READ!!

That’s right, it’s time to dust off those pompoms, brush up on your cheers, and get ready to use an excessive amount of exclamation points!!

What does it mean to be a cheerleader?

Cheerleaders offer encouragement and support to the readers by leaving comments and cheers on the readers’ blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you’ve participated in the Read-A-Thon you know that cheerleaders are some of the most important and valued participants of the Read-A-Thon.

Even readers can be cheerleaders!

Anyone can sign up to be a cheerleader! There are some who act solely as cheerleaders during the event, but if you’re a reader you can also be a cheerleader. Many readers take an hour or two during the Read-A-Thon to focus on cheering. While the main focus of the Read-A-Thon is reading, it is the interaction with other participants that makes this event so special.

How much time do I need to devote?

You can devote as much as 12+ hours or as little as an hour to cheerleading. Time spent cheering can be consecutive or non-consecutive and we need cheerleaders of all hours during the Read-A-Thon. Cheering provides a nice break from reading or a way to participate if your schedule is too full the day of the Read-A-Thon to be a reader.

How will this cheer thing work?

There will be hundreds of readers to visit during the Read-A-Thon, but don’t worry—you won’t be responsible for visiting them all! A few days before the Read-A-Thon starts, you will be assigned to a cheerleading squad based on the hours you can cheer and your level of commitment. Each squad will be then be assigned a group of readers to visit during the event. Of course you’re welcome to visit more than just those readers!

Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah! Now what?

Sign up in the Google form below to volunteer as a cheerleader. We’ll be in touch! In the meantime, you can brush up on more information, tips, and tricks on the Readathon Cheerleading HQ website.

Questions?

Erin of Erin Reads and Trish of Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity are your fearless and overly enthusiastic cheer coaches. Please feel free to email us if you have any additional questions or concerns: readathoncheer {at} gmail {dot} com.

We have a diverse range of mini challenges available. Participate in all of them, or pick and choose the challenges you like! Whichever way you choose to participate, the most important thing is to have fun.  We’re posting a schedule so that you can plan your day according to which challenges most interest you.

Many thanks in advance to everyone who volunteered to host a mini challenge this year, and to everyone who has come up with prizes associated with their challenge.  Also, a HUGE thanks to the Mini Challenge Team: Sheila, Ashley, Jennifer, & Marg.  They put in a lot of work compiling and determining the schedule and coordinating with all of the hosts.  Help us give them a HUGE round of applause!

Each of these challenges will be open for three hours, and are open to all participants of the Read-A-Thon:

(consider helping us out with an angel donation to help cover international shipping!)

Hour 2: Back in the Day Childrens Books challenge hosted by Elizabeth at Miss Wisabus.

Share details of your favourite childrens books either from childhood, or that you have read as an adult.

Hour 3: Six Word Celebration hosted by Andi from Estella’s Revenge.

Come up with six words to celebrate the readathon

Hour 4: Indie Pride hosted at Indiependent Books

Share your indie reads.

Hour 5: Show Me the Books hosted by Crystal at My Reading Room

Show us your books!

Hour 6: Microfiction hosted by Shesten at I Heart Monster

Tell us a story in 100 words or less!

Hour 7: Book Puzzle hosted by Melissa at One Librarian’s Book Reviews

Create a puzzle to represent a book title

Hour 7: Armchair Travelling hosted by Marg at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Has a book ever inspired you to want to go somewhere?

Hour 8: Love to Hate hosted by Brandileigh from Blkosiner’s Book Blog

Share the characters you love to hate.

Hour 9: Shake Those Pom Poms hosted by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts

Come up with a cheer for your fellow readathoners

Hour 10: Pet Pics, Prized Pages and Pachyderm Prose hosted by Lynne at Lynne’s Book Reviews

Share your pet pics and/or write an animal story

Hour 11: Attempting Audiobooks hosted by Jen at Devourer of Books

Are the books you are reading for readathon available on audio, and would you listen to it?

Hour 13: Title Word Scramble hosted by Sheery from Sheery’s Place

Unscramble these modern and classic book titles.

Hour 14: Under the Covers hosted by Vickie at Reading at the Beach

When the cover doesn’t match what’s inside the book.

Hour 15: Wordle Review hosted by Carina at Reading Through Life

Wordle a post that you love.

