It is midnight (well, 12:01am) and this is Rachel here to kick this thing off with a bang! There are so many readers chomping at the bit to get readathoning so without further ado, let’s gif this up and get moving.

(That’s totes me right now. Kristen and Kerry are pretending not to know me.) (Actually Kristen and Kerry are sleeping peacefully on the east coast. I’m coming to you from Dubai again.)

Now that we’ve appropriately welcomed one of the two best weekends of the year, we’ll go through some of the basics of the weekend. First of all, you’ll be able to catch me, Kristen, and Kerry posting here and on social media all weekend. We’ll be taking turns on the official social handles — Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Litsy (@24in48) — and the official hashtag #24in48.

We’re also introducing a new feature to track the books you’re reading this weekend and your geographic location. Let us know where you’re reading from here, and track your books as you finish them here! Also, new this year, we’ll also be logging your books in Goodreads, as well as tracking your three hosts’ TBRs and recommendations.

Additionally, we introduced a PayPal Donate button to help cover the costs of international prizes, which allows us to include many more of your fellow global participants in the prize giving. We’ve gotten a few donations so far this year, but the more we get, the more prizes we can offer. Click on the button in the sidebar or go to this link to be taken to our donation page. 100% of your donations (minus PayPal’s fees) will go toward helping your fellow participants who are not US-based the chance to win prizes. As more donations come in throughout the weekend, we’ll add to the prize page so as many people as possible can win. Thank you to all of you that have already contributed.

Now, for the meat of the readathon (finally! I know, right?) It is midnight ET according to the official time clock and we’ll be posting updates every three hours until we wrap this thing up on Sunday night at midnight ET. It is definitely not too late to sign up, which you can do here, and you should sign up whether you think you’ll hit 24 hours of reading or not. You’ll have the chance to win prizes just for participating, as well as in challenges that will be posted here throughout the course of the weekend. (Click the Follow button at the bottom of the screen to be emailed every time we post a new update here.)

Just as we did in January, you’ll be asked to fill out a Google form to enter challenges. Challenge entries only added in the comments will not count toward prize eligibility. (Speaking of prizes, have you seen the prize list for this round?)

For more tips and instructions, check out our post on how to readathon.

Let’s start with the Intro Survey — fill out the form below to enter and check out your fellow participants’ answers in the spreadsheet below the form. You’ve got until Hour 24 to enter to win.