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?

GET YOUR READ ON!

Earlier this year I published a post about the need for diverse books for adults as well as kids. Dewey's 24-hour readathon is coming up in October and even if you're not planning to participate, wouldn't it be great if we could share books we love with each other to help others build their reading lists?

How do I do that, you ask. It's simple.

1. I've created a Google spreadsheet listing all of my five and four star reads broken down by genre and the race and/or nationality of the main character(s). Enter your recommendations here; or
2. Enter your recommendations in the form below; or 
3. Tweet about them using the hash tag #ReadInColour. 

Once a week, I'll go through the submissions and hash tag and add those recommendations to the spreadsheet. By the time October 17th rolls around, you should have plenty of books from a lot of great authors to choose from.

#BookReview: Colored Sugar Water - Venise Berry

I remember thinking a few months ago that I missed the writing of authors like Venise Berry.  Then I re-read Colored Sugar Water during a read-a-thon and wondered what exactly it was that I was missing.  The book was okay, but I think I oversold myself on the story line before.  Maybe I liked her other books, So Good and All of Me, but this one? I found myself giving it the ultimate side eye on several occasions.

Colored Sugar Water is Lucy Merriweather's story.  The granddaughter of a Louisiana healer, Lucy believes in a little of everything, from fortune telling to voodoo to God.  Lucy, the regional manager of a successful chain of fitness centers, is stuck in a stable, but boring, relationship with Spencer, a McDonald's franchise owner.  Spencer is dependable, but far too predictable for Lucy.

Adel Kelly has been Lucy's best friend since their college days.  Married to Thad, who's always on the brink of the next great idea, Adel is tired of carrying the weight of their household on her shoulders.  At her age, she should be thinking about having babies, but if Thad doesn't get it together, she'll be raising any future kids as a single mother.

When the two happen across a late night commercial for psychics, Lucy dares to call the number, even as Adel warns her not to.  Before she knows it, Lucy is caught up in a whirlwind romance with Kuba, the man that answered the phone, and Spencer and Adel are both losing the Lucy they used to know.

This book started off fairly decent and then it evolved into Christianity versus voodoo versus the supernatural.  It just didn't work for me.  I prefer to keep my genres separate.  I know that when I pick up a Tananarive Due book, I'm going to get vampires and what not.  When I picked up this book, there was no indication that Venise Berry was going to try to take me there.  If I had realized that before I started reading, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

272pp
Published: December 2001

 

Theme: Nightmares by Dana Dane

#BookReview: Bumped - Sibylla Nash

This book has been on my radar for a minute, but I was saving it for the read-a-thon. One of the things I've learned with read-a-thons is that it's best to keep your reading material short and lighthearted.  That way you don't get weighed down with any one book for too long and you don't get bogged down with deep thoughts or heavy feelings about the subject matter.

With that thought in mind, I added Bumped by first time author Sibylla Nash to my must read list for the read-a-thon and I'm glad I did.  I recently started the Spying in High Heels series by Gemma Halliday and Bumped reminded me of that series meets Platinum by Aliya S. King.  So picture a quirky every day girl turned detective who just happens to be involved in the music scene and you've got Elle Nixon.

PR maven by day (and a lot of nights), Elle is at the top of her game.  She loves her job and she's gearing up for a promotion.  Her love life is going pretty well too, or at least it was before her boyfriend disappeared on her.  Now pregnant, disgraced and jobless, Elle is having a heck of a time trying to make sense of it all.

What did you like about this book?
Nash blends just the right amount of fun and quirky with mystery to give a delightful read for lovers of chick lit.


What didn't you like about this book?
Off the top of my head, I can't think of a thing.


What could the author do to improve this book?
I'd be perfectly happy with a series of books about Elle.  The chick lit world could definitely use a colorful chick like her.

