Coming Face To Face With The Demon

How have I never done this before?

A 24-Hour Read-a-thon.

Ah, the days before blogs, I guess... Anyway. It's insanity. It's tailor-made for me. Twenty-four hours of fiend-like reading. Checking in online occasionally. Comparing notes. Greedily devouring as many books, as many pages as I possibly can.

I love it.

Can I do it? I'm not as good at staying up as I used to be. I'm not sure I want to suffer the consequences of staying up 24 hours. But maybe I could do 18 hours. And tack on a few the next day. I could surely read from 9 am to 11 pm with no problem, and can stretch it to 1 or 2 am without too much further struggle. After about 2 am I am not much good for anything. But we'll see. I don't know. I don't have any plans yet for the 28th as far as I know... and the next evening is my book club's 100th meeting celebration.

Anyway. I'll have to think about it. I'm very tempted. It sounds lovely. Like heaven, actually...

A Read-A-Thon Meme (slightly doctored by me):

If I had 24 hours to read, be my goals would be…
Oh, I am competetive. I would want to read as many pages as possible and toss books in my wake like a madwoman. I would want to have an astounding page count at the end. I would also want to not get sick, not get a headache, and not get terribly crabby and crampy from sitting still all day. But pshaw, that's nothing to a book addict like me. I would want to be up there with the champion book-a-thoners. (rarely am I competetive. But rarely am I any good at anything in a competetive arena.)

This is what I am going to have to do to get 24 hours of reading…
This is where my relatively low-key lifestyle comes in handy. All I'll have to do is alert Terri, and stock the house pre-read. She'd probably be happy with this. We'd snuggle in on the couch all day, her with movies and books and Internet, and me with piles of books and cats and snacks. It would not be that difficult. It would be easy. Too easy. Just make sure we have snacks and cat food, and that I don't have any petsitting clients that day. It could be done.

If someone asked me for recommendations of “can’t put down” books for the read-a-thon, I would recommend:
I supposed young adult novels are really good for this sort of thing. Too bad I already read the Twilight series, those would be perfect. But catching up on John Bellairs and Lois Lowry? Perfect. Throw in some Neil Gaiman and Larry McMurtry for easy, thoughtful reads... and maybe some quickie supernatural thrillers. I might even pull out a few old Oz favorites and Mother West Wind, for when the reading gets tough.

What types of books might you read for the read-a-thon?
See above. Definitely YA. A nice quick novel or two. Nothing too heavy, nothing that takes a lot of concentration. Perhaps an old favorite, something I haven't read in a long time. Maybe a few No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency volumes. Some more Lincoln Child and Douglass Preston. If I'm going to indulge in all-day reading, might as well just go for complete indulgence and read whatever my greedy little brain is attracted to. This would not be the time for 'should' books. This would be all about "I want."

What kind of supplies would you need for 24 hours of reading?
Lots of snacks that won't interfere with page-turning. Popcorn and cheese. Maybe some cut up fruit (pre-cut! No time for kitchen prep!). Maybe some veggies and dip. Nothing too messy. Lots of ice water and some cozy tea, not too much caffeine (no jitters). This would be the time for something retro like a pot pie (storebought!) or maybe pasta (made by my darling Terri). As the night goes on, would need some ice cream, definitely. A few cookies.

(how could this ever be a bad idea? Come on!!)

Are you going to do it?
Um. I believe that question is now answered. Unless something comes up: yes!