#boookblr

Hour 1 

Mafia: The Complete History of a Criminal World by Jo Durden South

Amount read: 78 pages 

So this weekend I will be participating in my first ever readathon. As always, I have to thank the awesome contributors at @bookriot for this- I stumbled upon this one while participating in the #AskaLibrarian chat over on Twitter a couple of weeks ago. It’s called 24in48Readathon, created by the fab Rachel Manwill. She was kind enough to give me suggestions for books, and 20 minutes of mild twitter stalking led me to the readathon. Of course I got super excited and signed up for it. It’s the beginning of the year- full of optimism, hopes, dreams, and of course full-blown reading enthu. Anyway, back to the challenge. Since I’d never done the challenge before, it made the most sense to plan ahead (if you check out the challenge website, they recommend you do this as well). “Planning” may or may not have led to crazed book-buying, not necessarily the worst form of collateral damage (my wallet pitifully disagrees, but what the hell). As of 2 hours before the official start of the challenge, this is what the stack looks like:

Prose: 

1. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

3. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan

4. Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

5. Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia by Stephen Fried

6. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente 

7. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

8. Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski

9. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

10. Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

Comics:

1. The Legend of Wonder Woman vol. 1-8 by Renae De Liz

2. The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

3. The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman

4. Ms. Marvel #3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson

5. Ms. Marvel #4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson

6. The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen  

Now, this stack is not random. I compiled this stack to include audiobooks, hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks,and graphic novels. I also made sure to select books from a fair range of genres, and included a couple of tasks from some of my annual reading challenges. One of my goals this year is to allow myself to DNF books, and this weekend will be a true test of that. There’s an inherent guilt to not finishing books, a product of an upbringing by parents who believed that any activity required discipline, and that meant seeing it through to the end, however hard it may be. Over the last couple of years I have been putting my behavior-analytic skills to work on some decent self-monitoring in order to shape purposeful reading behavior from my previously, rather aimless one (Bookriot is probably the best thing that America has given me). Reading Challenges have been instrumental in this endeavor. I digress. The point is, the stack was put together with some thought, allowing for DNF scenarios or just switching things up to keep me going through the weekend. I am going to try my best to stick to this list, which is why I’m putting it out in the world (i.e. the interwebz) for some accountability. I plan to do hourly updates, both here and on twitter. Cheerleaders will be highly appreciated. 

Less than 2 hours to go now. Fellow readthoners, good luck. Enjoy the experience and be present with it; you owe it to yourself.