So, very recently I realized that you can't classify a period in your life as a "reading slump" if it lasts for over a year. I started my first year of college last fall, and since then I've done a LOT of academic reading, with very little time and motivation left over for casual reading. To try and inspire myself, I've decided to take a more active part in a bunch of read-a-thons so that I have goals and communities to encourage me to read! And so far it is kind of working? Kind of?
For those of you who don't know, "read-a-thons" are generally week/month-long events where a group of people get together to try and read as much as possible. These events usually have fun themes or challenges.
Last week I took part in The Reading Rush (formerly known as the Booktubathon), which is a week-long read-a-thon that I participate in annually. There were tons of goals and prompts, and I successfully completed eight of the challenges and read a total of five books!
Here is my wrap-up for the week!
I read a total of 925 pages, 697 of those being on the last day (I wasn't very consistent).
The first book I read was "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," a poetry collection by Pablo Neruda. I rated it 3 out of 5 stars. I did like some of the poems, but others had imagery that was a little bit off-putting or overly sexualized, which just wasn't consistently for me. This collection full-filled the challenge to read an entire book in one location, as well as the challenge to read a book with five or more words in the title.
Next I read "Through the Woods" by Emily Carroll, a collection of horror comics. I am a fan of Carroll's work, and rated it 5 stars. Although I didn't find most of the stories scary, I did love the art and atmosphere. It fulfilled the challenge to read a five-star book.
After that, I read "A Murder is Announced" by Agatha Christie. I normally don't really like Christie's novels (I find that their endings can often be ass-pulls), but I really liked this book, and rated it 5 out of 5 stars. It wasn't anything groundbreaking to the mystery genre, but it was fun and easy to read. It fulfilled the challenge to read a book with a purple cover.
Once that was done, I read both graphic novels in the Persepolis series by Marjane Satrapi, which I rated both of them 3 stars each. Although the topic was really interesting, exploring the author's childhood in wartime Iran, I felt as though the books had been overhyped to me. I then watched the movie adaptation, which I also felt was flawed. These books satisfied the challenges to read a book and then watch its adaptation, as well as to read an author's first book.
I completed two additional challenges as well: to participate in a Twitter sprint (where lots of readers simultaneously read as much as they can), and to simply participate in the read-a-thon.
The Reading Rush is always one of my favorite reading events each year, and is hosted by one of my favorite youtubers, Ariel Bissett. This year, she and her co-host Raeleen also created a website to track your reading on! Although the website was very slow and at times had to be shut down due to overuse, it was still an amazing addition to the event, and I'm proud of Ariel's ambition.
According to the website, a grand total of 10,338,139 were read as part of the Reading Rush! That's no small feat. I'm just glad my 925 pages were able to help add to that.
I plan on writing some reviews on the books I read for the read-a-thon, if possible. I also plan on participating in two read-a-thons next month (specifically the N.E.W.T.s Magical Read-a-thon and Femme Fantale Read-a-thon). I'll probably write wrap-ups for those as well, if I see any success!
Thanks for reading!
- Claire
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