A readathon is more or less a reading spree held for any varying lengths of time, where participants try to read as many books as possible.
I was introduced to readathons just a few short years ago, when I found one of Little Book Owl’s videos about Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon. I decided to participate in the next round, and enjoyed myself. I’ve participated in Dewey’s Readathon ever since. Each readathon is different though. Some are better with the social media participation than others. It’s usually those with the social media participation I enjoy best. It makes it seem like you are reading with others, even though you may be the only one reading in your house, which I always am since my husband is a gamer and doesn’t read books for fun.
The problem is depending on how long the readathon is, I usually have a slow down in reading afterwards. Almost a small reading slump.
If the readathon is only 24 hours, it’s not a problem. But if it’s a week and I am able to participate for most of the week, I seem to slow down in my reading afterwards. I basically don’t feel like reading. So does a readathon really help anything?
If afterwards you, like me, slow down or altogether stop reading, did you really get ahead in your reading goal? While, I’ll say, recovering from the readathon you aren’t reading and are eating into the lead time you may have just given yourself. But what about those who don’t have much time to read?
Maybe you need an excuse to read. You’ve been working 80 hour weeks, plus dealing with spouses, friends in trouble, family, and dinners. A readathon could be your reason to tell the spouse, friends, and family to take care of themselves for a day, or week, or whatever and just read. Possibly even use some PTO time to get away from work.
Overall, I’d say readathons are good. It’s a nice way to usually find other like minded readers and get some good recommendations of what to read, or other bloggers and such to follow for reviews or the kinds of posts you would like to see. Plus, you can always adjust how hard you hit the reading. If you know you are going to slow down after going hard with a week long readathon, don’t hit the books that hard. You can still use the excuse and take the time from work, and use the time to relax and make new friends.