So, for those who are unaware, I am a big fan of the band Queen (I have a tattoo and everything lmao). Last year, over on my queen fandom sideblog, I created a small readathon inspired by the band, mostly just to encourage myself to read a bit more than I was. But I thought, now that Iām being more active on here, why not do it again! So...Ā
Welcome to the second year of the Queen-A-Thon!Ā Ā
This readathon will run for 14 days (2 whole weeks!) from September 17 through to September 30 (starting and ending at Midnight in whatever timezone you inhabit) which hopefully will give you enough time to get some serious reading in around work/study/whatever else.
Similar to last year, there will be 2 main ways to participate in this readathon. The first is by reading, naturally. To aid you there is a bingo board of prompts, all inspired by Queen and their songs. The second way to join is is by responding to discussion prompts. There is a list of daily prompts to encourage community interaction, each one named after a Queen song and related to reading/books in some way. More info about both parts of the readathon and the prompt lists are below the cut but there will also be 2 followup posts going through them in more detail, so keep youāre eye out for those!
Whichever prompts you choose to respond to and however you do it, tag your posts with #queenathon so I can see and share them!
ReadingĀ
This year Iāve created a bingo board full of prompts. All you have to do is read as many books as you can to try and cross off prompts and see how many bingos you can get! Books can count for multiple prompts, as many as youād like, and it's totally up to your own discretion as to how they count, so you may be able to get a bingo with just one or two titles. Iāll be making a separate post with details about the prompts - what inspired them/how they relate to Queen/maybe some suggested titles? - but for now hereās the bingo board. The yellow prompts on the diagonal are all activity based rather than prompts for books to read (an idea I 100% stole from Book Browsing Blogās whateverathon over on youtube).
DiscussionĀ
In addition to the reading prompts Iāve also created a list of 14 discussion prompts, each one named after a song by Queen. You can respond to as many or as few of them as you like and I encourage you to respond in whatever way you're most comfortable with ā simple text posts, photos, graphics, or even videos if you like). The aim of the game is to have fun with it! These are ideal for people who donāt think they can complete a book during the 14 days but still want to participate, or anyone who just likes talking about books and reading. Again, Iāll be doing up a separate post explaining them but hereās the list of prompts:
Day 1: Coming Soon - Your goals for the Readathon
Day 2: Liar - Experiences with negative recommendations
Day 3: Iām In Love With My Car - Thoughts on reading while travelling or commuting
Day 4: If You Canāt Beat Them Join Them - Experiences with reading books hyped by online communities like booklr or booktok
Day 5: Man On The Prowl - Tell us about your favourite place to buy books
Day 6: Life Is Real - Thoughts on non-fiction
Day 7: Donāt Stop Me Now - Mid-readathon check in!
Day 8: Procession - Thoughts on reading series
Day 9: Lap of the Gods...Revisited - Thoughts on re-reading books
Day 10: Long Away - Do you have any anticipated reads?
Day 11: I Was Born To Love You - Do you have any must-buy/read authors?
Day 12: Dreamers Ball - Design your dream home library/reading space!
Day 13: The Millionaireās Waltz - Show us a bookish haul!
Day 14: Was It All Worth It? - Tell us how you went with the readathon!
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In an effort to motivate myself to read a bit more, Iāve decided to host a readathon here on tumblr. And this being a queen fanblog, what better theme than the band itself. So....
Welcome to the Queen-A-Thon!Ā
This readathon will run for ten days from Saturday, 9 October through Monday 18 OctoberĀ (starting at Midnight in whatever timezone you inhabit). That will hopefully give everyone enough time around work/school/inktober/whatever else youāve got going on.
Below the cut are daily prompts to encourage community interaction, each one named after a song by Queen. Participants can respond to as many or as few of the prompts as they like and are encourage to respond in whatever way theyāre most comfortable with (be that a simple text post or a photo or graphic or even a video). The aim of the game is to have fun with it!
