As has become an annual tradition, readers from all over Hall County are preparing to stay up all night to help stamp out illiteracy.

Beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, the Hall Book Exchange at 1854 Thompson Bridge Road, Gainesville, will host the fourth annual 24-hour read-a-thon.

The event is a fundraiser for the Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy, an organization that provides educational opportunities to more than 2,000 people annually.

The marathon reading event will conclude at 5 p.m. Saturday.

In addition to folks reading around the clock, the event will be peppered with a variety of actives, including author visits, book discussions and even a wake-up workout.

Author Braxton Cosby, nephew of Bill Cosby, will be the first to share his work. At 6 p.m. Friday, he will be available to sign copies of his first book, "Protostar." The young adult fiction book is appropriate for children ages 12 and up.

Rachel Glazer will follow Cosby at 7 p.m. with a children’s bedtime story. In addition to reading a story to younger attendees, she will also present her dramatization of "Martina, A Beautiful Cockroach," a Cuban folktale written by children’s author Carmen Agra Deedy.

Free refreshments will be available throughout the read-a-thon.

If you are interested in participating, call the book exchange in advance to reserve a time slot.

In addition to the smaller door prizes, two grand prizes will be awarded at the conclusion of the event — one for the person who reads the longest and one for the person who raises the most money.