12-hour Readathon: How it went!

Hello Bookworms!

Last weekend my boyfriend (who wishes to remain anonymous… but I swear he exists) and I decided to do a Readathon and read for 12 hours straight (we didn’t take books to the bathroom breaks though… if you must know). It was the first time we did that, so we prepared ourselves and got lots of snacks, coffee, wine and comfy pants. Here were our choices of reading, his on the left and mine on the right:

His:

• Timeline, by Michael Crichton
• The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith
• Rome: An Empire’s Story, by Greg Woolf

Mine:

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
• Stalking Jack the Ripper, by Kerri Maniscalco
• Night Film, by Marissa Pessl

It will probably come as no surprise that we didn’t actually manage to read all three books we set to, but we didn’t expect to do that, anyways. The plan was to have a little variety so as to not get into a reading slump, so we chose 1 book more than we thought we’d be able to read in 12 hours. Honestly, I thought that after 3h or so, we’d be tired and have a headache or so (I have headaches easily). But it was easier than we thought to do the 12h! (Twitter helped)

We had a sturdy and late breakfast, so that we wouldn’t be hungry too soon. 15min after that, however, the nachos were attacked. No regrets. By hour 2, I’d had 3 coffees. By hour 6, I couldn’t eat nachos anymore. Some regrets.

Night Film was VERY atmospheric and I read it very slowly, trying to taste word by word instead of rushing through it. It was a wonderful read and I loved it! Although the characters fell a little flat for me, the mystery was just SO GOOD that I didn’t care too much about its small flaws. I absolutely adored the noir feeling of this novel.

I started then with Stalking Jack the Ripper by hour 6 (around 6 pm), when I considered it was dark outside enough to have wine. At this point, a fourth coffee would have been too much, and I wanted something to help get in the mood for another book (what a sad excuse, I just really wanted wine). This was such a fast read, and I loved the main character so much and the gory aspects of this novel! It’s perfect for Halloween! Looking so much forward to reading the sequel. I actually cheated here because I needed some time the next day to finish the novel, but I’m counting it here! I read most of it during the Readathon anyways.

I never got to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which for me would’ve been a re-read anyways, so it didn’t matter much! I’ll read it another time.

(Here’s a picture to prove my boyfriend is a real human and not a figment of my imagination… I hope. He’s got such gorgeous hands, I CAN’T EVEN. Also he very nicely agreed to leave the comfy armchair to take a picture for you guys, so please say hi to him!)

His impressions:

“This was my first Readathon, and I really enjoyed it! I expected it to be tough to concentrate on reading for such a long time, but it was a very pleasant experience. Most of my reading takes place on my commute or before going to sleep, so I’m normally sleepy/exhausted/tired. Reading when your mind is fresh was quite different from that! As for my readings:
– I started with Timeline (Michael Crichton), a thriller about time travel. As was expected, it was an easy read and a reliable page-turner.
– Afterwards, I read some non-fiction: Rome. An Empire’s Story (Greg Woolf). I love ancient history, so this was a success with me, too.
– Lastly, I started The Cuckoo’s Calling (Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling). I read only a quarter so far, but I am quite entertained with the style (and I normally don’t read crime novels at all!). This was the biggest positive surprise of the Readathon. J.K. still got it 😉
I would totally do a Readathon again, if someone will join me (looking at you, Naty).”

I had the time of my life watching him read Timeline, which I read some months ago, and see him go “OMG” and chuckle throughout the book. Very entertaining.

To me it was a total success. Maybe next time we get shorter novels, I think I’d feel much more accomplished reading more novels, although I did get lots of reading done. I had already started Night Film some days before, but was reading so slowly that my boyfriend actually read an entire book and 1/3 of another before I even got to my second. To be fair, he reads very fast. Also, I was on Twitter and Instagram a lot. #shame

Have you done Readathons like these?

Also, what’s your favorite Agatha Christie novel? I got The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for this Readathon but I really like Death on the Nile and Thirteen at the Table as well. Murder at the Orient Express is really popular lately, but has never been a favorite for me. Are you guys watching the movie?