Readathon: The Finish Line!!!

Yeah!!! I did it. We did it. The finish line of the the readathon. I remained awake for the entire 24 hours and read 40-45 minutes per hour. This means, conservatively, 960 minutes or 16 hours of actual reading. I read seven books, finishing six of them:

1. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely


2. Indignation by Philip Roth


3. Silk by Alessandro Baricco


4. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery


5. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh


6. Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose


7. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (1/4 completed)

Later this week, I will try to write reviews of the six books I completed.

The final mini-challenge, the End of the Event Meme:

Which hour was most daunting for you? Hard to say. Mentally, hour 18 because I still wasn't sure I could make it the entire 24 hours. Physically, hour 24 because I had to spend some of it reading standing up in order not to fall asleep.

Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? I found The Elegance of the Hedgehog quite delightful. But, there are allusions to literature and philosophy in it, not to mention being literature in translation, so I would recommend reading it earlier in the 24 hours.

Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope.

What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The cheerleaders were great. I wasn't sure anyone would actually visit my blog to cheer me on, but quite a few people did and I appreciate it.

How many books did you read? See above.

What were the names of the books you read? See above.

Which book did you enjoy most? Probably The Elegance of the Hedgehog. But Indignation was also quite good.

Which did you enjoy least? Definitely The Loved One. It wasn't as funny as I was led to believe an Evelyn Waugh book would be.

If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was a reader, but I am grateful for their efforts.

How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely actually. It was hard, but as I said in my hour 22 post, the reward is the feeling of accomplishment you get from the successfully struggling to overcome yourself, to push yourself past what you thought were your limits to do something that most people will tell you is insane. So, in essence: not always fun while you are doing it, but definitely something you look back on fondly enough to do it again.

And now, my fellow readers and cheerleaders -- To sleep, perchance to dream...