READATHON PREP 101

The annual fall readathon is tomorrow and I thought I'd share some of my tips and tricks for getting through it.

1. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You have 24 hours to read your little heart out, so pace yourself.

2. Stock up on snacks before Saturday.  Unless you plan on using a run to the store as an excuse to take a break, you should have a variety of snacks on hand. Mindless snacking & reading go hand in hand like peanut butter & jelly.

3. Just like you need variety in snacks, you need some variety in genres and book length. As much as you love a good thriller, you might want to throw in some romance novels or science fiction., sort of a palate cleanser between courses at a fine diner. You'll also want to mix a few short books (200 pages or less) in with your longer reads.  I find it easier to start the day with short books as a warm up and move on to longer books as the day progresses.  When I find myself getting distracted, I switch back to shorter books of a different genre.  To be fair, your shelves are probably full of books of all lengths and genres you've been meaning to read but haven't yet.  Now is the time!

4. Take a break! It would be great if you make it through 24 hours of reading, but no one expects you to. Saturdays are full of errands we don't get to during the week.  If you have other events planned, by all means, go.  The readathon isn't about the quantity of time you spend reading, but the quality. There are some die hard participants that will go from 6 a.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday, I'm not one of them. I've tried in the past and by 6 p.m., my brain has turned to mush and I can't even comprehend what I'm reading.  Go take a walk, check in on social media, call your great-aunt Gertrude who you've been meaning to call for weeks.

5. Check in at the readathon site  and on social media throughout the marathon.  There will be plenty of giveaways, as well as links to other participants blog sites, if they're bloggers.  It's always a great time to discover new blogs and fellow readers. If you've officially signed up for the readathon, there will be cheerleaders tweeting at you and offering you words of encouragement.  And you can offer those same kind words to other readers.

I'll be tweeting most of Saturday using the #readathon and #ReadInColour hashtags, so if you're participating, let me know so I can cheer you on and find out what you're reading.  Now what are your tips on getting through the readathon and what's in your stack?