The 24 in 48 Readathon!

While friends march with thousands of others around the world, I’m reading. It’s not as extroverted an activity, but it’s subversive in its own quiet way, I suppose.

This is not my first readathon, but it’s my first time doing the 24 in 48 Readathon. I’ve done Dewey’s twice, and trying to read for twenty-four hours straight is awesome but especially challenging for someone with two kids and four decades and a desire to nurture her love for literature, not flog it to death. Reading for twenty-four hours within a forty-eight-hour spread is much more doable (and pleasant!). Not that I’m keeping track of how much time I spend reading, or at least not with any precision. But it’s a fun way to continue recovering from the cold my children shared with me and it gives me a chance to clean out the leftovers from the fridge.

This year, I chose a bunch of scary books. I generally don’t have trouble staying awake when I’m reading, but these should keep me from nodding off, if I start to fade in the wee hours or in an afternoon slump.

(Okay, so that bottom book, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman isn’t scary unless you fear travel memoirs, but the other ones should qualify as “scary.”)

24 in 48 didn’t officially start until midnight last night (or this morning?), but I started reading The Graveyard Apartment around 6:00pm while the rest of my family was off drumming complex rhythms in a church gathering hall. Except for a break for the kids’ bedtime routine and some chatting with my spouse about small issues that I wanted to make into big, dramatic issues, I read straight through until I finished the book, around 2:00am. Because I knew it might be difficult to get myself to turn off the lights and walk to my bedroom after everyone else was asleep, when my spouse went to bed around 10:00, I shut myself in the bathroom so the light wouldn’t bother him and read while sitting on the tile floor for four hours.

Man, when I put it that way it sounds a little weird.

At any rate—or as they seem fond of saying here in New England, “in any event”—I finished my book and wrote a review, which I’m posting separately for your reading pleasure.

The 24in48 site has a kickoff survey, my answers to which I diligently include below:

Where in the world are you reading from this weekend?

Sunny Central Massachusetts, U.S.A, that nation of dubious greatness

Have you done the 24in48 readathon before?

Nope!

Where did you hear about the readathon, if it is your first?

I read about it on the Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon Facebook Page, a fun place to lurk even when it’s not readathon time.

What book are you most excited about reading this weekend?

The Trespasser by Tana French, which I’m paradoxically not letting myself read until I’ve read some of my other books first.

Tell us something about yourself.

It’s been at least three years since I’ve gone out to buy new clothes or shoes for myself at an actual, real-life retail establishment. Online shopping ftw. (I have made purchases at the thrift store a handful of times during this period, though.)

Remind us where to find you online this weekend.

I’ll do kickoff, wrap-up, perhaps a midterm status post, and book reviews here on Imperfect Happiness, and I’ll post more frequently on Instagram (@imperfecthappiness).