Dewey's Read-a-Thon

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I needed a few days to recover from the read-a-thon!

Thank yous

Thanks to Hannah, Eva, and Nymeth for helping make this read-a-thon fantastic!

Also thanks to our volunteers, Beth Fish, Trish, Jodie, and Darren. You all were invaluable!

Wieners!

One of our drawings in Hour 5 was a random drawing of two cheerleaders. One of the cheerleaders that we drew wasn’t able to end up cheering, so we’ve redrawn a new winner! Lynn from Chronicles of an Infant Bibliophile wins a book of her choice from the Prizes page and one of the following (given out on a first come, first served basis):

• Laura’s bookmark set
• 2 sets from Katrina (winner gets one of these, but we have 2 to give away)
• Kim’s bookmark
• a set of literary stamps
• Read-a-thon mug

Here’s some winners from mini-challenges we didn’t have a challenge to announce during the actual read-a-thon:

The winner of Dana at Scraptherapy’s mini-challenge Four That Never Bore was Mervi

The winner of Trisha at The Book Case’s mini-challenge Re-Reading the Classics was Tami & Dave.

Now for winners who we had to draw after the read-a-thon was over:

• Most time spent reading: Liyana Liyana Land with 24.5 hours! Liyana, you’re our hero.You’ve won a $15 Amazon gift card!
• Most pages read: Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food with 6,882. LOL. I think we all wish we could read this fast. You’ve also won a $15 Amazon gift card!
• Most enthusiastic cheerleader was Jill from Fizzy Thoughts. Everyone loved your cheers, Jill! You get a $25 Amazon gift card
• The other most enthusiastic cheerleader was Eva from A Striped Armchair. Congratulations! You’ve won a $20 Amazon gift card!

Winners of the end-of-event meme:

• Fiona from Book Journeys won 5 books of her choice from the Prizes page
• Melissa from One Librarian’s Book Reviews one of the Hachette bundles from the Prizes page

Winners, please email deweyreadathon at gmail to claim your prize.

Money for Charity!

As far as we can tell, $956 was raised for charity! You guys are awesome! (Probably more money was raised but it’s hard to keep track of everyone!)

Other cool stuff

We have a French version! They had their first read-a-thon in June and had 10 people participate. They’re already planning another read-a-thon for 2010!

Begging and Pleading

Unfortunately for me, Eva and Nymeth have decided to not to co-host in the future. So we’re now in need of at least two more co-hosts for April. I can’t say exactly what you would do as far as co-hosting before the read-a-thon, because we split up the duties so one person isn’t saddled with everything, but things that we do pre-read-a-thon and that you may or may not end up doing include: soliciting prizes, getting mini-challenge hosts, organizing the cheerleaders, answering questions, divvying up the prizes for the various hours, etc. Duties during the read-a-thon  are more universal and include: posting during each hour of your shift (shifts are 6 hours), being the back-up for someone else who is posting for their shift, monitoring Twitter, going around to participants as needed, following up with mini-challenge hosts, etc. If you’re interested in co-hosting or volunteering in some other way, please send an email to deweyreadathon at gmail.

The next read-a-thon…

The date for the next read-a-thon is April 10, 2010. Mark your calendars!

(Originally I’d set this date for April 3, 2010, but April 4th is Easter, so I switched it.)

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The October 2009 round of Dewey’s Read-a-Thon is officially over!

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, and be sure to subscribe to this blog’s feed so you can see our wrap-up post later, as well as our announcement of the dates for the next one!

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This is the final hour! Can you believe another round of Dewey’s Read-a-Thon is almost over? It’s been great, and thanks so much to all the participants!

And, because it’s so true, our final song for the read-a-thon is: “Hard Day’s Night” from the Beatles!

For this hour, please answer the End of Event meme on your blog, then come back here and add your specific post’s link to Mr. Linky. We’ll draw 2 inners; one will get 5 books while the other gets the Hatchette bundle. 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?

Edited to Add: Sometimes it takes a few seconds or refreshes for your link to appear in Mr. Linky. Give it at least a minute or two before you decide there’s a problem.

And here are the winners from the surprise drawing of readers who were still awake back in Hour 22:
Petunia
Samantha (Amethyst Princess)

And the winner of Memory’s mini-challenge: Trish (Trish’s Reading Nook)

Congrats ladies! E-mail us about prizes!

Also, if you think you’re in the running for most pages read or most time spend reading, include your numbers via this form, and we’ll announce the winners later.

