We made it! You did it! It’s here! A full weekend dedicated to nothing but reading. (And sleeping and eating and maybe a little bit of hammock time if you’re lucky?)

By the official readathon clock, it’s 12:01AM ET on Saturday morning and this party doesn’t stop until midnight tomorrow. And like any good party, there will be lots of good company, good snacks, and excellent entertainment.

If this is your first 24in48, welcome! We’re so happy you’re here. If you’re coming back for 2nd or 3rd or 7th or 8th round, it’s great to see you again.

Your hosts (that’s me, Rachel, and Kristen and Kerry) have made a few changes for this readathon (more about that in a minute), but the basics are the same. The three of us (plus a few helpers who you can find here and here) will be posting throughout the weekend, here and all over social media. We’ll be taking turns on the official social handles — Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Litsy — and keeping track of the official hashtag #24in48.

We’ve also scheduled two (COUNT ‘EM, TWO) Instagram Lives during the readathon, one at Hour 10 with Kristen and one at Hour 27 with me, Rachel, for those international readers. So make sure you mark those times on your calendars (we’ll be sure to remind you throughout this weekend too) and join us for all the fun readathon-y goodness).

We’re bringing back book tracking where you can log all the books you’ve read during the whole readathon weekend. As you finish a book, enter it HERE and we’ll be adding those to Goodreads throughout the readathon. (Please be patient if you don’t see your books on Goodreads immediately; it’s a manual process for your hosts.) You can also check out your hosts’ TBRs and recommendations.

Plus! If you haven’t gotten your #24in48 merch yet, what are you waiting for? We’ve got tons of swag, including coffee mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, totes and more, in our classic design AND a special limited edition summer readathon design. Pick up your 24in48 stuff HERE or click on the baseball tee in the sidebar (everything’s on sale throughout the weekend). All commissions we make go right back into to the running of the readathon, including helping us ship prizes out to you lovely readers.

Additionally, don’t forget about our 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.

And speaking of prizes, we’re changing up our prize process this year. We’ve spent some time looking at your feedback from past ‘thons, trying to figure out to simplify the giveaway process, and decided to make some adjustments. Rather than posting a giant list of prizes that you can choose from, we’re telling you right up front which books or prizes are up for grabs for each challenge. You’ll have a chance to win a specific title so if you’re particularly interested in something, you’ll have a better opportunity to enter for it. When you win a prize, we’ll send you an email with a form to enter your mailing information and your prize will be sent directly to you. As with any new thing, there will be some kinks to work out so if you have recommendations for next time, make sure you fill out our closing survey at Hour 48 to let us know how we can improve.

Okay! Now that we’ve covered the administrative shenanigans, let’s get into some readathon-ing. Starting now at midnight EST, we’ll be posting updates every three hours until we put this ship of fun to sleep on Sunday night at midnight. It’s not too late to sign up (and you still have plenty of time to drag your friends and family in as well), which you can do here. Even if you don’t think you’ll hit 24 hours of reading, you should still absolutely sign up. Only a tiny fraction of participants do a full 24 hours but everyone that signs up and participates is entered to win door prizes and can complete challenges throughout the weekend for additional prize entries. Don’t forget: the goal is not to hit a target time, but just to spend the weekend dedicated to reading. (Click the Follow button at the bottom of the screen to be emailed every time we post a new update here.)

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

Now, let’s kick this thing off with our intro survey. Introduce yourself by fill out the form below, then check out your fellow readers’ answers in the spreadsheet below.