Ready....set.....read-a-thon!

On Saturday, I'll be reading for as much of 24 hours as I can, for the 24-hour Read-a-Thon. (It'll probably be more like 18 hours). I'm reading for charity, donating 10 cents to GrowingGardens for every page my family reads. Here's some info about them:

GROWINGGARDENS gets at the root of hunger in Portland, Oregon. We organize hundreds of volunteers to build organic, raised bed vegetable gardens in backyards, front yards, side yards and even on balconies. We support low income households for three years with seeds, plants, classes, mentors and more. Our Youth Grow after school garden clubs grow the next generation of veggie eaters and growers! Through Learn & Grow workshops and work parties, we teach gardeners all about growing, preparing and preserving healthful food while respecting the health of the environment.

I don't have much of a garden myself, because we don't have the sun or the patience to grow much here, but it's my goal to find some shade-tolerant veggies (lettuce, maybe? berries?) to grow this summer. I love this idea, though, of teaching people to grow their own food and/or helping them with the resources to get started. Imagine the empowerment of going from not having enough to eat, to having enough veggies to share with the neighbors!

If anyone else wants to pledge with me, I'd be happy to pass along donations to GrowingGardens or you can donate on their website. If you're local, they also accept volunteer help. I know for a fact they don't want my help, unless they're looking for an example of What Not to Do. So, I'll give them my money instead!

Now, as to what I'll be reading, I was going to take a picture of my book stack, but I can't find the cord that connects my camera to the USB port of my computer! I'm hoping my husband knows where it is so I can post the picture on Read-a-Thon day, at least. For now, I'm just going to post a list.

Downloaded audiobooks:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri's

One of those will start me off at 5 a.m on Saturday. Once I'm ready to open my eyes, I'll be choosing from the following books:

From My Review Pile:
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria (which I keep wanting to call Love in the Time of Malaria so please somebody correct me if I do that in the review!) by Eve Brown-Waite
Sweet Mandarin by Helen Tse

Graphic Novels:
Janes In Love by Cecil Castelucci
Aya by Marguerite Abouet
Freddy and Me by Mike Dawson

From My Library Shelf:
Who By Fire by Diana Spechler
The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Flygirl by Sherrie Smith
ADHD and Me by Blake Taylor
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
My Life As a Rhombus by Varian Johnson

Think I can get them all read in 24 hours? Ha! But at least I have a lot to choose from!

Or I may just toss them all to the wind and pick up the copy of John Green's Looking for Alaska that I won from Fizzy Thoughts a few weeks ago. I'll be posting updates throughout the day on Saturday to let you know what I'm reading, how many pages I've read, and what distractions have kept me from actually reading during the read-a-thon.

And if you're interested in signing up, head on over to the Read-a-Thon site for more info!