My Winter Reading Challenge

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that my esteemed colleague (aka our Teen Librarian) has vowed to read 30 books between now and March 3.  Now, that’s a pretty hefty task for someone like me who falls asleep at 8 o’clock, so I’ve created my own list of possible challenges.  (This year’s Winter Reading is totally self-directed.   I can read what I want, when I want, according to goals I’ve set.)  So, for the record (and the smackboard), here's what I'm considering.

1. Read a novel set in an exotic place I’ll probably never visit, like Australia or Argentina or Brooklyn.

2. Read the book my husband’s reading and discuss it with him, preferably over wine at a nice restaurant.

3. Reread a book I hated in high school and see whether I like it now.  (The Red Badge of Courage leaps to mind.)

4. Read the 30-page “Quick Start Guide” for my new CL2940 Big button/big display telephone with speakerphone/caller ID/call waiting.

5. Read a poem or a funny story out loud to someone very young or very old.

6. Be wild and crazy and pick something entirely at random, eyes closed, strolling down a bookshelf until my finger stops on a particular book.   (I actually know someone who did this, and she liked it.)

7. Every day, select an interesting news story, journal article or blog post and read it . . . slowly . . . carefully . . . to the very end.

8. Read sitting up.

9. Read my daughter’s blog, and here comes the challenge, try not worry that she’s half the world away, living next to a lake where, according to a Blu-ray DVD called The Great Rift, huge clouds of midges (more midges per cloud than there are people on earth) materialize at the beginning of each new moon.

10. Join the local chapter of the Unbroken Spine.   If you’ve read Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four Hour Bookstore, you’ll know what I mean, if you haven’t read Mr. Penumbra, check it out!

OK, now it’s YOUR turn.  What will you read?  Stop by the Reference Desk in Teen & Adult Services, and pick up a Winter Reading Challenge Sheet.