One of my favorite days of the year is here! It’s time to get our read-a-thon on y’all, and I’m so excited I couldn’t sleep last night. Seriously, I think I was up until 2:00, which is bad form, but there it is. Let’s hope I can make it the long haul today. In my defense, I finally had the opportunity to watch the ONE Doctor Who episode I’ve never seen; A Christmas Carol. I knew I wouldn’t be able to watch it today, sooooo…. C’est la vie, mes amis.
Dewey’s read-a-thon has always been my favorite community building activity the lovely and amazing Dewey left us with. It’s so hard to believe this is the fifth year of this event! If you don’t know the history of this event, you should definitely check out the history page on Dewey’s Read-a-thon page. For some of us, this is as much as celebration of Dewey as it is reading. Thank you Dewey, for your amazing spirit. We love and miss you so much! I still hate that I was just getting to know you, when you left us.
So, you GUYS. This is my first year participating as a cheerleader too!
I am NOT a cheerleader sort at all. I’m lame at coming up with rhymes. But I have great enthusiasm for reading and blogging, so I thought what the hey. Those cheerers always look like they are having SO MUCH FUN. And that is something I love. So I’ll be reading and cheering. I’m on Team Lucky Charms and, well, you know Lucky Charms ARE the best. Come to think of it, I wish I had a box. Hm…
This will be my official Readathon post for the day. Any updates I have will pop up here. I’m starting the day out on Twitter, trying to rally the troops, then I’ll start reading at 8, with The Dead of Night by John Marsters. See you soon my dears!
Update 1 – 3:30 PM
WELL, things were going GREAT until my husband got up. He suddenly decided, and unfortunately he was right, that we needed to go to town to get the kids Halloween costumes. Sweetie that he is, he agreed to drive, so that I could read as much as possible. So now, we’re home, with a leopard and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume (and some pumpkin doughnuts!) and I’m ready to get down to business.
Books read: The Dead of Night by John Marsden; 278 pages
Hours read: 4 hours
Snacks: 1 Pumpkin Doughnut
Time spent cheering: About an hour before start time, going to visit a few of my readers now.
Starting Shivers, Whiskers, and Wolves.
Update 2 – 9:00 PM
Y’all, I ain’t doin’ so great. I’ve only finished one book! It was an excellent book, but still! And here it is, 9:00! Eek! I have work to do. I’m going to go settle down in my reading chair with a bag of Cheese Doodles and some water and bang out another book, dang it.
Frustration brings out my Southern, so I do apologize. Bless my heart.
Here are my answers to the Mid Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?
Shivers, Wishes and Wolves, a graphic novel by Lemke. I have Hotey by Josephine Bailey on deck. If you are an audiobook listener, yes, it is THAT Josephine Bailey. o/
2. How many books have you read so far?
ONE! 
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
FINISHING ANOTHER BOOK!
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
Um, obviously I SHOULD HAVE.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Went with the flow. *sigh*
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
As always, how fast it goes!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
Heck no.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
I’d make sure my day was FREE. Dang it.
9. Are you getting tired yet?
Surprisingly no, since I was up until 2 last night.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?
Nope, just keep plodding on! See you in the morning I expect. Have fun everyone!
Update 3 – 9:32 PM
I finished another book! Shivers, Wishes and Wolves was fantastic. On to something else!
Books read: 2
The Dead of Night by John Marsden
Shivers, Wishes and Wolves by Donald Lemke
Pages read: 453
Update 4 – 8:00 AM – Let’s close this baby down!
So, uh, hi there! I just woke up, like 30 minutes ago. This read-a-thon did not go at all like I expected, on the reading front, but boy howdy did I have fun cheering. Here’s my final questionnaire:
1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
Have fun cheering! Really, it's not about the clever rhyming – just sincere cheer and encouragement. and have fun reading, too!
Have a great time with the read-a-thon! I'm joining in too. I'm not a cheerleader but hope to visit many blogs to cheer people on anyway.
I hope you will have a great time during the readathon and with cheering too
Have fun!
I talked myself out of cheering because I can't ever come up with actual cheers but I do like doing my non-rhyming cheers by leaving comments
I need to sign up for cheerleading next time.
Happy Read-a-Thon!
Hope you are off to a great start!
Elizabeth with Team Fruit Loops
I'm glad to have you cheering with us this year!! I hope you'll have fun. I'm not really the cheering type, either, but I always enjoy myself. I hope you have an amazing readathon!
Bravo for reading BIG!!! Rah, rah Readathon!! Go Heather!
Good luck with your reading today and have fun!
Did you see my wacko attempt at cheering? I'm with you on that–BUT the enthusiasm goes a long way and you ROCK at it! Thanks for being so awesome Heather.
I am not much of a cheerleader myself, but it is interesting to see what everyone is reading. Hope you enjoy your day. Happy Reading!
"Don't stop, never give up
Hold your head high and reach the top"
ROCK THIS READATHON!!!!!
I never cheer… I comment… I suck! And, I am only popping on here and there, so not even really commenting either.
I'm here from #cheerfroot to give you a big readathon cheer: *o/* Hope you're having fun!
One book is awesome! Hope you enjoyed your reading day!
Thanks you guys!! Geez, I love me some readathon cheerleaders.
I'm in the same boat. I've only finished one complete book, and I'm sure it'll be a few hours yet before I polish off another. Sigh. Still, at least we're both reading something!
Are you pullin' an all nighter? If so, good luck!
LOL. Yes, bless your heart. It's that dang twitter. Twitter distracts us from books and cheering.
You rock Heather.
Hope you're still having fun!! *o/*
Have a great Read-a-thon! Happy Reading!
I'm not reading as much as I thought I would but I'm having a great time. The cheerleaders have been awesome today! Glad you volunteered to be one. It's really a necessary part of the whole thing.
I can't rhyme either! And I prefer reading over a lot of cheering, instead I just pop in and say Hi. Looks like you did pretty good during the event seems like a few people read In the Dead of night.
I know you must've been peeved that you had to interrupt your reading to go get costumes. But I bet your little ones will look adorable in their Halloween finery.
Also, pumpkin donuts sound like a great reading snack.
I know you wound up with less reading time than you wanted, but I hope your time reading was nice and cozy, that's what matters
This was my first year cheering and it was so much fun! I am much happier with my cheer stats than my reading stats, too. But I can live with it.