Literary Student Association Flanor - English

ReadCie Blog

This winter, we are once again organizing a Winter Readathon! The readathon will run from the 14th of February until the 23rd of February. A readathon is a period dedicated to reading books together, accompanied by reading challenges and photo challenges. Just reading a few pages of one book is also fine! This year’s readathon is special because it is our tenth edition! 

Here are the rules:

Date: 14th of February until the 23rd of February

There will be two parts to this readathon: a photo challenge and a reading challenge. The photo challenge will be accessible for everyone (both members and non-members of Flanor) through social media and WhatsApp for Flanor members. All participants will be eligible for a prize! The second challenge is The Book Bingo which includes 16 reading challenges. Non-members can participate, but will not be eligible for a prize. Only Flanor members can win a prize for The Book Bingo.

How to participate in the Photo Challenge:

For everyone:
Every day of the readathon we’ll hold a new photo challenge. It is up to you to take a photo that fits the prompt and post it on the corresponding day on Facebook or Instagram. Feel free to use all your creativity and photography talents for these challenges! Photoshop is 100% allowed. You can also make a Tiktok video and share it on Facebook or Instagram. Tag Flanor (@lsflanor) on Instagram or on Facebook in your post and use the #FlanorWinterReads26 hashtag, so we can see your beautiful pictures. After the last day of the Readathon, one post will be selected for a prize. The prize will be a €5,- gift card for a book (Boekenbon). It is not required to participate in every photo challenge to win the gift card. You don’t have to participate in all of the challenges, one photo is enough to win a prize!

For members:
If you don't want to share your picture online, you can post it in the WhatsApp Group. If you don’t want your pictures shared on Flanor’s social media, please state that with your picture. Feel free to edit in the covers of ebooks or audiobooks! We will randomly select a photo posted in the WhatsApp Groupchat for an additional prize of a €5,- gift card for a book (Boekenbon). 

The photo challenges:

Saturday February 14th: show your TBR (what will you read?) for this readathon

Sunday February 15th: share a non-book collection. This could be something bookrelated or not related to books at all!

Monday February 16th: create spine poetry and share a picture

Tuesday February 17th: shadows

Wednesday February 18th: as many books as possible

Thursday February 19th: nostalgia inducing

Friday February 20th: explore a new place

Saturday February 21st: matching cover design. What we are looking for here is books that share a vibe, but are not from the same book series.

Sunday February 22nd: pets. Your pets, your parents’ pets, your housemate’s pet, some cat you saw on the street. Anything is possible!

Monday February 23rd: show your wrap-up (what have you read/finished this week?)

How to participate in the Book Bingo and the Reading Challenge:

In order to win a prize for the reading challenges, you have to be a member of Flanor. Sign up through the site!

For non-members: 
The most important part of the readathon is, of course, the books! Part of the fun of a readathon is to challenge yourself with the kind of books you read. A bingo card with the challenges will be posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Have a look at our blogpost with recommendations for inspiration, where you can see what kind of books we will challenge ourselves to read. Feel free to participate and tell us what challenges you completed in your wrap-up post! Also feel free to participate in our Storygraph challenge: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/b4498357-3a03-4068-8ad9-448422d528a6.There you can also see the books others have chosen for the challenges.  

For Flanor members: 
You will be able to join a WhatsApp Group where the readathon will be hosted. There will be reading sprints hosted in the group. Reading sprints are short periods of time, hosted by the hosts of the readathon, in which you will read together while motivating each other to read. There will be a Storygraph challenge and several activities as well!

The challenges will be presented in the form of a Bingo Card. Every row you cross off will be an entry into the lottery for a €5,- gift card for a book (Boekenbon), of which there will be five. At the end of the readathon you will send a picture or a list of the books you’ve read to the hosts, with an overview of which books you’ve chosen for which challenge. You’re allowed to use one book for multiple prompts! 

Bingo card rules:

• A book counts when you’ve read at least 100 pages during the readathon. If you choose to read an audiobook or an ebook, read the equivalent of 100 pages. So if the physical book is 300 pages, read at least 33% of the ebook or audiobook. 
• Shorter books read in their entirety during the readathon also count!
• Every row you complete is a ticket in the lottery for the gift cards
• A row in any direction counts (horizontally, vertically and diagonally) 

• An entire card translates to 10 tickets in the lottery
• One book can count for multiple challenges
• Most forms of reading count, for example manga, comic books, audiobooks or web comics also count 

If there are any questions, feel free to ask them in the WhatsApp group or to the readathon hosts! 

The Bingo Card will be announced a couple of days before the readathon. 