And for those who canāt or donāt want to answer one or more of the daily prompts, thereās a list of bonus prompts which are shorter and might be able inspire a post. You could tell us about your favourite book that fits the criteria, use them as a Book Photo Challenge, or even to help you choose books youād like to read during the 10 days.
Whichever prompts you choose to respond to and however you do it, tag your posts with #queenathon so I can see and share them!
So without further ado...
Daily Prompts
Day 0: Coming Soon
Before the readathon starts, share what books you intend to read or what youāre hoping to achieve. (a certain number of books or pages you want to finish?Ā A number of hours you want to spend reading? Just joining in conversations and answering prompts?)
Day 1: Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen were never afraid to try new genres and mix up music styles while creating their albums. Is there a particular genre of book you find yourself drawn to more than others? Or perhaps a genre youād like to read more of?
Day 2: Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
Tell us about your favourite relationship(s) youāve read about - romantic or platonic or somewhere in between. Is there a trope that you especially love? A ship you canāt stop reading fics about? A real life literary relationship you want to ramble about? Weād love to hear about it!
Day 3:Ā These Are The Days of Our Lives
Queen published albums from the 70s through to the 90s and now, in the 2020s, are experiencing something of a revival. Do you have any favourite authors or series that were published over multiple decades?
Day 4: Teo Torriatte
Letās talk languages! Do you ever read any books in a language other than your native one? Or do you have any favourite books that have been translated from another langauge?
Day 5:Ā Let Me Entertain You
Recommend something! This is your chance to tell us about a favourite book/author/series/bookstore/whatever other bookish thing!Ā Ā
Day 6:Ā Fight From The Inside
Share a strong opinion youāve got about something book related, whether that opinion is popular or not.
Day 7: I Want It All
Tell us about some of your favourite bookish items! Do you collect funko pop vinyls from a book series? Or maybe youāve got a stash of bookmarks, or a favourite book you keep buying new editions of? Whatever it is, we want to know about it!
Day 8: I Want To Break Free
How do you handle a book youāre not loving? Will you DNF it as soon as you lose interest, or are you more likely to persevere in the hopes it gets better?
Day 9: Good Company
Tell us about your favourite time period to read about! Do you have a soft spot for novels set in the Regency era? Or maybe you have a collection of non-fiction books about Ancient Egypt? Or are historical novels not your thing and you prefer books set in the present?
Day 10: We Are The Champions (was it all worth it?)
Now that weāve reached the end of the readathon tell us how you went! Did you complete any of your goals? What were your general opinions of the books you read and the experience you had?
Bonus Prompts
A book about a musician or band
A book set in England
A book with a music format on the cover (record/CD/cassette/iPod/etc)
A book written by a Freddie, Brian, John, or Roger
A book that features fairies, ogres, dragons and/or queens
A book with an LGBT+ main character
A book referenced in a Queen song/song title (eg: Invisible Man)
A book that was adapted into a movie/TV show staring one of the Bohemian Rhapsody cast
Queenathon Day 9 + 10: Good Company + We Are The Champions
Tell us about your favourite time period to read about! Do you have a soft spot for novels set in the Regency era? Or maybe you have a collection of non-fiction books about Ancient Egypt? Or are historical novels not your thing and you prefer books set in the present?
My fav is definitely regency, as an Austen gal and also Bridgerton lmao but Iāll read pretty much any time period. There was that collection of princess historical novels/biographies (that werenāt quite truthful probs) and I read Marie Antoinette and Cleopatra and books like that are fun
Now that weāve reached the end of the readathon tell us how you went! Did you complete any of your goals? What were your general opinions of the books you read and the experience you had?
I think it went well! Iām pretty sure I read almost exactly what I thought I was going to and I liked what I read! It was definitely a good motivator too!!!
