Dewey's Read-a-Thon » Nymeth

Hour 18

Nymeth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:57:40 +0000

This is my last hourly update; Eva-the-superhero will be taking over posting duties starting on hour 19. So allow me to tell you how fantastic you’ve all been so far, and also that I hope you enjoy the last stretch of the read-a-thon! If you’ve made it this far, surely you can make it until the very end

This hour we’d like to ask those of you who are raising money for charity to enter your name in the Mr Linky below. We’ll randomly draw a winner, who’ll get a Hachette bundle of books and one of Katrina’s homemade bookmarks, and announce it after the read-a-thon. This means you have until the end of the event to enter yourselves here:

But that’s not all! Shanra also has a mini-challenge for you. It’s called Write a Drabble, and the winner will get an “Essential Tolkien” audio CD, a small donation to Oxfam in their name, and a home-made origami bookmark. (Shanra was kind enough to make one for me, and I can promise they’re lovely!)

Winners:

The winners of Joy Renee’s mini-challenge are:
Kim (page after page)
NTE Never that Easy
Dangerously Cold Tea
Tif @ Tif Talks Books
Chrissy (book bliss)

The winner of Soleil’s mini-challenge is: Katrina

And the winner of Jill’s mini-challenge is: Lexi

Congratulations to all!! Please contact the mini-challenge hosts to claim your prizes.

Still happening:
Meryl’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Care’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Nicki’s Mini-Challenge
Lynn’s Mini-Challenge

Hour 17

Nymeth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:52:19 +0000

(Any librarians out there?)

How are you all doing? This hour’s two mini-challenges are Nicki’s Dance-a-thon and Lynn’s Give me Five mini-challenge. Nicki’s dancers will get a itunes gift certificate, and Lynn’s winners a $15 e-Bay gift certificate.

Winners:

The winners of the Mid-event survey are: Valerie (who gets an attaché full of books and a chocolate monkey) and Monica (who gets a Hachette bundle of books). Congratulations!

We also randomly picked two readers: Samantha and Book Psmith each get two books of their choice from the prize list. Congratulations, everyone! As before, e-mail deweyreadathon at gmail to claim your loot.

Still happening:

Eva’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Meryl’s Mini-Challenge
Care’s Mini-Challenge

Hour 16

Nymeth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:55:48 +0000

(Same with the read-a-thon…there IS no read-a-thon *looks around dubiously*)

We have another two mini-challenges for you this hour: Meryl invites you all to Make Something, and Care is hosting the Wisdom of the Age Challenge.

Winners will get: A yarn and knitting needles goodie box; or a book of their choice up to $20 from Care’s reading list.

Winners:
The winner of Tara’s mini-challenge is: Megan!

Congratulations! Please e-mail deweyreadathon at gmail to claim your prizes.

Still happening:
Soleil’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Jill’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Eva’s Mini-Challenge

Hour 15

Nymeth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:03:04 +0000

This hour we would like to take a moment to remember Dewey, the much-missed founder of the read-a-thon, who passed away last November. Please visit Eva at A Striped Armchair for a mini-challenge in Dewey’s honour. Even if you never had the chance to meet her, we encourage you to take a moment to read about the lovely person who inspired us all to be here today.

We’ll randomly draw a winner, who’ll get a grab bag of 3 new surprise 2010 ARCs.

Still happening:
Trisha’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Soleil’s Mini-Challenge
Jill’s Mini-Challenge

Hour 14

Nymeth — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:53:22 +0000

Gratuitous cat picture time!

Mini-challenges:
We have two mini-challenges for you this hour: Energize Yourself! A Yoga Mini-Challenge hosted by Soleil, and Music to Read By, hosted by Jill.

Soleil’s winner will get a book of their choice up to $20 and a Jennifer Gordon Bookmark. Jill’s gets a $15 gift card to Powell’s or Amazon.

We also have 5 readers of the hour for you to visit:

Schatzi (the stacks my destination)

Suey (It’s All About Books)

Diane (Bibliophile by the Sea)

Icedream (Reading in Appalachia)

Mari (Mari Reads)

Go say hi!

Winners:

The winners of Nicole’s mini-challenge are:

Icedream @ Reading in Appalachia ($15 Gift certificate to Barnes & Noble)

Velvet @ vvb32 Reads (The Magicians by Lev Grossman)

And the winner of my mini-challenge from hour 10 is Andi.

Congratulations! Don’t forget to e-mail deweyreadathon at gmail to clain your prizes.

Due to an earlier misunderstanding, Wendy had to draw another winner for her mini-challenge, and the winner is: Chris! Congratulations!

Still happening:
Mid-event meme (last hour)
Tara’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Trisha’s Mini-Challenge

Hour 13

Nymeth — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:57:02 +0000

Hello everyone! Nymeth here – I’ll be doing the hourly updates for the next 6 hours. We’re now halfway through the read-a-thon, which means it’s time for the Mid-Event Meme. We invite you to answer the following questions and then enter your link in the Mr Linky below:

Mid-Event Survey:
1. What are you reading right now?

