I’m so excited to be bringing you this post today. A little while ago I asked if people would be interested in a Marvel based ReadAThon I had come up with and people said YES. I’ve been working hard to hammer out the details of this ReadAThon and I’ve finally got it all sorted which means I can FINALLY announce the challenge and I am SO SO EXCITED.

This ReadAThon will be A MONTH long, because there is so many challenges. So it will run from midnight, June 1st to midnight July 1st in your timezone.

This readathon is focussed around Marvel movies in the cinematic universe, each of the movies have been split into their phases and there is one challenge per movie. The goal is to read a book for EVERY SINGLE MOVIE (that’s 21 movies, by the way). Everyone starts in Phase One, and you can’t move onto the next phase until you’ve completed all the challenges. Here is the game board, I’ll go more into depth with the rules & provide a typed out version of the challenges below.

THE CHALLENGES

Phase One:

Iron Man: Iron Man started the MCU timeline – Read the first book in a series.
Hulk: Bruce Banner is famous for his green alter-ego. Read a book with a green cover
Iron Man 2: Iron Man 2 is one of Marvel’s most unpopular movies. Read a book that’s unpopular
Thor: The Thor movies are based on Norse Mythology. Read a book that involved myth or mythology.
Captain America: Captain America is set during WW2. Read a book set or written in World War Two
The Avengers: The Avengers is the first time we see the MCU heroes together. Read a book with multiple perspectives.

Phase Two:

Iron Man 3: Tony Stark has to make some hard decisions in this movie. Read a book that will challenge you
Dark World: In The Dark World, Thor has to team up with Loki to win. Read a book that involves siblings.
Winter Soldier: In The Winter Soldier a character returns as a villain. Read a book where the main character is a villain or anti-hero
Guardians of the Galaxy: Guardians of the Galaxy is well known for it’s soundtrack. Read a book set in, written in, or involving the 80’s
Age of Ultron: The villain of Age Of Ultron is a robot created by Tony Stark. Read a book involving an AI in some way
Ant-Man: In Ant-Man, Scott involuntarily gets caught up in a heist. Read a book involving a heist or thieves.

Phase Three:

Civil War: The Avengers split into two teams after disagreements. Read a book about a rivalry or enemies
Doctor Strange: Stephen Strange was a doctor beforehe was a hero. Read a book that involves medicine in some way
GOTG: Volume 2: Volume Two shows even more epic space battles. Read a book set in or involving space
Spider-Man: Peter Parker has to hide his superhero identity at school. Read a YA book involving secrets in some way
Thor: Ragnarok: Thor: Ragnarok is one of Marvel’s most popular movies. Read a popular book
Infinity War: “the most ambitious crossover event in history”. Read a book that fulfils multiple challenges
Black Panther: Black Panther features Marvel’s first black superhero. Read an ownvoices book with a black main character
Captain Marvel: This movie will feature Marvel’s first female hero as the main character. Read a book with a female mc
The Avengers 4: Details of this movie including it’s title are still a secret. Read a book you don’t know anything about

SOME EXPLANATIONS: Feel free to interpret these as loosely as you like. While some are pretty self explanatory (read the first book in a series) some are more vague (read a book involving medicine) so feel free to interpret how you would like. Because there is so many challenges I’d rather people didn’t worry too much about the exact semantics, just fit to the challenge as much as you can. For example, a challenging book can be because of it’s genre, it’s format or it’s content. Whatever makes it challenging to YOU. A book “involving” something can mean it relates to the main character, the plot, the cover, anything else. Feel free to interpret.

For the Infinity War challenge, you need to read one book that works for two or more categories and those can be ANY categories, it doesn’t matter what phase. For example, you could read a book with a green cover that’s popular to complete it. Or a book set in the 80’s with multiple perspectives. As long as it’s fulfilling two or more challenges at once it’s useable for the Infinity War space.

THE RULES

The aim of this challenge is to read as many books as you can, and to finish the challenge you reach the final movie in the MCU phase three (Avengers 4)
You can read books in any order WITHIN phases, but need to complete the phase to move onto the next one.
We’ve all skipped watching a Marvel movie here and there, which means you’re allowed two skips per phase, and skips can be rolled over into the next phase if they’re not used. So in total you have 6 skips to play with.
You can’t use one book for multiple challenges one book per category must be read.
Books can be ANYTHING and any length. Audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels, comics, fanfics and anything else you can think of.

Any other questions can be directed to me here or tweeted to me @jamishelves.

BUDDY READS

Marvel movie’s are more fun when watched together, and sometimes you ned a friend to summarise a movie you haven’t seen for you before you watch the next one. This is why Buddy Reads can be used to complete challenges even if you haven’t read the books.

If you read a book with a friend, they can then ‘give’ one of their reads to you if it’s within the same phase as you’re working on. So say you and a friend read the “Iron Man” challenge together, but your friend has also read Captain America from that phase, and you’ve read Hulk. After the buddy, you can count their Captain America read as one of your reads, and they can count your Hulk read as theirs. Essentially, you both get a free read on top of the buddy read.

You can do this ONCE per phase (of course you’re free to Buddy read more than that, but the ‘give away’ will only be allowed once per phase.