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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.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Such a productive reading day, even with working all day!

Pages read today: 217 (phew!), and Gone Girl is complete!

Gone Girl was one of the best books I have read in a good, long while.  So gripping that I crushed it in only 2 days, one of those days being a full work day!  I read far later than was probably wise last night, read as much as I could this morning between getting ready and heading to work, read more in the car on the way into work, read on both breaks and all of lunch, read more in the car on the way home... you get the point.  Every available opportunity was spent reading this book.  It's just that good.
Book 3 did crank up the crazy level of the characters by about a gazillion percent, and I'm not entirely sure yet how I feel about the ending (seriously...the crazy levels!), but the book as a whole was truly topnotch and I can't wait to check out some of Gillian Flynn's other works as well.
Next up for me, though, will be a re-reading of The Time Traveler's wife.  My sister-in-law and I were talking about movies over dinner on New Year's Eve.  I believe it started with a discussion about our favorite movies, and how I'm a weirdo who doesn't think Love Actually is one of the greatest romantic movies ever (maybe because of all the hype - every female ever told me it was the most amazing chick flick movie of all time) and then veered into a discussion about The Time Traveler's wife, which is by far one of my favorite love story movies.  Even though so much of the story is completely unromantic (I mean, he's constantly disappearing on her, leaving her feeling unfulfilled!), the underlying love story itself is so captivating.  Plus Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite current actresses to watch, so beautifully pulling the viewer into whatever emotion her character on screen is feeling.  Yes, this should be what acting in general is about, but many actors simply don't pull this off (IMO).  There's just something about her that really works and sucks me in every time.
Anyhow, I digress... so we were discussing the film and how my sister-in-law hadn't seen it but had heard the book was much better than the movie, and it hit me that I had no recollection about the book or how I had felt about it after reading it (I definitely did read it before though!  About 2 years ago, I think).  So it seems like a good time to re-read it and figure it out!
I'm looking forward to starting in on it tomorrow.   For now, I'm spent from the rollercoaster ride that was Gone Girl and am in need of some serious rest for my eyeballs!
(P.S. I'm totally crushing Ilya so far!)
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