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| Image by Yuri Efremov |
My reading is quite chaotic. I hadn't been reading consistently for a while. The balance of work, hobbies, and family was off so one day I decided I was going to try to read as much as I can for 48 hours. This turned into a three weekend experiment and learning experience. How much actual reading can I realistically get done when making it a priority?
Weekend 1
My original plan was to read 99 pages in 15 hours. I was going to read as much as I could in 48 hours. I figured out the amount of time based around things I wanted and needed to get done. Chores, food, sleep, exercise, and family time. I then divided the amount of pages of books I wanted to read and got 99.
The books I wanted to read:
- Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer - 81 pages (YA/Book Club Book)
- ParaNorthern by Stephanie Cooke - 240 pages (Graphic Novel)
- Rescue at Lake Wild by Terry Lynn Johnson - 208 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
- Home Body by Rupi Kaur - 189 pages (Poetry Book/Another Project!)
- Ways to Grow Love by Renée Watson - 192 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
- Yes to Life by Victor E. Frankl - 127 pages (Nonfiction)
- Trouble in the Stars by Sarah Prineas - 256 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
- We Belong by Cookie Hiponia Everman - 201 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
Total: 1,494 pages
As you can tell I was highly ambitious. But at this point I wanted to do a 48 hour readathon for myself so my past self wasn't thinking this was a sustainable reading weekend. So we'll let her get away with her ambitious plans.
I wanted to make sure I was reading 99 pages per hour for 15 hours. And here's where you get to see what I actually read:
- Hour 1: ParaNorthern - 99 pages
- Hour 2: ParaNorthern - 141 pages (completed book #1)
- Hour 3: Instant Karma - 24 pages + Home Body - 75 pages = 99 pages
- Hour 4: Instant Karma - 17 pages + Home Body - 72 pages = 89 pages
- Hour 5: Instant Karma - 7 pages + Home Body - 31 pages = 38 pages
- Hour 6: Instant Karma - 26 pages
- Hour 7: Instant Karma - 7 pages + Home Body - 10 pages = 17 pages (completed book #2 and book club pages)
Instead of 15 hours, I read for 7. Instead of 1,494 pages read, I read 509 pages (originally thought I read 510 pages. Oh goodness gracious where did my math teacher's go wrong?).
I did not expect my mom wanting to go shopping for the majority of Saturday so that ruined my hours completely. I also, spent a considerable amount of time with her on Sunday. Let me tell you now. My mom messes up my reading even inadvertently about 75% of the time. I did like I had the strategy to read poetry for a little while then a chapter or two from Instant Karma and then watch videos. Watching YouTube ruins my reading a good chunk of my time always so my strategy to read a bit then watch a video was a stroke of a genius. What I didn't count on was #1 how much my mom and I spend time together on the weekends and #2 it's very hard to read 99 pages of a book if you didn't have a poetry book or graphic novel to read partially within that hour.
Weekend 2
Did I decide to become less ambitious on my second go around? Surprisingly yes! Now this is when it's become an experiment for me so I came up with a strategy to read 100 pages more than last time which I originally thought was 610 pages. But after recounting with a calculator (just now), this human is dismayed to find that the actual goal should have been 609 pages.
What I wanted to read:
- El Ratón Perdido by Jacqueline Jules - 27 pages (Spanish Reader)
- Rescue at Lake Wild by Terry Lynn Johnson - 208 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
- What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer - 93 pages (Poetry Book/Another Project!)
- Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer - 50 pages (YA/Book Club Book)
- Bible - a couple of days worth I guess?
- Hakumei & Mikochi Vol. 8 by Takuto Kashiki - 191 pages (Manga)
- Ways to Grow Love by Renée Watson - 192 pages (Middle Grade/ARC)
Total: 761 pages
So one less book and a lot less pages. My goal was to read 610 books so let's see how I did.
- Hour 1 - El Ratón Perdido - 27 pages (completed book #1)
- Hour 2 - What Kind of Woman - 93 pages (completed book #2)
- Hour 3 - Instant Karma - 50 pages + Hakumei and Mikochi - 33 pages = 83 pages (completed book #3)
- Hour 4: Hakumei and Mikochi - 39 pages
- Hour 5: Hakumei and Mikochi - 119 pages (completed book #4)
- Hour 6: Rescue at Lake Wild - 31 pages
Total: 392 pages
Wow, just wow. I actually kind of did okay? I read two more books, albeit a 27 page book and read 392 pages. 218 pages from my goal. Now I did reflect on this afterwards. I did sleep in both days and I felt like if I didn't I would have had time to get more reading done in the morning before I went to see the mom. Did you know I took 50 minutes to read/go over the vocabulary and then read the whole El Ratón Perdido book through again? Now you know how much Spanish I do not know. Otherwise, I felt like I could do it the next weekend. I could make a change. I also started another reading experiment which hopefully goes better than this second weekend. Oh and I don't know why I was still doing by the hour thing since I don't remember trying to do a set number of pages per hour but there it is.
Weekend 3
Did I learn from the mistakes of weekends past? Would I be able to read more? Let's see. This time around I got four books I wanted to read that were about the same as my page goal from last weekend. Then I divided that number by two to see how much I should be reading each day. I think this was the best strategy given what I learned from my last two attempts.
What I wanted to read:
- Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson - 366 pages (YA/Reread of a Favorite)
- Mustard, Milk, and Gin by Megan Denton Ray - 61 pages (Poetry Book/Another Project!)
- Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros - 165 pages (Short Stories Collection)
- Cantante Súper Estrella by Jacqueline Jules - 32 pages
Total: 624 pages/2 = 312 pages a day
Not that bad of a plan so did I finally reach my goals?
What I read:
- Hour 1: Cantante Súper Estrella - 32 pages (book #1 complete)
- Hour 2 - 4?: Unexpected Everything - 366 pages (book #2 complete)
- Hour 5: Mustard, Milk, and Gin - 6 pgs.
Total: 404 pages
More pages read than last weekend but less books. Hmm... Well let's see. Did I wake up early? No. Did I spend basically the whole day with my mom? No. I did go to a family gathering that took up some time. I felt really not so great on Saturday before said event (I had a headache and a tough week at work) but I did wake up early. But I started obsessively planning my reading for the next six months like a crazy person for four hours. Yeah, I don't know why I do things either. However, I really got into my reread and proceeded to binge read it until 1:00 a.m. in the morning. I guesstimated how many hours I took reading it but it sounds about right I guess. I love crying happily in the middle of the night. Now Sunday was interesting. I woke up... late. And the majority of the day had to do with hanging out with my brother's but also my mom's mother's day gift which I won't reveal until after she gets her gift just in case. Although, I doubt she reads my blog. Then I spent the night hanging out with my mom and read 6 pages of poetry.
Conclusion
This really helped out my reading even if I reached none of my goals. I was very inconsistent and now I am kind of consistent. I will continue with creating a weekly TBR that will hopefully be more realistic as I go on. I also learned that if I want to make reading a priority I have to start the day with reading or I'll get caught up with everything else and get nothing done. And lastly, I will get most of my day interrupted (most likely by hanging out with my mom) so that's why I have to make sure to especially to take time to read before and even after our visits. I will definitely keep trying to reach 610 pages even if it's the wrong amount. I will track how I progress but also be okay if other life events take over every few weekends or another.
How much reading do you get done during the weekends?
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