Hour 48: Just the Beginning

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

Hour Zero: Social Distancing #24in48 Readathon

Helloooo Readers!

While this is not exactly the situation in which we’d hoped to be back with you, we are happy to be able to gather our little community together and maybe spend a few days curled up with a book (or eight) and not leaving the house. More and more of us are under lockdown or shelter-in-place rules, and while we stay in our houses, we welcome you to social distance, stay home, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and read.

The guidelines for this #24in48 weekend are going to be a bit different than normal. We’re not doing prizes or challenges. Check-ins will happen every 12 hours here and every six hours on Twitter and Instagram (Facebook will receive automatic pushes, but we won’t be checking in there and Litsy will not be updated at all for this round. However, we encourage you to use your favorite platform to keep up with your community). And no logging titles on Goodreads.

The ‘thon will run as normal from 12:01am EDT Saturday, March 21st (oh hai, that’s now!) to 11:59pm EDT Sunday, March 22nd. You are welcome to shoot for 24 hours, but we won’t be asking for proof in a check-in for prizes at the end. Our only goal (yes, your hosts too) is to spend some time escaping from the world and getting lost in a book. We will be reading all weekend as well (hence the scaled down check-ins and backend work), and we want to encourage everyone to use the #StayHome24in48 hashtag to connect with each other.

Especially if you’re having trouble focusing on books. I know very few people who aren’t struggling with concentrating – on anything, let alone a book – so be patient with yourselves if the pages just aren’t turning. Even if you easily hit 24 hours (and even if you didn’t) in previous readathons, don’t be surprised if you struggle this time around.

Sleep, take walks (but practice good social distancing; stay 6 ft apart from people not in your household) and listen to audiobooks, stretch, eat good food, and stay cozy, friend.