Musing Mondays (5): Read-A-Thons

A meme hosted by MizB at Should be Reading. Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week:

• Describe one of your reading habits.

• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).

• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!

• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.

• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!

• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

You've probably noticed, if you've seen my blog at all before this post, that I really like read-a-thons. It's probably unhealthy how much I like read-a-thons, if I'm being honest, but I can't stop - if there is a read-a-thon, I must do it, I have some weird, unhealthy addiction. I mean, I need breaks in between them to recharge and do other things, but when there is a read-a-thon - I will devote as much time to it as is humanly possible for me. 

I have two main favorites, as far as ones that happen more then once a year: Bout of Books and Dewey's 24 hour Read-A-Thon.

Bout of Books takes place three times a year: January, May, August - it's a weeklong read-a-thon that a ton of people take part in. There are so many people and it's a ridiculous amount of fun with the twitter chats and challenges and reading people's updates everyday and commenting. It's probably my favorite.

Dewey's 24 hours read-a-thon takes place twice a year and runs for 24 hours. So it's quick and a ton of fun and super stressful. I tend to have a lot of fun with something like this - high stress, high goals, limited time. (See: NaNoWriMo overachieving, I hit 300k last November). Dewey's takes place in April and October (this Octobers is October 18th!)

I've taken part in a lot of other read-a-thons, though. Some seem to be one time things, some it's their second or more year, and some happen more frequently. People decide to do a read-a-thon the day before. Maybe I should start my own... No - that's a ton of work. 

So far this year, I've taken part in seven read-a-thons: Bout of Books 9 (January), Dewey's 24 hour (April), Bout of Books 10 (May), BookTubeAThon (July), treesofreverie (July), Bout of Books 11 (August), Beat the Heat (August).

What read-a-thons have you taken part in? Do you have a favorite? Or are they not your thing (tell me why!)?

Most recent read-a-thon (final updates)

Bout of Books 11 Day Seven and Final Wrap-Up

Beat the Hear: Update Post (2)

Read-A-Thon's On the Horizon!

There are two read-a-thon's coming up very soon. So let's split it up and start with the one that's closer, shall we?

Dewey's 24-hour Read-A-Thon. (April 26th)

It's a read-a-thon that goes on for, as you'd guess, a full twenty four hours. I never seem to be able to put aside those full twenty four hours or stay awake the whole time, but it's always a lot of fun and it starts 8am eastern time, but there's a page to find your own start time, it looks like it's got pretty much everywhere to me so you can skip that annoying and hard to do time zone math.

Also they just posted a list of recommended short books, which I thought was a good idea.
Direct link to the reader sign up
Direct link to the cheerleader sign up
Twitter

Bout Of Books 10 (Mid-May, May 12th - May 18th)

This is a read-a-thon that's a week long and takes place multiple times throughout the year. I can't wait for this one to start, already mulling over possible books to read, and it's probably my favorite one just because it's longer. Also - people in the hashtag on Twitter are so nice, as book bloggers are, and it makes those twitter chats a ton of fun.

The official Bout of Books blurb is right here:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 12th and runs through Sunday, May 18th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 10 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. 
- From the Bout of Books team

Bout of Books' Twitter

If you're going to participating in one or the other, or both like me, then leave me a comment so I can check your blog out! I'm awful at remembering to go to people's blog during the read-a-thon times, normally because I'm trying not to go on my computer, but it's on my goal to be better at that this year (and it's always a ton of fun).