We’ve hit the end of our Social Distancing #StayHome24in48 Readathon and Kerry, Kristen, and I are truly astonished by the outpouring of participation this weekend. Though we never looked at numbers during this weekend, I snuck a peek at the sign-up sheet and nearly 2,000 of you beautiful humans decided to spend this weekend staying home, social distancing, and reading with all your friends online.
It’s becoming clear that this pandemic and the ways in which it will alter our day-to-day and longterm lives has only just begun and will likely last months, if not years. The ways in which we’ll be best able to cope with this upheaval and impending tragedy (because it already is and will be tragic) is by remembering what we as readers have always known: hope is just a turn of a page away, fellow readers make the best support system, and a good book allows us to escape from reality, if only for a little while.
Thank you all for joining us this weekend, despite the lack of prizes or challenges or much real structure at all. Your hosts all got in some much-needed reading too (which we rarely get to do during these weekends) and thought a lot about what future iterations of 24in48 could look like. Because it also seems clear that we’re just at the beginning of this thing and readathons may be more necessary than ever to remind us all that we’re never alone. Even when we’re staying 6 ft. apart.
We will absolutely be back in some simpler form, likely somewhere on the continuum between what we did this weekend and our normal format. Subscribe to posts here, or follow us on Twitter or Instagram to be notified when we make an announcement. Much of scheduling and planning will depend on how this virus impacts not only us personally but the publishing industry, the mail system, etc. Stay tuned for more details.
The three of us are sending love and good health out to all of you and your families. We will get through this together.
Happy Reading!
-Rachel
24in48 Readathon 
This was my first 24 in 48 and while I only got 9 hours and 22 minutes of reading done (my goal was 12 hours), that is still 9 hours I probably would have spent playing games on my phone or sleeping. Thank you for putting this on and I look forward to the next one. I agree that readathons will be come more and more important as this crisis wears on.
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Thank you very much for putting this together! This was my first #24in48 readathon and, though I wish we were doing it under better circumstances, I enjoyed it very much.
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Thanks so much for getting this together! ANYTIME in the future you’d like help putting this together, let me know and I will jump in and help! I will have finished one book and three in progress, so it has helped me get back on track – thanks so much!
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From me as well a big thank you for initiating this! I clocked in at 13 hours and 39 minutes. Give or take half an hour, where I forgot to switch on my timer. It was fun to meet new people! As I isństalled the WordPress app for the occasion, I plan to be more active on WordPress in the future… I am open and interested in any kind of readathon…
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I made it to 24 hours for the first time! Woohoo! My reading list here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/21244692-24in48-readathon—march-21-22-2020#comment_206311438
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I had so much fun participating. While I once again didn’t reach the 24 hour mark I did read for 11 hours and 35 minutes and I finished 2 and a half books.
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Thanks for organizing this. For various reasons I forgot to track my exact hours, but i did finish two books and started a third. It was great to sit down and get some quality reading time in.
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Thank you so much for hosting this and for your wise words.
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It’s such a shame I only knew about this after it was done but this sounds so amazing!! If you hold any more soon I’d love to take part as I’m already bored in quarantine!
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