It’s October 22nd. The air is full of the smells of roasting coffee and possibly unshowered readers. Your ears prickle at the scratchy sound of pages turning and the crinkle of snack food wrappers. Twitter feeds are being scrolled through fervently; instagram pictures snapped every new hour; and book after book cries as it’s mercilessly devoured by a hungry Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon participant voraciously gobbling their TBR stack.
That’s right, it’s October 22nd, and that means it’s time for another Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon! I’m running a mini-challenge for this hour: Plan A Bookish Party. I ran this mini-challenge in 2015 on my old blog, and it was a great success. So, let’s get started!
The Plan A Bookish Party Mini-Challenge
I love hosting themed parties. Every holiday, birthday, premiere or finale of a TV show, you can bet I’m putting out a themed spread. One year for my birthday, my friends and I had a Lord of the Rings marathon, where we watched all three extended editions in one (very long) sitting. I had water bottles labeled Ent Draught, toasted naan for Lembas bread, and served a chicken and dumpling stew for dinner, like what I imagined the hobbits might eat along the road! YUM.
Now, I extend a similar challenge to you. Choose a favorite book and plan a party around it. It doesn’t have to be a book you’ve read in this readathon. Either comment to this post, or make a blog post of your own and leave a link, with your answers to the following questions:
What book is your party themed around?
What food will you serve?
What’s your signature drink?
What games will you play?
What party favors will you send home with your guests?
For example, if I was to throw a Harry Potter themed party, snacks would include pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate and sprinkles for wands, jelly beans for Bertie Botts, and maybe jello in little plastic cauldrons for Potions experiments gone awry! The signature drink would be Butterbeer, of course, and for games we might try out some Quidditch, or I’d set up an obstacle course based on the Philosopher’s Stone’s protective spells! (I can get so detailed about this, you don’t even want to know — I have planned so many Harry Potter parties in my head.) As for favors, everyone goes home with parchment and quills and stuffed animal owls, so they can keep in touch!
Feel free to add more answers, too, like what the invitations will look like, or what music you’ll put on — if you make a blog post, add pictures of bookish parties!
A winner randomly selected in the Rafflecopter drawing will win a $10 Amazon.com giftcard!
The giveaway will be open until Midnight EST, and the winner will be randomly selected through Rafflecopter. All you have to do is leave your comment with your bookish party ideas and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway. Be sure to include your email address so you can be contacted if you win! If you’d like some extra entries for good luck, there are some options included!! Good luck to everyone, and I can’t wait to hear about your parties!!
Here are some more parties, for inspiration!
~
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47 Comments
mensrea3
So if I were to organise A Game of Thrones party, I would have all the guests dress up in medieval looking attire and play the parts of the Lannisters, the Targaryen, the Starks etc. We would drink ale and wine of course and eat chicken and roasted pork (because we can’t cook sparrows). And we would play a game debating who should rule the Seven Kingdoms according to which character each guest represents.
At the end of the feast, the guests would go home with a funko pop of their chosen character. Except the one who plays King Jeoffrey… He is not going to make it through dinner…
Jessica A Minor V
My party would be a wedding around Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. We’d have the recipes from the book. For dinner the duck in roses, for dessert chocolate cake, and as favours the favourite dessert of Tita’s sister. For entertainment we’d dance.
Irene
I’ll host a Alice in Wonderland party. The entrance would be shaped like a rabbit hole (please don’t ask how, lol) and everyone should be dressed. I’ll serve tea and cake of course. We’ll be playing “continue the story”; everyone comes up with five words and we just go on and on and on. Everyone will be gifted a new mug and a matching hat because why not? 😀
wishfulfillmentsylwia
What book is your party themed around? Dengeki Daisy
What food will you serve? Japanese food, since the setting is Japan!
What’s your signature drink? Since I’m sober, it would have to be some sort of virgin drink. In the volume I’m reading, they’re drinking something called “Cafe Royal” which Google tells me is basically coffee with vodka. I would scratch the vodka and make a chilled chocolate milk/coffee hybrid instead!
