Hour Three: Good Morning!

We’re trying something a little different this round of 24in48. Until now, this show has been almost entirely run by me (Rachel). I blame my inability to delegate. But now that I’m working overseas and my work schedule isn’t conducive to staying on the official time clock, I’ve brought in reinforcements. Kristen and Kerry will be managing the posts, giveaway winners, and social media during the day, and I’ll be helming the ship for all of you non-US readers. So it’s the middle of the day for me on Saturday, and I’m excited to be reading with you, no matter where you are in the world or what time it is. (I may even get some reading done this time!)

We’re a cool three hours in, and some of you are probably sleeping, some are reading, and some are half-reading, half-sleeping, head nodding.

As your host, I’m excited to start the readathon by giving away some prizes! We’ve got a ton of great stuff to choose from, so if you win a prize at any time during the weekend, make sure you go to the Prize page and fill out the form to get your first choice. There are galleys and finished copies from publishers, both small and large, as well as lots of bookish goodies to choose from. Please don’t forget that if you are based in the US, you should NOT pick a prize from the International Only section.

Julia (on Twitter @kwatschmitsauce)
Jennifer Crawford (on Litsy @LibrarianJen)
Amanda (on Litsy/Twitter @alwz)
Amy Henson (on Litsy @TamarackTrail)
Kelly Krotz (on Litsy @KellyK)
CJ Wolfe (on Litsy @CoverToCoverGirl)
Laura Cerone (@Sweettartlaura)
Amy Massengill (@mom2bugnbee)

Back to it (reading or sleeping, whichever!)

Hour Zero: Welcome to #24in48, the July ’17 Edition

Wheeee! It’s time!! Let’s do this thing!

Welcome to the July 2017 edition of #24in48! Right now, it’s midnight ET on the official readathon clock, but we’re kicking things off with a bang. If you’re just now discovering the ‘thon or have been unsure of your weekend plans, you can still sign up and do so throughout the weekend.

A few notes as we get started:

Lots of helpful information on tracking your time and other tips for readathon success can be found here. You’ll want those tips, I promise.
Speaking of tracking, if you’re planning on reading a full 24 hours (or even just trying to get close), make sure you track your time. You can do this a number of ways but the preferred method is with a stopwatch on your phone or computer or the Bookout app for iOS devices. If you finish 24 hours of reading, you’ll be eligible to win one of four prize packs, including one just for non-US participants.
There is ZERO pressure to read for a full 24 hours. Seriously, guys. This is the fifth year I’ve been doing this thing, and I say every time, this is supposed to be fun and low pressure. The goal is to set aside some serious time to read with other like-minded readers.
Take a break, get some sleep, eat well. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Make sure that your sign-up entry is correct (including email and social media/blog URL). If you’re not active on that social platform during the ‘thon, you won’t be able to win any of the amazing prizes we’re giving away. By URL I mean, don’t just type “Twitter” or “Facebook.” I need to be able to find you, so list your username or the URL of your feed (i.e. http://twitter.com/24in48readathon). If you need to update your entry, you can do so by going through the link you received in your confirmation email. If you didn’t get an email and need to update your entry, email me ASAP at [email protected].
If your name is announced as either a door prize winner or a challenge winner, go over to the Prize page and fill out the form. If you don’t check in there, you’ll miss your shot to win.
Follow the conversation (which honestly is my favorite part of the ‘thon) on social media. I’ll be posting from @24in48readathon on Twitter, on the official Facebook page, and @24in48 on Instagram and Litsy. You can – and should – use the official hashtag #24in48 everywhere as well.
We’ll be posting here every three hours with challenges and door prize giveaways, so check in early and often.

Let’s start off with an intro survey so we can all get to know each other. Post your answers (or a link to your answers) in a comment below:

Where in the world are you reading from this weekend?
Have you done the 24in48 readathon before?
Where did you hear about the readathon, if it is your first?
What book are you most excited about reading this weekend?
Tell us something about yourself.
Remind us where to find you online this weekend.

Four people who complete the survey will win their choice of prize. You have until the midway point, Hour 24 at midnight ET tonight, to enter.

Happy reading, ‘thoners!

24-Hour Prize Packs Are Here!

