Since Natively’s first Multi-Language Readathon is starting soon, I thought it would be helpful to hear about people’s experiences with readathons. I’m a total newbie, so I’d love to get some advice on what others have found (un)helpful!
At the moment, my plan is fairly simple: read as much as I comfortably can, rotating between languages/books to keep things interesting. I’m also planning on setting an hourly reminder to stretch and rehydrate (which would probably be beneficial in my daily life, too ).
Have you taken part in readathons before? Any strategies or tips? I’d be especially interested in anything that helped with motivation, focus, or keeping your reading stamina up over longer stretches.
Heya - I’m mostly active over on the wanikani forums and planning on participating in the Japanese readathon there this weekend, which will be my second time participating.
From what you’ve said, I think you’re pretty spot on with your plan - switching between books and taking breaks are super helpful. Making sure to stay hydrated and eating well are important, and another tip that helps me is that if you’re starting to lose focus, it’s much better to take a quick break to recharge than to try and push through it.
When it comes to motivation, having some kind of small reward after a certain amount of time (whether that’s every hour, or more or less frequently) can be super useful, for example taking a quick walk or having a snack you enjoy.
From my experience, reading stamina is something that will naturally develop and get better over time, so I’d try not to be hard on yourself if it’s difficult at first - you’ll get there with practice!
This is just what’s helped me personally, so if anyone else has other ideas or strategies, I’d be curious to hear them as well
Let’s see; the upcoming WK readathon this weekend will be my 7th, so I’ve participated in a few.
This is all excellent advice and practice; if you’re not used to reading straight through long periods of time, you’ll exhaust yourself quicker by forcing yourself to do so.
Advice that comes up off the top of my head:
I like have a special snack and/or drink for my readathon day; it’s an extra thing to look forward to, and it’s a good mood boost if you’re feeling tired/unhappy/stressed from long reading sessions.
I like have a plan going in; I’m the kind of person who’s very likely to get overwhelmed with all my possible options if I decide to go in with no idea of what I’d like to spend my day on. However…
On that note, be okay with ditching your carefully-laid readathon plans if needed. Sometimes you wake up, ready to seize the day, and realize you just have absolutely no motivation to read your planned reading, but shiny book over there looks awfully interesting. In that case, switch to that shiny book! The goal of the readathon is to read, not to strictly adhere to a pre-planned schedule (especially a schedule you may have set up several weeks ago, when you might have been in a different headspace than you are now).
If you live with roommates/family/etc., might be best to give them a heads up you’ll be unavailable for long stretches of time. I like chatting about how it’s going with my roommates while I’m on food break, but I otherwise want 0 distractions while I’m trying to focus.
I highly recommend checking in on your local friendly readathon thread while you’re on break, both to read others’ updates and to post your own! At least half of the fun of readathons for me are reading with a community, and if I can’t get everyone together to read in a giant room, then the next best thing for me is to have a giant forum thread all chatting about books, snacks, etc. There’s something both thrilling and scary about logging in and seeing 80 new posts since you last checked.
This is a great point as well! Time spent reading is tracked over on Wanikani’s readathons, and it’s pretty interesting to see the wide range of how long people can/choose to read. You have those who hit an hour, and those who aim for double digits. Ah, which also reminds me:
If you have any interest in timing yourself reading in order to track reading speed increases, I’ve found readathons are a great opportunity. There’s enough of a gap in between readathons to see actual improvements, but they’re not so often that you get bogged down in your day-to-day reading having to worry about it/lament over how your reading speed doesn’t seem to be improving.
I just love everybody’s advice and agree with all of them.
I want to especially emphasize one thing again that others mentioned already, though: Don’t force yourself.
Don’t force yourself to read now.
Don’t force yourself to read what you picked or even already started.
Don’t force yourself to reach a certain goal.
You will be in this for quite some time, so try to make as sure as possible that you don’t burn out. Drop books if you want, take breaks if you want, basically: be ready to change plans. This way you will keep your enjoyment and stamina much more easily!
I second all the advice here. Don’t make it a stressful event for yourself - if you’re having an unpleasant time that’s not in the spirit of the event. It should be like a fun challenge, not a punishment.
I think of readathons like occasional indulgences actually. I usually don’t “allow” myself to read for long stretches because I have to deal with boring things like exercise and errands and chores A readathon is getting the chance to pretend I’m 12 again and it’s a day off school and I can read all I want
Here’s my 2 cents!
What helped me keep going in the past was changing locations after a while. Read in bed in the morning, then go get coffee and read at the café, then in my living room while having lunch, the go to a park in the afternoon… It’s a good way to take breaks and move your body.
I also love reading on the bus, so this time I might take a bus to a random location and back, just to get the bus-vibes.
I’m on the ‘participation trophy’ end. You know yourself best - sometimes it is fun to make an ambitious goal and try to reach it, but other times, and for me most of the time, I like to just be happy with participation. For me, the event is mostly about camaraderie! I like to see everyone’s big and small contributions, and they are all motivating to others in different ways.
One revelation for me was to include reading on both sides of my sleep, so on the rare occasions of actually trying to read a lot during a readathon, I found that much smoother when I started somewhere between mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and then the next day when I’m refreshed I still have some juice to keep going. Whereas reading everything in just one waking period felt tougher.
God I wish it wasn’t so cold over here, I do love reading outside! But for now I decided to stuff myself under the heated blanket with my oversized hoodie and a hot tea
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shiny book over there
A readathon is getting the chance to pretend I’m 12 again and it’s a day off school and I can read all I want 
