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 36: Self-Isolation Ambiance

The world feels pretty quiet these days. I don’t mean the internet (we’re proof of that this weekend!); I mean the world. I mean when I open the windows, when we walk our dogs, when I take a break from my indoor quarantine to stand barely just a smidge outside my front door (when there are no other people outside and also not touching anything) and try and recharge my heart from the sunshine.

Any other time, I think I’d revel in it. Right now, it’s a little eerie. I’ve been seeking out something to fill the noise. Right now, that looks like me, sitting in my reading chair, facing our TV with a virtual fireplace running on the screen. Earlier, it sounded like this reading soundtrack on Spotify. Maybe for you, it’s the Gryffindor common room.

I’m new to the world of ASMR reading ambiance, but I know a lot of you aren’t! Do you have favorites? Tips and tricks? Good places for us to find new ones? Share em in the comments, or with our dedicated hashtag for the weekend, and let’s get even cozier.

Wash your hands. Drink water. We love you.

XX

Hour 24: the halftime show

Happy second midnight (well, for your east coast hosts), readers! 👋

Time is a weird thing these days with most of us isolated/quarantined, and tracking it this weekend is helping me feel like I’m getting back on track with knowing, you know, what “days” and “clocks” mean again. ⏰

Whether it’s your first or second or tenth time with us, we hope you’re loving a weekend devoted to books and turning the uncertainty around us into something as positive as we can. 📚

These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about what matters, what deserves energy and focus, what I want to devote my intention to. And my people, my community, and my books? They’re on the top of the list. I hope you’re finding that to be true for you, too. 💖

Now that we’re halfway through this thing, we want to remind you to make sure you’re hydrating and moving! Do some yoga in your living room or have a dance party in your kitchen. Whatever it looks like, leave your nest for a few minutes and get that blood pumping. 🧘💃

Don’t worry, we’ll be here when you get back.

Hour 12: Read Together…Separately

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We’re 12 hours in to this #StayHome24in48 and I hope everyone is finding their groove and managing to not keep checking their phone every two minutes.

As we hosts are settling in for the weekend, we’ve been reminded again and again that this community of readers is the heart and soul of these events. Not the prizes, the challenges, tracking your time…none of it compares to the fellow readathon-ers reading together.

Internet hugs only! Social distancing rules apply.

Are you doing any reading check-ins with other participants? Might we suggest a Zoom call or a Hangout call with friends who are also participating and reading together? Or how about reading out loud with your fellow readathon-ers, family members or kids?

Tell us how it’s going for you down in the comments. Are you reading with anyone else? Have you been able to escape into your books or are you having trouble focusing? You guys are doing so great and we love reading with all of you again!

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.

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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.

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We’ll see you back here in 12 hours at noon EDT. We’re so happy to see you and to be back with this incredible community.

#24in48: The Social Distancing Edition

Readers, we miss you.

Your hosts have been busy busy busy with many non-bookish things of late: a baby, job shifts (of both the good and bad varieties), family demands, the rigors of day-to-day living in the current news cycles, international travel. It’s been a lot. And it’s why we decided to pause our beloved 24in48 readathon this winter, skipping the regularly planned January edition while we figure out what the future of this corner of the bookternet might look like (more to come on that; thanks for your patience!).

I mean.
Can you even?
I mean. Can you even? One of us MADE THAT. 

But in the meantime … we miss you. And as more and more countries are implementing social distancing recommendations (if not actual quarantines), we decided it was time to find comfort in books and the community that loves them.

Which brings us to the Social Distancing Readathon.

Stay home.

Wash your hands.

Read books.

March 21 & 22. 

It’s that simple. No prizes. No hourly challenges. No requirements. Just a chance to reconnect with this amazing bookish community (online! no hand sanitizer required!), read some good books, and talk about them with other readers.

This spontaneous Social Distancing Readathon will take place next weekend, (officially) starting 12 a.m. EST on March 21st. You know the drill by now; adjust your timezone as desired, and read with us on Saturday (21st) and Sunday (22nd) from wherever you are in the world. 

So, who’s in? Sign up here. Connect with us on Instagram and Twitter, and we’ll use the hashtag #StayHome24in48 all weekend.  

virrtual hug

Plan on reading—with us—a whole lot.

We’ll see you on the internet, where digital hugs have no virus transmission risk. 

XX,

Kerry, Kristen, & Rachel 

An Update: January’s Readathon

Hello and happy fall, readathoners!

dog-reading
Your founder and co-host Rachel here with an update for January’s scheduled readathon.

I started #24in48 in 2011 as a small (literally I think there was a dozen of us) online reading weekend.  As you know if you’ve been participating in #24in48 for the last year or so, the biannual event has grown significantly every January and July and the growth has been exponential, particularly over the last three readathon weekends. This past July we topped 3,000 participants. Kristen, Kerry, and I are so thrilled that so many of you join us year after year and pull your friends and family and fellow readers into this amazing community. And as that community grows, the more demanding and logistically complicated the readathon gets, particularly if we want to continue to serve you as readers and participants the best we can.

Kristen and Kerry joined me to help manage and host, which helped us continue to grow and evolve. We’ve been experimenting with ways to make participating more fun and engaging AND with making it easier for us to continue to put on this event twice a year. Unfortunately, our lives have also gotten more complicated and our ability to run the readathon the way we want (and the way you deserve) is no longer possible.

What this means for now is that we’re going to be canceling the Jan. 18-19, 2020 readathon. (I know, sad faces all around).

The three of us will reconvene in the spring to determine if we’ll be moving forward with future readathons, and if so, what form those will take. Stayed tuned and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or subscribe to posts here to be notified when we make an announcement.

We have loved hosting the ‘thon for you guys and we thank all of you (and especially our publishing partners) for your support.

t hanks

Happy reading,

Rachel (and Kristen and Kerry)

July 2019 #24in48 Prize Pack Winners

Holy moly, readathoners! Can you believe another ‘thon has come and gone? We’re so amazed by the incredible turnout last weekend – nearly 2,500 of you signed up and showed up for the readathon, which is particularly astounding since the summer 24in48 is notoriously smaller than our winter event. But you guys blew past our previous July event records without even blinking.

And if that weren’t enough, 235 of you submitted proof of having read 24+ hours (and I do mean + – some readers clocked well over the 24-hour goal over the course of the weekend). Thank goodness we had more prize packs than ever to give away this time.

So without further ado, let’s give away some prize packs. (As a reminder, here’s what’s in each of these packs.)

US-Based Winners

Prize Pack #1

Carmen Malcolm

Prize Pack #2

Maggie Dodge

Prize Pack #3

Caryn Livingston

Prize Pack #4

Jenny Cordier

Prize Pack #5

Susan (@yetanothersusan)

Prize Pack #6

Kristen Stromberg

Prize Pack #7

Andrea Eastman

International Winners

Prize Pack #1

Ioana Sulica

Prize Pack #2

Carmen (TheReadingTrashQueen)

Congrats to all our winners and to everyone that finished a full 24 hours of reading! And congrats to all of you that participated, whether you hit 24 hours or not. Winners, expect an email from us shortly.

If you won another prize during the readathon last week, we are in the process of working through all of your entries and will be processing those soon. Please be patient as it takes a little while to get all your mailing addresses sent over to our publishing partners and/or your prizes packaged up and sent out (depending on what you won).

Thank you again to everyone that joined us last weekend for another great #24in48. We had the best time and hope you did too.

Hour 48: It’s The End.

Amazing. You guys are absolutely amazing. We’ve hit the end of this round of #24in48 and are still counting up all the posts and comments and prize entries and emojis and gifs you all shared this weekend but suffice to say it was a successful weekend all around.

Whether you hit 24 hours or not, we all spent a little more time with our nose in a book and isn’t that the best way to spend a weekend?

We have some winners to announce from the Hour 42 Your Favorite One Challenge. If you see your name below, keep an eye out for an email from us to claim your prize! :

Lauren (the_peachy_reader)Ioana Sulica
heidi leaRaquel Evans
Suzanne WigginsJacqulene Brandt
Ryan A. FranklinEmily Blaeser
Julianne NaumChristina Hickey
Tamara CotziasBex (bexlibris)
Karin ShankSarah Whitely
Dwayna PaplowMiciella Bishop

Don’t forget that you can still log any books you finish here.

Next, to announce the date of our next 24in48 readathon! Join us on:

📚January 18-19, 2020📚

We made some changes and added some features for this round of 24in48 and we’d love to know how this readathon went for you. Did you like the new challenge set up? Were you able to catch one of the Instagram Lives with your hosts? Tell us all that and more by filling out the Closing Survey here or in the embedded form below.

Lastly, if you managed to read a full 24 hours, you’re eligible to win a prize pack (announced here), courtesy of some of our fantastic donors. Fill out the form here or embedded below to provide proof of your full 24 hours read BEFORE midnight ET on Wednesday, July 24th. We’ll announce the winners of those packs next week. (Don’t forget that you must include a link directly to the proof post, not to your profile or to a story that will disappear).

Once again, we are so thrilled you were able to join us this weekend and we hope you had an amazing couple of days full of great books, yummy snacks, and few interruptions. We’ll see you back here in January! Now we’re gonna go pass out for 12 hours.

Hour 45: Feeling All the Feels

teal background with 24in48 logo and a header that reads, "Hour 45: Check-In: Feeling All the Feels"

It’s Hour 45, which means it’s my last official check-in with you all for the weekend. And you know what that means: ALL THE FEELINGS.

A woman in front of a Christmas tree waves her hands with the caption "Feelings. So many feelings right now."

Seriously, though, this weekend is an incredible testament to the power of books and reading to bring people together in ways that are still mind-blowing to me, even after many, many years of doing this thing. I know I speak for my fellow co-hosts when I say we are so, so grateful for each and every one of you who participate, who share this event with friends and family, who cheer each other on over the course of the weekend. For reals. It’s amazing.

The cast of Saved by the Bell does a cheer with the caption "Friends Forever!"

Don’t worry, there will be more feels at Hour 48 as we wrap this wonderful weekend up, and there’s still three whole hours left to read read read read read!

Before you go, don’t forgetto enter the Hour 42 Challenge for more chances to win great prizes, which is open until Hour 48 for submissions! Want to win a door prize yourself? All you have to do is be sure you’re officially signed up for the July #24in48 and are actively participating online somewhere we can see you!

As in recent ‘thons, we’re aiming to keep track of ALL of the books read during the #24in48 weekend. Enter the titles of all the books you’ve finished in this form, and then pop over to our July 2019 24in48 Goodreads shelf to see what others have been reading during the weekend!