19 April 2009

Dewey's Read-a-Thon April 2009: Tales of a Cheerleader


The spring read-a-thon is over! I was able to cheer on the readers for much of the time. I was there at the beginning, I was there at the end! I took a bit of time out in the day to do some yardwork, but I was a faithful cheerleader.

In the evening (about 9:00 eastern time in the United States) I was kicked off Twitter for too many tweets in too short of a time. I think if you tweet more than 40 tweets in an hour they kick you off. Fortunately, I wasn't barred for life!

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see the "Free @BethFishReads" tweets. And I want one of those T-shirts! And it just so happened I had baked brownies to keep me going -- I was eating warm brownies, drinking coffee, and laughing at the tweets that were trying to spring me from Twitter jail!

I was able to resume my cheering and stayed online until about midnight. Then I intended to sleep about 2 hours. I never heard the alarm and woke up at 5:30 a.m. But no worries, I was back to cheering as readers crossed the finish line!

I had the best time cheering. I stayed on Twitter and didn't get a chance to read anyone's blogs (will do that over the next couple of days) -- so I watched and cheered as readers reported finished books, aching muscles, tired eyes, and more finished books.

I hope to join in the reading next fall, but I'm tempted to just play Twitter cheerleader again. I loved having the chance to be that chatty and to talk to lots of fun people I would have missed otherwise. This was a super way to meet new readers. We even recruited a few readers "off the street" when they tweeted, "What's this read-a-thon thing?"

At one point #readathon was trending so well we beat out Oprah and the NBA! Go readers! I also followed the top tweeps for the event -- I came in first even with my 5.5-hour sleep. Gosh I'm chatty!

You do not want to miss out next year. Whether you read for 4 hours or 24, whether you cheer on the blogs or on Twitter -- there is great fun to be had and you can do it in your own time frame and in your own way.

I am in total awe of all the readers: Each and everyone of you deserves a big round of applause!!!

I'll get back to normal blogging tomorrow.

40 comments:

Meghan 4/19/09, 8:59 AM  

I can't believe I missed when they kicked you off twitter! How dare they? I hope it didn't last long!

You did a great job cheering, though. It was so nice to know that if I went on the computer you'd be there with lots of encouragement. Thank you so much!! =)

Irish 4/19/09, 8:59 AM  

You were an amazing Cheerleader! You made the event a lot of fun. AS for the Free @BethFishReads....you can get your t-shirt here. Can't really see the writing (made it all on the fly) but top says "Free @BethFishReads" and bottom "Dewey's Read-a-Thon Spring 2009".

There's even a thong available!! lol

Ashley 4/19/09, 9:00 AM  

Thank you for being such an awesome cheerleader! It was great to have a support group on Twitter when books got boring, eyes got tired, and feet fell asleep.

I can't wait to do it again next time, and hopefully stay up for the whole 24 hours next time!

bermudaonion 4/19/09, 9:06 AM  

Whew, I'm glad they let you back on Twitter. That was the perfect job for you!

Molly 4/19/09, 9:08 AM  

You were a wonderful cheerleader, Beth!! Thanks so very much :)

Sandy Nawrot 4/19/09, 9:22 AM  

You were quite the dedicated cheerleader! I didn't make it to midnight...we had a dinner party at my house, and after lots of food and even more wine, I was toast by about 11:00. I did more cheering this morning! I want to try to do this next time!

Literate Housewife 4/19/09, 9:27 AM  

They kick people off Twitter? You've got to be kidding me! I'm glad you came back, but I'm sorry that I wasn't there to send my Free @BethFishReads tweet.

You were such a wonderful cheerleader, Beth! I think it's great to have blog reader cheerleaders and Twitter cheerleaders. That way, you catch a huge variety of readers.

Next time, I'll also be a cheerleader of cheerleaders. :)

jessi 4/19/09, 10:34 AM  

I wasn't able to participate this time, so I'm sorry I missed the Free @BethFishReads tweets. Glad you had fun! :)

Shannansbooks 4/19/09, 10:38 AM  

Thanks for cheering for us on twitter it was inspirational. I like the idea of cheerleading on twitter since I am a addicted to it anyway and still on there will 4 hrs of sleep. I need to go to rehab lol

Sandy Nawrot 4/19/09, 11:26 AM  

I have awarded you with something that I think you already have, but wanted you to know how much your comments are appreciated! Come on over...

Nise' 4/19/09, 11:46 AM  

Glad you were sprung from the slammer! I avoided Twitter because I knew I would get too distracted. Its still too new for me.

Unknown 4/19/09, 12:41 PM  

Beth you're the best!!! Great job cheerleading. bermudaonion is right, that's a perfect job for you!

Robin M 4/19/09, 1:11 PM  

I'm glad they let you back on twitter. Great job!

Vasilly 4/19/09, 1:12 PM  

*hugs*

You are THE best! You cheered us on throughout the whole thing. The read-a-thon wouldn't have been as successful without you there.

Jenn's Bookshelves 4/19/09, 1:15 PM  

Thank you for being an awesome cheerleader!!! I don't know how I would have continued without you all!

Becky 4/19/09, 1:32 PM  

T-Shirts! I didn't hear about the t-shirts?!? You did great! :) I was out cheering as well and thought it was great fun, although I really want to join next time and read. Honestly, I can't wait!

