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Terms of the Duel

New-Year's resolutions have a pronounced and infamous tendency to fall by the wayside by, say, the 1st of February. Perhaps, however, that is because they are resolved upon, adhered to, and discarded, by solitary individuals. Perhaps what's needed is some good old-fashioned competitive spirit.

The participants:

  1. Ilya Gandelman - desk jockey from 9-5:30, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, writing, reading, watching tv/movies (very selective in this area!), eating Meredith's delicious food, playing with Gizmo, spending time with family and friends.
  2. Meredith Gandelman - also a desk jockey, from 9-6, Monday thru Friday. Free time activities include, but are not limited to, reading, watching tv/movies, cooking/baking for Ilya (and others), snuggling/playing with Gizmo and spending time with family and friends.

The resolutions:

  1. To read more books
  2. To watch less television
  3. To spend less money (by reading library books, and by making our way through unread volumes gathering dust on the shelves)
  4. To spend more quality time together with a shared interest

Therefore, the challenge proposed: who can read the most books in a year? On one side the wife, on the other the husband: who'll get the most volumes under her or his belt before 2015?

The rules:

  1. Books will be chosen independently. Any genre or subject is eligible.
  2. No second thoughts once starting a book. An uncompleted book is not counted, except of course as time lost. We shall have to choose carefully; and if a book seems to be disappointing, best to soldier on through to the end!
  3. A 300-page minimum. However, books briefer than 300 pages may be combined with others to count as one entry in the Duel.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Driven to distraction in a vehicle made of instant streaming video

Pages read today: 124 for Meredith, 92 for Ilya

It can be difficult to be a reading machine when one suddenly discovers that seminal movies of one's adolescence such as Star Trek: First Contact are on Netflix Instant; but despite the lure of this gross temptation I have reached and surmounted the midpoint of Karamazov. I seem to have adapted to the peculiar mix of philosophy and emotionalism which forms the style of the novel; or perhaps (again) the previously uneasy mixture has simply congealed (for lack of a better word) into a more solid and, uh, I don't know, easily digestible (?) substance. What a peculiar metaphor.

 And now the weekend is over, and tomorrow it's back to work and the consequent dearth of reading time. Meredith, who estimates that tomorrow she will complete The Lovely Bones and then move on to book #4, whatever that may be, is kicking my booty so very very hard. Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the downfall of once-prodigious bookworms...
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