Readathons - Where Do I Stand?

The majority of people who blog about books or partake in 'BookTube', will have participated in a readathon at least once. Or have heard of readathons at the very least. There are so many out and about in the world of book reviewing (be it blog, video or tweets), that I thought I would have my own little say on them, because why not ey?

Readathons, for those who don't know, are periods of time where you read books following a certain theme (usually). For example, some people do an author readathon, where they read ONLY that author (I'm currently doing that myself partially with Stephen King books). Others will do readathons with common themes such as dystopian, YA (Young Adult), LGBT, mental illness, disability, to name but a few. This allows the reader to choose their own books by their own preferred authors on a topic they all have in common. There are also two more types of readathon: a free-style one, and a slightly-structured-but-not-strict one. For a free-style readathon, the participants read whatever the heck they want, and this tends to be in readathons such as Deweys 24-hour readathon (I suggest looking up Little Book Owl on YouTube for more info, found here). For this readathon in particular, you have 24 hours to read whatever you want. The pieces you read can be graphic novels, manga, fiction, non-fiction, long, short - you get the picture. The choice is yours. And the best bit? It's usually organised to suit your time zone, for example from 2am April 3rd to 2am April 4th. This tends to work best for people with busy schedules who need to just relax for a day or two, and it's particularly helpful if arranged for a weekend! For our slightly-structured-but-not-strict-one, I've chosen RYBSAT as an example. RYBSAT stands for Read Your Book Shelf A Thon, and happens regularly around the year (videos can be found here). In this readathon, the rules are simple: pick a point on your bookshelf, and just read. Which is good, particularly if you pick a point on your shelf where there are a number of shorter books!

So, now we've explained the various types of readathons (I'd like to point out this is not an exclusive list, and there are a number of other readathons happening every single day which are great), what's my thoughts on them?

Well, I kinda, sorta, LOVE them. I love them so much, I've done a couple of my own. Granted, they haven't taken off as well as others, but I benefited from them, which is what counts really. For example, I'm currently doing the Season of Stephen King, where I'm just reading Stephen King books. BUT, as this is a lengthly readathon, I'm reading other items alongside it so I don't get bored. Which is very likely to happen.

For me, readathons are s beneficial to those taking part. They're excellent for those who are trying to hit their reading goals and are falling behind, or are good for a bit of a kick up the bum if you're feeling slumpish. Well, they're just fun in general to be honest!


So there we have it! My thoughts on readathons. Do you know of any readathons, or take part in some I haven't mentioned? Let me know down below so I can find out more!

Being Ruthless

If there's one thing I've learnt so far in 2016, it's that life is too short. Far too short. In the midst of family issues, and celebrities dropping like flies, along with career alterations and just life in general, I've started to focus on things that matter the most to me, and spending more time doing the things I love. Whilst this includes reading, some 'light' crafting, and filming for my YouTube channel and writing blog posts, it also means spending time with family, fiance, and friends.

So what does this mean for my blog and YouTube?

Absolutely nothing.

As soon as I finish a book, I'll be posting a collective review of my thoughts and feelings surrounding the book, its plot, characters etc. I'll still be posting videos as and when I can, with hopefully a variety of content.

But what about my reading?

Well, that's actually what I wanted to talk about in this post to be honest. I've FINALLY decided to make the executive decision of being ruthless toward my reading. I have such a huge TBR pile that it just has to be done. So how am I going to do it?

It's simple. If I'm reading a physical book, I'll give it 3 chapters, or between 30 and 50 pages, depending on what I reach first. If the book seems promising and I'm enjoying it, I'll see it out. If it isn't tickling my fancy, it'll have until the 50 page mark to redeem itself, or else it will be going on my DNF pile. If I'm reading an eBook, it will have between 10 and 20%, depending on the size of the book. If the book is large, I'll apply the 50 page rule, as long as my kindle has the page number option available. If not, it'll have up to 30% to redeem itself, or else I will be leaving it unfinished, It's a shame to have to be strict on myself and my reading, but when I have such a busy schedule, along with a continuous growth spurt of my TBR, it has to be done.

