This past week, Darian and I both participated in the High Summer Read-a-Thon hosted by Michelle over at Seasons of Reading. It was the first time I've been able to read for fun in quite a while and I really enjoyed it. I'd forgotten how nice it could be.
I spent the first part of the week doing nothing but academic reading. I busted my can to get ahead in my courses so I could free up most of the weekend for the fun stuff. The good news is that I racked up about two hours a day on Monday through Thursday. The bad news is that it was all linguistics and early American non-fiction. Not the most riveting of materials.
On Thursday afternoon, we really got started. Collin picked up Darian from his mom's and I set up the always anticipated snack table.
It was a pretty darned good spread if I do say so myself. We picked on it throughout the weekend. It always works out pretty well for us and I think it was probably the one factor enticing the teenager to actually join in.
Later Thursday night, I got a wild hair while reading out on the patio and hauled the tent out of the shed. Darian helped me (I use that term very loosely) to set it up in the backyard. We used it off and on throughout the weekend for a little change of scenery. I set up shop there for almost all of Saturday evening and a good chunk of Sunday afternoon. Darian wasn't as enthralled, especially since he was spending a good portion of his time vacillating between a book and YouTube videos on his tablet. Teenagers...
It all ended far too soon. I took down the tent this evening and dismantled the snack table. It was a sad event. The good news is that I'll have the opportunity to bust it all back out next month for Bout of Books 14.
It was a great weekend full of fun reading and I look forward to doing it again soon. I managed to finish off three books and get about half way through a fourth. I'm pretty pleased with that and even happier that I'm now less than 20 books behind on my Goodreads goal...ouch.
Darian didn't track his statistics, stating that he found it "more fun" to just read. He finished one book, so I'm just glad it got him to accomplish something beyond watching Minecraft videos and Pewdiepie.
I didn't track my pages, but I did track my time. Here are my final stats:
Academic Reading Time : ~ 8 hours
Relaxation Reading Time : 12 hours, 10 minutes
Total Reading Time : ~20 hours
Currently Reading:
Books Completed : 3
The books I finished were really useful in checking off a few squares on my Books on the Nightstand Bingo card.
Thanks to this read-a-thon, I've also realized that I really need to make some time for fun reading during my week or weekends. Pulling myself away from my iPad should free up a few hours each week, so that's now the plan. I get sucked into that thing far too easily.
With any luck, I'll be able to keep working steadily at my Goodreads goal. Hey...just imagine...at some point I could be less than 10 books behind.
I've mentioned it already, but I love the tent idea. I wonder if my boyfriend would object if I set one up in the living room during BoB or Dewey's...
ReplyDeleteHappy you got so much "fun" reading done! It sounds like your life has been taken over by school, so I'm glad you were able to kick back with leisure reading this weekend. :)
The tent was totally the bomb. I'm thinking I'll probably set it up for Bout of Books 14 as well. You should totally put it in your living room! I was contemplating putting mine up on the patio this time so that my grass doesn't die underneath. :)
DeleteOMG, Elle! You had the funnest read-a-thon EVER! That snack table is impressive! And love the tent idea. So cool! I'm glad Darian joined in too. Thanks for joining me for another read-a-thon.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on the giveaway winners. Stay tuned!
We are all about the snacks over here. (Sugar is how I bribe the teenager to participate.) The tent was a good whim. I think I'll be putting it up more often. Now I just need to get an air mattress to put inside...
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