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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.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

"I worried all day about pants for the man cause he seemed like he really wanted pants" - Clare, The Time Traveler's Wife

Pages read today: 107 for Meredith, 29 for Ilya

In Ilya's defense, he has an interview at work tomorrow for a higher-up position, so his free time over the last couple of days has been almost entirely devoted to prep work for said interview.  Fingers crossed he will get the position!  I have complete faith in him, of course, but fingers crossed never hurt. 

Overtime has started back up at my work as well, so it will be interesting to see how I can balance my time and still fit in reading.  Today, even with a couple hours of overtime at home tonight and watching the latest episode of Bob's Burgers on Hulu, I was able to fit in a good amount of time to read.  FYI, for anyone who hasn't seen Bob's Burgers, you should check it out.  It's absolutely hilarious!  It's one of those shows that is difficult to explain to someone, but just trust me and at least check out one episode!  The first 2 seasons are on Netflix Instant.  Do it!

 I have been trying to read The Time Traveler's Wife and take it in on its own, as a completely separate thing from the movie (basically attempting to not compare the book and the movie constantly as I'm reading).  This is proving to be quite challenging for me.  It's a problem I have always had with book movies and it goes both ways (if I read the book first, then while watching the movie my mind is comparing it to the book and vice versa).  For the most part, though, I do think this go around is going better in that respect, as I am really focusing on appreciating the book in and of itself.  The only major difference I have noticed is more of a general underlying theme difference.  The movie focuses its attention almost entirely on the love story element, which is understandable for a movie to do and which I am fine with (as previously stated, it is one of my favorite love story movies).  The book certainly has the love story in there, and in many ways it is even better developed (fairly common difference between books and their movie counterparts), but the book also explores pretty deeply the question of free will and the extent to which we have it.  The existential question as to the extent to which we have free will as well as the question of how our perception of the extent to which we have free will affects our actions are questions that have always interested me, so I'm finding this theme to be what I am enjoying the most so far.

 It's not just a chick flick/romance novel, people!
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