Greetings!

We have something exciting to tell you. We’re coming into Summer -that time of the year again already? Yes! It’s Read-a-Thon!

Wait, you may say, Read-a-Thon – what is that? Well, let me enlighten you. Read-a-Thon is a Summer Reading Program. The goal is to read as many books throughout the summer as possible; you can watch the progress of fellow members and friends, and use their success to encourage you to read more! You keep count of the number of pages that you read, and at the end of the contest the organizers will award prizes to the Winner – the person who read the most pages. The start date is June the 3rd and the contest will run until August the 25th! So close, isn’t it exciting! So get into reading mode, and be ready to start.

Now, things are slightly different from last year. Let me explain: Each month will focus on a genre. June will be Fantasy, July Science Fiction, and August Historical Fiction. So we can encompass all three forums in this; during July the contest will be hosted from the SF forum, August from the HF forum and so on.

To sign up for the contest you need to directly PM Azlyn Mimetes and she will add you to the secret counting list. You must be signed up to participate!

Any sort of reading will be allowed during all the months, but if you read books from the genre that we are focussing on you get double points!

We are also running Book of the Week; basically every week of the contest we will be running activities (which may vary) based on a book that has been chosen for that week. If you participate in the activities you earn extra points!

We will be having weekly themes during the contest– if you read a book in the theme chosen you earn bonus points!

We have lots of exciting events planned for this contest, so do join us! It’s going to be lots of fun.

Here is the Official Calendar of Events & Books of the Week It will be updated as we progress.

The Rules for the contest will be posted soon!

Thank you!

*grins* This shall be fun! *Cleans out PM box and waits for the flood of sign ups*

This author has plans. Lots of them. With prizes.

*Chuckles* I know, I can't wait!

Unfortunately, my ability to read books in June is going to be...severely impaired, I think...

Then sign up and participate in July and August! You don't have to participate all of the months - you just need to sign up early on.

*readies large-print 3x5 sized book for quick page-finishing*

Dirty cheat. I'm stuck with Les Miserables and Calvin's Institutes.

*starts lining her To-Read books on a shelf*

@Wolf:

I probably will...Although the other unfortunate thing is that I'm not very interested in historical fiction... (yes, I realize you can read other stuff too, but still)

*whispers* (I'm actually going to be spending some time reading Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology and The Silmarillion as well, so...)

Ah. Good.

Aand Eragon, and other books.

I must say, I am super excited about this contest. I'm going to be running the week with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, so beware!

I am also planning on reading Les Miserables this summer, along with TONS of other books I need to read/reread.

Nemo, I am planning to read that book this week too .

Two good books.

Though of course I have an entire skeleton to pick with Grudem on several points. (Don't ask me what...it's been a while since I read most of the book in the middle of the night and I don't remember a lot of specifics.)

*ponders whether she'll have the time and material to enter* So. It's only the top most pages that win?

I'm not sure of the details, but it's fun even if you don't win.


But still what? Sign up already! Try reading a new genre!

Yeah, I find it unlikely that I'll agree on every point with Grudem, but what I've read so far is very good, like you said.

Ooh, me too!


I'm going to give my brother Red Rain for his (July 12) birthday, then finish it myself, so good timing there ...

One question, though. Most of my reading nowadays tends to be ebooks on my laptop, in formats where "page" is nebulously defined at best. How do those count---or are we only counting cracking real paper books? (If that's addressed in the rules that'll be posted shortly, I can wait until then.)

Just hang around and wait for the rules everyone I'm sure all questions and pondering and inquiries of all sorts will be sorted out and lined up into cute little rows so you can read and understand them with the utmost of ease!

Until then..... Wheeeeee! Books

E books are fine, I believe. You just look up the paper book on say Amazon, and it tells you how many pages the book has.

I'm so excited about the Read-a-Thon! *looks at waist high stacks of books*

Also... the Read-a-Thon is very close to my heart. I actually joined HolyWorlds in the first place so I could participate last summer.

Really? That's interesting! *likes the Read-a-Thon even more for bringing in Amaris*

So...can we read kids books and count those?

*grins*


Last year the rules were that it had to be at your reading level, I think, but we'd best wait and see the rules to be sure. *waits*

Makes sense...

How do you define reading level? O_o Because I may be reading something hard like the Institutes, which is like the cruciatis curse in text-form, and something really simple... like The Hunger Games.

@Kitra - The prizes are based on point-count; however, there are a lot of ways to earn bonus points by reading the featured genres and doing bonus activities. So you could win a prize even if you didn't read the most physical book pages. Also, some of the extra activities will be giveaways and things, which everyone has a chance to win!

@Kingjon - I'm honored!

As the person who started all this Read-a-Thon business way back six years ago, I'm delighted to see HW take over and let me just participate. Thanks, everybody!

(Now, to find out if I can manage to read during all the summer stuff I have going on...)

We're delighted that you started it, sir!

Yes, we are indeed!


*Goes to sign up and PM Mae*

The official rules are up! Reading starts tomorrow!

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=6416

That's really awesome, Aubrey. thanks so much.

Everyone please remember you must be signed up before you can report pages. If you start reporting without contacting Azlyn your pages will not be counted.

I still need one more page counter. Please PM me if you'd like to volunteer. Please remember that if you're helping count points you can't win prizes.

Just a quick note: If you have not received a confirmation PM from me, your PM has gotten stuck and you are not signed up. Then please send another one or catch me in chat.

So...what if you've already started the book that you want to read for the read-a-thon, can you just do it and subtract the number of pages you were already into it?

Yes, that's exactly what you do. Same with the end of the summer (or months) when you have to turn in your total counts but you haven't finished the book yet. Just count the pages you've read.

Okay, awesome, thank you!

The Read-a-Thon has officially begun! Start reading and report your pages here.

June is FANTASY month, so you earn bonus points for every fantasy book you read! More details on this month's activities and Books of the Week in June's announcement thread.

(You're welcome, Vanya. I'm having fun over here. )

I started listening to Anna Karenina last week and since it is an audiobook, I have no idea how many pages I have "read". How do I count the pages for this week?

Also, does The Hobbit count for dragon week since it has a dragon in it ?

Look up the number of pages for the print version and report it.

The Hobbit was the first book to come to my mind when they said dragons.

Ooh, I have The Hobbit. I might read that.

*Shows up late* I probably won't have time do do the read-a-thon...if I knew what it was...

Milly, more details have been posted in the official rules thread. It's a reading program, and you should sign up even if you're not sure how far you'll get!

Faith, you can just look up the page count and divide by the number of chapters to get an average page-per-chapter number. Just multiply that by the number of chapters you listened to after the date and count that.

Yes, if it has an actual dragon in it (not just a brief reference to one), it counts.

If you plan on reading anything at all this month, sign up!

@Aubrey, or somebody: The calendar-as-spreadsheet is more than a little clunky (and, since it's so big, slow), at least in my browser---would it be possible to put the relevant information into a shared Google Calendar, or something?

Thanks, Aubrey and Eli! I will see what I can figure out for it once I have finished listening to it.

This sounds cool! I wish I could do it this year, but I suppose there is always next year....

I like the changes and additions y'all made to the last one we did.

*Realizes that the Hobbit is available for him to read* *decides he must do this, even if it ends up being one of very few books this month*

I am Lycanis, chief of the tribe of Witt, and I approve this decision.