What games will you play? Dream Date or Dream Phone, one of those old-timey games where your mystery caller ends up being your love. (Dengeki Daisy involves falling in love with someone over text messages.)
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Edible daisies or real daisies, edible phone gummies, text message heart candy, daisy-looking cupcakes or cake pops. As a joke, some sort of hair-removal cream (since the protagonist is always saying “Go bald!” to her love interest when she is mad at him.)
Jen Scott
What book is your party themed around?
I’d love to throw a Narnia-themed party. Based off of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
What food will you serve?
We would definitely need some Turkish delight, and I would get all the British food and treats I could get.
What’s your signature drink?
I would make a delicious creamy hot chocolate, and also have assorted teas.
What games will you play?
I’d do a medieval arts roundup, which would include jousting, fencing, and archery. We could also do freeze tag where we turn each other into “stone”.
What party favors will you send home with your guests?
For party favors, they could take home crowns (flower crowns for the girls), toy lions, and some of their very own turkish delight!
Katie Williams
THE NIGHT CIRCUS
I’ve been dying to have a midnight dinner. With an elaborate menu of spun sugar globes filled with chocolate mousse. Chocolate mice and caramel popcorn. Roasted chestnuts.
Everyone would come dressed up in only black and white, a possible splash of red here or there.
We’d have a bonfire.
I’d drape my house in black and white striped fabrics.
It’d be glorious.
Isi
Oh I’d have a “Princess bride” party 🙂
Every one should wear medieval clothes or dress as a pirate. There would be sword-fights among the guests, left-handed and right-handed, and the food would be roasted Rodents of Unusual Size (lol). Regarding the drink, there would be wine of course, but the guests’d have to be careful, because the iocaine poison might or might not be in the glasses…
The guests would take home a Fezzik in real size (I mean, giant!).
Whitney
My party would be themed around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I would serve every kind of chocolate and candy you could think of, including as many Wonka candies I could find in the US and of course Everlasting Gobstoppers. I believe my signature drink would be hot chocolate and tea served in cups that look like tulips. We would probably play pin the hat on Willy Wonka as well as some movie trivia from the old and new films. I would send them home with chocolate bars wrapped to look like Wonka Bars and a thank you note printed inside on a Golden Ticket. Hmmm…this sounds fun, I just may have to do it!
nushoesocks
I’m obsessed with the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor so I’ll plan my party around that. I’ll probably serve chocolate cake and coffee because my favorite character Zuzana constantly complains about not having any coffee or chocolate. But I suppose goulash would be a perfect dish to serve as well And as a game maybe we could draw chimaera?!? Create creatures just like the resurrectionists do. And as a party favor maybe I could hand out little ballerina-puppet keychains…? If you’ve read the book you would get it haha
dodibus
I organized this with my mother just now. We imagined a party linked to Breakfast at Tiffany, by truman Capote.
A brunch with croissant filled with salty filling (like butter and anchovies, ham and cream cheese, hummus and tomatoes) and a lot of Bellini.
Then a game: some balloons in a room and every one blindfolded, who let the balloon explode win a little prize that is inside the balloon. We think about fruity lipgloss.
As a favour a little (blue tiffany!) bag, with the Tiffany logo written on it. Inside a necklace of faux pearls, one turquoise cupcake and the original book of course!
