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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.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Oh happy day

Pages read today: 149 for Meredith, 60 for Ilya



Today marked the 4 year anniversary of our first date.  To mark this occasion in some way, I'm including
some semi-blast-from-the-past photos of us in the earlier stages of the relationship.


 In the reverse of the stereotypes, he had a card for me this morning (handmade, even!) whereas I was empty handed.  It's not that I was unaware of the date of our first-date-aversary, but I guess I just figured since we're married now we wouldn't be doing anything.  Ultimately I recovered and made him a card of my own and had a day full of reminiscing about our first date, the formation of our relationship overall and how much I love my husband.  Take that, stressful work day!  There was no way to drag me down!

Add into that the fact that I completed Winter's Bone, putting me at 4 completed entries for the duel, and it has been a pretty great day!  As for my thoughts on the novel... it wasn't love, but wasn't hate either.  I certainly wanted to love the book, after reading all the rave reviews.  In actuality, it just felt like too much - too much description, really.  I have never been a fan of over-the-top usage of description as a means to place the reader "in" the story, and that is exactly what Winter's Bone does (IMO).  It feels like there is very little actually happening at any given moment, with a whole lot of description as to the scenery, the clothes people are wearing, the weather, etc.  This is not to say the writing was bad; the writing, including the descriptive parts (being most of the book) was powerful and effective in its own right, just not in the way that pulled me in to where I felt truly "in it" (and to me, feeling "in it" is important for my overall experience of a novel like this).  The story itself was quite riveting, though, even when looked at from more of a removed stance, and the main character (Ree) was a strong female lead, which was refreshing.  She wasn't simply strong as in the ability to harden herself to situations she faced, which is often how "strong" females in books and films can come across these days. 


 I would not add it to my favorites and most likely will not read it again, but am glad that I did read it.  If nothing else, it reminded me how good I have (and have always had) it living in the suburbs and caused me to reflect on and appreciate the life that I have. 

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