One of the very best parts of readathon is the food (trust me on this). I am all about planning my snacks and meals in advance, and the name of the game is, ALL THE CARBS. I try to eat healthy, I promise, but then again, its winter, I don’t have to be in a swimsuit for like six months, and mac & cheese exists in the world. It’s only a problem if you say it’s a problem, right?

I say, combat the sneaking suspicion that food and books are not as closely related as you might think by dreaming up your perfect dinner party. Who would you most like to attend a bookish dinner party with? Authors (living or dead), fictional characters, anything goes. That’s your next challenge: which five bookish people (or animals, I’m not picky) would be around your perfect literary dinner table? 

Post a comment with your dinner party guest list, and I’ll pick a prize winner at our final check-in of the readathon, Hour 48 at midnight ET tonight.

Now to announce the winner of our Hour 36 #Diverseathon challenge.

Karen (@wellreadpirate on Insta)

You guys gave such great recommendations — my TBR is overflowing with them all!

We’re getting low on prizes but we’ve still got more to give away:

Emily Drake

Kris Wiley

Kristen M. (@webereading on Twitter)

CameG

Congrats and head to the Prize page now!

A reading wizard! No, but Siriusly. (How many of you are reading HP for this readathon? I bet it’s a lot!)

We’ve got just under 10 hours to go, and things are getting crazy up in here. There’s been a lot of wonderful chatter, some very hardcore reading, and participants from all over the world, some of whom are already done with their readathons.

You can still post your diverse and #ownvoices recommendations over in Hour 36 for a chance to win.

For those of you still with me, here are three more prize winners:

Heather Frase

Sarah (@saguarosally on Litsy)

Michelle Sorensen

I’ll be back in three hours with our last challenge of the ‘thon!

Today is the start of #Diverseathon, a week-long readathon that encourages you to read books by…you guessed it…diverse authors, particularly focusing on #ownvoice. If you’re not familiar with it, #ownvoices describes books written by authors that identify with the same marginalized group as the protagonists that they’re writing. This could include authors that identify as and are writing characters that are POCs, disabled, LGBTQ+, non-cisgender, etc.

The intention is two-fold: 1) reading #ownvoices books sends a message to the publishing community (which is traditionally, white, able-bodied, straight, and cisgender) that these books have audiences and encourage them to publish more of them, and 2) reading about characters from marginalized groups expands your own awareness of diversity and empathy, something I think we can all benefit from.

So this hour’s challenge is to post a comment with your favorite #ownvoices recommendations, or if you have a photo of your recommendations, post a comment with a link to that photo. Give your fellow readers some suggestions for diverse books, and think about joining #diverseathon this week.

Here are a selection of diverse and #ownvoices titles from my shelves:

What’s on your list? Let me know below!

The winner of our Hour 30 challenge (who not only posted a photo of rainbow books, but all books featuring LGBTQ characters too!) is:

rezgirlreads

Thanks to your amazing rainbow photos, I’m donating $78 to the Human Rights Campaign. And Jenna and Rachel are matching that amount! So the campaign will be getting $234 total. Great job, everyone!

Here are three more door prize winners, just to say thanks:

Gayan Hutchinson

Nikki Yager

Sammantha Harvey

I’ll be in Hour 39 as we start the home stretch.

Hey. Hey you there. I see those sleepy eyes. Why not put your book down, plug some earphones in, turn on an audiobook, and go take a walk? Seriously. It’ll help. Or if it’s too cold or snowy where you are (you Aussies, shut up, I don’t want to hear about your summer weather right now. You either, Californians), do your very best sun salutation and get the blood flowing. Go now, we’ll all still be here when you get back.

If you need some inspiration, try this:

Maybe some more door prizes will wake you up too:

Kendra (@senseofthestars on Twitter)

Amy Berson

Matisse (@Nerdy_and_geeky_looks on Instagram)

Kate (@katedensen on Litsy)

See you in three!

Good morning, fine people! It’s 6am by my watch and we’ve got a WHOLE ‘NOTHER DAY OF READING IN FRONT OF US! ISN’T IT EXCITING??

I’m super pumped (especially since Sunday is usually the day I actually get to read things). It’s a much more chill day, as readers either buckle down to try to hit 24 hours or realize they’ll probably fall short and decide to just read for the sake of reading. Whichever you are, just know that I’m super proud of you and there is no failure in spending the whole weekend reading. So keep going, turn those pages, and keep cheering each other on.

For this hour’s challenge, you’re going to help me with a little bit of activism. Take a picture of your very best rainbow book stack, and comment below with a link to your photo. For every photo, I will personally donate $1 to the Human Rights Campaign, in support of its mission of advocating for LGBTQ equality.

Just in case you need a reminder, a rainbow’s color order is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Here’s my rainbow book stack:

I’ll pick a winner for this challenge at Hour 36!

Three more prize winners:

Kayla Branson

Ann (@AnnieReads at Litsy)

Juliana Partin

Now show me your best rainbows!

Yawn. It’s 3am and, let’s be real, I’m probably asleep (I told you guys it was just me back here). But I’m here digitally to announce four more door prize winners:

Katie (whatkatiereads on Instagram)

Sara Birmingham

Rebecca Renfrow

Jenna @ JMill Wanders

Back to bed I go, until the next challenge is announced at Hour 30.

Listen, I’M not punchy, YOU’RE PUNCHY.

No, but really, how’s everyone doing? It’s the halfway mark on this ‘thon, and you guys have been reading like whoa. I’m so super impressed with the number of books you’ve been putting away. I’m trying to keep up, but there’s legit so many of you, but only one of me (I swear, it’s just one person back here). How about some prizes to make up for it?

The winners of Hour Zero’s Intro Survey prize are:

Katie Hardin

Katja Nielsen

katie8laurence

And the winner of Hour 18’s Spine Poetry challenge is:

mistysbookspace

If you’re still up (or you’re on the other side of the world), let me know how it’s going for you? What’s the best book you’ve read so far? The worst? Any that you’re still looking forward to? Have you slept at all? And most importantly, what’s the best snack/food you’ve had?

 

I don’t know about you guys, but its cold, snowy, windy, and generally miserable outside. Which, for me, makes perfect reading weather. I’ve got my fuzzy slippers, cozy blanket, and fluffy reading partners plus a whole stack of books to keep me company. What’s the weather like where you are? Are you enjoying the sun or is the winter keeping you inside too?

Know what makes gross winter weather slightly better? Prizes! Three more winners to announce:

Erin Hernandez

Amy C (@amyecolman on Twitter)

SmartyPants

We’re closing in the halfway point. You can do it!

We’re close to halfway on the official clock and I’ve been absolutely heart eyes emoji about the community online today. While many of you are marching (I wish I could be with you), lots of you are reading and talking and cheering each other on and I am here for it. Keep going, guys, you’re doing great!

I’ve seen lots of great readathon TBR stacks in my feeds, and now I want to see another kind of photo. We’ve already done shelfies, but this time I want to see your best spine poetry. Construct your best poem from book titles on your shelves, take a photo, and post a link to that photo and the resulting poem in a comment below. (Add punctuation as you see fit.) Here’s mine:

Hold still
Pretty is another day in the death of America
Half wild monstress, I see you.

Give me your best stanza and I’ll pick a prize winner for this challenge at Hour 24 at midnight ET tonight.

We’ve got another prize winner to announce, from Hour Twelve’s feminist challenge.

Nephele

And four more door prize winners too!

Kayci G (@theruralreader on Twitter)

Maggie Stewart

Shana (@sfox414 on Litsy)

Christine @Buckling Bookshelves

Congrats, winners, and don’t forget to head to the Prizes page to pick your winnings!

What’s your reading strategy for this weekend? Are you reading comics? Novellas? Short books? A series? Or one long doorstopper? I’m personally taking bites out of a few different books I’m in a middle of, plus an audiobook or two.  Are you reading on a theme? From a set TBR? Or just whatever strikes your fancy? Need some inspiration? Check out this post I put up earlier this week.

Let’s give some books away, okay? Our next three door prize winners are:

Audra (Unabridged Chick)

Shawntaye

Ashley Rae

Have you checked in on social media with the hashtag #24in48? Don’t forget to cheer on your fellow readathoners this weekend.

And don’t forget to check the previous check-in posts from Hours Three, Six, Nine, and Twelve to see if you won a prize.