The Challenges on the Bingo Card will be:

Read/finish a book:

1. by a Flanor guest

Check the recommendations blogpost or our social media and website to find guests! 

1. a reading group is currently reading 

We did our best to make the list in the recommendations blogpost accurate, but if you want to be sure the reading group is reading the book join their WhatsApp Group and ask or check out the reading groups on the website. 

1. a  book that was recommended by a Flanorian 

Everything in the recommendation blogpost and any of the books shown on our social media. Also the recommendations from the previous readathons and books added to this prompt on the Storygraph Challenge. 

1. participate in a Flanor activity 

An activity organized by the Readathon Committee, a book discussion or activity hosted by a reading group or another activity organized by Flanor

1. group discussion short story

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin available here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20719019, and in various other places in text and audio form. We'll be having a discussion on this story on Febuary 18th. 

1. by an author from the SWANA region

SWANA = South West Asia and North Africa

1. with mental illness representation
2. that has a story in a story
3. set in another world
4. that has more than 500 pages
5. written before you were born
6. that has been on your TBR for over a year
7. with heart(s) on the cover
8. that you’d write fanfiction about
9. that you could reread again and again
10. from a series that isn’t finished yet

There is a blogpost with recommendations for every challenge. In addition to that, check out what others added to the challenges on the Storygraph! 

What matters most in the readathon is that you have fun and read! You don’t have to post pictures on your social media to participate and you don’t have to participate in the reading challenges or reading sprints if you don’t want to. If you want to read whatever you want, you can do that too. Even if you just read a couple of pages, that’s enough! Everything is non-binding and just for fun! 

We are looking forward to seeing and reading with all of you!

Suggestions for reading challenges

Below you can find suggestions from the Readathon Committee on what to read for each reading prompt.

1. Book by a Flanor guest
   • Hogere Natuurkunde by Ellen Deckwitz (Dutch)
   • Echo by Thomas Oldeheuvelt
   • In het oog by Marijke Schermer (Dutch)
   • Huiswerk by Marja Pruis (Dutch)
   • Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
2. Book a reading group is currently reading

We did our best to make an accurate list, but if you want to be sure the reading group is reading the book join their WhatsApp Group and ask or check out the reading groups on the website. 

• My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Brooding Books)
• Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (Cult of Dionysus 2.0)
• De lijst van Violet Sopjes by David Vlietstra (Egel en Haas)
• Meester van de Zwarte Molen by Ostfried Preußler (Egel en Haas)
• Slow Gods by Claire North (Electric Sheep)
• The Inmate by Freida McFadden (Flanor Redemption)
• Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali (LEES!)
• The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister by Olesya Khromeychuk (Let’s Get Educated)
• Triple Sec by TJ Alexander (Sappho and Achilles)
• Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Magisch Afvoerputje)
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Midnight Dreary)
• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (M is for Memoir)
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (Romance Junkies)
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Shakespeare & Co)
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Slay-vic Squad)
• The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All vol 1-2 by Sumiko Arai (SpeechBubble)
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (These Adjective Nouns)
• This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska (YA)

1. A book that was recommended by a Flanorian

Technically, all of these recommendations count for this prompt! 

1. Read the Readathon short story

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, available here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20719019, and in various other places in text and audio form.

1. Participate in a Flanor activity

Check our website and the WhatsApp Group for this week's activities! 

1. A book by an author from the SWANA region

SWANA = South West Asia and North Africa. There is no strict definition, but usually includes Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen. Sometimes includes Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Malta, Mauritania, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Turkey, Western Sahara.

• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Disorientated by Négar Djavadj
• Comment peut-on être français by Chahdortt Djavann 
• Any book from Leïla Slimani
• Season of Migration to the North

1. With mental illness representation
   • The Vegetarian by Han Kang
   • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
   • Comment peut-on être français by Chahdortt Djavann (French)
   • Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
2. That has a story in a story
   • The Princess Bride by William Goldman
   • The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
   • Comment peut-on être français by Chahdortt Djavann 
   • Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
3. Set in another world
   • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
   • All Systems Red by Martha Wells
   • Wicked by Gregory Maguire
   • The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
4. That has more than 500 pages
   • The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
   • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
   • The Overstory by Richard Powers
   • The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
   • Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
5. Written before you were born
   • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
   • The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
   • Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
   • Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
6. That has been on your TBR for over a year
7. With heart(s) on the cover
   • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by CS Lewis
   • The Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
   • Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
   • Loveless by Alice Oseman
8. That you’d write fanfiction about
9. That you could reread again and again
10. From a series that isn’t finished yet
    • Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama
    • The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
    • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
    • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
    • Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
    • The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson