Eclectic Readers discussion

Welcome to the June 2020 Eclectic Readathon! 24 hours of reading starts NOW and runs until 8 PM (EST) tomorrow!

You have 2 chances to win prizes:

1. Use our scavenger hunt list to score points as you read. Challenges can be about the books themselves, or ways in which you read them. Post your point total to THIS THREAD by 9:00 PM tomorrow night. The highest point total wins a prize!

2. Use your stopwatch app to track the number of hours you read. Post a screenshot of your time read on Instagram, Litsy, or Twitter tagged #EclecticReadathon by 9:00 PM tomorrow night for a chance at a prize for most hours read!

*Only US residents are eligible for prizes. Sorry to our international readers, but we do love you and hope you’ll play with us anyway. If there are ties in either of these categories, we will choose a winner by random drawing.

Throughout the Readathon, we’ll also post check-in questions, which are not worth points. We also post check-ins and updates on our Instagram, Litsy, and Twitter pages, so tag us with check-in answers, pictures, reading successes throughout the 24 hours! We love hearing from you! (@EclecticReaders on Instagram & Litsy, @EclecticReadPod on Twitter)

8:00 PM - CHECK IN #1: Where are you reading from and what are your Readathon goals?

I'm in Northern VA, and I've got 3 books on my stack! Really looking forward to finishing Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. What about everyone else?

If you're playing along in our scavenger hunt, here are this year's challenges. You can earn up to 20 points, so may the odds be ever in your favor!

Checking in! Just got about 30 min of reading done on my living room couch in the quiet and rainy suburbs of Chicago! In hand was a cold mug of mimosa lol

I'm not sure how much I will be able to participate tomorrow, but I'll sneak in some minutes/pages whenever I can! I just finished up Death of a Kingfisher, and will be trying to finish Girl, Woman, Other tomorrow and also make some good progress in So You Want to Talk About Race. Oh, and I'm in Utah.

Kim wrote: "Checking in! Just got about 30 min of reading done on my living room couch in the quiet and rainy suburbs of Chicago! In hand was a cold mug of mimosa lol"

That sounds like a great way to start, Kim! Jealous of that cold mimosa mug too!

Ann A wrote: "I'm not sure how much I will be able to participate tomorrow, but I'll sneak in some minutes/pages whenever I can! I just finished up Death of a Kingfisher, and will be trying to fin..."

Hi Ann! I've never read a Hamish Macbeth, but I've been wanting to! I hope it was good. Your other choices sound awesome too. I hope you get in some quality reading time tomorrow!

I’m Meredith and one of the cohosts of the Readathon. I’m in Virginia and I got in a little over 2 hours of reading tonight and almost 200 pages read in my book! (It’s a book written in verse, so it sounds more impressive than it is LOL) It’s Clap When You Land

Kim wrote: "Checking in! Just got about 30 min of reading done on my living room couch in the quiet and rainy suburbs of Chicago! In hand was a cold mug of mimosa lol"

Mimosas in a mug is the way to go!

Ann A wrote: "I'm not sure how much I will be able to participate tomorrow, but I'll sneak in some minutes/pages whenever I can! I just finished up Death of a Kingfisher, and will be trying to fin..."

Welcome, Ann! Glad to see you’re participating when you can! I’m eagerly awaiting my copy of So You Want to Talk About Race

I finished Outlaw Marriages (yay!) and read a few more pages of Between the World and Me.

I didn't plan on including Happy Gut but I returned to it when I saw I could get points for it! I started it back in August and got halfway through before setting it aside. Hopefully I'll finish!

Also in my stack to try to make progress on is Naturally Tan, Red White and Royal Blue, and Forest of Enchantments.

Kim wrote: "I finished Outlaw Marriages (yay!) and read a few more pages of Between the World and Me.

I didn't plan on including Happy Gut but I returned to it when I saw I could get points for it! I started..."

You’ve got a lot of awesome books to choose from!

Kim wrote: "I finished Outlaw Marriages (yay!) and read a few more pages of Between the World and Me.

I didn't plan on including Happy Gut but I returned to it when I saw I could get points for it! I started..."

Haha, Kim, we all have those books, so let's earn points for them!

CHECK-INS #2 & 3:

What's your go to comfort read? And what two authors would you like to see co-write a book?

Sorry for the late posting of those, guys, our bad!

I think my answer for #2 would be something like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre - something I've read over and over again but still love. Even a childhood favorite like Anne of Green Gables! The other thing I've learned about myself during the pandemic is that cozy mysteries and romances absolutely are comfort food for me!