214pp
Published August 2011

 

Theme: Crumblin' Down by John Mellencamp

The Weekend in Review

So I started this weekend's read-a-thon like this at 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning:

By 8:30 a.m., I had finished book one and I was still like:

I finished book two with ease around 12:30 p.m.  I felt myself waning and decided to eat lunch and have a Pepsi.  By the time I dived into book three at 2:30 p.m., I was like:

Now I probably could have gotten in a few more books, but I had a dinner invite that I couldn't miss, so I finished book three right around 5:40 and headed out for the evening.  Could I regain my momentum? Uh, no.  I started book four around 11:30 p.m. and halfway through I was all: 

I think I made it to 2:00 a.m. and just couldn't go any further.  With my alarm set for 4:00 a.m., I figured I could get up and have book five read before the 7:00 a.m. end of the read-a-thon.  Let me tell you, when my alarm went off, THIS was the look on my face.

Needless to say, I didn't start reading. I rolled right back over and went to bed.  So I didn't read all five books that I planned to read, but I did get in three books that qualify for the Colorful Chick Lit challenge and a very good historical fiction read.  Look for reviews of those books and more in the next few weeks.

Who else participated? Did you last all 24 hours or did you crash like me? What did you read? Details, details!

 

Free for All Friday, October 21

I know many of you set reading goals at the beginning of the year and, if you're anything like me, you're behind with your reading.  While I've managed to stay current with my goal of reading 100 books this year, I'm woefully behind on the number of books I'd like to read for the Colorful Chick Lit Challenge.  I'll be spending 24 hours, beginning at 7 a.m. CST Saturday, reading to catch up.  Sponsored by the good people over at Dewey's Read-a-Thon twice a year, I try to participate at least once a year and always enjoy the visits from other readers to the blog.  Stop by Saturday and Sunday for updates here and over on my tumblr.  Details are below.

What is the 24 Hour Read-a-thon?
It’s sort of a reading challenge, only everyone participates at the same time. For 24 hours, we read books, post in our blogs about our reading, and visit other readers’ blogs. We also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day and win prizes.

Do I have to stay up the whole 24 hours?
No, although it’s more fun if if you do. Cheerleaders only need to commit to at least one hour, and Readers can either choose to stay up the entire time or take breaks as they need to. There are some prizes that you’ll only be eligible for if you participate all 24 hours.

Do e-books count?
Well, sure! Also audio books, reading to the kids, etc

Where can I sign up? 
You can sign up to be a Reader in the read-a-thon here and can sign up to be a volunteer here.

An overwhelming number of people that read this blog and follow me on Twitter are women.  I've had discussions with a few of you about whether or not men read and, if they do, their reading habits.  Though the handful of male readers rarely chime in, you'll be hearing from them soon as I launch my "Real Men Read" series.  If you've wondered where the men that read are and what they're reading, you'll have a chance to find out as I feature their thoughts about and comments on books once a month.

That's all for now.  Anyone joining me for the read-a-thon? 

Happy New Year & What Not

Welcome to a new year and new books.  I was going to launch right into a book review today, but instead I decided to give you a peek into some of the things I have planned for this year.

As most of you know, I decided to host a Colorful Chick Lit challenge here, as well as on Goodreads. It's not my intention to tell anyone what they should read, but I will be featuring at least one book and author each month that fits into the challenge guidelines.  The purpose is twofold. It will give those that are having difficulty finding colorful chick lit a book suggestion.  And it will give the author some well deserved promotion of her book.  Each book will be highlighted for a week of the month with a review that Monday, an interview or chat with the author on Wednesday, and a book giveaway on Friday.

While I'm still working out the details for the year, our first quarter books and authors will be:

January 
The Frugalista Files by Natalie McNeal

February

Sweet Little Lies by Michele Grant

March

Good-bye to All That by Margo Candela

If you have questions for the authors, please email me at lisa@reads4pleasure.com.  Do you know of a book that you think should be featured this year?  Be sure to leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

I'll also be hosting a readathon at some point this year to help readers catch up on their reading challenges. I've eliminated January and December as potential months because we're already in January and there's too much going on in December to play catch up.  So in what other months would you be interested in participating in a readathon? Don't worry. It doesn't have to be a hardcore 24-hour readathon.  More than likely we're talking about six to 12 hours.

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