Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon: It’s On Like Kong!

The next Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon is this weekend, and I have signed myself up, because why not???? Sit and read all weekend? Don’t mind if I do!

“But, Liberty,” you’re saying, “that’s what you do every weekend.”

“Shhh,” I say, applying the sleeper hold.

Back in 2006, my coworker and I held a 24-hour readathon at the bookstore where we worked. It was pretty fun! We held it in the store and had author readings and prizes. We decided to hold a second one a few months later, and invited other indie bookstores around the country to join us. We sent out a press release and were even featured in Shelf Awareness.

We got two stores to join us (which is how I met the amazing Jenn Northington!) But most people were like, “That’s insane. No thank you, we’ll pass.” And I got really sick halfway through the readathon and had to go home. It wasn’t as much fun the second time, and we decided not to do it again.

But this was before the internet had been overrun with amazing book people! And readathoning from home is way more fun, because you aren’t surrounded by other people making reading sounds, and your pets are there, and you don’t have to wear pants. (Really, it always comes down to the no-pants argument.)

Now there are thousands of people who participate in several different readathons every year. Which is rad. And Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon is one of the biggest. I’m excited for Saturday!

For the readathon this time around, I thought it would be a good time to start my 2016 Backlist Alphabet Project. I’m going to attempt to read letters A-G, plus a couple July 2016 releases, and a kids’ book my friend recommended. (Those are my choices above, as modeled by Pelvis.) I think picking out a pile of books for the readathon is half the fun!

Are you participating? What are you going to read?