Dewey's is upon us once again

This time around I keep vacillating between being excited about it and feeling blasé about it. It helps that the weather has finally turned more autumnal (though it's still in the 70's far too often for this time of year in Wisconsin for my taste), and the leaves are suddenly turning colors. This is the first year that I haven't been a member of bookclubs since college, and it's been nice reading whatever I feel like and noticing the strange patterns I get myself into. (Example: whenever I see something on social media about a book I own and haven't read, it makes me pull it off of the shelf to be read "next" - and then it sits around in random piles for months on end, never quite getting into my hands to be read.) That being said, I did just pull a very small stack of books that would be nice to read for this 'thon. And if I don't get to them? No pressure, they can go right back where they came from. 

I'll post a picture once a little more time has passed, and I've figured out a few more to add to the stack. And at this point, I plan on not checking out anything from the library that wasn't already either checked out or on hold. Believe me, there are plenty of options here that I've already spent $$$ on that need reading. (I said this last time, though, and while I ended up panicking and anxiously checked out a dozen or so things the day before, it was still MUCH better than in years past.) 

While not setting a strict rule for myself this time around, I'd like to read things that are more seasonal and spooky, like short ghost stories, darker literary fiction, paranormal themes, etc. It's something I attempted 4 or 5 years ago but didn't have much luck with. But between everything I see on Instagram and LITSY, I'm getting more excited to actually give it some effort this time around. It helps that I lean toward these kinds of things already, so there's a nice stockpile at my house. 

Something else that's newer for me this time around is the pressure I put on myself to stay up and participate in everything. Or rather, that I'm letting that pressure go. I used to be able to easily make myself stay awake for the whole 24 hours (or very nearly) when I first started doing Dewey's. Within a day I was back on my regular schedule, and it was a fairly smooth transition. Now? Very different story. My health has slowly but steadily gotten worse over time and I live in a constant state of exhaustion. The idea of trying to read for a full day is still thrilling for me (why yes, I am a nerd), but the actuality of it is not only nearly impossible but also pretty bad for my health. My already mostly non-functioning adrenal glands can't take it. I get shaky and feel like I'm losing my mind. And it takes me 3 or 4 days to recover. (I'm noticing similarities to alcohol hangovers - though it's been years since that's happened to me.) The most recent Dewey's this past spring, I planned on sleeping whenever I felt like it, and it went okay. This time, I'm going to try and read for two hours and then rest. If I sleep, that's fine, I'll wake up when I wake up. If I don't sleep, I'll give my brain and eyes a break. Important, since this is a marathon and not a sprint. Plus, there are hundreds (thousands?) more participants since I started this RAT, which is a wonderful thing, and I've noticed that more younger people are doing all of the mini-challenges. Which is excellent, great, wonderful, etc, but I'm finding that they don't catch my interest like they used to. So I look forward to the few that I'll do, but don't feel bad about skipping the rest. More reading time! 

Has anyone else noticed the shift in mini-challenges? Anyone else "too old" to stay awake for a full day? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you all again soon!