Dewey's Read-a-thon: Summary

The read-a-thon is over! After finishing A Noble Radiance last night, I was starting to falter and knew I needed a really compelling read to keep me going. So I picked up Kenneth Oppel's Skybreaker, the sequel to Airborn, and it was the perfect choice. I read for another 1.5 hours last night and half-an-hour this morning before the 8am deadline. Kate slept through the last 10 hours of the read-a-thon but is back at reading, with The Calling in her hands, even though the event is over.

Here are Kate's final totals:
Hours of reading: 5
Total pages read: 378
Books finished: 1
Other books started: 1

My totals:
Hours of reading: 9
Total pages read: 693
Books finished: 2
Other books started: 1
Mini-challenges done: 4
Cheerleading hours: 2

Kate and I spent 16 hours participating (reading and cheerleading) in the read-a-thon, so as promised, we've donated $32 to Free the Children.

Now for the end-of-event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
   The final hour. Normally, I'm an early riser but I had a hard time getting up this morning to do that last bit of reading I had planned.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
   Young adult books are always good for read-a-thons. The Hunger Games would keep you reading, if you've not read them already.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
   I've really enjoyed being a cheerleader, but it would be nice to encourage every reader to do a bit of cheerleading. I suspect most readers find it too daunting to commit to a set number of hours, so how about just suggesting that every reader pick 2 or 3 blogs to follow for the day? To keep the "team" feel, you can ask all readers in the Team Polonius list to choose their blogs from Team Falstaff, for example.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
   I enjoyed several of the mini-challenges, and many of the ones I didn't end up doing seemed fun and I liked seeing the participants' responses. The best challenges were the ones that were a little bit challenging but didn't take a lot of time to do (so that they didn't take away from reading/cheerleading time).
5. How many books did you read?
   For me: two finished and another started. For Kate: one finished and another started.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
   For me: The Calling by Kelley Armstrong and A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon. Also started Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel.
   For Kate: Scrivener's Moon by Philip Reeve. Also started The Calling by Kelley Armstrong.
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
   Can't decide -- we liked them all!
8. Which did you enjoy least?
   Can't decide -- we liked them all!
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
   I temporarily subscribed to all the blogs I was covering so I could immediately see the updated ones in Google Reader.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
    Yes, Kate and I will definitely participate again, and I will do some cheerleading again next time.

Thanks to the organizers for another extremely well-run event!