Are You Ready for National Readathon Day?

Do you hate it when you have to stop reading for silly things like dinner or the fact that you've arrived at your subway stop? If given the choice, could you curl up with a good book for hours? Is getting lost in a good story your favorite way to pass time? Then you will love the brand new National Readathon Day.

National Readathon Day is a new initiative sponsored by the National Book Foundation, GoodReads, Mashable, and Penguin Random House. It's intended as way to celebrate reading, foster books culture in America, and raise money for the National Book Foundation, a non-profit that brings books to communities in need and fosters a love of reading. Sounds great, right?

The day is scheduled for Saturday, January 24, and will take place in libraries and bookstores across the country between noon and 4 p.m. And in order to participate, you just need to find a participating location near you and commit to reading a book — any book — for four hours. That's it!

And it seems that plenty of authors also plan on getting in on the fun. Khaled Hosseini plans on reading The Children Act by Ian McEwan. Emma Straub will be diving into some Evelyn Waugh. The executive director of the National Book Foundation is going to tackle the first book in the Series of Unfortunate Events.

I'm sure this sounds like music to your book-loving ears, so here's what's next: Head over to the National Readathon Day website. They'll be adding locations that are hosting reading parties, so you can find where to join in (tweet using #timetoread!) on January 24. You'll also find info about setting up a fundraising page to help the National Book Foundation, which is the other big part of the campaign. Your bucks will help go to sharing your love of reading with people across the country. You can even set up a team if you're really into it.

So, click on over, pledge some $ if you're game, and, of course, start thinking about what you want to read!

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