I’m in for the Sixth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge, sponsored by Mother Reader! I’m always awful at these readathons because the day of the readathon is always rather booked up for me. This one might just work because it is for 48 hours!

Starting today, Friday June 3, at 7 a.m. and going until Sunday, June 5 at 7 a.m., I’m going to read as much as I can and review the books (although I won’t be posting all the reviews this weekend). This post will be a general post tracking my progress: I’ll have updates below this point saying what I’ve gotten to. I’ll have a round-up post on Sunday. I’m aiming for at least 12 hours of reading, with some additional time spent writing about what I’ve read.

Anything except for picture books counts for this challenge (i.e., middle-grade reading and up).I have a number of books I want to get to, but I’m going to try to keep my “reading red” project in mind. (For that project, I’m reading books from my shelves with a red cover and/or the title word red or its equivalent in the title. Completely random, I know, but I have enjoyed it so far!) I’m going to focus on reading books from my shelves only.

Updates

7 a.m. (Friday)

Raisin is still sleeping and I’m OFF! I may spend some time writing thoughts on some books I have finished this week, but first I’m going to READ…until Raisin needs attention. We have a park play date at 10 but I’ll do an update before we leave for that.

Time spent reading: 0
Time spent blogging/writing reviews: 0

9:30 a.m.

A good start to my morning! I read for more than an hour. Now we are riding bikes to the park for a few hours. I probably won’t get much reading done, but we’ll see.

Time spent reading:   1 hour 30 minutes  | Total: 1 hour 30 minutes
Time spent blogging/writing reviews: 10 minutes  | Total: 10 minutes
Other things done: Got Raisin up and dressed, fed, and started playing. Started laundry.
Books read during this time: Nom de Plume by Carmela Ciuraru (1 chapter), All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann (90 pages)
Books finished: none yet!

12:45 p.m.

This wasn’t a reading time for me, but I’ve been getting some reading in between turns of Monopoly, and other games. After lunch, I’m hoping to get more reading in!

Time spent reading:  45 minutes  | Total: 2 hour 15 minutes
Time spent blogging/writing reviews: 0 minutes  | Total: 10 minutes
Other things done: Biked to the park, played at the park, biked back, played The Letter Factory Game and Monopoly (in progress).
Books read during this time: All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann (45 pages)
Books finished: none yet!

5 p.m.

I got lots of reading time in (comparatively) because Raisin and I happily played board games together all afternoon. Each of his turns takes about five minutes, so I slipped in a bit of reading throughout the afternoon.

Time spent reading:  2 hours 30 minutes  | Total: 4 hour 45 minutes
Time spent blogging/writing reviews: 20 minutes  | Total: 30 minutes
Other things done: lunch, Clue Jr., Sorry, Geotraxs trains (we like to take the track apart every ten minutes and redo it…)
Books read during this time: Nom de Plume by Carmela Ciuraru (about 60 pages?), To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (155 pages — finished).
Books finished during this time: To Be a Slave, a nonfictional Newberry Honor winner from 1968 that collects true accounts from former slaves about what it meant to be a slave.

10:30 p.m.

Lots of reading progress during these hours. I may read some more of Chains before I fall asleep; if so, I’ll add it to the morning’s tally. Tomorrow I need to find time for writing about what I’ve read. I’m making good progress and although I have a busy day tomorrow, I hope to surpass my 12-hour goal early.

Time spent reading: 3 hours 30 minutes | Total: 8 hours 15 minutes
Time spent blogging/writing: 0 | Total: 30 minutes
Other things done: dinner, watch a movie for family movie night with Raisin (ok, so I did read a little bit during this too…), get Raisin in bed
Books read during this time: All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann (120 pages — finished); Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (140 pages)
Books finished during this time: All Different Kinds of Free, a fictionalized true story of a free black woman in 1837 who was kidnapped back in to slavery and tried to fight back for her freedom.

7 p.m. Saturday

I wrote an update around noon but it didn’t get saved…so I’ll try to remember all. This morning I got some reading in before the busy day started. I listened to my audiobook (short stories of Hans Christian Anderson) while I drove around doing errands, going to my exercise class, etc. I snuck in time to read Chains while I waited to get my hair cut and while my son was otherwise happy. Now that Raisin is getting ready for bed, I may get some more reading in. Next up: Gone with the Wind (I’m about halfway through it; it is so LONG).

Time spent reading: 3 hours 15 minutes | 11 hours 30 minutes
Other things done: sleep, wake up, exercise class, grocery shopping and other errands, cleaning back deck, got a hair cut.  Yes, it has been a rather busy day!
Books read during this time: Chains (finished!) by Laurie Halse Anderson; Short stories of Hans Christian Andersen (about 1 hour 15 minutes)
Books finished during this time: Chains, a children/young adult novel about a slave in New York City during the Revolutionary War.

9 p.m.

The past two hours have been full of reading — but I’ve suddenly reached a tired point. The house is quiet and I have time…but I don’t want to read! We’ll see how much more I do tonight. I think I’ll try a different book and get some ice cream to keep me going. Then again, maybe I’ll go watch a movie. I’ll do a wrap up sometime tomorrow. Even if I’m done, I made my goal of more than 12 hours — and I finished three books!

Time spent reading: 1 hour 45 minutes | 13 hours 15 minutes
Books read during this time: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (about 50 pages?), Nom de Plume by Carmela Ciuraru (50 pages)