Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon TBR and Goals

It’s that wonderful time of year again–time for another round of Dewey’s 24-hour readathon!

If you aren’t familiar, Dewey’s is a readathon that takes place over 24 hours, and the way to “win” is to read the entire time. Many people, myself included, never read for the full 24 hours and that is also OK–you can participate as much or as little as you want. It’s a low-pressure and very social readathon that tends to get a lot of participation across many countries and platforms. If you’ve never participated, I highly recommend it–it’s a lot of fun! If you want more information or to sign up, check out the Dewey’s site here.

During the week leading up to Dewey’s, I usually spend a fair amount of time agonizing over my TBR. Dewey’s can be tricky to plan for since you don’t know what reading mood you’ll be in and you tend to need shorter, faster-paced books to carry you through. I actually made a stack of recommendations of books that I’ve loved that I think would make great picks for Dewey’s on my Instagram account (linked on the sidebar).

This time around, I don’t have any novellas or graphic novels on my TBR since I’m not in the mood for graphic works and I don’t currently own any unread novellas. It’s possible that this will cut into the amount that I’m able to finish, since those are typically what I use to keep myself motivated and break up the day. That being said, I’ve put together a pretty awesome TBR stack that I’m very excited to dig into. As always, I definitely don’t plan on reading all of these books, but I like to have options as I’m very much a mood reader. I’ve got a variety of genres: fantasy, both space-related and post-apocalyptic science fiction, realistic fiction, mystery/thriller, and a collection of horror fairytale retellings. These are all fairly new books; I’ve been making an effort to read from my backlist TBR shelf lately, but for the readathon I’m in the mood to treat myself to some newer things.

So, here’s my Dewey’s TBR!

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3)The Female PersuasionFuryborn (Empirium, #1)The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday HorrorPenanceBannerlessIn Other Lands

I would normally rank these in order of most to least likely to pick up during the readathon, but this time around I’m almost equally excited for all of them. The exception to this is Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman, which I pre-ordered before its March release yet fully intended on saving it for Dewey’s. The Illuminae Files series is perfect for a readathon; the books are chunky yet there’s not much text on each page due to their alternative formatting, and they’re extremely fast-paced so that you’re motivated for binge-reading. I’m planning to use this book to kick the readathon off and figure out the rest of my TBR after I finish it.

As far as longer YA books go, I have 2 other options on hand: I just won an ARC of Furyborn by Claire Legrand in a Litsy giveaway, and for awhile I’ve really been looking forward to picking up In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. I’m more likely to pick these up after I finish both Obsidio and one of my shorter books (I think?) but I like the idea of starting a longer book during Dewey’s that I won’t necessarily finish during the readathon, but that I can carry on reading into May.

I have both the audio and the physical copy of Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion, which is the only book in this stack that I’ve already started. I’ve listened to about an hour of the audiobook so far and really love it; I’ll probably use the audiobook to help break up the day, or if the weather forecast magically changes and I want to go for a walk.

And in terms of shorter books, I have 2 novels and a collection to potentially pull from. I’m liking the idea of picking up either Penance by Kanae Minato or Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn after I finish Obsidio; both are less than 300 pages long and seem like they would be fast-paced as well as good. I feel like there’s a high likelihood of me reading at least one of them. And then I also have The Merry Spinster, a collection of fairytale retellings with a horror twist by Mallory Ortberg (who recently announced a transition to Daniel Ortberg but is listed as Mallory on the book). I think that even if I don’t read the entire collection, I might read a story or two in between longer books and then finish it later on.

Goals-wise, I’d like to finish 2 of these books and start a third. I think that’s pretty reasonable. I’d also like to keep up with posting updates throughout the day as well as checking in to see how everyone else is doing with their reading on Bookstagram/Litsy/blogs. Ideally I’ll take a reading break partway through the day to go to the gym; I would have loved to go on an audiobook walk or do some reading outside, but as of now my weather app says it’s supposed to be chilly and rainy, so it’ll likely be an indoor reading day unless I need a change of scenery and go to a coffee shop or something. I’d like to read for many hours (I have no idea how many, but “many” sounds good). And that’s it!

Are you participating in Dewey’s? What’s on your TBR?

2 thoughts on “Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon TBR and Goals”

  1. You know what? After years of seeing you doing this, I’m doing it, too! I’m going to post in the morning about my TBR then do one post I update during the day, I think. I have a mix of fiction, non-fiction, adult and children’s, running, classics, fantasy and some light novels! Have fun!

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