As someone who lives in GA (where it is hot 90% of the year), Summer arrives to remind me and other Georgians that it can, indeed, get hotter. I am fully aware that other states/countries also suffer from extreme temperatures but that is only one of the reasons why I am not a fan of the summer months.

I burn like an egg in a hot pan (no oil btw), the bugs have no boundaries, and I don’t really care for swimming…

The list can go on and on. However, recently, I was reorganizing my bookshelves and something occurred to me.

I have 125 unread books. 🫣

Which, to me, is a lot especially when I claim to love reading but my bookshelf says otherwise. I could tell you that I have no idea how this number got so high, but FOMO is brutal sometimes.

Then, as I sat in my living room floor surrounded by my lonely books, I remembered all the summers I spent as a kid in my local library.

Does anyone else remember the children’s parties’ libraries had? The piles of books they had ready to read to us? All the fun activities they did? The books? The reading challenges? Oh, and did I mention the books? 📚

God, did I love those summers as a kid!

Not only did I have fun, but I was pushed to read as much as I could in the best of ways. Which, I’m sure, is true for all my other library bookworms out there.

That is when I decided to host (for the first time ever) a summer readathon! After all, what better way to spend the worst season doing the thing I love most?

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Now, I don’t expect to read all 125 books, but I do hope to get caught up on my ever-growing TBR and maybe even hit my reading goal early this year.

That said, I don’t want to go easy on myself. There are going to be a few rules that I will have to follow :

1. The Big, Bad, Book-Buying Ban

I believe this has to be number one. Afterall, the point of this Readathon is to catch up on my insane TBR pile. Plus, we all know exactly how that number got so high in the first place.

Now, Summer lasts all the way until September 22nd. Which means, this Readathon will last until then.

Do I think I will be able to stick to the ban for that long?
No. No, absolutely not.

That is why I am giving myself a little exception to the rule.

read 10, BUY 1

Reading 10 books may be easy for most readers, but personally I find that it can be a bit challenging. 😥 That said, I believe this is only fair all things considering and I’m pretty sure my wallet will thank me for it in the long run.

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2. Wheel Be The Judge of That

Now, to be completely transparent I got this next idea from Dylan Joseph over on Instagram. I know he is not the first to do this trend and definitely won’t be the last. But I just had to join in on the fun with this one!

In short, I took my physical TBR and put it into an online wheel that will choose my next read for me.

I decided to do this because I am an indecisive mood reader. If something doesn’t sound good to me at the time, then I won’t pick it up. If I can’t decide on what to read next, then I scroll on social media for hours…and hours…and well, you get the gist of it.

Now, as a mood reader, I did to follow Dylan Joseph and give myself 10 skips to get me through the summer. Because let’s be honest, I don’t think I would survive if I didn’t.

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3. D(o). N(ot). F(ail).

Speaking of surviving this summer, I decided to make things a little harder for myself. 😈

You see, I have this habit of putting a book down for any and every reason without even reaching the halfway point. This could be because I didn’t care for the MC’s name, the plot at the moment, or the font of the book.

That said, I always encourage this bad habit of mine by saying, “well, I’ll read it later.”

Obviously with a TBR pile this high, later never came. 🫥

So, in order to correct this habit and conquer this Readathon, I am giving myself yet another rule but this time with NO exceptions!

If I DNF a book, I must donate/sale it.

I can already hear a die-hard book collector gasping in surprise.

However, I (again) believe this rule is only fair considering my circumstances. I also believe that if I don’t read it now after having it on my shelf for so long, then chances are, I’ll never read it. So, why not gift it to someone who will?

It will also give me even more encouragement to read those books or to buy more but we’ll just have to wait and see!

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Summer may seem horrendous at times but, honestly, it’s not all that bad. There have been many summers where I’ve truly enjoyed myself and (hopefully) this year will be no different.

I just hope I can finally knock a big chunk of this TBR of mine out.

Again, I don’t expect to finish all of 125 books by September 22. Though, I do expect to stick to all of these rules of this readathon and make some memories along the way.

I do encourage you to join me this summer, as well! ☀️

You don’t have to have the same reasons as I do to join in on this readathon. Heck, you could just be dipping your toes back into reading for all I know. Feel free to bend the rules to your liking or to not follow them at all.

Either way, I believe we should all make the most of this heated season by challenging ourselves to read as much as we can!

With love,
Alex

P.S. I made a Bingo Card to go along with this Readathon for those wanting to join. Can you hit BINGO before the end of summer?

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