Victoria Goldy-Rhodes
What book is your party themed around? The In Death series by J.D. Robb
What food will you serve? Hamburger sliders, pizza bites, Shells and meatballs, truffles, brownies, almonds
What’s your signature drink? Pepsi or wine
What games will you play? Clue, CSI video game
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Copies of Naked in Death and a crocheted bookmark
Gubbinal
GIven by Molly Bloom from James Joyce’s Ulysses
(note: this is not in the novel and I made it up)
Yes I said yes I would make poppy cake and invite the various denizens of Eccles Street for tea and celebration late this afternoon to celebrate the letter home from my daughter who is at camp and to celebrate the summer season not far to see from this day, the sixteenth of june and to celebrate his highness the cat who says Mkgrkrow when he is hungry and maybe he might like to taste a little bit of poppy cake and yes I know that Blazes Boylan will be right mad because I will have other people and I will read the letter from Milly yes and I will speak of my husband with warmth and gratitude yes and Blazes will boil yet and I will sing “Love’s Old Sweet Song” but will taunt him with it and I will show him not to fling Miss Douce in my face when I raise the teacup for Ireland’s best brew yes we will sing songs together and yes blazes will be jealous as blazes and yes the poppy cake will be sweet and the tea strong and when we play hide the salami blazes will blush and the cat will say Mkgragronw and yes everyone will laugh and drink more tea yes I say yes
Whitney
What book is your party themed around? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
What food will you serve? All things chocolate and candy, including any Wonka candy I can find in the US and of course Everlasting Gobstoppers
What’s your signature drink? Hot chocolate and tea served in tulip shaped tea cups
What games will you play? pin the hat on Willy Wonka and movie trivia from the old and new films
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Chocolate bars wrapped to look like Wonka Bars with a thank you note printed on a Golden Ticket
Willow Star Serenity Blog
https://willowsthoughtsandreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/plan-a-bookish-party-challenge/
Sarah S
Theme Neverwhere by Neail Gaiman
Food Roasted Cat(Chicken) Vegetable Curry
Signature Drink: Wine from Atlantis. The board games Labyrinth and The rat (mouse) trap
Games: Darts with the The Beast of London Below for the Target
Favors: a bag candy and granola bars with pigeon feather and a skeleton key decoration
Victoria Goldy-Rhodes
Looks like my original post got eaten!
What book is your party themed around? The In Death series by J.D. Robb
What food will you serve? Hamburger sliders, pizza bites, Shells and meatballs, truffles, brownies, almonds
What’s your signature drink? Pepsi or wine
What games will you play? Clue, CSI video game
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Copies of Naked in Death and a crocheted bookmark
Feel free to contact me at duskrider3740 at yahoo dot com
Kimberly Meyer
What book is your party themed around?
What food will you serve?
What’s your signature drink?
What games will you play?
What party favors will you send home with your guests?
I’m currently reading the autobiography of the Berenstain Bears authors, so I’m throwing a Berenstain Bears themed party since bears are on my mind 😉
I will serve bear claws (the pastry) and the signature drink would be Bear Juice Cocktail (Canadian Whiskey cranberry juice, peach schnapps and optional peach slices for garnish). We will play pin the tale on the Berenstain Bear and the party favors would be a Berenstain Bear book, naturally.
paula7574
I hosted a Harry Potter themed weekend for my mom and sister.
Menu items for the weekend included: Bangers and Mash, Treacle Tart, English Breakfast, Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, Welsh Rarebit and Pasties.
I made Butterbeer and served lots of tea.
We didn’t really play any games, I did have a “sorting hat” though, and we were each assigned a Hogwarts House, the rooms were decorated accordingly.
I had already crocheted scarves in the various house colors, so everyone got a scarf.
We hung out and watched all the movies, it was delightful.
spines in a line
Oh darn, someone beat me to Narnia! Well, I’d base my party off The Watcher by Margaret Buffie (local author!). I would serve a lot of sweet treats, all with honey as a main ingredient. Signature drink would be Bee’s Kiss, a cream-based rum drink with, you guessed it, honey! One game might be actual board games like chess and checkers since that’s close to what the characters play in the book. Another would be to try and create a crazy sculpture with random ‘garbage’, since the main character’s father is an artist. And a party favour would be some fun crystals, which start the whole mess in the book!
Tara Colaruotolo
What book is your party themed around? Alice and Her Adventures in Wonderland
What food will you serve? Tea cakes, casa Tina’s, tea sandwhiches and a different type of tea in several different tea pots
What’s your signature drink? Drink Me spiked ice tea
What games will you play? croquet, lawn chess,
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Mini top hat hair facinators , personalized marbled tea cups and a goodie bag of loose teas
The Wicked Bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/TheWickedBookworm/posts/1792372207644219
eemurch
Book: “The Regional Office is Under Attack!” by Manual Gonzales
Food: Potluck meal, with everyone bringing a dish they love
Drink: Gin & Tonic
Games: The Resistance from Indie Boards and Card Games
Favors: Invisible ink pens
mementomoriforest
What book is your party themed around?: “Andromeda Stories, Vol. 3″ by Keiko Takemiya & Ryu Mitsuse
What food will you serve?: Pomegranates, Grapes, Meat from Space Dragons.
