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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.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Lay on, MacDuff

Pages read today: 233 for Meredith, 19 for Ilya

It's not about the quantity of reading, it's about the quality of reading.

 ...on which dubious point I would still lose, as you will all see once I finish Lord Jim and have to post my so-called "thoughts."

 But really, the type is so small, and the plot so diffuse, and Meredith's book has much larger type and lavish illustrations and such profuse amounts of marginal and interlinear space and whine whine whine cheese whine.

It's no Heart of Darkness, of that I'm sure. If I only could fathom the depths of "how and why," then this won't all be for naught.

I will finish with a song and no dance:

There once was a girl who loved reading,
In this contest she was certainly leading,
     She read many a book,
     (Not all on her Nook,)
Way more than her husband, no keeding.

 (I had to cheat the rhyme a little. Apologies to all.)
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