Let's start off by defining a read-a-thon for anyone who might not know what they are. A read-a-thon is a essentially just an event among a group of people where you read a whole bunch over the course of a weekend, week or whatever time-frame the host(s) have decided on. Read-A-Thons can be themed, have challenges or just a main goal of reading more than you normally would. They aren't to be confused with read-a-longs in which a group of people read a specific book or series together. Read-A-Thons, to my knowledge, are mostly common in the book blogging community, BookTube and on GoodReads.
Recently, I participated in the BookTube-A-Thon! It's an annual read-a-thon (having just completed it's second year) hosted by Ariel Bissett on YouTube. As the name suggests, it's mostly for people who have BookTube channels (like myself.. hint hint, click HERE) or people who watch BookTube videos. This read-a-thon is SO amazingly organized. This year Ariel created challenges by which to create your TBR (to-be-read list), video challenges for your daily update videos and even a 10% discount code on a huge selection of books from The Book Depository. Not all read-a-thons are this advanced and fantastic, but if you have a chance to participate in a BookTube-A-Thon in the future, I would HIGHLY suggest it. I was shockingly successful. I read a total of 10 books (3 more than my goal of 7) and I managed to make an update video on 6 of the 7 days. Overall, I had an amazing time and can't wait to do it again. Last year, the creators of the BookTube-A-Thon also did a Christmas BookTube-A-Thon. So, if you wanted to participate but didn't have a chance too, keep an eye out around Christmastime and see if they bring that around again. I'm so excited for that!
The Under-Hyped Read-A-Thon recently ended as well (I think? That or it's about to end). For that read-a-thon, the goal was to read only books with 5,000 or less ratings on GoodReads! That is such a cool idea, but being that it started the day after the BookTube-A-Thon.. I wasn't exactly up to jump into another event. However, there is a read-a-thon that I'm planning on doing very, very soon! The #AYearAThon read-a-thon is a group on GoodReads where there's a read-a-thon ONCE A MONTH! Now, obviously you don't need to participate every month. In fact, this will be the first AYearAThon I've ever done. They have a new theme each month for participants to use when creating their TBR. This month's theme just really called to me, so I decided to plan on joining in! It's middle grade reads! If you kept tabs on my BookTube-A-Thon updates, you'd know that I read a TON of middle grade for that event. I can read one or two A Series of Unfortunate Event books in a day if I just sit down and go for it. Since I'm trying to get through that series, I felt like this would be perfect for me! If you want to join in for the #AYearAThon, DO IT! There's still time for you to plan out your TBR and join in for the middle grade read-a-thon going on from August 4-10.
Speaking of planning out your TBR, that would be my number one tip for having a successful read-a-thon. To be fair, I've only participated in three read-a-thons before.. But, I've definitely found that I'm more successful when I know what I'm planning on reading and I know I can meet my goals by doing x, y and z. I've always been a planner, so I just know that that's the main thing that helps me get through a week of aggressive reading. Something else that seemed to help me out was talking to other people who were participating. Twitter hashtags are AMAZING for encouraging yourself and others to just keep reading! If the event you're participating in is hosting Twitter Sprints, utilize that! The BookTube-A-Thon had two amazing Twitter Sprints per day and those helped me out majorly. Another tip that I haven't actually used before would be to leave little notes or funny things in your book to give you some encouragement as you read. Honestly, my best advice would be to do what you know will work for you, take breaks whenever you feel it's needed (don't burn yourself out) and read things that you want (if you aren't in the mood for anything on your TBR, don't be afraid to pick up something else!) If you do those things I can guarantee you'll have a great read-a-thon! Good luck and happy reading!
I hope you enjoyed this week's Thursday Thoughts! If you have any opinions on the things I've said, please comment them down below! Or, take things a step further and make your own post to link up below. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to come back next week as we discuss our favorite bookstores! See ya then!
I've tried participating in read-a-thons in the past, but I can't say I really helped increase my reading. I still had the same limited time I would have normally had. So they are not quite for me, but the social media aspect of them is fun.
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