Can you believe we’re just a few days away from the start of #24in48? (Let’s not even talk about the fact that this is our fifth year doing this whole shebang.) During the last round, we gave away some prize packs to a few lucky readers who managed to finish a full 24 hours of reading and you guys really liked it! So we’re doing it again, thanks to some fantastic prize sponsors. We’ve got four prize packs to give away this time, three for US-based readers and one for international participants.

First of all thanks to our prize sponsors for these amazing donations.

In order to be eligible for one of these prize packs, you must:

Sign up officially using your name, a valid email, and a URL/username for the platforms you’ll be updating during the ‘thon. (If you need to edit your response to include an actual link or username, you can do so by following the confirmation link you received when you signed up.)
Be active on those platforms during the readathon.
Use some method of tracking your time. This can include your phone’s stopwatch function or a digital stopwatch (preferred) or a written time tracker, but your 24 hours must be clearly recorded. (If you need a digital stopwatch, Google “stopwatch.”) *Pro-tip: take a screenshot of your stopwatch every time you pause it, just in case you accidentally reset it instead of restarting it.*
In the post that goes up at the end of the readathon, you’ll be able to submit your info and proof of 24 hours of reading. You’ll also be asked to note whether you’re US-based or international.
You’ll have until midnight ET on July 25th to submit this proof, after which the form will be closed.

Obviously, your proof is on the honor system and, while I’m thrilled to be able to offer these prize packages, please don’t abuse it.

Okay! Now for the fun part:

Prize Pack #1

$100 Gift Card to the Book Riot Store (which includes Out of Print’s gear), courtesy of Book Riot
The below Virginia Woolf Art Print, courtesy of Obvious State

Prize Pack #2

$50 Gift Card to Litographs.com
The below Herman Melville Art Print, courtesy of Obvious State
A Graywolf Press tote bag

Prize Pack #3

A brand new Kindle Fire 7
$25 Gift Card to Amazon.com
Your choice of Book Riot tote bag, courtesy of Book Riot

Prize Pack #4 (For International Winners only)

$50 worth of books from BookDepository.com
Your choice of mug (up to EUR 15) from The Literary Gift Company
Your choice of tote (up to EUR 15) from The Literary Gift Company

Questions? Leave a comment or send an email to [email protected]!

How to Readathon, #24in48 Style

First of all, there is no one right way to readathon. Let’s just get that caveat out of the way up front.

But as 24in48 reaches maturity (insert cheek pinching here) and there are more prizes to win and places to participate, several ‘thon-ers have requested a bit more guidance in advance of this summer’s event. Hopefully, this will be good for any newbies joining us for the first time or veterans who want to level up. For some of the basic questions, like how to sign up, what is the 24in48 anyway, and what counts for reading time, check out the FAQ post.

Signing Up
- A lot of people (more than you’d expect) participate in the readathon without signing up because they don’t think they’ll come close to reading for 24 hours. Here’s a secret: the vast majority of people who participate don’t come close to reading that much. In fact, I don’t even really think the point of the event is to read for a full 24 hours. Sure it’s a good goal, but really the intention is to set aside some solid reading time over the course of a weekend, hang out with your bookish friends online, and maybe win some stuff. That’s it. It is literally the most low pressure readathon ever. There is no “failing” at readation. Did you read during the weekend? Congrats! You didn’t fail.
- So there is zero reason to not sign up. Which you can do over here.
- You must provide your email, your name (even if its your online persona), and at least one place where you’re participating.
- Please please please don’t choose a platform from the dropdown and then leave the “handle or URL” field blank. Telling me you’re going to be on Facebook without linking to your FB profile doesn’t help. Same with putting Litsy and not listing your handle (you know, that name after the @ sign). If I can’t find you online, I have no idea if you’re actually participating or if you just signed up to try to win prizes. So you won’t be able to win anything.
- If you need to go back and edit your entry, you should have gotten an email on the account you used to sign up that will let you click through to change your sign-up info.
- If you DIDN’T get an email, send me a message at [email protected] and tell me what you’d like to change and I’ll update it for you. (Don’t abuse this, please.)
- Pro-tip: if you listed a bunch of places where you think you’ll be participating and realize that you’ll only be using one, like Twitter, edit your entry to reflect just the one. You don’t have to be everywhere to get credit.
Tracking Time Read
- In order to be eligible for prizes for participants that read a full 24 hours, you’ll need to keep track of your time read.
- There are a number of ways to do this, but the most popular/successful is by using the stopwatch function on your smart phone or by Googling “stopwatch.” (The Bookout app is also great, but I don’t know enough about it to include instructions here.)
- Every time you start reading, hit start, then pause when you stop to take a break. It doesn’t have to be exact, but because this is on the honor system, please don’t abuse the clock (like letting it run while you nap).
- Pro tip: Take a screenshot (esp. if you’re using your phone) every time you stop the clock, just in case you accidentally reset it. You can use multiple screenshots to prove your reading time if need be.

