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June 10, 2012

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.

48HBC
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!

32 comments:

  1. Great and impressive numbers on your time, on your pages, and on the number of books and reviews you tackled.

    I agree on your comment about variety. I found having a number of different types of books helped so much.

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    1. Thanks! (Although I admit, I normally spend more time on reviews.)

      And if I'd been thinking I wouldn't have started with all three SF books!

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  2. Thank you, thank you for your donation to RIF.. You donation alone buys three books for three children, many of whom will be among those 299 poor children of every 300 poor children who have no books. Therefore the children thank you as well! And you had fun "earning" the donation...I sure did. I was SO glad to be back with 48 HRC; for the last two years I could not participate, business one year and last year it was prep time in Arkansas for the second grandchild! Thanks again, Book People Unite!

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    1. I had fun earning it indeed! I only hope that my barrage of posts convinced someone else to donate too.

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  3. Wow. That's an impressive number of books! Didn't you love Capture the Flag. My son read it a month ago and he couldn't put it down.

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    1. Thanks!

      I had fun reading it, and it was definitely good for late at night.

      Delete
  4. Congratulations on finishing the challenge -- nice stack of books there, too! This is my first year as well, and like you, I'm already thinking of what to do to make next year go more smoothly.

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    1. Thank you! They look nice and neat all put together. I'm glad you had fun too!

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  5. Great job on the challenge! that is so awesome. I still really want to hold my own informal readathon with my sister or a friend. I think it would be fun. I'm not sure I could read quite as many books as you did though. Kudos! I want to read Losers in Space soon!

    -Lauren

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    1. Thanks! It was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. And, well, I'm just a fairly fast reader.

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  6. Hooray! You really got some reading done. My time has been more fragmented. I have your blog on my radar again now!

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    1. It's nice to hear from you again!

      I feel very accomplished right now. But I think any time towards the cause is awesome.

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  7. Congratulations! good work on the weekend, and those look like good books.

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  8. That's some fantastic reading time there! Thanks for playing!

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  9. Wow, did you sleep? Looks like a lot of great titles. Congratulations!

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    1. Probably 85% of the time I wasn't reading was sleeping. I'm a big sleeper.

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  10. Wow! You did great! I could never do all that! LOL :)

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    1. You never know if you don't try! There were times this weekend I thought I couldn't do it.

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  11. Seriously, I thought I was doing well to read three books this weekend unprompted!! I think you're amazing!! Wonderful job. I'm going to have to check out your titles more closely. I'm with Pump Up. Know you reviewed for us at some time. Would you contact me? thebookishdame@aol.com Deborah/TheBookishDame Thanks! :] I'm your new follower!

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    1. They're all pretty good titles.

      I'll be sure to reply to your email.

      Delete
  12. Wow! This is really impressive :)

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  13. I am most impressed that you were able to do all the review posts as well. It seems like it takes me way too long to write a review.

    Congratulations!

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    1. I spent much less time on these than my normal reviews.

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  14. Hope you enjoyed your first 48HBC!

    This year, it turned out I needed downtime from reading and meals were a nice break. In the past, they've been an interruption, breaking up my reading flow. But if you're aiming for lots of hours, yes, planning meals/snacks in advance is a good idea.

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    1. They were a nice break, but I wanted to go for the hours. I'll know next year!

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  15. That was a fantastic result for your first time! I've been doing this challenge for several years now and have yet to break the 20-hour mark. Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks! I have it easier than most participants, since I don't have kids or anything.

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  16. Oh my GOD! You read REALLY FAST!! Like really, really. OMG. I still can't believe what my eyes are seeing. WOW. Congratulations!! :) :) Liviania you totally rock! ;)

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    1. Thanks. But it's more a gift than an actual skill, so don't be too impressed.

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