This past weekend, more than 50,000 runners made their way to New York for the 2014 New York City Marathon. While they tackled the 26.2 miles in the bitter cold, their families, friends, and total strangers cheered them on from the sidelines. I'm so in awe of those who run marathons—just thinking about running 26.2 miles makes me tired!—but it did get me thinking about marathons of all kinds, especially as they pertain to books.
Are there series we read marathon-style, one right after the next? Or how about an author? Do people ever read voraciously to get to a certain deadline? Are there any books that runners have read and found inspiring while training for a race? I've heard of Harry Potter reading marathons, and I know Scholastic hosted a fan read-a-thon in honor of the first book's 10th anniversary, but what of other marathon reads?
I polled my fellow OOMers, and here's what they had to say:
Before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, my friend and I had a marathon reread of the Harry Potter series over a period of 2 months. We had a schedule with deadlines of when we had to finish each book so that we would end Half-Blood Prince the day before the new book was released," said Nadia.
Gina, too, referenced Harry Potter: "I got into Harry Potter a bit late—the mania was in full swing already, so I was able to buy books 1–4 at the same time. I forgot how long I had to finish them all before book 5 came out, but it was less than a week. And I did it! I completely caught up for the midnight book 5 release, but that much reading all at once can do some damage. I looked a lot like Mad Eye Moody that night."
Sometimes a movie release serves as inspiration to marathon-read. Just ask Stephanie: "This past spring I read the Divergent series marathon style. I knew the movie was coming out and completely forgot that I wanted to read the book before the movie. With about a week and a half before the movie was set to come out, I read the first book. I then decided it'd be fun to finish all of them. It was pretty exciting to finish all of them so quickly and right before it hit the big screen."
Deimosa was in a similar boat. "I read straight through the entire Maze Runner series in about three weeks," she said. "It was earlier this year after seeing a trailer for the movie featuring one of my favorite actors from Teen Wolf as the lead character!"
- "While I was commuting to work in San Francisco for my last job, I read every single book written by the author duo Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child," said Brittany. "I would definitely call that a marathon!"
- Anne once marathon-read (maybe even sprint-read) All the President’s Men. "It was due back at the library and I was determined to finish it before I returned it," she recalled.
- Meanwhile, I asked Megan what book(s) she read while training for the half marathon she ran. "I didn’t read a particularly outstanding book while training for the half marathon, but I definitely sped read books marathon-style in grad school," she explained. "I had so much required reading and so little time. Also, I remember I read every Anastasia Krupnik book as a child and devoured them marathon-style one after the other because I loved them so much."
How about you? Any books you've read marathon-style that you love? Share your thoughts in the comments or tweet us @Scholastic!