Finally, if you were a participant in any way (reader or cheerleader!) please e-mail us (deweyreadathon AT gmail) your vote for Most Enthusiastic Cheerleader (make that the subject).

Thanks again everyone! I hope you all had a WONDERFUL time! I know that I did!

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This hour, we don’t have any mini-challenges for you. But we’re in the homestretch now guys: only two hours to go! Keep it up!

And since you’re champions, let’s go ahead and celebrate that with Queen! Say it after me: “We Are the Champions”:

I’d like to announce the winner of the Turn to Page… Mini-Challenge: Kim. Congrats! Please e-mail us (deweyreadathon(at)gmail) for your prize information.

Still happening:
if you’re a reader who’s still awake and wants to be in a prize drawing, comment on Hour 22.

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Only 3 hours left guys! That’s 180 minutes! If you need some extra-special encouragement, leave a comment and I’ll send you an e-mail. For some general help staying awake, why don’t you “Shout” along with Otis Day and the Knights?

This hour, we don’t have any new mini-challenges. However, we have 5 winners from those who left comments on the readers of Hour 20:
Jehara
Lenore
Donna Shepard
Karin (Karin’s Book Nook)
Trish (Trish’s Book Nook)

And one more winner to announce: Memory won the mini-challenge at Libri Touches!

Congrats everyone: e-mail us about your prizes.

As if that weren’t enough, we have another surprise drawing!!! This time, it’s of readers who are still awake, so leave a comment on this post letting us know you’re still out there and we’ll draw two winners during Hour 24 (so you have two hours to comment on THIS post.)

Still happening:
Memory’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour.)
Gail’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour.)

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Need to ward off sleep? Get moving to “Jailhouse Rock” by the King himself, Elvis Presley:
Also, a reader suggestion (thanks Ice Dream): “A Change is Going to Come” by Sam Cooke:
(t

This hour, we’ve also got two activities to keep you awake! Gail is hosting the Take a Break mini-challenge and offering the winner a signed copy of Boy Toy, and Dana is hosting Adison’s mini-challenge. That winner will receive a $10 bookstore gift card.

Also, we have a surprise drawing!!! The following two cheerleaders have been randomly chosen to win prizes:
Diane (Bibliophile by the Sea)
Katrina (Katrina’s Reads)
Ladies, please e-mail us to find out about your prizes.

And two more winners to announce:
Monica has won the Give Me Five give away . Please e-mail us to find out about your prize.

Patti of Reading Distractions has won Nikki’s mini-challenge. You should be getting an e-mail from Nikki about your prize.

Congrats to all of our winners!

Still happening:

Shel’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour)
Memory’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of Hour 22)

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This hour, to help you out, Steppenwolf has kindly agreed to perform their classic “Born to Be Wild”:

Memory’s challenging you to Picturrific, and the winner will get a bookish art prize pack!

Additionally, we have five readers of the hour! Visit them and leave a comment by the end of this hour; a winner will be chosen from the comments on each blog.
Reading Distractions
S. Krishna’s Books
Another Book Blog-Whore
I’m Booking It
Books of Mee

The winner of Care’s mini-challenge is Sarah Hayes! Congrats!

We’ve officially entered ‘the 20′s’: the final few hours of the read-a-thon. Congrats on being up this long, and keep pushing through!

Still happening:

Lynn’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour)
Shanra’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour)
Shel’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of Hour 21)

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A big round of applause for Nymeth, the marvelous co-host of the last six hours! And now it’s my (Eva’s) turn; I’ll be seeing you through to the bitter end. And I couldn’t be more excited!

We’re six hours from the end, and I know it can be hard to push through. I also know when I’m tired, nothing wakes me up faster than awesome music that makes me want to sing out loud and jump around. So each update, I’ll be providing you a Youtube music video to enjoy (if you wish)! Do not judge my taste in music. :p And if you have anything you’d love to here, tell me in a comment and I’ll add it!
Our musical guest this hour: Aretha Franklin with “Respect”

This hour, Shel’s challenging you to Turn to page… The winner gets to choose 3 books from our prize pool. I know it’s getting into the wee hours, but you’re in the home stretch now, so keep it up!

The winner for my (Eva’s) mini-challenge honouring Dewey: Chris of Book-a-Rama. Congrats Chris! E-mail us (deweyreadathon(at)gmail) to see about your prize.

Still happening:

Nicki’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of this hour)
Lynn’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of Hour 20)
Shanra’s Mini-Challenge (open until the end of Hour 20)

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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

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(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:

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

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