The Reading Rush 2020 - Final Thoughts

 The Reading Rush 2020

- Final thoughts -

Hello flowery readers,

TRR had come to an end and I'm late updating you, as per usual. It ended on the 26 July and on the next day I went to Murano to stay there for a month. So I started to get messages about this Read-A-Thon, but didn't have the time to fully investigate on the news I was receiving. But now I'm home and I need to address some topics.

Firstly my own experience, which was very positive. I enjoyed the fact of connecting with other readers, in particular other Italians, chatting with them and discovering new books and impressions on them. I also liked the atmosphere that led me to read as much as I could, meaning 6 books in 7 days. I wanted to read one more, but I didn't get to it. Anyhow, I'm happy with my result, also seeing that I liked them.

So here are my stats:

I read so many pages this time around, that I couldn't believe it at first. And I also got all the badges for this year prompts:

Writing down each book I read based on the prompts it looks like this:

1. Cover that matches the colour of your birthstone - "Tonio Kröger" by Thomas Mann
2. Starts with the word "The" - "The Importance of being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde
3.  Inspired an already seen movie - "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare
4. First book you touch - "One Dark Throne" by Kendare Blake
5. Completely outside - "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzegrald "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare
6. Genre you want to read more of - "The Trial" by Franz Kafka "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness
7. Different continent - "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

I only changed two books from my original Tbr, which is something really strange for me.

I also didn't find a five star book to get the corresponding badge, which was sad, but nothing was that great.

Now for the things we have to talk about.

This Read-A-Thon started in a strage way. The two creators, Ariel and Raeleen, were super excited for it, as per usual, but they made some heavy mistakes that lead some readers not to participate. 

Starting from the prompts they decided to insert prompt number 5, which invited to go read outside of your house, but seeing the current situation, that wasn't something easy at all. Some people could not do it, because they were in self isolation at home and didn't have a garden. I am lucky enough to have a garden, so I sat there and read. In Italy at that time we were no more quarantined, so I could move a little from home. However in many other countries this was not possible and encouraging people to go outside, when they obviously can't is a little bit insensitive. So, that was strange.

 The two BookTubers then published a post on their website saying that they realized the difficulties of that challenge and reassuring the readers that they did not have to go outside, they could take it in a creative way and read in the terrace or in their own room with some ambience music. They did not change the prompt. 

But this was not a serious mistake. I get why some people felt offended by it, however it wasn't that hard to accomplish it with those new guidelines. They then added that the prompts were decided months before the start of TRR and consequently months before the start of the global pandemic. So, I can excuse them.

What I can't justify is how they treated the Book Club. Personally, I did not take part in it, it was difficult for me to get the book in time and I didn't want to put more pressure on me by reading something about which I should also write daily updates. But many people joined and it seemed a wonderful idea. 

However it was handled badly. The readers kept up with it and commented frequently, on the contrary the organizers didn't finish the book in the first place. During the live discussion for the book, which was "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid, they talked about how they only read 20 or 50 pages of it and then they started doing a little Q&A, not caring about the novel. Some people in the comments excused them and suggested to postpone that discussion, to give them more time to finish it, but they were ignored.

This behaviour was very disrespectful. I can understand not having the time to read as much as you wanted to during TRR because you are the creator and you have to check that everything functions right, you have to post articles, send out the merch etc. Nevertheless this was a very important book to read, you decided to launch a Book Club, so you have to read the book you chose. Also because this was a very important story, written by a black author and seeing George Floyd's killing and the demonstration for black people's rights it was very important to read it.

Ariel and Raeleen then gave some explanations in this post on their website. They were right in doing so, but many of us were not satisfied yet.

I don't know if next year they will really fix their mistakes, but for now they certainly have discouraged some people to take part in this Read-A-Thon again and I completely understand their choice. This event that usually gives so much joy and motivation ended in frustration and delusion. I personally don't know if I'm going to participate next year, I'd like to, but firstly I'll check if something has changed, if those faux pas led them to be more attentive.

That's all for now. I did not want to criticize the event nor to keep up the drama, i only though that I needed to address this topics, because they were hurtful for so many people and I was really upset by them.

Keep on reading and we'll check in soon!