Here for the afternoon

Early this morning, after leaving a very memorable GeekFight Quiz Night at Quantum Cafe, some of the bookworms therein headed over to Cubao X. After staying till the early morning, I returned about an hour ago to continue my Twitter updating from Libreria. Nothing much has changed except that there are only about half the people, the cast has changed slightly, and slowly but surely people have made inroads into the food.

So I'm coming on board, foregoing a book launch which book bloggers have not, to my knowledge, been invited, and, like the proverbial fly on the wall, watching and hopefully coming up with more to say here, and on Twitter. (Follow me at @renaguila.)

Halfway mark!

The Readathon Wall. The Readathoners update their status on the library cards.

It's 9AM here in the Philippines, and the readathoners are recovering from a night of reading, eating, and drinking. And some sleeping.

Here's what happened in the last 12 hours:

• Leading the readathoners is Blooey, with 5 books read, totalling 589 pages. She's pledged 10 books for every 100 pages to Kythe Foundation, an organization for pediatric cancer patients, so she now owes Kythe 50 books.
• Readathoners Marie, Kristel, Triccie, Cecille, Gege, Mike  interspersed reading and eating in the early hours, while Joseph and Veronica, together with non-readathoners/cheerleaders Czar and Maan, interspersed reading with drinking.:) All in all, everyone was having fun.
• Gege raffled off a book every hour until 5AM. She used random.org to generate a number and the readathoner reading a page closest to the number won the raffle. So far, 9 books have been given out.
• A little before 8AM, the remaining readathoners trooped off to Butter Diner to have breakfast. After breakfast, a few people had to head on home or to other events, such as Joseph and Kristel. Others went home to get some shuteye and much needed baths. 
• Right now, the following people at Libreria are Peter, Blooey, Gege, Cecille, Triccie, and Honey, reading, covering books, eating, and talking. 

This readathon has actually morphed into a readathon/eat-a-ton/drinkathon. So, if you're free and in the vicinity, do come and join the fun! At time of writing, there are 11 more hours to go.:)

Here at the Readathon!

Some of the Readathoners

Yep, the first FFP 24 Hour Readathon has been up and running for the past 3 and a half hours. Why only an update now? Well, I only arrived now, after a truly hectic conference. But that's another story...

So, apologies to the ones waiting for updates (and to fellow Readthoners who were waiting for me here in Libreria). But, people are here, reading and eating. And Ajie covering books with Gauge 5 plastic--a religious experience for her, according to husband Don. Thus, half into this third hour of the readathon, I thank everyone who's here and welcome all who are joining us!

These are the people who were here since the start at 9PM:

• Triccie
• Gege
• Peter
• Blooey
• Joko
• Veronica
• Kristel

And the ones who came after:

• Joseph
• Mike
• Maan
• Ajie and Don, with kids Nikolai and Isobel
• Honey

And the ones who dropped by and left before it started:

• Marie
• Chloe

Right now, we're continuing with the reading and eating. And if you've been reading along with us, do post a link to your blog updates below!

Posters, Buttons, and Badges

If you're joining the readathon (or even if you're not) and you have a blog or website, feel free to take, use, and spread any of the posters and badges below. And if you do, hopefully you can link the badge to our Sign-up page. Thanks so much!

By the way, these posters and badges were made by Blooey of Bookmarked!. Thanks, Bloo!

Also, if you're inclined to make a poster or a badge for the FFP 24 Hour Readathon, then we'd be happy to include it here. Just leave us a comment with a link to your badge.:)

Posters:

Badges/Buttons:

Libreria

The first FFP Readathon is going to be held at Libreria, a charming independent bookstore at the heart of Cubao X in Quezon City.

For those of you unfamiliar with Libreria, here are some photos to help you get to know the place. It's an awesome bookstore with an awesome owner.

Entrance to Libreria (photo courtesy of Chachic)

Inside the store. See those couches? They're perfect for snuggling up to read. (photo courtesy of Libreria's FB page)

Perfect chair for rocking and reading. (photo courtesy of Libreria's FB page)

Libreria opened in October 2010, and in the few months that it's been operational, it has been host to a number of book-related events, such as book club discussions, book blogger meet-ups, author meet-ups, and even an occasional "wild" party.

During one Filipino Book Bloggers' Meet-up (photo courtesy of Libreria's FB page)

During the Bookmoochers Pilipinas's get-together (photo courtesy of Sumthinblue)

The Best and Worst book discussion with FFP and Filipino Book Bloggers (photo courtesy of Rhett)

During the Mardi Gras celebration. Everyone's outside the store, getting food from the buffet table (Photo courtesy of Gege)

Outside the bookstore during the Mardi Gras party. The area was cordoned off, decorated, and transformed into a dancing area. Who knows--there might be dancing during the readathon, too.:-D (photo courtesy of Rhett)

Triccie, owner of Libreria and generous soul par excellence. (photo courtesy of  Libreria's blog)

We hope the pics give you a good idea of our venue. And if they don't, well then drop by on April 8-9 and have a look yourself. Why not join the readathon while you're at it?:)

Here's a map to Cubao X, for those among you who need it.

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SEE YOU GUYS AT THE READATHON!

Sign-ups!

Sign-up here if you want to join the FFP 24 Hour Read-a-thon on April 8-9, 2011!

To sign up, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. On the "Your name" box, you can type either your name or your handle. You can fill up the "Your URL" box with your blog URL or, if you don't have a blog, your Facebook profile, Twitter account, Shelfari, Goodreads, or Librarything profile, etc.

To find out more about the FFP 24 Hour Readathon, check out the About page and the FAQ.



We'd also appreciate it if you could spread the word about the read-a-thon by linking to this post or this site. If you have a blog, we'd also love it if you could post one of our buttons on it to help spread the word. Thanks!