stopwatch screen capture

Challenges and Check-ins
- Every three hours a new post will publish on the blog, alternating between challenges and check-ins.
- The Hour 0 challenge will always be an intro survey and the Hour 48 post will always be a closing survey.
- Challenges: every six hours (Hours 6, 12, 18, 24, etc.), you’ll have the opportunity to do a fun little task (usually photo- or comment-based) to be entered for a prize.
- Check-ins: If you entered your info on the sign-up post, you’re automatically entered to win a random check-in prize, as long as you’re actively participating on one of the platforms you entered in the sign-up form (i.e. Twitter or Instagram, etc.)
- The best way to keep up with these posts is to subscribe using the Follow button in the bottom right corner of the blog, which will push an email to you every time a new post is published.
- Pro tip: Even though you are free to participate in the full 48 hours (midnight Friday to midnight Sunday) using your local time zone, following Eastern Time in the US (the official readathon time zone) is the best way to ensure you’re catching as many of the challenges/check-ins as possible. Posts are labeled by hour number, not by time (Hour 6 vs. 6:00am on Saturday), so if you start Hour 0 in concert with the readathon, you’ll have an easier time catching all of the challenges. If you need help figuring out what that translates to in your local time, check out this world clock conversion tool. (The downside of course is that if you’re on the opposite side of the world, your reading weekend might spill into Monday or start on Friday instead. If you decide to use local time, you won’t be penalized for having not started or starting early re: prize drawings).

Adding Social Media to Comments
- Often the challenges will ask you to take a photo and link it in the comments. You can do this by posting the photo to your social media of choice and dropping the link into a comment (your entry won’t be counted unless its in the comments.)
- For Instagram: click on the date of the post (see below) to go to a direct link to the image (https://www.instagram.com/p/BPnWz65AlBh/). Your account must be public (or the @24in48 insta account needs to be following you already) in order to enter.
- For Litsy: share a direct link to your post by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the post and selecting how you want to share it (I usually email the link to myself in order to comment from my computer, but if you’re using your phone to comment on the blog, you can just copy and paste the link from the body of an email or wherever you’ve shared it to and add it to your comment). For the below post, this is the direct link: http://litsy.com/p/eGlZMm9PZGYw.
- Due to the number of participants, comments that only include a handle (i.e. @24in48) and directions to go look for the entry will not be eligible. You must include a direct link or the actual image in order to enter for prizes.
- Pro tip: tagging all of your social posts with #24in48 to cheer on your fellow readathoners is great, but make sure your accounts are public (at least for this weekend) so others can cheer you on too.

Winning and Claiming Prizes
- You MUST be signed up on the original sign up form in order to be eligible for prizes,. You can sign up even after the readathon begins, but you can’t win anything unless you’ve signed up. And your sign up information MUST include not just the platform you’re participating on but the actual place I can go to find you, be that the URL or the handle. (If you’ve already signed up, you can edit your entry by going to the email you received and clicking through to edit.) You can’t win anything if you don’t provide me a way to find you during the readathon.
- Even if your readathon weekend doesn’t contain much social media or regular check-ins (which is a perfectly fine way to participate), make sure you post something about the readathon when you start the weekend on one of the platforms you entered when you sign up so we know that you actually are participating. You’re still eligible for check-in prizes as long as we can see that you’re reading along.
- If you are staying away from social for the weekend, don’t forget to check the blog periodically or at least once at the very end to see if you won something during a check-in or challenge. Prize winners will be announced throughout the weekend, so scroll through all the posts to check for your name.
- As soon as you see that you’ve won a prize, hop on over to the prize page (which is being updated as prizes are added) and select your first, second, and third choices. If you live in the US, please do not select any of the international prizes unless that is all that is left. The sooner you claim your prize, the higher the likelihood you’ll get your first choice. The prize page will be updated periodically throughout the weekend so you’ll have a good idea of what’s still available.
- Pro tip: Make sure that the name you use to comment and the one you use to sign up are consistent. If I can’t match your comment to an entry on the participant list, you’ll lose out.

