105 Ways to Give a Book

The Mother (Reader) of All Challenges

How many books do you think you could read and review in 48 hours? Four? Fourteen? Forty? What do you think, Big A little a, Blog from the Windowsill, BookMoot, Bookshelves of Doom, Chicken Spaghetti, Fuse#8, Jen Robinson... and that’s only the beginning of the alphabet.

Let me back up.

I have forty books stacked on my floor. Forty.

You see, in my large library system, we have big libraries and smaller libraries. The big libraries get the young adult books, the small libraries only get the graphic novels and the occasional YA book. Since I work at one of the smaller branches, whenever an actual teen novel came through that wasn’t a Gossip Girl special, I took it home to read.

Something has changed — in ordering, in our designation, in our demographics — and suddenly we are getting YA books like crazy. But I can’t stop my old practice of bringing home every YA book that interests me, which is like half of them. In three weeks, tops, I’ve managed to pile up quite a fair number.

With The 48 Hour Film Project still in my brain, I formed an idea. A terrible, wonderful, awful idea.

How many books could I read in 48 hours? But even more importantly, how many could you read in 48 hours?

48 Hour Book ChallengeThus I submit to the kids’ lit book bloggers at large, the Mother (Reader) of All Challenges. The 48 Hour Book Challenge.

Think about it. A bevy of book bloggers see what they can read and review in 48 hours. That will give you a little something to talk about at ALA. Who knows? Maybe we could get some press covering us for a change.

The weekend is June 16th, 2006. Read and blog for any 48 hours within the Friday to Monday morning window. Start no sooner then 7:00 a.m. on Friday the 15th and end no later then 7:00 a.m. Monday. So, maybe 7:00 p.m. Friday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday is your thing, or maybe 7:00 a.m. Saturday to 7:00 a.m. Monday works better for you. But the 48 hours do need to be in a row.

Respond to this entry to sign up. Post the challenge on your site to catch the bloggers that come your way, but don’t come mine. I don’t have a lot of links out because I never get around to setting them up, but I would love it if some of the other bloggers join in. Point them to this entry to sign up.

So, come on! When was the last time you did something crazy, silly, inexplicable? Let’s turn the world of kids’ book reviewing on its ear.

17 comments:

web said...

I can just see your smile turning up at the corners as you wrote this...

Good grief. I can *read* any number of books in 48 hours, but *review* them? How thorough do we have to be? Will "this sucked" count? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Sounds irresistible to me. But do the length of the books, count? It seems like picture book reviewers have a bit of an advantage (although having to write a review does level that back out a little bit). The funny thing is, I've actually been reading less since I started my blog, because I spend time working on the blog instead of reading. So, this sounds like a great excuse to spend the weekend reading to me. And my partner in crime is on call that weekend (he's a doctor), so yes, count me in. I'll link to this, too.

MotherReader said...

If I get some players - and it seems like I can - I was going to set out some rules. But, yes, length of the books count, but length of the reviews don't. The books are of the older elementary to teen variety - the books I never seem to get to because it is sooo much easier to read and review picture book and early chapter books. I think it would be cool to get a bunch of people involved. And like you said Jen, what an excuse to read our little hearts out.

Kelly said...

I'm game! Make ups some rules, though, otherwise, I'm all picture books, all the time :)

I'm actually on a 13-hr flight on the 16th. That should help. But, I'm with 2 kids, so that should hurt!

Anonymous said...

Okay! I'm game. It'll be a good way to read some books for older children. We're awash in picture books around here.

fusenumber8 said...

I think I have a seriously unfair advantage here. I currently have 10 previously unpublished reviews of children's books sitting in a Word file waiting for the official publication of said books. Give me a nod and I'll post them all at once, thereby making it look like I've "read" and "reviewed" ten books within this past week-end. I could do that, but it sounds distinctly against the rules, no?

As it is, I've posted a review on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today. That makes four so far. Do you want more? I mean, they're just sitting there after all.

fusenumber8 said...

Whoopsie-doodle!
You didn't mean THIS week-end. Silly me. You meant in June.

Okay, sure. I'll do that. And to be fair I won't do any of the ones just sitting in my Word file. But do picture books count or not? Those puppies make for quick reads indeed.

Liz B said...

I'm in.

My reviews will be short, but I'm in.

Bkbuds said...

It sounds like you're not interested in us lowly picture book reviewers. Sob.

I'm over it. No, really. I am. Sniff.

In any case, I'm in the middle of packing my house up to move, so I'm busy. Nyah.

Gail Gauthier said...

I'm in. Allez cuisine. Bang a gong, we are on.

Anonymous said...

I'm in.

(An excuse to read all weekend? Of course I'm in!)

Patty said...

Found you through Pop Goes the Library. What an awesome idea. I'm in...Bing. Done.

Camille said...

Well, that is a birthday weekend, an anniversary weekend, and a visit from an entling...

Will probably be a pathetic attempt. Book Moot will try...

Cathy Kyle said...

Okay, Patty (from MomChops) forced me into it, so I'm in too.
As a Youth Services Librarian I should be reading lots of books, but as a mother of a 15 month old, I don't even have time to brush my teeth (but I do anyway).

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Well this is a little scary but count me in. I have books waitint to be read. I am new to blogging but this might encourage me to do more. And school gets out on Friday so yippee!!

Anonymous said...

I found your site and this challenge at Book Moot. I had set a YA centric summer book challenge for myself, so this dovetails nicely. Whether I can finish one or more I don't know, but I'll also be blogging about the picture books I read to my 2 year old, and the board books I read to my 4 month old, because it's all reading.