Bookish Saturday

This Saturday was a bit hectic, which is due in part to why for the second week in a row I was unable to make a post for #ReadingMyLibrary. It started with the Ohioana Book Festival and continued through the rest of the day taking part of the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon. Both of these were a first for me, and both an awesome experience.

About a month ago I decided that considering at the time I was out of work I would get to know my city a little better. I had gone to school here for 4 years and never really went further than campus or downtown. It started with visiting museums and markets, and with research I found an event that interested me. The Ohioana Book Festival. The basic set up is a continual "book fair" where authors sit with their books and you can meet them and have them sign the books before you buy them, and then groups of authors would go to separate rooms to give panel discussions. Sadly, I was unable to make it to any of these, I traded in the panels to go home and read for the marathon.

My intentions when going was just to buy one book; "Everything I never told you" by Celeste Ng. The problem is I am weak, and I have problems getting the courage to go up to booths at these types of things as is so to have the author just sitting there made it even worse. I ended up buying another book "The Midwife's Tale" and instantly felt the guilt of my pocketbook. However, both authors were very nice, one seeming more nervous than the other (probably out of lack of experience or just shyness).

I'm not going to talk about how Jenna (@LostGenReader) was discussed with Celeste Ng as a mutual twitter friend because Jenna's head is big enough.

In all, I plan to go back next year when buying two books wont make my bank account hurt and I can stay for the panels.

This was my first read-a-thon. I know my own limits. I get that I'm a bit slower of a reader than most (at least it seems to me that I read slower than your average "avid reader") and I get my own attention span. Add in that sitting in one position starts to hurt after awhile (due to old sports injuries) and I didn't expect to get through half my stack of books but I wanted to have my options.

In all, I finished "Steven Eleven" and "The Great Gatsby" (I'm an anomaly of having made it through high school and an English degree without ever reading it), and started "Everything I never Told you" before I gave in. I feel like I would have gone longer if my stomach hadn't started feeling funny (I'm not sick, don't worry, it didn't amount to anything). 

I'd like to take part in this readathon again, and hopefully I'd be better prepared and not have anything else going on that day. I loved interacting with everyone over social media; seeing what they were reading, eating, where they were reading. It was fun just meeting new people. Not to mention the ego boost I got from my klout score going up from that one day alone.

Did anyone else take part in the Read-A-Thon? How'd your experience go?