The long-awaited day has finally arrived: Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon is upon us! This post will be my home base throughout the day, where I’ll be logging my progress and participating in mini-challenges. I’ve got a bunch of snacks and a stack of books all ready to go, so let the games begin!

11:04 a.m. — Argh, I overslept! So I haven’t actually started reading yet…but I’m about to get going with Every Breath by Ellie Marney! Hope everyone is enjoying his/her day so far!

Classic Words of Wisdom Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “[C]reate a post highlighting your favorite ‘Classic Words of Wisdom’ and then explain their meaning to you.” This is one of my absolute favorite quotes, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit:

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

To me, this quote is a reminder to focus on life’s simple pleasures and to be “merry” whenever possible. Not bad life advice, I think!

Four Seasons, Four Books Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “This mini challenge is to convey the four seasons in four book covers, by colour, title, author, cover, or something a little less obvious. Just arrange your covers, snap a photo and then upload it.” Here are my choices for spring, summer, fall, and winter:

1:21 p.m. — About halfway through Every Breath now, and it’s SO GOOD! I’ve just put the sequel on my wishlist. 🙂

3:17 p.m. — Finished Every Breath and really, really liked it! I did guess the culprit’s identity fairly early on, but the fun is in getting there, and in watching the slow burn of Watts and Mycroft’s relationship. Now I’m on to French Leave by Anna Gavalda, of which I have high hopes, since I really enjoyed Gavalda’s previous novel Hunting and Gathering!

Treasure Hunt Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “[F]ind a book with one of the listed items on the cover.” The listed items were a tree, snow, and a weapon, and here’s what I found:

Tree — Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
Snow — The Winter Long by Seanan McGuire
Weapon — The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Book Spine Poetry Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “Using the titles on book spines, make a short poem at least three ‘books’ long/tall.” This is one of my very favorite mini-challenges — it’s always so much fun to get creative with the books on my shelves! Here’s my poem:

A song for summer, season of storms:
Let’s get lost in the woods.
Bewitching season, endless summer.

5:07 p.m. — I just finished French Leave, which was quite charming and a perfect palate-cleanser after the intense Every Breath. I did love this one passage, which is about a conversation between four adult siblings:

And then we talked about our parents. The way we always did. About Mom and Pop. Their new lives. Their own love stories. And our future. In short, the everyday trifles and the handful of people that filled our lives.

It wasn’t much, trifles to many people, and yet a boundless fortune.

9:32 p.m. — I took a little break from the readathon this evening to play in a community orchestra concert. But now it’s back to reading, and I’m in the middle of Katie Van Ark’s The Boy Next Door, which is really making me want to watch “The Cutting Edge”!

11:40 p.m. Finished The Boy Next Door, which was fine but lacked that spark that makes me really excited about a book. Not sure it will have a permanent home on my shelves. Oh well! On to my next pick, Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).

Music Is Muse Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “Whilst you’ve been reading I wonder if you’ve felt a particular musical connection to a book, or a character. I want to know what songs remind you of that character, or connect you to something you’ve read today. For this hour’s mini challenge please tell me the name of the song, and the connection you feel to it.” For this challenge, I’ve assigned a song to each of the books I’ve read so far:

• Every Breath by Ellie Marnie — “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks (listen here). I think this is a song that main character Mycroft would listen to; he has an appreciation for the classics! Plus, the book as a whole gives me the vibe of a high-energy rock song with snarly/angry vocals.
• French Leave by Anna Gavalda — “Absolutely Cuckoo” by the Magnetic Fields (listen here). The song is short and whimsical, the perfect complement to this charming French novella! For some reason, I can imagine the characters riding bikes through the French countryside with this song as a soundtrack.
• The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark — “Love Story” by Taylor Swift (listen here). This song is THE perfect choice for this book, which is about two young lovers who believe they’re destined to be together. And Romeo and Juliet is a prominent narrative in both the book and the song!

Reading Story Mini-Challenge

From the host’s website: “For this challenge you will be writing a six word story based on your read-a-thon experience so far or what you hope for the rest of your read-a-thon.” Here is my six-word story: “Read three books on couch. Success!”

1:13 a.m. Well, it’s Hour 18, and I think I’m going to have to call it quits! Sadly, I have to get up at a decent hour tomorrow morning. 😦 But before I go, I want to leave you all with this brilliant quote from Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), where Mindy Kaling is describing her first NYC apartment:

It was a staircase for killing someone and making it seem like an accident.

I’ve been cackling so loudly over this book that I think I’m disturbing the neighbors. Anyhow, this is me signing off, but best of luck to those of you who are still reading! You can do it!!!