Show us your latest book haul! Have you bought a few books in the last month? Or borrowed a stack from the library? Or have you bought yourself some sort of bookish items - literary funko pop vinyls or a book related puzzle or some cute fanart stickers?Ā
I donāt often do haul posts cause I donāt often buy more than one or two books at a time and then I figure I should wait until the end of the month because chances are Iāll buy something else on a different visit to the bookstore and a monthly wrap up makes more sense but then i entirely forget about it. So anyway, these are a selection of books Iāve bought in the second half of this year. The only one Iāve already read is Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Are there any authors you consider āmust-buysā or āmust-readsā? Or maybe a particular book that you keep buying new editions of?Ā
I have a few āmust buyā authors. At the moment Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of them but I have absolutely zero interest in any of her books published before Evelyn Hugo so I guess weāll see which direction her writing goes in next.
Another author that I keep buying as soon as I see he has a new book out (even though Iām yet to read a couple of them) is David Mitchell. Like Reid, he ties all his books into the same universe with characters that get mentioned in multiple stories. I find it absolutely fascinating when authors do that.
And then we have Joe Hill. Again, I havenāt got around to all his books yet but I do keep buying them. But there is a reason I havenāt read them all yet. Iām not actually super into horror books. I read Horns a few years ago because I knew there was a movie in the works that Daniel Radcliffe was cast in and I figured I was probably going to see it (still havenāt) so I should read it first. And I really enjoyed it and then went out and bought more of his stuff. But I can only psych myself up for reading them every so often lmao.
And then, of course, I have to mention Frankenstein by Mary Shelley because I am always on the lookout for editions I donāt own.
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This is one of the two ways to join in the Queenathon readathon! Each of the prompts on this bingo board were inspired by Queen - either the band, their achievements, or their songs. Except for the yellow diagonals which are activities so that you can still make progress on the board even if you arenāt reading! Below the cut Iāll go through each prompt, row by row, and give a more thorough explanation of them. Songs they were inspired by are in brackets beside the prompts.
And remember - books CAN count for multiple prompts! So you may be able to get a bingo with just one or two books!
1. 5 Star Prediction (The Prophetās Song)
Read a book you predict youāll enjoy enough to give 5 stars!
2. Friend Rec (Youāre My Best Friend/Friends Will Be Friends/Dear Friends) Read a book a friend has recommended or picked out for you.
3. Adapted into a movie or show featuring one of the BoRhap cast
Quite possibly the hardest prompt in this readathon. Read a book that was adapted into a movie which features an actor who was also in Bohemian Rhapsody, the Freddie Mercury Biopic.
Suggestions:
Rami Malek: Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer, a James Bond novel - Ian Flemming, Ā Henri CharriĆØreās autobiography Papillon, The Story of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting, The Night At The Museum - Milan Trenc
Ben Hardy: X Men comics, The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins, The Girl Before - J.P. Delaney, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight - Jennifer E. Smith, a Mary Shelley biography
Gwilym Lee: Henry V - William Shakespeare, any of the Chief Inspector Barnaby series - Caroline Graham, a Catherine The Great biography
Joe Mazzello: Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa - Eugene Sledge, Helmet for My Pillow - Robert Leckie, Enslaved By Ducks - Bob Tarte, G.I. Joe Comics, Fire In The Hole - Elmore Leonard
Lucy Boynton - Sense And Sensibility - Jane Austen, Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie, Why Didnāt They Ask Evans - Agatha Christie, The IPCRESS File - Len Deighton, a Marianne Faithfull biography, a biography about Joseph Bologne the Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Or try some of the support cast like Allen Leech, Tom Hollander, Aiden Gillen, etc.
4. Flowers on the Cover (Lily of the Valley)
A Lily of the Valley is a type of flower so pick a book with some sort of flower in the cover art.
5. Listen to some Queen songs
The first of the activity prompts and a fairly easy one to do I think. You can listen to a full album or just get a music video or two up on youtube.