2. How many books have you read so far?

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

9. Are you getting tired yet?

10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

We’ll select two winners: one of them will get an attaché full of books and a chocolate monkey, and the other a Hachette bundle of books.

Winners:
The winner of Erika’s mini-challenge is: Emily! Congratulations! Please email deweyreadathon at gmail to claim your loot.

And for visiting the Readers of the Hour during Hour 11, Robin and Molly get a choice of two books from the prize list. Please e-mail the address above with your contact info and your picks!

Still happening:
Joy Renee’s Mini-Challenge (last hour)
Tara’s Mini-Challenge
Trisha’s Mini-Challenge

Reading for a Cause

Nymeth — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:41:33 +0000

In previous read-a-thons, some of the participants donated an amount of money of their choice to charity for every hour spent reading, every page read, or every book completed. This is by no means mandatory, but we thought we’d remind you that it is an option. Last April, participants managed to raise almost $1,500 for charity, and it would be fantastic if we all could match or surpass that amount this time!

Here is a list of suggested charities we posted last time. You are all, of course, more than free to donate to a charity not on the list. But if you haven’t made up your mind yet, take a look. Maybe you’ll find a cause dear to your heart there.

If you’re reading for a cause and care to share your choice, we’d love to hear about it!

October 2009 Read-a-thon Sign-up post

Nymeth — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:22:48 +0000

It’s almost here! The October 2009 Read-a-thon is only a little over 3 weeks away, so now is the time for those interested in participating to officially sign up.

The Read-a-thon will start: October 24th at 5am Pacific (1pm GMT). You can click over to the start times page to check the starting time in your timezone. Remember that if it’s more convenient to you, you could start either earlier or later, as well as participate for only part of the 24 hours. Very few people make it through the entire 24-hour period without sleeping, so don’t let that discourage you! Sleep is definitely allowed.

For more information on the Read-a-thon, you can read our FAQ. If you have a question that isn’t answered there, you can leave us a comment or e-mail DeweyReadathon at gmail. We’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible!

In the next day or two, we’re going to put up two Google Forms that those interested in hosting mini-challenges can fill in. If you’re new to the Read-a-thon and are wondering what these mini-challenge things are, please check our FAQ!

Also, if you’d like to donate a prize, please e-mail us at DeweyReadathon at gmail. It’d be very much appreciated! Here’s a list of the prizes donated for the April 2009 Read-a-thon in case you’re wondering what to donate.

Another thing you can do: Grab a button from the FAQ page, display it proudly, and help us spread the word.

To sign up to be a Reader, please use the Mr Linky below:

To sign up to be a Cheerleader (aka one of the not-so-secret superheroes of the read-a-thon) please fill the Mr. Linky below:

Remember that you’re more than welcome to be both. Each role is carefully explained in the FAQ. Let us know if you have any further questions!

BBAW – Thank you!

Nymeth — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:45:01 +0000

We were very flattered to find out that Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-thon is on the shortlist for a Book Blogger Appreciation Week award in the category Best Meme/Carnival/Event. Weekly Geeks, another one of Dewey’s projects, was also shortlisted, which just goes to show what a lasting impact Dewey’s had on the blogging community.

To everyone who nominated us – a big thank you! You can vote for the awards until next Saturday, the 12th September, at 11:59 PM EST. Anyone is welcome to vote! And don’t forget that the next Read-a-thon will be on the weekend of the 24th of October.

Hour 24

Nymeth — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:00:40 +0000

THE LAST HOUR!!! If you’ve made it this far, congratulations!! Don’t give up now!

Phew!

This hour, we’ll ask you all to fill this end of the event meme:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
5. How many books did you read?
6. What were the names of the books you read?
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
8. Which did you enjoy least?
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

When you’re done, come back and enter the link to your post in the Mr. Linky below. There will be prizes, yes. The winners will get to pick from whatever hasn’t been claimed yet from the prize list. (Don’t worry, there are still some good prizes up for grabs!)

There will also be prizes for:

Most enthusiastic cheerleader (participants: Please vote by e-mailing deweyreadathon AT gmail.)
Most time spent reading (if you think that might be you, please leave a comment here with your total reading time.)

The winners will be announced once we’ve all had the chance to recover, so keep an eye on this blog for a wrap-up post. We’ll also be announcing the winners of the remaining mini-challenges.

Also, the winner of Jessica’s mini-challenge is: Eva

Congratulations, Eva! Please get in touch with Jessica about your prize.

Thank you so much for participating, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time!

Still happening:

Debbie’s mini-challenge (last hour for this mini-challenge)
Participants in all 4 read-a-thons: leave a comment in the hour 20 post
Vote for the winner of Kim’s comic mini-challenge
Participants who did fund-raising: enter your name on the Mr. Linky from hour 23.