A new challenge

Hanging on the bulletin board in my office is a now-yellowing copy of the Globe and Mail's 100 books to read (The Globe 100), published on November 28, 2009. It caused much discussion in our office and one of my coworkers thought maybe she'd try to read 100 books this year. Not necessarily that 100, but 100.

That's almost two books a week. You can have four weeks off where you only have to read one book.

I've been pondering her challenge to herself (I do know that she's postponed the challenge as there have been some other, more pressing challenges in her life the last few months) and wondering if I could do it. I KNOW I can't read 2 books a week. I have a toddler. Okay, scratch that, the other day we read about 50 books, some of them multiple times, but toddler books just don't seem to make the cut in my challenge to myself.

I've also been missing my book club. It was fun until it gradually disovled as we all became busier and busier and had less time to read and meet. Those ladies are some great friends!

So I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and I'm going to try to read one book in a calendar month until the end of December. If that goes well, I'm going to try two books in a calendar month. Ideally I'd like to be at 52 books in the year, but not forcing myself to read one book a week. Quite honestly I know there will be weeks where I won't even pick up a book and other weeks where I plow through a couple.

So, I've started another site over there. Just for The Great Book Challenge.

And I've set myself a few rules:

1. If I cannot, absolutely bring myself to finish a book, I will not. I tend to torture myself and force myself to finish books even when they're not keeping my interest and I'm not enjoying them. I'm not going to do that for this challenge.


2. If I don't finish a book, I will still blog about it. Then I will attempt to read another book in that same, now truncated, month.


3. I will try to read books from all kinds of genres, not just fiction or memoirs or toddler books...


4. I will welcome suggestions from other readers. Actually, I always welcome suggestions from other readers. Please, suggest away!


5. For the purpose of this challenge, for a book to count as the book of the month, it MUST NOT be a book I have already read


6. If you have anything to add to what I write about a book or if you have a completely different opinion, leave a comment. Please...I want to hear about what you have to say (and I miss my book club!)


7. If you want to join me, please do! Click on the join tab for more information. Just because you've joined the challenge doesn't mean you have to post anything or read the same book as me.


8. I am going to only read "free" books. So borrowed, library, gifts, gift card purchases or books that already exist in my bookcases. If you decide to join, you do NOT HAVE to adhere to this rule. It's optional. I'm still on a book diet...hence the free book thing.
   

So, please, go visit me over there and see if I manage to accomplish this new challenge. Before I start it though, I guess I should finish the rejigging of this site. Sigh...multitasking only works when you don't get distracted while doing it. Actually, maybe multitasking is just another way to say distracted.