Pages

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 5, 2014

Quest inception headiness!


Pages read today: 198

 Today marked the first official day of our literary duel/quest.  For those reading buffs who may scoff at such a quest, thinking this is an insult to literature in some way, I hope to put your mind at ease a bit.
Ilya is the most intellectually driven reader I have ever known.  While he far surpasses me in reading speed, it is in no way at the expense of attention and/or retention.  Also, his books of choice have always been those of a far higher intellectual standard than mine.
This year will in no way be any different for him in this regard.  Clearly, as reflected by his first book choice!  
I, contrastingly, have almost always chosen to read lighter material with a few classics thrown in here and there.  This year, however, I'm hoping to actually expand my horizons in book choice and include more books of richer substance.  
There will be no speed reading, no choosing "easy books" or anything of the sort.  This truly is, at its core, about us both wanting to read more books this year, a resolution we have each had for several years, typically with very minimal success.  Our hope is that blogging our way through it with a competitive edge thrown in will simply serve as a means of holding us more accountable and possibly even provide some kind of outside motivation and cheerleading!  
All of that said, I dove into the challenge with Gone Girl, which had been coming up all over the place lately (I presume because it is set to be made into a movie in the near future).  So far it has me completely hooked.  It is extremely well-written, with the appropriate level of attention to detail that refrains from going to the point where you ask "what was even happening before this long description about the trees?"  It has rich, flawed characters you can't help but relate to in your own way (all of us human beings are flawed in some way(s)!).  Every chapter leaves me with the need to know what will happen next, and as such it's time to get away from the computer and back at it with the reading!
I'm including 2 pictures from this morning, one of Ilya and one of myself, each surrounded by our fur buddies, as we began on this quest.  I'm on the fence as to whether they help or hinder the project...especially when they're both laying with me snoring!  It sure does make me feel sleepy...
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)