It’s time for another round of Dewey’s 24-hour readathon, one of my favorite bookish events of the year. I particularly like the October readathon, because it combines my love of fall/spooky season books with readathon-ing. Dewey’s is a fun, social, low-pressure readathon where the premise is to read as much as possible during a 24-hour period, which begins at 8am Saturday morning my time. I’ve never read for the full 24 hours (not even close!) but I do tend to find a lot of fun and stress relief in challenging myself to read as much as I can during one specific day.

It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve done a Dewey’s readathon; I have no idea what to expect in terms of how much reading I’ll get done, but I’m definitely looking forward to the mental health break. Here are some of the books I’m considering picking up during the readathon:

Novellas:

I love reading novellas, and since they’re short, I tend to save them for readathons. I’m actually thinking of starting and ending the readathon with novellas, depending on my mood. I’m hoping to kick off the readathon with Sleeping Beauty retelling A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow, and might try winding down later in the night with spooky-sounding dark fantasy The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht. I’ve also heard great things about futuristic F/F romance This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which I’m thinking I have a good chance of getting to during the readathon.

Novels (short-ish and all happen to be 2021 releases):

My typical readathon plan usually involves 1-2 novels that I’ve been really looking forward to; this year I’m thinking about environmental mystery Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy, contemporary romance by a past favorite author The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang, and a book I’ve already started, dark fantasy The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck.

Audiobook

I always need an audiobook option for readathons, and audiobooks have become a much larger portion of my reading in general in recent years. I started John Green’s new essay collection The Anthropocene Reviewed this week and plan to continue it during Dewey’s; I also have access to the audiobook for The Monster of Elendhaven via Scribd, so that’s a possibility as well.

Short story and poetry collections:

I don’t think I’ve ever actually picked up a short story or poetry collection during Dewey’s, but I think it would be a smart choice if my energy or attention starts lagging, so I’ve added a few options to my TBR.