Saturday, April 23, 2016

Readathon Mini-Challenge: Taco Road Trip Time!

Photograph of a round sign that reads 'Vinyl Taco.' It protrudes from a grey-painted brick building, an awning with further taco slogans directly below it.
No road trip is complete without tacos.

The mini challenge is now finished. Thank you to all the participants and congratulations to the winner, Luisa!

Hello Dewey's Readathoners! Welcome to Hour Four--aka, TACO ROAD TRIP TIME!

We're Memory and Cass, your challenge hosts, and we really love road trips. We love road trips so much, in fact, we want all of you to quit reading long enough to enjoy one of your very own.

Imagine you're on a road trip with a character from your current read. You're having an awesome time seeing amazing sights, stopping for delicious tacos every hour on the hour, and listening to fabulous music. You're about ready to share some of the fun with the folks back home.

We want you to do one of two (or two of two!) things:

Write a short postcard to a friend (or to another of the book's characters who wasn't invited on your cross country odyssey) telling them what's up with you and your new fictional BFF.

and/or

Find the perfect road trip song for you and your traveling companion to rock out to as you burn through the miles, and tell us why it's such a great fit for this character.

Share the text of your postcard or the YouTube video for your song via our handy-dandy Google form for a chance to win a set of travel-themed bookplates and an assortment of vintage postcards any road tripper would be pleased to mail to their loved ones (unless you'd rather get ones with writing on them so you can spy on 1970s peoples' conversations). We'll randomly select a winner at the end of Hour 6.

May the wind blow through your hair and your car never run out of gas.

A tiny bobbleheaded Deadpool--a person in a form-fitting red and black costume--hovers behind two catfish tacos.
Adios from literature's most famous taco-lovin' road tripper

23 comments:

  1. I know that street! I'm a Fargo native/resident. I never see Fargo in the blogging world so this is exciting. Happy reading to you!

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    1. I had the same thought! I am NDSU graduate :) Love it!!

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  2. Book: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

    Dear James, Marilyn, Nath, (and Hannah),

    Lydia and I are doing well. It's felt great for us to put everything aside, especially your expectations, to just feel the wind in our hair and not have to worry about a thing. Some days it seems like we will never turn back, so we memorize the views from the road and then erase it once we enter the next town. It's been 4 months, we've even stopped a few weeks here and there for work. I know this was supposed to be temporary, just a road trip, but Lydia told me that she's never felt more alive and I'm worried that if we ever go back, she'll never feel this way again. So this might be our last postcard, we'll see. Maybe we'll check in for Christmas and your birthdays. But right now we've had just about enough of you and not at all enough of the wind in our hair.

    Love, Sylwia
    Wish Fulfillment

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  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeqPmPKcHXA

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  4. Dear Mom,

    Well, I always thought I had a black thumb and didn't care much for plants, but Neville Longbottom could make even the most devout nature hater appreciate a fine flower or a particular fern. We've crossed off 5 sites so far on our roadtrip to America's finest botanical gardens, and now we're off to the MOST American of them - D.C.! I've made Neville promise we get to stop and ogle at the First Ladies' dresses in the Smithsonian too. And also to change up the music - there's only so much more wizard rock I can take.

    Love, Liz

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  5. Since I am currently reading "Paper Towns" by John Green, I have been thinking back to his transcendent novel "The Fault in Our Stars". This novel is a love story between Hazel and Augustus, two teens who are both struggling with terminal cancer. After reading the novel and watching the movie, I fell in love with Amsterdam-its such a beautiful European city. For this road trip challenge I think the perfect road trip would be to drive around the town of Asterdam with them (before they meet the author and things turn kind sad and yuck) and we would sing "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten.

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  6. Since I am currently reading "Paper Towns" by John Green, I have been thinking back to his transcendent novel "The Fault in Our Stars". This novel is a love story between Hazel and Augustus, two teens who are both struggling with terminal cancer. After reading the novel and watching the movie, I fell in love with Amsterdam-its such a beautiful European city. For this road trip challenge I think the perfect road trip would be to drive around the town of Asterdam with them (before they meet the author and things turn kind sad and yuck) and we would sing "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten.

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  7. Dear the nerd herd,

    Hey guys sorry you couldn't come with us, me and Zoey are having such an AMAZING time! Tacos are fab, though I have tequila to drink, Zoey isn't much of a drinker and sticks to her brown pop...though I noticed her making eyes at the waiter who accidently cut himself! Anyway I told her she has more men than she can handle and we laughed. Her affinities are a Goddess send as when it's hot she summons a cool breeze.

    blessed be x

    (HOUSE OF NIGHT TRIBUTE)

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  8. Dear the nerd herd,

    Hey guys sorry you couldn't come with us, me and Zoey are having such an AMAZING time! Tacos are fab, though I have tequila to drink, Zoey isn't much of a drinker and sticks to her brown pop...though I noticed her making eyes at the waiter who accidently cut himself! Anyway I told her she has more men than she can handle and we laughed. Her affinities are a Goddess send as when it's hot she summons a cool breeze.

    blessed be x

    (HOUSE OF NIGHT TRIBUTE)

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  9. Thank you for the challenge, that was fun! :)

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  10. Book: Armada by Ernest Cline

    Hi kids,

    I'm having a great time traveling with Zack. Although he's in the top-10 high-scoring players of Armada, he's happy to take a break from his computer screen, which is more than can be said of you! We're having tacos along the way (he loves his with loads of peppers - brrrr). Another One Bites the Dust by Queen is on the radio, the sun's out...We're having a great time.

    Your Mom

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  11. My challenges :) http://wp.me/p3ftwe-Qg

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  12. Book: The Forbidden Wish, by Jessica Khoury
    Travelling Buddy: Zahra the Jinni

    Postcard:

    Aladdin -

    Sorry to steal your Jinni, but as a fellow thief I'm sure you'll understand perfectly! Zahra and I are having a great time traversing the country and eating a great new food - a taco! I'm sure you would enjoy them, maybe when Zahra returns you can use one of your three wishes on receiving one of these "tacos".
    I hope everything is well back home and we aren't missing too much.

    - Emma

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  13. Reading "And the Mountains Echoed"

    Dear Pari,
    Your Uncle Nabisco and I have left Kabul. He is so excited to see the world and meet you. You know, he had not been far from Kabul in many years. We are driving your Baba' blue car! It was worth having it restored. Be kind to Nabisco; he has much to confess, but is a good man. We will send another card from Tajikistan. Love, Jeanette

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  14. Book: The Haunting of Blackwood House
    Traveling Buddy: Neil

    Postcard: https://www.instagram.com/p/BEjOB9hHUXR/?taken-by=angelized_1st
    Erica,

    Sorry you and Damien couldn't make it, but maybe it's a good thing. Neil and I can really use the alone time :) I hope all is well, and that you guys have a great time with Pam. I can't wait to hear all of your amazing stories when we get back.

    -Mara

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  15. Mine gets a bit depressing, but I liked it so I'll share it.

    Book: The Walking Dead, Compendium Two by Robert Kirkman, et al.
    Traveling Buddy: Rick Grimes

    Postcard sent to Carl Grimes:
    Hi Carl! Your dad, Rick, and I took a little trip today. I know you wanted to come but it's too dangerous out there with all the Walkers for you to come all the time. So you just needed to stay put today, buddy. I miss the old road trips we used to have. They were much more fun than these. I used to take trips with my friends all over the country. We'd eat all the tacos we could handle, listen to songs way too loudly, and visit lots of cool places. Maybe one of these days, you and me and your dad can do that again. Maybe one day things will all be back like they used to be, before dead people started rising again. Maybe your dad and I can find some stuff to make tacos and we can bring them back to you. I miss tacos a lot. I miss my old friends. I miss the way life used to be. And I don't even know why I'm writing you a postcard, because there's no post office to deliver it to you. Oh, well. All we can do is keep living, keep fighting, and maybe one day we'll have a post office, tacos, road trips and music again. We can't give up hope. See you soon.

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    1. My comment was posted twice for some reason, so I deleted the second one. And I accidentally filled out the form--I knew it was after the cutoff time, so I apologize for filling that out. It was just such a cool mini challenge that I had to participate! :)

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