General Books / Reading Challenges

Pondathon II: Participation & Sign up!

Dini @ dinipandareads15 Comments

Hello, hello, friends! Today I’m coming at you with an announcement (and sign up) post for the Pondathon II reading challenge. Listen, I know I’m not the best at challenges/readathons but I like to try and add a little fun to my reading life every year. When I first heard about the Pondathon I was too intimidated to join but new year, new chances, right? It seems pretty low-key and thus, low-pressure, which is exactly how I like my challenges to be (lol)! So, if you’re anything like me and aren’t sure whether or not to join, I say, why not? You’re not alone! 😉

Before we get into it though, some of you might be wondering: what exactly is Pondathon II? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

Pondathon II: The Quiet Pond’s Story-Driven Readathon. A small spade and watering can are crossed with vines wrapped around it frame the words Pondathon II. Three little forest sprites - one with a leaf on its head, another with twigs on its head like antlers, and a mushroom on the other’s head - sit on the words ‘Pondathon’.

What is the Pondathon?

Pondathon II is a story-driven and gardening-themed readathon hosted and run by CW from The Quiet Pond. The aim of the Pondathon II readathon is to read books to earn plants and decorate your own little garden so that we can restore the forest together. More information about the readathon can be found here.

  • You can sign-up to the Pondathon II readathon here. The readathon starts on January 10th 2022 and ends on December 11th 2022; sign-ups are open across the duration of the readathon.
  • You also get to create your own Pond animal character for the Pondathon, and create your own character card!
  • If you’d like, create a blog post, bookstagram post, booktube video, Twitter thread, or whatever medium you wish, with ‘#PondathonII’ in the title or your tweet. Share the character you have created and your character card!
  • Link back to this post so that new friends can find the readathon and join in as well.

INTRODUCING: POMPOM

Meet Pompom, my TBR Guardian. Pompom has valiantly guarded my existing TBR for years but, inline with wanting to tackle the backlistthis year, it’s now time for them to help me valiantly sort through and read as many of my existing books as possible! It’s gonna be a challenge but… We can do this. RIGHT?! 😆

As a mood reader, I won’t have a Pondathon II TBR but here are some possibilities to work through:

PONDATHON II SIDE QUESTS

Click on the banner for more information about Xiaolong’s side quest!

The Pondathon II is divided into 16 rounds that are three weeks long, and with each new round there will be a new side quest from a pond companion. You don’t need to do side quests, but you can get a badge or special items if you complete them. The current side quest is from Xiaolong and you can complete it by reading a diverse book* before 30 January 2022 (8PM NZT).

If you read at least three diverse books you earn the Budding Friends badge and if you read at least five diverse books you earn a ‘sticker set’ to decorate your pond character!

*DIVERSE BOOKS ACCORDING TO THE QUIET POND

This readathon defines a ‘diverse’ book as a book that is written by an author with a marginalised identity – this can include being a person of colour and/or indigenous, disabled, LGBTQIA+ and/or gender diverse, or intersections of these identities – about characters with marginalised identities. Non-fiction and poetry by marginalised authors not necessarily about marginalised characters also count as ‘diverse books’. Books by cis, heterosexual, abled/neurotypical, white women will not be considered ‘diverse books’. In addition, books by non-marginalised authors about a character with a marginalised identity are not considered ‘diverse books’. Books that qualify as ‘diverse books’ are at the discretion of The Quiet Pond team and our decision is final.

from The Quiet Pond’s F.A.Q.

Here are five possibilities that I’m looking at for this side quest, with special thanks to Your Tita Kate for some of the short story recommendations! 😊

And that’s it from me, folks! Are you joining Pondathon II or is it something you’re thinking about? What are some of the books you’re planning to read for the Pondathon or the side quest? If anyone wants to buddy read something, I’m definitely open to it, so just let me know! 🥰

15 thoughts on “Pondathon II: Participation & Sign up!”

  3. I always think Pondathon is so cute! But I’ve always been too intimidated, as well. Popsugar is about all I can handle. Ha! Several of these are on my tbr, but I have read/listened to Clap When You Land and I highly recommend it. If you can snag the audiobook, even better. It’s very poetic. Good luck with your challenge! ❤

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    • It’s adorable and I’m in awe of all the work that CW puts into creating such a fun and attractive readathon 😍 I think the reason why I joined this year is because I realised you can just read whatever you want and whatever book you read counts towards the readathon! I’m listening to the audiobook for CWYL right now while following along with my physical copy! I’m enjoying it 😃

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    • Hehe, Pompom is awesome! I haven’t “officially” signed up to do the Beat the Backlist Challenge cos I’m also pretty terrible at challenges so I’m just kinda winging it and consciously choosing to read more of the books I already own and trying to be less tempted by ARCs and blog tours 😂 We totally got this, Julie!

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