Seventh Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge Finish Line

For the first time I participated in MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge.  (If you follow my blog in any capacity and have had access to the internet in the past couple of days, you probably already know that.)  I started at 10:45 AM Friday and kept track of the time I spent reading, blogging, and socializing until 10:45 AM this morning.

There may be discrepancies in numbers between this post and previous updates.  I am going to trust my math today over my math done during the challenge. I redid all of my math based on my records rather than my updated start post.  The differences are negligible.  The biggest difference is in number of pages read rather than time which is likely due to a transcription error.

Forty-eight hours worth of books

I read:
AMPED by Daniel H. Wilson (119 pages, 35 minutes)
LOSERS IN SPACE by John Barnes (425 pages, 180 minutes)
EARTHSEED by Pamela Sargent (253 pages, 77 minutes)
GUILTY by Norah McClintock (219 pages, 53 minutes)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND ME by Madeleine George (259 pages, 82 minutes)
THE CRANES DANCE by Meg Howrey (373 pages, 182 minutes)
CAPTURE THE FLAG by Kate Messner (231 pages, 54 minutes) - review will be posted July 1
INVINCIBLE by Sherrilyn Kenyon (420 pages, 97 minutes)
INFAMOUS by Sherrilyn Kenyon (468 pages, 119 minutes) - review will be posted on TGTBTU
STEALING KEVIN'S HEART by M. Scott Carter (235 pages, 71 minutes)
THE FLAME OF OLYMPUS by Kate O'Hearn (385 pages, 85 minutes)
PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS by Richard Lloyd Parry (267 pages, 185 minutes)
and listened to part of "Ten Carats of Lead" by Stewart Sterling; read by Alan Sklar (20 minutes)

I took three social networking breaks of 45 minutes, 34 minutes, and 34 minutes, well under the allowed one hour of socializing per five hours reading.

According to my notes I spent 348 minutes writing reviews and updating my summary.  I did not keep track of how long I wrote Tumblr posts, but as all 32 updates were super short, I'll just tack on 5 minutes for that.

Total books read: 11 (AMPED and PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS both equal 1/2 book)
Total pages read: 3,636
Total reviews written: 11 (PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS review written after 48 hours)

Total time reading: 20 hours and 40 minutes
Total time socializing: 1 hour and 52 minutes
Total time blogging: 5 hours and 53 minutes
Total time: 28 hours and 25 minutes

I pledged a quarter per hour read.  I am going to round up to 29 hours for my donation, meaning I am donating $7.25 to Book People Unite.  I invite all of my readers to match my donation.  $7.25 from one person isn't much money, but $7.25 from a thousand is.

Final thoughts:

Reading a variety of books worked well.  I finished two middle grade, seven young adult, and three adult novels.  Ten were fiction; one was nonfiction.  Three were science fiction, two were mysteries, three were contemporary, three were fantasy, and one was true crime.  The audiobook short story was pulp fiction.

If I do this again, I should plan out my meals.  I lost time going out for two dinners and one lunch.  It I had food ready to be heated.

I think my start time was fine.  Maybe if I slept a long time the night before I could stay up longer.  I am not good at functioning on less than eight hours of sleep, but I'll never hit 36 hours if I spend 16 hours sleeping.

48HBC was indeed a challenge and I hope that I can participate again next year.  Good luck to all participants still reading!