6. Bestseller
Queen holds the record for the best selling album in the UK with their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits and are one of the worldās best selling musical artists. Read a book which is considered a best seller. This could be a book that appears on anything from an official list of best selling works to a list that your local bookstore creates about popular books of the month, whatever works for you.
7. About A Musician or Band
Pretty self-explanatory. Queen is a band, so read a book that somehow includes a band or musician.
8. Featuring a Pet/Animal (Delilah)
Freddie Mercury wrote this song about one of his cats. Read a book with some sort of animal companion or pet.
9. Cosy Reading Night
The second activity prompt. Have a cosy reading night (or day!), whatever that means to you. Maybe itās just being curled up in comfy PJs, maybe itās a nice hot bath and a few candles while you read.
10. Seasonal Read (A Winterās Tale)
Read a book that fits the vibes of the season youāre in. For southern hemisphere folks like me itāll be spring, and for northern hemisphere folks itās autumn.
11. LGBT+ Main Character
Freddie Mercury was gay so in honour of that, read a book with a queer character.
12. Multiple Authors (Under Pressure)
Under Pressure was written with and featured David Bowie. Read a book with multiple authors. It could be an anthology or a collection of essays or just a book that was co-written by two people. You could even count a book translated by someone other than the author if you wanted.
13. HOT SPACE LETS GO!
Free Space!
14. Parent Rec (Father To Son)
Read a book that was recommended or picked out for you by a parent, guardian or parental figure of some sort (heck even just someone older than you lmao).
15. Written by a Freddie, Brian, John or Roger
The four members of Queen are Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor, so read a book by someone who shares any of their names.
16. Been Putting Off (The Miracle)
Everyone has at least one book they picked up fully intending to read and then never got around to and now you just keep not reading it. Maybe itās large and intimidating, maybe itās a genre you used to be much more into, maybe youāre just worried you wonāt enjoy it as much as you thought you would. Whatever the case, this is your chance to finally, miraculously, get around to it.
17. Complete A Personal Goal
The third activity prompt. Check this off when youāve completed some sort of goal you set yourself. It could be a goal related to the readathon like getting a bingo or finishing a particular book or reading a certain number of pages. Or, it could be something else entirely - going to the gym or completing a household chore that needs to be done or getting your sketchbook set up for Inktober.
Queen have a lot of songs with fantasy creatures or elements. Read a book that features some sort of mythical creature or royalty (they have songs about kings and princes too so they absolutely count).
19. Favourite Genre (Rock It (Prime Jive))
Do you find yourself mostly drawn to romance books? Or maybe scifi is more your thing? Whatever genre you enjoy most (your prime jive...), this is an excuse to pick up another one!
20. Published or Set in 1970s
Queen first formed as a band in 1970 and released their first album in 1973. So read a book that was publish or is set during the 70s.
21. Guilt-Free Activity
The last of our activity prompts. If you really want to go see a movie but feel bad about taking hours off of reading, you can now do it guilt free! Or, conversely, if youāve got some chores you should be doing but put them off to read a little longer, that also counts. Whatever sort of activity you feel guilty about doing or not doing, this is a free pass.
22. Black and White Cover (White Queen/March of the Black Queen)
The album Queen II featured a bit of a black/white theme which carried into live performances where Freddie and Brian would paint their nails to match their queens. Read a book with black and white on the cover.
23. Digital (Machines (Back To Humans))
Read an ebook or listen to an audiobook. You could read the whole book digitally or you could switch between an ebook and a physical copy, or follow the physical book as you listen to an audiobook. As long as you read at least some of a book in a digital format, it counts.
24. Set In England
Queen is an English band, so read a book set in England.
25. Translation (Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)/Las Palabras De Amor (The Words of Love))
Both of these songs feature lyrics sung in other languages. So read a book that was originally written in another language!
Is this the real life or just fantasy? Weāre only a day or two (depending on timezone) from the start of the Queenathon II ! So grab your guitar picks and drumsticks, and of course your moustaches, and get ready for a kind of magic!