Have any of you had to be ruthless with your TBR? Or with anything else for that matter? If you have any more tips or tricks about being ruthless, let me know down below!

See you all soon with another post!

[spoiler]REVIEW: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

**not mine, taken from Photobucket, credit to the creator who is linked in the image**

Okay, so this review is an alternative, almost discussion-style post as opposed to my spoiler-free review here, so if you do not wish to be spoiled, please head there!

This book took me an aaaaaage to complete, at least that's what it felt like! But it's a big book, that requires commitment, which I seemingly lacked. 

I absolutely adored the down-to-earth characteristic that Sue displayed, although I did disagree with Sue's lifestyle, but hey-ho, in that time period, needs must right? And I'm certain she wasn't the only one being a fingersmith. I felt that her development through the book allowed us, as readers, to feel like we were living it up with her, in the sense that we felt how she felt, even though we knew what she didnt. One thing I did not like however, was that we knew a lot more of the truth than Sue did, way before she did. That was one thing I felt that let me down, as I could not sympathise as much with Sue whilst she was hating Gentleman and Maud with all her might, yet so desperately clung onto the idea that Sucksby was looking for her, which was, as we all know, is far, far, far from the truth!

Maud. Oh Maud, you seemingly naive, yet cunning girl. Yes, we understand your frustration with your lifestyle, and your Uncle, but you were looked after well, fed, and everyone tried to do the best for you. Hell, even I sympathised with you and I was Team Sue all the way! Well, I sympathised with you until you went, unsupervised, into the library and did the thing. I think, a part of me actually wanted Sue to carry out her hateful thoughts onto you, just for that act. Yes, I understand there was smut in probably every single one of those books, but someone took the time and effort to create the thing and you went ahead and destroyed at least one! You went down in my expectations after that Maud, especially when we discovered you were penning your own in the future. Not good. 

This is just a couple of my initial thoughts on the book, mainly on two of the characters. Is this something that you would like to see more of on my blog? A spoiler-free review, followed by a spoiler/discussion style post as well, where I offload all my thoughts which are free to discuss with you as readers? Let me know in the comments if this seems like a good plan. 

That's it for now, I'll be back in the New Year!

#FAIRYTALEATHON pre-announcement post

Thanks Google for the image, can be found here

Hello world! Today I come at you with an exciting post about a readthon.

Myself and Madeline, from Mad Novels (who's Youtube channel can be found here) are hosting our very own readathon! It takes place from midnight in your own time of 14th September, running right through to the 20th September. Exciting stuff hmm?

So, what is the focus of our readathon, I hear you all pretending to ask?

Well, we are focusing this readathon around fairytale retellings! So that means books such as The Lunar Chronicle, ACOTAR etc. We will be doing challenges (which we are releasing at a later date ;) ), and using the '#' #fairytaleathon across the social media platforms we use, including Twitter and Instagram, in order to promote our readathon idea in the hopes that people would like to join in! 

Why are you doing a readathon? And why a fairytale retelling focus?

Basically, Madeline contacted me via YouTube (apparently thats a a thing!), and asked if I had a certain series of books, as she was interested in doing a readathon. Sadly, I lacked those books in my possession, so we settled for a different option in fairytale retellings, as we both have those on our TBRs!

Personally, I like that it's a fairytale retelling focused readathon, as it allows for the more unfamiliar books on our TBRs to be recognised, not just the popular ones I've mentioned before. We are able to discuss a generic theme of a book, but give eachother different options and ideas of where to head next within the theme, as it's such a diverse one. 


If anyone has any questions regarding the readathon, or would like to participate, let me know in the comments down below!  I was going to post a video for this, but my camera currently hates me! :(


See you all soon with hopefully another blog post, if not a video!


Rebecca x