I’ve been having a REALLY hard time with TBRs this month; I’ve essentially completely ignored mine except to read all of the graphic novels on my TBR list for Bout of Books. Sometimes I just really get into the mood-reader zone and can’t focus on any lists I’ve made for myself; one of the things I’d really like to do in 2017 is feel less guilty about letting go of my TBR and not pressuring myself to #readmyowndamnbooks if I’m on a roll with library books or ebooks or whatever. Sometimes I just get reading slump-y and can’t focus, and that needs to be OK.

That being said, I also LOVE readathons, and especially creating TBRs for them. In these next few weeks before the end of January, I’m planning to participate in both the 24 in 48 readathon (this will my third time participating) and the Diverseathon (this will be my first time participating!). They sort of overlap, which is awesome: #24in48 takes place this weekend (Jan 21-22) whereas Diverseathon lasts a full week (Jan 22-29).

The 24 in 48 readathon focuses on attempting to read for 24 hours within a 48-hour period (something I’ve never been able to accomplish, and especially won’t this year); you can find out more information here: https://24in48.com/. I’m expecting my participation this round to be less than stellar because I’ll be in D.C. this weekend for the Women’s March on Washington, but I’m planning to grab reading time whenever I can and to keep checking in on everyone’s reading on Instagram and Litsy.

As far as my TBR goes, there’s definitely going to be some overlap with my #Diverseathon TBR (although really, when am I going to have time to read this weekend??), so the only book I really have set aside for #24in48 is Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, which I think fits in well with both the Women’s March and is a short book that would actually be realistic for me to finish during my trip.

Diverseathon is a week-long readathon that focuses on reading diverse books, particularly #ownvoices books, and it’s a readathon that began on BookTube but is open to anyone across bookish social media. I first heard about it from Joce’s channel @squibblesreads, and you can find more information on her announcement video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G50d6cQ_Cko&t=0s. (I don’t really use twitter, but you can also check out the Diverseathon account here: https://twitter.com/diverseathon).

I have a more solid readathon plan in place for this one as opposed to #24in48 (because hopefully I’ll have more time to read!): I’m planning on finishing the audiobook of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng and reading the print editions of The Mothers by Brit Bennett and Kindred by Octavia Butler. I’ve been hearing AMAZING things about Everything I Never Told You–I just barely started the audio today, but since I listen to audiobooks so slowly, I’m sure I’ll still only be partway through by the time the readathon starts. I’ve also heard that The Mothers is an incredible read; I don’t think I’ve read a single review that was less than stellar. I’ve mentioned before on my blog that Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors and that my goal is eventually to read all of her books; everything I’ve read by her so far has absolutely blown me away, and Kindred will be my fifth Butler book.

Is anyone else participating in either of these readathons? Let me know!