The Queenathon runs from September 17 through to September 30, starting at midnight in youāre timezone. And you can participate in two ways - by reading books related to prompts on our bingo board, or by responding to discussion prompts.Ā
All the details can be foundĀ here, explanations of all the bingo prompts here, and explanations of all the discussion prompts here.
The second way you can join the Queenathon is discussion prompts! Each one is named after a song by Queen. You can respond to as many or as few of them as you like and I encourage you to respond in whatever way you want ā simple text posts, photos, graphics, or even videos if you like. Have fun with it! These are ideal for people who donāt think they can complete a book during the 14 days but still want to participate, or anyone who just likes talking about books and reading habits. Below the cut is a more detailed list of the prompts.
Day 1: Coming Soon
Itās the start of the readathon so share what youāre hoping to achieve! A certain number of books or pages read? A single bingo or a full bingo board? Answering prompts and joining in conversations? Or maybe something like just reading a little each day after work?
Day 2: Liar
Has anyone ever recommended you a book you ended up hating? Or have you been so sure someone would love a book and then they didnāt? Has that influenced how you respond to recs or who you rec books to?
Day 3: Iām In Love With My Car
Thoughts on reading while traveling or commuting. Do you read on public transport or in the passenger seat of a car? Or does the very thought make you sick? What about listening to audiobooks while you drive?
Day 4: If You Canāt Beat Them Join Them
Have you ever picked up a book purely because people online (booklr/booktok/etc) were hyping it? If so, did you end up enjoying it? And if not, is there a particular reason youāre not inclined to?Ā
Day 5: Man On The ProwlĀ
Whereās youāre favourite place to buy books? Is there a nice bookstore near you that you like to pop into? Maybe a secondhand bookshop thats overcrowded and fun to rummage in? Or maybe theres an online store you like best? This is your chance to show them some love!Ā
Day 6: Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)
Thoughts on non-fiction? Is it something you read a lot of? Or something you donāt have much interest in? Or maybe something youād like to read more of?
Day 7: Donāt Stop Me Now
This is the halfway point of the readathon! Weāre a week in, so how are you going? Have you been enjoying the books youāve chosen? Have you completed any of your goals? Celebrate your progress!Ā
Day 8: Procession
Tell us your thoughts on series! Do you read a lot or prefer stand-alone books? Do you prefer a series with only 2 or 3 books or something that goes on a bit longer? Will you start a series as soon as the first book catches your eye or do you hold off until at least a few have been released?Ā
Day 9: In The Lap Of The Gods....Revisited
How do you feel about re-reading books youāve already read? Do you enjoy revisiting an old favourite? Or is there too many new books to even think about reading something twice? Has re-reading something changed your opinion of it? Are there any books youāve re-read multiple times?
Day 10: Long AwayĀ
Tell us about any books youāre looking forward to reading soon! Is there something yet to be published that youāre excited about? Or something you already own that youāre going to pick up next?Ā
Day 11: I Was Born To Love You
Are there any authors you considerĀ āmust-buysā orĀ āmust-readsā? Or maybe a particular book that you keep buying new editions of?Ā
Day 12: Dreamers Ball
If tomorrow a magician appeared and said he could conjure you the perfect place to read what would it look like? A sprawling Beauty and the Beast library? A cosy little nook with just the essentials for reading? This is your dream library or reading space, so donāt hold back, tell us what you wish for!Ā
Day 13: The Millionaire Waltz
Show us your latest book haul! Have you bought a few books in the last month? Or borrowed a stack from the library? Or have you bought yourself some sort of bookish items - literary funko pop vinyls or a book related puzzle or some cute fanart stickers?
Day 14: Was It All Worth It
Now that weāve reached the end of the readathon tell us how you went! Did you complete any of the goals you set on day one? Give us a wrap up of what you read and how you went with your bingo board!