What’s your signature drink?: A juice that looks like Space.
What games will you play?: There will be a lot of destroying of Machines, Hunting, & use of Telekinesis. (Which are all more necessities, than games, but that’s what you’d expect in this universe. Crisis stops for no party!)
What party favors will you send home with your guests?: Helpful, good Robots, and Motor Kites.
– Nicole Woods (nwoods@ucsd.edu)
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Oak fairy
My party is OBVIOUSLY centered around Harry Potter. We would eat chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott’s, drink Butterbeer, play Quidditch (off-topic: this is the first challenge I participate in this year because up ’till know I was in a Quidditch tournament!!!) and the favors would obviously be wands from Barnes and Nobles.
Sarah @ Reviews and Readathons
I planned my Wizard of Oz party over on my book. Though I’m realizing I made a tactical error in some of the details and made them more akin to the movie…I’m tired.
Here’s the link: https://reviewsreadathons.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/deweys-hour-11-challenge-plan-a-bookish-party/.
Whitney Werling (@MustReadSoon)
What book is your party themed around? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
What food will you serve? All things chocolate and candy, especially Wonka candy and Everlasting Gobstoppers
What’s your signature drink? hot chocolate and tea served in tulip shaped tea cups
What games will you play? pin the tail on Willy Wonka and movie trivia
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Chocolate bars wrapped in Wonka wrappers with Golden tickets inside as the thank you notes
Brian Fischer
What book is your party themed around?Ready Player One
What food will you serve?Pac Man pizza (one slice missing), Froot Loops and Quisp
What’s your signature drink?The Three Keys, a layered drink with Vodka, Creme de Menthe, and Kahlua (http://bit.ly/2etvjV1)
What games will you play?Any old atari games, or emulated arcade games
What party favors will you send home with your guests?Arcade Tokens, Star Wars pins from http://finegoodsmarket.com/, and a Lego Arcade with Instructions from Chris McVeigh – http://bit.ly/2dyIpKq
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Diana
What book is your party themed around? I would love to throw a Narnian themed party!
What food will you serve? of course turkish delight but also biscuits and scones with jam. also Shaved ice (because I obviously think I’m funny)
What’s your signature drink? Peppermint tea always seems to remind people of Narnia. But if I had to make a signature alcoholic drink I’d probably base it off the White Witch and make it all minty and blue.
What games will you play? I’d love to have an archery game (with sticky toy arrows of course haha)
What party favors will you send home with your guests? A Crown!
Ahavah
What book is your party themed around? — Ariel, by Sylvia Plath. I just finished this one!
What food will you serve? — Turkey and chicken necks. Honey-glazed.
What’s your signature drink? — I’ll call it ‘Smooth Sylvie’, made of whiskey, laudanum, and tears.
What games will you play? — Pin the poppy on the baloon. Drinking games.
What party favors will you send home with your guests? — Veils of diaphanous satins
Ahavah
balloon*
Rachael Vinzant
What book is your party themed around?
What food will you serve?
What’s your signature drink?
What games will you play?
What party favors will you send home with your guests?
My current book is Clockwork Prince. We would serve exoitic shadowhunter food made by the finest chefs. Our signature drink would be red wine. We would play spin the bottle and send our guest home at the end of the nights with steeles so they can be shadowhunters too.
Julie
I was coming up dry, so I posed the Bookish Party Mini Challenge to my family at dinner.