Suey 4/19/09, 2:32 PM  

I really hope to be more a part of it next time. Hopefully it won't happening during our Fall Break(or spring break, which ever month we are talking about!) again when family takes priority!

Darlene 4/19/09, 3:31 PM  

You did an awesome cheering job Beth!

Unknown 4/19/09, 4:23 PM  

We should come up with a term for getting kicked off of twitter. Tweeteratorred, Tweetstinguished, Tweeleted or something. ;o) Great Cheerleader! Thanks so much for your support!!

Michelle 4/19/09, 5:07 PM  

Great job on the cheering Beth! That is too funny about twitter. Who knew you could tweet too much!

Anonymous,  4/19/09, 5:13 PM  

Ha ha, I did not know they'd kick people off Twitter, that's nutty! I wasn't on Twitter as much as I was reading blogs, but it's so cool that we trended and were able to bring in more new people. I think Twitter was an awesome addition to the Read-a-Thon this year :)

Kim

Belle | MsBookish 4/19/09, 5:28 PM  

I was wishing I could have done the read-a-thon, but now I'm wishing I'd been a read-a-thon cheerleader ... next time I might just opt for that instead. You make it sound like such fun!

Margot 4/19/09, 5:44 PM  

I'm sorry I missed your Twitter escapade. It sounds like fun. I was being a hard core reader. I knew if I started reading Twitter, that would be all I would do.

Reading for 24 hours (minus a 90 minute nap) was pure pleasure. I encourage you participate as a reader next time. Next time I'm going to relax and spend part of the time cheerleading. It was very encouraging to see those comments and I'd like to do that for others.

Florinda 4/19/09, 5:57 PM  

I pretty much missed the entire read-a-thon due to other commitments. Learning that Twitter will kick you off (but not ban you long-term) for being too active with the tweets is very useful information - sounds like you were an awesome cheerleader to have accomplished that :-)!

Shelly B 4/19/09, 6:17 PM  

Thanks for being such a great cheerleader! I was at dinner when you went on hiatus, but was so glad to come back and see you back as well. Your tweets kept me going!

blacklin 4/19/09, 6:40 PM  

You spammer, you! :) Thanks for your tweets.

Drea 4/19/09, 7:20 PM  

You were amazing! Thanks for all you did!

Melody 4/20/09, 2:11 AM  

Go readers! Go Beth! :)

Erotic Horizon 4/20/09, 3:58 AM  

Beth you are simply amazing....

you need to hold try outs next year and get a squad going...

You are master of your craft...

Well done..

Same Time
Same Place
Next year...
Can't wait..

E.H>

Unknown 4/20/09, 7:58 AM  

I'm surprised you are only allowed to do 40 tweets an hour.

I don't think I'm in any danger of being kicked off, but it is interesting to know!

I'm pleased you're back on now - your tweets are always so useful.

Klarusu 4/20/09, 10:06 AM  

You did a great job! Twitter was great for the readathon, it really felt like we were all in it together. I can't believe you got banned for a while. That's on my 'funnies I've heard today' list!

Dawn - She is Too Fond of Books 4/20/09, 12:17 PM  

This was so much fun!! The Free @BethFishReads movement was a hoot.

And, yes, I got 4-5 tweets from people new-to-me who saw the trend and asked what #readathon was!

Kailana 4/20/09, 2:59 PM  

Cheer-leading was fun, huh? I stayed to the blog part. :) It was very time-consuming, though!

MandaNikole 4/20/09, 10:15 PM  

I'm not on Twitter so I didn't really see all that drama but I did want to thank you for being such a great cheer-leader. It is always nice to get comments and so thanks!

Beth F 4/21/09, 7:55 AM  

Everyone: Thanks so much for your kind words. I don't feel as if I deserved them because I was having just way too much fun. Really!

Sandy: I think the glass of wine I had at 11:30 was what sent me to bed. Bad mistake. Next time it'll be coffee and tea only.

Nise': Twitter was totally addicting. So much so, I never did get around to doing blog cheering.

I Heart: Hummm, I'll have to work on that word.

Next time I plan to divide my time so I can blog and tweet.

S. Krishna 4/21/09, 4:52 PM  

You were an AMAZING cheerleaders!

Matt 4/21/09, 11:58 PM  

This Twitter thing is really becoming a big hit!

I was just reading on and off at the beach, the same book. I'm looking forward to participating the next one though. :)

Anonymous,  4/23/09, 12:43 PM  

I'm not a twitterer but was so curious about it all during the RAT. I was a bit confused since Fizzybeverage even stopped by my blog to say you were picking on her for lame cheers! Then when I heard you were kicked off - I thought is was others who had told you to behave!??! I know it was all in fun. :)
Glad you had a great time!

Jen - devourer of books 4/23/09, 2:35 PM  

I TOTALLY missed when you got kicked off Twitter. I wonder if that was during one of my naps? Anyway, you were an awesome cheerleader, very motivating everytime I got on Twitter.

Anonymous,  10/22/11, 5:07 AM  

You've set an "almost impossible" example for us who just signed up to become cheerleaders for this year's readathon. But we'll make sure to do you and the rest of the readers proud by cheering as much as we can. :)

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