THE READING RUSH 2020 RECAP

Yesterday was the last day of The Reading Rush and I'm here to share how I did. In this blog post I will also be discussing some things that have happened regarding this read-a-thon that should not go unnoticed.

Do you want to know how I did last year? You can read my 2019 recap here!

PAGES READ

Sadly, I didn't have a lot of time to read during this read-a-thon and when I did have time, I wasn't very motivated. But luckily I did make progress in the eARC of The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life and on Sunday night I was 73 per cent into the story!

I read a total of 90 pages during The Reading Rush!

Monday - 13 pages

Tuesday - 0 pages

Wednesday - 0 pages

Thursday - 12 pages

Friday - 25 pages

Saturday - 10 pages

Sunday - 30 pages

Pages statics

OTHER ACTIVITIES

During this week I participated in a few of the Live Twitter Reading Sprints and three of the live Instagram read-ins.

BADGES EARNED

Last year I earned quite a few badges. Sadly I only earned three badges.

The Reading Rush website was updated, therefore they now have a different way of showing the badges. Now you see all the badges together and not only the ones you've earned. Because I think that that's pretty cluttered, I won't be sharing a screenshot of the badges

The badges I earned were:

- Participated in a Twitter Sprint (2020)

- Participated in a read in live show (2020)

- Overall 2020 Reading Rush Badge

BYE BYE READING RUSH

This was my third year participating in The Reading Rush and I usually really enjoy their read-a-thon.

One of the issues within this year's Reading Rush was that on day 1 the Instagram challege was: recreate a book cover. One of the winners was a girl who recreated the cover of When Dimple met Rishi. The girl on the cover is an Indian girl and this bookstagrammer is white.

During the last Instagram live of The Reading Rush, the hosts Ariel and Raeleen were going to discuss the Reading Rush book club pick. I have no idea when they announced Such a Funny Age by Kiley Reid as their book club pick or even that they were gonna do a book club.

They started of the live by saying that they weren't gonna finish Such a Funny Age and then made jokes about not finishing it and then did a Q&A instead.

The first thing that is weird to me is the fact that they didn't read the book for a book club. When you host/join a book club you're expected to read enough of the book that you can really analyse and discuss it. You can't just say: 'I didn't read the book, so let's move on'. You prioritize the book club book and then read other books. Even if it means that You have no time to read other books. This read-a-thon is not a competition.

Such a Funny Age is written by a Black author and the book is about performative allyship. Telling your audience that you'll read a book by a Black author to be an "ally" and then not reading it, is a form of performative allyship.

It's important that when things like this happen, we hold the people accountable. But lately, one of the hosts (or maybe both) have received harmful messages and even threats. That is NOT okay. The hosts should be given the opportunity to learn

Because of all that has happened in this year's read-a-thon, I have decided to not participate in next year's Reading Rush.

I will link some posts of members of the book community, where they discuss The Reading Rush:

Sophia she/her (@smol_babymochi) - The Reading Rush book club pick

Nani she/her (@readingwithnani) - The Reading Rush and consumerism

Lagericka she/her (@Lala Jones) - Reading Rush thoughts

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