My husband’s idea was a Moby Dick Themed Party:
We would serve hardtack & bloody steaks
We would drink grog
We would play darts (with harpoons) and pin the harpoon on the whale
The guests would go home with a plushy white whale
My younger son’s idea was a Hobbit Party
We would serve midnight bacon and tomatoes
We would drink beer
We would play riddle games
The guests would go home with a precious ring
Thanks for a wonderful topic of conversation for a bookish family.
http://jlsbibliomania.booklikes.com/post/1486390/bookish-party-mini-challenge
julia kristinsson
I would hold a party themed around Narnia. Everyone would dress up as someone from the book. I would hold the party in a forest nearby, it’s a pretty nice place. It got a waterfall near a meadow where there is enough space for people and the servings.
I would most definitely serve something similar to the candy that the snow queen had. I’ve wanted to taste a similar candy from the first time i saw it in Narnia 😛 I would also serve her creamy white drink, maybe milk with creme and vanilla? And And than I would ask my friend to make a cake with a lion on it because she is really good at baking. And tea, of course. Plus other jummies.
We would probably have a game that is very popular in Iceland in parties (where I am from) called the packet game. I don’t know if it is plaid in other countries also. How it works is that something fx some toy, is wrapped many times up in newspaper. Than everyone sits in a circle and pass the packet to the person besides them. A music is playing and when it stops the person holding the package in that moment gets to try to rip off as many newspaper layers as they can to get to the toy. it goes on like that until someone finally rips off the last wrap of newspaper and that person wins the toy.
I will send everyone home with a crown. (probably just made of paper though 😛 )
Sarah Says Read
Ohhh fun!
What book is your party themed around? The Outlander series! My all-time fave 🙂
What food will you serve? Oyster stew, rabbit pie, and scones and biscuits.
What’s your signature drink? Probably just plain old wine, ale, and Scottish whiskey.
What games will you play? Hmmm… that’s a tough one. Maybe a card game like poker? Jamie cheats at cards all the time. Or maybe something else simple like dominoes or dice.
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Hmmmm… copies of the books? I tend to buy used copies to give away to people to read. Oh, or Outlander ornaments! The Author’s Attic sells those, they’re very cute.
And as a bonus piece of my party, I’d encourage everyone to dress appropriately, especially since Hot Topic now has an Outlander clothing line 😉
sarahmay227 (at) gmail (dot) com
Angie M
Find my party plan here – https://twitter.com/TheAccountant63/status/789975233851756544
Marylou@As the page turns
What book is your party themed around? easy: Harry Potter
What food will you serve? Honeydukes sweets mostly (i have a sweet tooth)
What’s your signature drink? Butterbeer
What games will you play? Quidditch?! and cluedo based on the harry potter universe (I actually own that board game)
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Every flavour beans!
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Jazmin Jade
Here is mine! http://wp.me/p3ftwe-Sj
Kristen
What book is your party themed around? Alice in Wonderland!
What food will you serve? Tea cakes, cucumber sandwiches
What’s your signature drink? Tea!
What games will you play? Card games!
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Chocolate roses!
Sammantha Harvey
Mines on my blog. I did a Percy Jackson party.
Michael
https://gothougeekly.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/deweys-24-hour-readathon-plan-a-bookish-party/
Kai Charles (@YogiKai)
Here is my link I picked the Disney storybook Beauty & The Beast
http://fictionstateofmind.blogspot.com/2016/10/24-hour-readathon-mini-challenges.html?spref=tw
JL's Bibliomania
2nd attempt to post since I don’t see my earlier comment
Moby Dick and The Hobbit party ideas posted to my blog
http://jlsbibliomania.booklikes.com/post/1486390/bookish-party-mini-challenge
kaitgoodwin
Here’s my entry!
Happy Reading! 🙂
Pirates And Pixie Dust
What book is your party themed around? A Darker Shade of Magic
What food will you serve? I think it’ll be less about the food itself, and more about the dinnerware. I’ll need four courses (maybe snacks, appetizers, entrees, and dessert) and serve them each on different colored plates – grey, red, white, and black
What’s your signature drink? I wanna say a bloody mary, but I’ve never had one 😛 Maybe water for the river that holds magic
What games will you play? I’d have to find a way to make the board with the four elements that Kell has. Is there an Avatar: the Last Airbender game? If so, I could use that and re-label it!
What party favors will you send home with your guests? Black rocks. And devil masks. Because Lila freaking Bard.