Reading Marathon: A New Fashion in National Reading
| A reading activity originating overseas, “Reading Marathon” combines the common features of reading and marathon: “long time”, “persistence”, “sense of achievement”, and so on, aiming to arouse people’s interest in reading. As a popular reading promotion, reading marathon has gradually created a phenomenon in China, namely, reading “relay”. Beijing: On the 21st World Reading Day, namely, April 23, 2016, Beijing Reading Season organized a reading marathon entitled “All City Loves Reading”, in which, nearly 100 reading spaces, bookstores and shopping malls in the city were aroused to jointly carry out the strongest beneficial reading activities in the year. In Beijing, there were nearly 100 activities on the reading marathon. According to statistics, more than 10000 persons directly participated in these activities. Shanghai: The contest rules for the reading marathon in Shanghai are the first of its kind in China. According to the rules, contestants should attend the contest in teams; every contestant in a team should finish reading a book in 6 hours and take a test on reading quality, and then, the contestant’s reading time and test results will be weighted to get his/her total reading time; the contestant with the shortest reading time will win. 1000 reading lovers attended 2016 Shanghai Autumn Reading Marathon Contest held in October 2016. Guangzhou: At the end of November 2016, a contest entitled “2016 Reading Marathon” was held in Guangzhou. Contestants should finish reading a book on the site within a given time limit, and then, answer a test paper, so as to test their reading efficiencies. In 2 hours, the contestants may finish the reading at any time, and his/her reading time will be recorded; after the reading, the contestants should answer 100 choice questions in half an hour without consulting any book, so as to test the reading effects; finally, the contestants’ answer time and scores will be converted to time values by relevant formula, plus their reading time, the contestants’ contest time will be known. With so many collective readings, more and more readers can take advantage of the “Reading Marathon” platform to publicize the benefits of reading to the people around and lead them to participate in the activities. |