105 Ways to Give a Book

The 48 Hour Book Challenge: GET SET...

48 Hour Book ChallengeHello, I’ll be your host for The 48 Hour Book Challenge. The 48HBC charts its history aaaaall the way back to May 28th, and now will be responsible for the neglected household chores of many kids’ lit bloggers. It all began when I discovered I had accumulated forty books in my to-be-read pile. I wondered how many books I could read if I devoted a weekend to the task. And like many bloggers, I did my wondering online. Imagine my surprise when other bloggers accepted the invitation to join in my madness.

Will anyone read and blog for 48 hours straight? I doubt it, but nor do I expect it. With the creative and mental energy required for reading and writing, I think it would be extremely difficult to do without breaks, not to mention sleep. I see this less as an exercise of endurance — like a danceathon — and more an exercise of commitment. That said, participants should keep track of their hours spent for that aspect of the contest.

I’ve selected books fourth grade and up for the 48HBC for two reasons. One, I want to make sure that we all have the same approximate frame of reference for what counts as a book in the contest. An early chapter book isn’t the same as a young adult book, so a contest involving numbers of books and page counts would be comparing kumquats and yams. Two, it’s hard to look at those longer novels and figure out how you can set aside the time to really get into them. Well, here’s the time. And, just to clarify, while I know that there are wonderful picture books that are appropriate for fourth grade and up, my intention was to give participants a general idea of the type of book. I would have said “upper elementary novels,” but then someone would have brought up the Diary of Ma Yan — which is a biography — and then it’s just another kind of explanation.

For those of you who want to show your solidarity, want to play along but can’t give up your weekend, I’ve added a personal challenge aspect to the 48HBC. Over the weekend, you can work on a personal goal and write about how it’s going for you. On Monday, post a summary of what you did and why. Come to my site to sign in that you’ve done your challenge entry so that everyone can come by your way and check it out.

Here are the rules as I see them. You won’t see any real changes, though there may be additional clarification. Here goes:
  1. The weekend is June 16–18th, 2006. Read and blog for any 48-hour period within the Friday-to-Monday-morning window. Start no sooner than 7:00 a.m. on Friday the 15th and end no later than 7:00 a.m. Monday. So, go from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday... 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.

  2. The books should be about fourth-grade level and up. Think novels or, say, novel-like. Adult books are fine, especially if any adult book bloggers want to play.

  3. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it. If you want to skip sleep and showers to do this, go for it (but don’t stand next to me). If you want to be a bit more laid back, fine. But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge.

  4. The length of the reviews are not an issue. You can write a sentence, paragraph, or a full-length review.

  5. For promotion/solidarity purposes, let your readers know when you are starting the challenge with a specific entry on that day. Make your references to the 48HBC to this post, since it has the most updated information. When you write your final summary on Monday, let that be the last thing you write that day — so for one day, we’ll all be on the same page, so to speak. It will also give all of the participants a chance to catch up on everyone else’s posts.

  6. Your final summary should be posted online after 8:00 on Monday morning, even if you finished your 48 hours on Sunday. Include the number of books read, total pages, the approximate hours you spent reading/blogging, and any other comments you want to make on the experience. If you set any personal challenges for yourself, this would be the time to explore them. Writing the summary does not need to count as part of your 48 hours, but it can if you want it to.

  7. When you finish your summary, check in at my site, in the comments of the post I’ll put up Monday morning.

When everyone has their final entries done, I’ll announce the winners. Though, with the opportunity to blow off everything else to read and write for one weekend, I’d say that we’re all winners.

1 comment:

Charlotte's Mom said...

Oh, how I wish I could join you. My personal goal, competely unrelated to reading will be a) to get our deck painted and b) get my writing organized (I've recently uncovered all the creative writing I did in elementary and middle school!)
Thanks for this great idea. Can't wait to see the responses.
Ilene