I hope this helps as you’re prepping for the ‘thon. If you have any follow-up or additional questions, leave ’em in the comments below.

24in48 July 2017 Readathon Sign-ups are Open!

Happy summer, fellow readathon-ers!

I hope that everyone’s warm- (or cold, for you Aussies) weather reading is in full swing and you’ve been plowing through your summer reading lists or beach stacks. Or if you’ve had a bit of a slump because you’re doing ALL THE THINGS, I have the answer.

Our next #24in48 is back! Join us on July 22 & 23rd for a weekend full of reading. It promises to be another great one. (You’ll be happy to know I’ll not be steering the good ship 24in48 alone this round. I recently relocated for a job in another country and finally decided to call in reinforcements. So cheers to Kristen and Kerry who will be manning most of the social media during readathon weekend.)

If you’re new to 24in48, this is the basic gist: beginning at 12:01am on Saturday morning and running through 11:59pm on Sunday night, participants read for 24 hours out of that 48-hour period. You can split that up however you’d like: 20 hours on Saturday, four hours on Sunday; 12 hours each day; six four-hour sessions with four hour breaks in between, whatever you’d like.

And that’s it. The format never changes but it’s always an adventure.

Have more questions? There’s an FAQ page for that. Also, in response to some feedback, a more detailed “how to participate” post is coming soon.

Ready to join? Fill out the form below and feel free to list any and all of the places you’ll be hanging out online during the ‘thon. Check out who else is participating. If your entry doesn’t immediately pop in to the spreadsheet, give it a few minutes to populate.

And you can follow the readathon in all the normal places. We’re on Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy (@24in48) and you can use the official hashtag #24in48 everywhere to keep up with your fellow readathon-ers.

January 2017 Prize Pack Winners!

Happy post-24in48 Wednesday, friends! (Yes, okay, I’d rather be reading too, but I’m trying here.)

read together

Thank you to everyone that participated. You’ve all been giving me some great feedback on the Hour 48 post (if you haven’t yet, please do) and I plan to incorporate a lot of it into July’s readathon. Have you put it on your calendar yet?

Congratulations to the nearly 118 participants that finished a full 24 hours of reading during the weekend. I’m so incredibly impressed with all of you and totally thrilled to give away some great prize packs to three winners.

Prize Pack #1 Winner:

Lesley Landry

Prize Pack #2 Winner:

Deb Christensen

Prize Pack #3 Winner:

Janani Vaidya

Congrats again to these winners and all the readers who participated last weekend.

Happy reading, and I’ll see you in six months!

Hour 48: The End!

WE DID IT! We made it the full 48 hours and I could not be more thrilled (or tired). I’m insanely proud of all you readers, all 1,150 of you (can you believe it?).

So that we can all get to bed, let’s get some of this nitty gritty out of the way.

Three last door prize winners to announce:

Miss Ariel

Britain Callen

Dee (@Lucky_LaDee on Litsy)

The winner of Hour 42’s literary dinner party challenge is:

Hannah @ Book Freak-Out

Can I come to all of your dinner parties? They sound fantastic!

If you can, I’d love to know how this readathon went for all of you, anything you’d change, your favorite books, etc. So leave a comment with this closing survey:

How many books did you read? Pages? (If you didn’t keep track, tell me that too!)
How many hours did you read?
What do you think worked well in this readathon?
What do you think could be done to improve the readathon for next time?
Will you participate in a future 24in48 readathon?

And thanks to our friends at Book Riot, all readathon participants will be getting an email with a 25% discount code for their store. So keep your eyes peeled for that. Thank you to the whole BR gang for going above and beyond for this ‘thon.

Since I know you’re all dying to mark your calendars, the next 24in48 readathon will be held on:

July 22-23, 2017

Lastly, if you finished a full 24 hours of reading, you’re eligible to win one of three amazing prize packs. Fill out this form, including your proof of hours read, before midnight ET on Tuesday, January 24th.

It’s been amazing, guys, once again. Thanks for joining me! Now this me: