bloodridge Motel
4. 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; thank you mods for your hard work.
5. Most importantly, did you have fun??Yes

[Liz]

I had a lot of fun with the read-a-thon. The design was so creative.

I read 6 books, over 2,000 pages. I thought I was being a little too optimistic in planning for 5 books so I exceeded my expectations.

I would love to see more read-a-thons. It would also be nice to see a summary of how the teams did, and perhaps some sort of acknowledgrment/reward for the winning team.

[Erica]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I managed 18 books but some were to short to count for prompts. I had 3039 pages and 22.64 hours of audio.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I surpassed them. Our team read a lot and it pushed me to do more. I even finished my ATY challenge.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I Hope This Doesn't Find You I grabbed this right at the end for some extra pages and ended up finishing it because I couldn't put it down. Cute ya romance. I'll definitely vote for it in the Goodreads Choice awards if it's nominated.

4. 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?
Team Bears made an awesome improvement with the report card idea, and our team managed two terms.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Yep, I read a lot of 5 star reads too.

[Joanna G]

My first read-a-thon.

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
2826 pages, 9 books finished

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I did. I had pre-guessed 3-4, so I went far beyond that. It also got me over the top for my yearly goal for Goodreads and spurred me to finish a book that had been in progress for literally months.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I really liked Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead but my absolute favorite was Anxious People.

4. 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 appreciate that the mods already put so much work into this, so I don't know if there's an easy way to do this, but I'd like it if there was a way to adjust the challenge during if some team members can no longer do it. Our team had a no-show participant, and I get that people will have things happen in their lives which make it not possible for them to do the challenge anymore, but it would have been nice if there was a way to adjust for having one less. I thought about posting in the sign up thread for one of the late additions to be added to our team but didn't know if I really had the right, or if the person was just going to show up mid-challenge.
I saw another team's thread also had someone who stopped posting part way through, and they were worried it was the stress of finishing. I don't know, maybe if there was a way to 'scale down' the challenge if someone left? Then people might not feel as much pressure / so bad if something came up and they couldn't contribute as much as they'd wanted.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
I did, although I will say a couple of my reads I really had to push myself to read, in a not as enjoyable way. The poetry book in particular felt like something I would have enjoyed if I could have read at a pace of a couple poems a day, but I had to just bulldoze through.
I think maybe I just need to get more tactical about what I'd pick for a future challenge, going for more lighter breezier reads. And maybe identifying 'difficult' prompts up front, so they can be shared out amongst the team, and then whoever gets them has the full read-a-thon time to get through them, rather than crunching them in at the end when we did a mid-week assessment and looked at what was missing.
But I really loved interactions in the team thread, and the satisfaction of filling things in on the spreadsheet! It was great fun overall, I will likely participate again.

[Bec]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
7 books
1731 pages read and 19.15 hours of audio

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I didn't really have a goal. I predicted 2-3 so smashed that...but I hadn't factored in that I was off work for the whole week as I had surgery the week before. so whilst I was a bit sleepy at the beginning, I had plenty of time to read.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I rated both If It Makes You Happy and The Good Samaritan 4.5 stars our of 5...

4. 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 would like a summary post where we can see how all the teams did...maybe total pages read/hours listened, grades received etc.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Yep, it's great to read and chat with others and work towards a goal.

[Kathy]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
13 books usually between 100 and 250 pages, 1828 pages, 43 hours audio

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes, plus many more! I had company here for a few days.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis

4. 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 Readathons and would participate again. Thanks to the mods.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Yes. I was on Team Knights and everyone was reading like crazy so that motivated me.

[JessicaMHR]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
Finished 12 books with 2568 pages read and 9.55 audio hours read.
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
I exceeded my reading goals!
I think changes to my schedule were the biggest distractions.
3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Tetris: The Games People Play
The Stonekeeper
4. 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, nothing
5. Most importantly, did you have fun?? Yes.

[Kendra]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
I managed 15 books (4 were too short to count, 4 were middle grade books, 2 novellas, 2 short story collection, and only 3 were regular books) for 3 586 pages total.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Well, I wanted to push myself to finish a book I'd stalled out on, and I read just about anything but that, but I hit all my other goals.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
I was nicelt surprised by how much I loved All the Horses of Iceland & After the Dragons, but I think my absolute favorite was The Wishing Game.

4. 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 agree that the read-a-thons are pretty perfect as is. I liked that it wasn't all or nothing for the prompts - 2 prompts finished got you a D, 3 a C etc. It took off some of the pressure, so if there was one prompt that was too hard, we could leave it and just be satisfied with a B.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Yep.

[LeahS]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
Only five - much fewer than usual for me, but I didn't feel like rushing through books this time. I read 1, 662 pages.

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Yes, no real distractions.

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
was a fascinating read.

4. 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, as I only did the individual challenge. Thanks to the mods for arranging these.

5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Yes.

[Rosalind]

1. I read four books and parts of two others. 759 pages and 10.25 hours of audiobooks

2. My goal was three books so I exceeded that. Biggest distractions were a family event, and a busy job.

3. I had a great week but Elena Knows was my favourite. Highly recommend.

4. No suggestions for next time, it all worked amazingly well. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to contribute, being a slower reader than many, but it was a supportive challenge.

5. I had loads of fun and felt really motivated by my Team Lion captains and team mates. Thank you for all the work that went into organising and running this.

[Jennifer W]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? I finished 5 books, 698 pages and 188 minutes

2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? I had wanted to read 4 books, so yes! I had more things than usual going on, family events, stuff with the kiddo. My biggest problem was my infusion, which I knew was going to gunk everything up (it always does).

3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon? We Deserve Monuments So good! The MC's thoughts and feelings were so real!

4. 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, I love them!

5. Most importantly, did you have fun?? Yes!

[Edie]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read?
Read 3 books and 1,068 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions?
Met my goal of at least 2 books read. Biggest problem was that all but one of the books I was reading were not very engaging.
3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon?
Everything Inside a collection of short stories was probably my favorite read. That said, as is often true with collections, some stories were much better than others.
4. 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 miss the random team challenges that used to be part of the read-a-thon. Participating in something like that could have been another way to earn pencils.
5. Most importantly, did you have fun??
Not as much as I usually do, but that was on me. I was already committed to books that helped with challenges or for a book club and the books didn't turn out to be all that great.

[Denise]

1. How many books did you finish? How many pages did you read? 7 books, 1596 pages
2. Did you meet your reading goals? What were your biggest distractions? I exceeded it! I only promised 2. Work would have been a distraction but I got sick and stayed home for two days...and read when I wasn't asleep
3. What was your favorite book of the read-a-thon? What You Are Looking For is in the Library
4. 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? Bigger team, but Emily already explained why they weren't bigger this time. I personally don't remember receiving any kind of notification that the read-a thon was happening, I stumbled across it looking for unread posts, and i thought "Huh? There's a readathon starting in 2 days ?!? I wonder if the low turnout was for a similar reason?
5. Most importantly, did you have fun?? yes