The Olympic Games Readathon TBR
On the never-ending quest for getting books back into my life and now that I’m officially unemployed (till…May?), I’ve been trying to plan out some things so that I don’t focus on the fact that I don’t have money coming in, and focus on the things that I like and the things that I’ve been wanting to do that I wouldn’t be able to do as much because of work. You know, turning lemons into lemonade and keeping check of mental health. Part of that planning was to search for some upcoming readathons to fill my time. Readathons help me finding and making the time to read, and the prompts for what books I should pick usually are pretty fun and give me a direction. As I was browsing I stumbled upon The Olympic Games readathon.
The only problem that it has already started.
I was planning to do the 48 Hour Queer Blackathon, as it’s currently the only readathon I have heard of out of the few booktubers I follow, and the only one I planned on for June. I really haven’t been keeping up with them over the past couple of months between being busy at work, and the lay offs and life so that is the only current one that I know of happening. I’ve been going through backlogs and taking time to listen to all of the brave discussion happening, so I’m out of the loop. This sort of just fell into my lap and I do have a lot of free time on my hands and do tend to read pretty quickly so I don’t think the amount is the problem, even being late in the month (again, free time!).
I figured that I would go ahead and do the readathon unofficially, so I won’t be signing up to declare my Greek god and won’t be engaging in any challenges or reading sprints. I will be trying to complete all the challenges which includes a total of seven books. But if I don’t complete the challenges I won’t feel like I let down anyone, and the 48 Hour Queer Blackathon is my main priority of the month. I think it’ll be a fun challenge. I also have so many books that are just sitting there, why wait for the right time?
The main challenge of the readathon is to pick a specific Greek god and then do the challenges associated with it. I use to be really obsessed with Greek myths and fell pretty hard into back in middle school/high school and that’s why this readathon really interested me. My favorite god back then was Hephaestus, but I decided to take the quiz and was given Poseidon and after looking at both challenges I decided to do Poseidon. Sorry Hephaestus, I still love you.
Part of the main goals I focused on with this challenge is to: read more books and read books I already own (which means that they are pulled from failed readathon challenges).
On to the challenges:
Gain favor of the sea god by reading a book set at sea or on the coast. For this one I chose the book The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See which is about the Jeju Island Haenyeo.
Poseidon's son Percy is a talented swordsman. Read a book in which a main character uses a sword. I don’t necessarily go deep into what my books are about in fear of spoiling things that would have been fun not to know, so I picked a book that I feel has a sword in it even though I don’t know for sure: Descendant of the Crane by Joan He. I’m cutting myself some slack if I finish this one and it doesn’t have a sword.
Humans are not a common sight in Poseidon's underwater palace. Read a book with a non-human main character. I decided on Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. This book has been on my shelf for far too long. It’s one of those books that I’m probably going to absolutely love. Why I waited so long? I don’t understand my brain either. This might also be another stretch. Do we consider a supernaturally gifted main character non-human?
Trident: Finish a book in 3 days. I’m positive more than one book will fulfill this challenge.
The ocean is vast and unexplored. Read a book you have not heard much about before. For this one I chose a book that I had on my failed Asian readathon list, Revenge by Yoko Ogawa. I haven’t actually heard anyone talk about it that I’m aware of. It’s also a little shorter and (I think) broken into eleven stories.
There are also three advanced challenges. I purposefully picked smaller books for these, and they are the ones I’m not as worried about focusing on:
Canoeing: A book with a blue cover. Aisha Saeed’s Amal Unbound.
Pegasus riding: A book published within the last 5 years. Volume one of the manga Satoko and Nada. Story and art by Yupechika, published in 2017.
Monster fighting: A book featuring magical creatures. This book is one that I already had said I would be doing for another readathon that I failed. It’s the manga Siuil, a Ruin: The Girl From the Other Side (vol. one) story and art by Nagabe.
I’ll be back soon with either a wrap up or a TBR for the 48 Hour Queer Blackathon. I haven’t decided whether it’s worth it to say what I will be reading since the readathon is smaller in time length and the books I choose might be determined day of. At any rate, there will be some sort of update. Follow along on my book twitter. I’m trying to be more active there, and will post updates.
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