24 hour Read-a-thon: mini-challenge

I’m taking part in my second 24 Hour Read-a-thon today. It starts at 1400 GMT / 0000 AEST and is being run by the rather amazing Dewey over at the hidden side of a leaf. Click through for all the details on the who, the what, the where, and of course, the why (assuming it’s not immediately obvious!). For a list of everyone participating, along with their latest updates, have a look at Gargantuan Books.

This will be my Read-a-thon post, which means that rather than bombarding the cyber-wires with lots of new posts, I’ll update this one regularly over the next 24 hours. I’ll post new stuff above old stuff, so people checking back can find it quickly.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to split the mini-challenge and progress reports into two separate posts for ease of reading. Well, for me, at the very least 😉

I’ve registered as a reader but also a cheerleader this year – probably a more realistic option given my dismal reading performance last time around 🙂 I’m not hard-core enough to go for the full 24 hours so this post will contain details of when I’m clocking in and out.

Stay tuned…

***My mini-challenge!***

UPDATE: Well done to all the Read-a-thon Readers who took part in this mini-challenge (and to the passers-by who had a go too!). There was a great response as evidenced by the comments below, and I really enjoyed reading everyone’s updates as they brushed up their language skills! I’ve done a random draw of all Readers participating in this mini-challenge and the winner of a US$20 Amazon voucher is Lynda – Lynda, I’ll email you directly for details of where you’d like me to sent the voucher. Enjoy!

That’s right, I’m hosting a mini-challenge again this year. It’s running from 1400 GMT / 0000 AEST all the way through to 1200 GMT / 2200 AEST so there’s plenty of time to get involved! Here are the details:

The challenge is to spend an hour reading in ‘another’ language – that is, one other than your language of habitual use.

• Obviously the native language, language of habitual use and ‘other’ language combinations will be different for everyone, as will their degree of proficiency. But it really doesn’t matter how remedial your language skills are, the idea is simply to try!
• You can choose to read for any one hour period between 1400 GMT / 0000 AEST to 1200 GMT / 2200 AEST, but remember that you may have to allow time in addition to this to search for something to read. (See below for a list of online resources if you don’t have anything suitable to hand.)
• If you’d like to participate, then post a comment below with your native language/ language of habitual use, the language you plan to read in, the book title, author, and a one hour time frame when you plan to do the challenge. And don’t forget to include a link to your blog too, if you have one! I’ll do my best to drop by while you’re reading, time change permitting…
• Once the Read-a-thon is over, I’ll draw a random name from the list of participants and send them a US$20 Amazon voucher!
  
• Feel free to post any feedback or suggestions for other Readers too!
  

Remember, it can be very tiring to read in another language so you might want to schedule this for when you’re likely to feel fresh and alert…

Don’t read another language? Well then, now’s your chance to learn.

Don’t have any foreign language books to hand? Then read on for a list of online sources of material to choose from.

Cheerleaders, would you like to help out? I’d really appreciate if you could let any Readers you visit know that this mini-challenge is taking place, should they wish to take a break. Also, as the challenge is open for 22 hours of the Read-a-thon, chances are I’ll miss some Readers’ efforts (zzzzz!) . So if on your travels you notice someone is participating and there’s no sign of me, please do give them an extra encouraging virtual pat on my behalf!! I’ll be along later in the day to see how they’re doing.

Finlly, there are lots of sources of foreign-language books online, but here are a few that look good to me:

• The electronic text collection here has direct links to collections of poetry, electronic journals, ancient and modern literature (along with several annotated translations from/ into English) for a range of Western European languages (including Irish and Catalan, in addition to the “usual suspects” i.e. French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, etc. etc.)
• This links to a collection from much wider range of languages again… so there’s something here for you no matter how esoteric your language skills If you’ve ever wanted to learn a language or brush up on your rusty Romanian (why not?), now’s your chance – why not start by comparing an English translation with its source?
• Google book search for French-language books, German-language books and Spanish-language books. Not sure how many more of them there are, but I’m sure you could find some for other languages too by experimenting a bit with the URL. Many of these are in Beta still though, so if you do use them I’d be interested to hear how you get on! Any other suggestions, post to the comments and let me know!
• Just in case that’s not enough, there’s a range of additional resources here to start you on your search, from Armenian through Chinese and Islandic to Yiddish.
• Lastly, click here for some inspiration to see what Readers did last year (about one screen down).

Am I forgetting anything?? Oh yes, have fun everyone!

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Click here for my progress reports!