50 Book Challenge
Followed a link through at 
maedbh7's journal last week to a LJ community called "50 Book Challenge". I found the posts interesting enough that I decided to join the community.
I love to read and I read a lot, but I've noticed more and more over the last several years that I'm not reading nearly as many books as I used to. There are so many other literary sources that tend to distract me from novels these days. I read "The Toronto Star" everyday. I subscribe to two weekly and two monthly magasines, not counting the magasines I buy off the shelf each month. I read steady amounts of fan fiction, message boards and assorted webpages on-line. Add to that the educational materials I read to keep updated in the classroom and a 9 to 5 job that includes a fair amount of marking and it's come to limit the time I spend simply sitting back with a good book.
I don't think that's good and there's been plenty a time I've looked at the shelf of "to be read" books here in my office and felt that I should be, well, -reading- them. I have a bad habit of buying books that end up shelved and never read. Every time I go into a book store, which is a lot, John gives me a hard time about all the books I've already bought that are still unread. "But I -will- read this one." I insist. He just looks at me dubiously. I have plenty of friends and family who read several books a month and I'd like to start to re-budget my reading schedule to spend more time with books again, too.
What's fun about the "50 Book Challenge" is that the people signed into the community have pledged to read at least fifty books during 2004. As they read their books they catalogue them in the community and give brief reviews. The posts are interesting to read, whether I've read the books or not, and do spark ideas on my reading list.
Now I know fifty is a ridiculously small number of books to read in a year, but I fear if I actually read fifty novels this year that I've never read before (I'm a big fan of re-reading favorite novels) it will actually be an improvement on the last couple of years. So I'm going to start to catalogue each new novel I read over in that community. I'll be curious to see how long it will take me to read those fifty books. I don't intend to count re-reads or anything besides actual hard-cover and paperback books that I'm reading for the first time.
And I just read the last page of John Grisham's "The Firm", so I'm at #1 on my list :).
QUESTION:
So, what are your reading habits like? Do you prefer to read books, newspapers, magasines, graphic novels, on-line? Are you more likely to read fiction or non-fiction books? How many books do you average in a typical month? Do you buy most of your books or borrow them from the library?
maedbh7's journal last week to a LJ community called "50 Book Challenge". I found the posts interesting enough that I decided to join the community.I love to read and I read a lot, but I've noticed more and more over the last several years that I'm not reading nearly as many books as I used to. There are so many other literary sources that tend to distract me from novels these days. I read "The Toronto Star" everyday. I subscribe to two weekly and two monthly magasines, not counting the magasines I buy off the shelf each month. I read steady amounts of fan fiction, message boards and assorted webpages on-line. Add to that the educational materials I read to keep updated in the classroom and a 9 to 5 job that includes a fair amount of marking and it's come to limit the time I spend simply sitting back with a good book.
I don't think that's good and there's been plenty a time I've looked at the shelf of "to be read" books here in my office and felt that I should be, well, -reading- them. I have a bad habit of buying books that end up shelved and never read. Every time I go into a book store, which is a lot, John gives me a hard time about all the books I've already bought that are still unread. "But I -will- read this one." I insist. He just looks at me dubiously. I have plenty of friends and family who read several books a month and I'd like to start to re-budget my reading schedule to spend more time with books again, too.
What's fun about the "50 Book Challenge" is that the people signed into the community have pledged to read at least fifty books during 2004. As they read their books they catalogue them in the community and give brief reviews. The posts are interesting to read, whether I've read the books or not, and do spark ideas on my reading list.
Now I know fifty is a ridiculously small number of books to read in a year, but I fear if I actually read fifty novels this year that I've never read before (I'm a big fan of re-reading favorite novels) it will actually be an improvement on the last couple of years. So I'm going to start to catalogue each new novel I read over in that community. I'll be curious to see how long it will take me to read those fifty books. I don't intend to count re-reads or anything besides actual hard-cover and paperback books that I'm reading for the first time.
And I just read the last page of John Grisham's "The Firm", so I'm at #1 on my list :).
QUESTION:
So, what are your reading habits like? Do you prefer to read books, newspapers, magasines, graphic novels, on-line? Are you more likely to read fiction or non-fiction books? How many books do you average in a typical month? Do you buy most of your books or borrow them from the library?