Skip to footer

National Readathon Day: Here's what you need to know

National Readathon Day is being held for the first time on Jan. 24. It's sponsored by publisher Penguin Random House and the National Book Foundation, among others.

|
Kara Newhouse/LNP Media Group/AP
McCaskey High School freshman Kiara Santiago reads on a couch in one of the school's reading classrooms in Lancaster, Pa.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Are you ready for National Readathon Day? 

As we previously reported, publisher Penguin Random House, the website Goodreads, and the National Book Foundation, among others, are teaming up to encourage people to read from 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24.

Participants are encouraged to raise funds for their reading, which will go to the National Book Foundation. Those joining in can take part by themselves or with a team. A leaderboard on the National Readathon website shows that some teams have raised thousands of dollars so far. Those raising funds will be eligible for various prizes, with those having raised $7,500 qualifying for two tickets to this year’s National Book Awards, including complimentary plane tickets and hotel. 

Bibliophiles don’t want to raise funds through reading can make a donation on the National Readathon website.

According to industry newsletter Shelf Awareness, various bookstores, schools, and libraries are getting involved. At The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Ga., 10 percent of sales made between 12 and 4 p.m. that day will go the NBF, while the store BookPeople of Austin, Tex. is hosting National Readathon participants on its third floor.

Check out the National Readathon Day website map to see what’s happening near you.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to National Readathon Day: Here's what you need to know
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2015/0120/National-Readathon-Day-Here-s-what-you-need-to-know
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe