Sunday Salon - #readathon End of Event Meme and Final Stats

I can't believe that I actually managed to stay up from 5 am PT Saturday until 5 am PT Sunday (today).  By the end, I was barely hanging on and had to mostly listen to an audiobook for the last 30 min so that I would be awake for the full time.

To kick things off, I read in my new reading corner in my room, as I had people staying with me on Friday night and I didn't want to disturb them as I read for the first few hours and one of my guests was leaving in the morning, so I didn't want to be distracted by the individual packing up, but by mid-morning, I had moved to the couch in the living room and there I sat from about 9 am Saturday until 5 am Sunday.  I did take a couple of half-hour breaks, including a run to Mcdonald's at around 12:30 am.

But despite how I felt when I finally went to sleep at around 5 am this morning, I am really happy at what I was able to accomplish.  According to my stat sheet that I kept (one of the readers offered this to fellow readers to use),  I read 995 pages between the 8 different books that I read and read for 19.75 hours.  I would have liked to read more during the read-a-thon and have more times when I would have entered my reading zone, but due to distractions that I encountered, especially during the early part of the read-a-thon, I missed about 4 hours and 15 minutes of reading, but I did read for at least 30 minutes during each hour.  I also participated in a few challenges, but by the end, I just wanted to read as much as I could, as I am also trying to get a very thick book completed by Saturday (its a library book and I have renewed it to its max and it has to be returned on Saturday).

I realize that I am being hard on myself, but I know for next time that there is a bit of room for improvement.

End of Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
5. How many books did you read?
6. What were the names of the books you read?
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
8. Which did you enjoy least?
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

1) Probably the last hour was the most daunting for me; almost felt like quitting at about 4:15 am.
2) The Boxer & Saints series might keep a reader engaged for next year.
3) Not as many photo challenges
4)  What worked for me was taking at least two 30 minute breaks from reading and also the cheerleading helped.  I did notice that the cheerleading really dropped off after about midnight and I noticed that I didn't get really any encouragement from the cheerleaders; didn't get any sort of comments after my 1 am post.  I was disappointed that I didn't see any comments after that; didn't bring it up during the twitter chat.  I also noticed I didn't really many encouraging comments while on twitter.  I realize that there are a lot of readers participants, but if the cheerleaders could make sure to kinda hit readers on a regular basis, I think I could get through that final hour better.
5) Read 8 books; completed 4
6) I finished both books in Boxers & Saints series, The Hen Who thought she could fly, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
7) I enjoyed The Ocean at the End of the Lane for most of it and really liked the Boxers and Saints series.
8)  I didn't really enjoy The Hen Who Thought She Could Fly.
9) N/A
10) Depending on when the October read-a-thon is, I will likely participate; more likely to participate in April.  I probably will take on a similar role as have in the past.