Hello friends!

As you can tell by the title, today I shall be regaling you with the tale of how I tried, and completely failed, at completing an 8 hour reading marathon. I’ve seen mutiple people on BookTok and BookTube who have talked about their 24 hour reading marathons with friends. I, unfortunately, do not have a close group of friends I read with near me and honestly, I love sleep, so a 24 hour reading marathon wasn’t in the cards for me. 8 hours though? I could do 8 hours. At least….I thought I could do 8 hours.

The Set-Up

So I took a PTO day off from work for this adventure. I was already going to be having a long weekend and wanted to have a day off to just relax and enjoy myself. So I decided that I would make a space for myself on couch where I could be comfortable for the evening. I decided to pick a stack of books that I thought I would enjoy reading. The way I saw it, limiting my options meant I would spend less time looking for books to read and more time reading. I chose mostly short books because I thought that I would be tired of reading too quickly if I chose a larger book.

I also chose a YouTube video to put on in the background that was roughly 8 hours long. This was to A. create a good ambience and B. act as a timer. If you’d like to know what video I chose you can click this link HERE. Just as a note, clicking that link will take you to YouTube and away from my blog post.

The Goals

This was quite a simple idea here. I really only had three goals to speak of.

1. Read for 8 hours throughout the day (this could be broken up by breaks as long as the total reading time hit 8 hours)
2. Read at least 2 books
3. Relax and enjoy my time with the books

What Went Wrong?

Well, life kind of got in the way. We (my partner and I) had to go run a few quick errands. He had also taken a PTO day and was using the time to work on a project for his Master’s degree. I thought, no problem, errands shouldn’t take too long and we can get back and I’ll finish reading.

Wrong.

Never assume errands won’t take way longer than you think they will. We were gone for over 3 hours because of long lines, the inability to find what was needed, and general inquiries we needed to make that day. I had allowed myself to sleep in (because I deserve to sleep in once and a while right?) and did not truly start my marathon until closer to probably 9/9:30ish. I also stopped to make dinner and then by the end of the day, I just wanted to spend the rest of the night with my other half enjoying some games together.

So I did not hit 8 hours. I did manage to hit around 6 hours, and that’s not too bad. Right?

Books Completed

I did manage to hit my goal of reading 2 books! I’ll be honest, I secretly wanted to read 3 or 4 but I have myself a goal that I thought would be attainable, so while I’m disappointed I didn’t get to read as much as I wanted, I was happy that I completed the 2 book goal that I set myself.

The first book I selected for myself to read was a shorter book. I wanted to take it a bit slow and ease into my reading marathon. Why? I have no idea but it sounded like a good idea at the time. With that criteria in mind it was between T. Kingfishers “What Moves the Dead” and M.I. Rio’s “Graveyard Shift”. In the end, I chose “What Moves the Dead”. T.Kingfisher is an author I’ve previously enjoyed and this would be the first of her horror novels I have read. Plus, it’s based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe and I just have always loved his short stories and poems.

For the second book, I had my boyfriend select from the remaining books in my stack. I laid them all out in a row and said “pick which one I read next”. He looked at “Godkiller” first and said that he was tempted to choose that one just based on the title. In the end, he chose “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” because it sounded weird and the cover gave a creepy vibe.

Conclusion

I still had fun.

Honestly, if you have the chance to just take a day off and read, you should totally do it. Or maybe do another hobby you enjoy! Whatever floats your boat friend. I might not have hit the 8 hours of reading that I wanted to do, but I really enjoyed the two books that I did read. I do plan on doing a full review of the two books in question, I just want to give them a post of their own.

I do hope to eventually do an actual 8 hour and then possibly a 12 hour reading marathon some day. Just planning out some snacks, good drinks. and fun reads is a delight. Creating a space for my reading and just getting to enjoy something I love can never be a negative experience (unless of course all the books I pick are absolute garbage…that might not be great).

So there you have it! I failed but succeeded at the same time. I will definitely come back with those reviews! I promise!

Until next time!!

Bye Friends!!!!