As for co-writing authors? Hmm, harder question! Maybe Victoria Schwab and Dhonielle Clayton? Their fantasies are so different, but both are so rich in different ways!

my comfort books are cookbooks or anything on decluttering and organizing. I love these books in general because I love food and decluttering. especially during the pandemic, I think these books help me feel like i have control over my immediate environment.

I wish i could think of a good author collaboration but names escape me lol

Kim wrote: "my comfort books are cookbooks or anything on decluttering and organizing. I love these books in general because I love food and decluttering. especially during the pandemic, I think these books he..."

I think that's similar to how I feel about cozy mysteries and romances, Kim. They tend to follow set patterns. Feeling like things are going to end up in their proper order is so helpful during stressful times! Maybe I should give organizing books a shot during my next fit of stress!

CHECK-IN #4 - 12:00 - Halfway point! Tell us, which character are you inviting for brunch this fine weekend?

My last book didn't actually have characters in it because it was nonfiction, so I'll go with The Wedding Date series that I finished recently. I'd have a huge brunch party with some of my favorite characters from that series: Alexa from the first book, Carlos, Angela, and Courtney from the second, and Olivia and Max from the fifth book (which just came out, go read it, folks!). I mean, OBVIOUSLY, the other characters would be just as welcome to come, but those were some of my faves!

If anyone’s looking for a book that could check a lot of scavenger hunt points, I finished Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays earlier this month, and it’s a book of essays written by a Black author that was heartfelt and so hilarious I was constantly LOLing, and was fantastic on audiobook. Throw in reading with a cold drink, reading outside, etc and you’ve got a ton of points right there!

Jeannette wrote: "CHECK-INS #2 & 3:

What's your go to comfort read? And what two authors would you like to see co-write a book?

Sorry for the late posting of those, guys, our bad!

I think my answer for #2 would ..."

I’d 100% read a Schwab/Clayton book!

Meredith wrote: "Jeannette wrote: "CHECK-INS #2 & 3:

What's your go to comfort read? And what two authors would you like to see co-write a book?

Sorry for the late posting of those, guys, our bad!

I think my an..."

RIGHT? So rich in characters, so rich in world-building! I'd be hooked and the series would never be allowed to end.

For check-in #2, my comfort reads are cozy mysteries, which I can usually get on audio from the library: M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth), Alexander McCall Smith (Precious Ramotswe), Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody). #3, I'd have to think about. #4 - I'd love to have brunch with any of the characters I mentioned above!

I've only managed a couple of hours of reading/audio so far, but am hoping to get a few more in this afternoon.

And let me add, I'm getting a lot of great book recommendations from this thread!

Ann A wrote: "For check-in #2, my comfort reads are cozy mysteries, which I can usually get on audio from the library: M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth), Alexander McCall Smith (Precious Ramotswe), Elizabeth Peters (..."

I don't know Elizabeth Peters but I just added her to my TBR, so I think we're all enabling each other, and that's delightful!

Ann A wrote: "For check-in #2, my comfort reads are cozy mysteries, which I can usually get on audio from the library: M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth), Alexander McCall Smith (Precious Ramotswe), Elizabeth Peters (..."

Yay for more book recs!

CHECK-IN #5: What are some of your favorite book covers?

I love the cover of the book I just finished Clap When You Land I love all the covers from Sandhya Menon’s DIMPLE series When Dimple Met Rishi and I loved the rebranding of the VICIOUS series, especially the UK version Vicious

Meredith wrote: "CHECK-IN #5: What are some of your favorite book covers?

I love the cover of the book I just finished Clap When You Land I love all the covers from Sandhya Menon’s DIMPLE series [..."

I love cool covers of books! Also, I love collecting special editions too like [book:Red Rising|15839976]

THAT’S A WRAP ON THIS YEAR’S ECLECTIC READATHON! How many scavenger hunt points did you earn? Make sure to tally up your points and add them to the thread by 9:00 pm EST in order to be in the running for the prize!

I'm not eligible of course, but without really trying, I managed to score 10 points!

A book by a Black author - 2
A book that made you laugh out loud - 3
Reading with a cold beverage - 1
Reading a book out of your usual genre - 2
A book that references another book - 2

I also finished 2 books and I'm 20 pages away from a third (so off I go in a minute to take care of that), and I read 4 hours, 52 minutes! Not a bad day! I hope you guys had some successes too!

I got 7 points! It would've been 10 but I didn't switch to one of my lighter books for a good LOL. Oops!

Black author 2
Cold beverage 1
Finished long ago book 2
Reading outside 2

I finished 2 books and made a teeny progress on a 3rd book.