Hour 16: Poetry Angst! hosted by Shel and Monica from The Hungry Reader

Write a poem about your reading experience.

Hour 17: Ban This Book hosted by Kate at Midnight Book Girl

If you are creative enough you can get any book banned.

Hour 18: Pitch Your Book hosted by Kate at I Just Wanna Sit There and Read

Why should everyone read the book you are reading.

Hour 19: Non Fiction Read-a-thon hosted by Susan at Scraps of Life

Start reading a non-fiction title during the readathon

Hour 20: The Memoir/True Story Challenge hosted by Elisha at Rainy Day Reviews

Do you read memoirs and true stories?

Hour 21: Character Photo Challenge hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books

Feature a character from one of your readathon books in a photo

Hour 22: Favorite Sidekicks/Partners from a book hosted by Kai at Fiction State of Mind

Tell us about your favourite sidekicks!

Hour 23: Make it Up hosted by Lu from Lu’s Raves and Rants

Make up a new word using the letters from the title of your book.

Hours 1, 12, and 24: Memes at 24hourreadathon.com

Wow!  Look at the time!  It’s time again for the search for our wonderful Mini-Challenge Hosts for the October Read-A-Thon!

We are looking for Book Bloggers to host a mini challenge on their blog site for a couple hours during the October 9th Read-A-Thon.  A mini challenge is just a fun little game that kind of breaks up the time for our dedicated readers to enjoy.  By hosting a mini challenge you are going to bring many Read-A-Thon participants to your blog.  This is a great traffic draw!  Need ideas for a challenge?  Explore the Mini-Challenges on this site from the April event for a little brain storming….

and then….

fill out the form below.   The Mini Challenge Coordinator Team will review the applicants and fit in the challenges into the time slots we have available.  The Team strives hard to keep the challenges unique from each other.  Those who are accepted into the time slots they requested will be notified at the end of this week.

Please note that if your challenge is accepted you do need to be prepared to post during the Readathon at the time that is appointed to you (the form has time slots you can choose from).

Please check out the Readathon FAQ’s page if you have any questions.

Thank you for considering to be a Mini-Challenge Host.

You, my friend,  ROCK!

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

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

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.

This hour we’d like to ask those who are raising money for charity during the read-a-thon to enter their names in the Mr. Linky below. The winner will get a box of Earthday books and a set of homemade dishcloths donated by Dar. If you know of a blogging friend who did fund-raising but has already gone to bed, please feel free to enter their name.

The winner of the limerick mini-challenge is: Peta!

Congratulations! Please get in touch with Hannah at wordlily AT gmail to claim your prize.

Still happening:
Debbie’s mini-challenge (open until the end of the read-a-thon)
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
Eva’s mini-challenge (this is the last hour for this mini-challenge)

I do believe the lolcat says it all.

This hour, we’re challenging you to write a limerick about the read-a-thon! Come on, you know you want to. The silly mood that always seems to come upon us all in the last stretch is sure to help. When you’re done, come back and enter your name in the Mr. Linky below. Don’t forget to make sure you’re linking to the specific post, and not to your blog’s main page. This mini-challenge will only be open for this hour, and the winner gets one of Lynda’s homemade bookmarks and a box of Earth Day books (check the prizes page to see what’s included).

Still happening:

Debbie’s mini-challenge (open until the end of the read-a-thon)
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
Eva’s mini-challenge (open until the end of hour 23)

Still happening:
Debbie’s mini-challenge (open until the end of the read-a-thon)
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

If you’re feeling tired, get up and stretch, take a walk, or, like Jennifer was doing, chew some gum! You never know what’ll work.

We’d like to ask those of you who have participated in all four read-a-thons to leave us a comment in this post. You’ll be entered to win a box of 14 new releases donated by Hachette. Check the list of prizes to see what’s included.

The winners of  the hour 19 readers of the hour mini-challenge  are:

Amanda
Care
Alison

Congratulations, guys! Please e-mail Hannah at wordlily AT gmail to claim your prizes.

Still happening:
Debbie’s mini-challenge (open until the end of the read-a-thon)
Jessica’s mini-challenge (this is the last hour for this mini-challenge)
Vote for the winner of Kim’s  comic mini-challenge