One of my favorite discoveries of the book blogging world was readathons. What is better than a day or week devoted to extra reading time? And to make it even more awesome, lots of other people are reading as well, and there are posts to comment on and prizes to win. Basically, readathons = reading + community. And they are so much fun.
I've participated in Dewey's 24-hour readathon four times, since I first discovered it in April 2014. I knew there was one coming up at the end of April, but I had just had a baby, and bloggy things had really taken a backseat to the adorable, crying creature right in front of me.
I knew I would have to take a blogging break when my little guy was born, but I was having trouble finding time and motivation to return. I wanted to, but every time I had a few moments to write up a post, I lacked the energy.
Enter readathons. I thought it would be crazy to participate in a 24-hour readathon with a newborn, but I somehow just couldn't pass it up. I loved readathons too much, and Dewey's in particular. So I picked my audiobook, made sure I had my physical book next to me at all times, told myself that this was just fun and there was no pressure, and read. I figured out that posting updates on Twitter from my phone was easier than pulling out my computer to update Smiling Shelves (which is why there's only a summary post at the end).
It worked so well that I decided to try Bout of Books, which happened shortly thereafter. It was a week long instead of a day, which just meant that I would have even more moments to sneak in some reading. Audiobooks really helped, and by the end of the week, I was more than ready to dive back into the blogging world on a regular basis.
In short, readathons rock.
Which is why I'm excited to try two new ones (for me) coming up in July. I'm looking forward to joining in the 24in48 Readathon, which challenges you to read for 24 hours over the course of 48 hours on July 23-24. I don't think I'll get close to that, but I'm willing to try! I'm also going to join in the Make Me Read It Readathon, which allows all of you fine people reading my blog to choose books for me to read during the week of July 9-16. I really hesitated about doing this one, but in the end it sounded like too much fun to pass up. You get to vote on what I'm going to read, so please come back tomorrow and vote on my options!
Are there any other fun readathons out there that I should be participating in? Let's keep Smiling Shelves and the amazing blogging community going strong! :)
I've participated in Dewey's 24-hour readathon four times, since I first discovered it in April 2014. I knew there was one coming up at the end of April, but I had just had a baby, and bloggy things had really taken a backseat to the adorable, crying creature right in front of me.
I knew I would have to take a blogging break when my little guy was born, but I was having trouble finding time and motivation to return. I wanted to, but every time I had a few moments to write up a post, I lacked the energy.
Enter readathons. I thought it would be crazy to participate in a 24-hour readathon with a newborn, but I somehow just couldn't pass it up. I loved readathons too much, and Dewey's in particular. So I picked my audiobook, made sure I had my physical book next to me at all times, told myself that this was just fun and there was no pressure, and read. I figured out that posting updates on Twitter from my phone was easier than pulling out my computer to update Smiling Shelves (which is why there's only a summary post at the end).
It worked so well that I decided to try Bout of Books, which happened shortly thereafter. It was a week long instead of a day, which just meant that I would have even more moments to sneak in some reading. Audiobooks really helped, and by the end of the week, I was more than ready to dive back into the blogging world on a regular basis.
In short, readathons rock.
Which is why I'm excited to try two new ones (for me) coming up in July. I'm looking forward to joining in the 24in48 Readathon, which challenges you to read for 24 hours over the course of 48 hours on July 23-24. I don't think I'll get close to that, but I'm willing to try! I'm also going to join in the Make Me Read It Readathon, which allows all of you fine people reading my blog to choose books for me to read during the week of July 9-16. I really hesitated about doing this one, but in the end it sounded like too much fun to pass up. You get to vote on what I'm going to read, so please come back tomorrow and vote on my options!
Are there any other fun readathons out there that I should be participating in? Let's keep Smiling Shelves and the amazing blogging community going strong! :)
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