Reading challenge 2011.

Though I don't relish the idea of yet another social media site to keep up with, I do love the idea of GoodReads. I also love that it roused a competitive streak in my family when we discovered the "stats" feature, a button that creates a bar graph of how many books/pages a given member read in a given year.

For example, during dinner last week, I mentioned that my dad was definitely going to win the reading challenge because he's reads quickly and often. Mom piped up by suggesting that she'd be the sleeper winner because she reads all the time even though Dad gets all the credit. The race is on.

Only a day after I listed my GoodReads Book Challenge as fifty books for 2011, my dad logged on and listed his goal as fifty-one. I hope he knows this isn't The Price is Right.

I'm currently on target, having read two-almost-three (both rather short, but one a classic). I have a proclivity for novels, especially novels set in far away lands or times -- not so much fantasy or sci-fi, but things like Wuthering Heights or historical fiction. This year I should probably try to branch out and read more non-fiction, but I can't help it. I love storytelling.

Do you have any reading goals? Is that a silly thing to get competitive about? Really, for me, I think it just makes me aware of how easy it is go to a month without having read anything. And then months ... and then, well, I just don't feel human anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to set a short-term goal. If I've read 6 books by February 14, I get a pizza party. Who's in?

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