Challenge Accepted

A friend shared with me a cool idea she heard about - a challenge for the New Year. She gave me the URL so I could check it out for myself. It's called "The 50/50 Challenge" (http://www.fiftyfifty.me/). The idea is to challenge yourself to read 50 books and see 50 movies - all within the calendar year of 2012. Reading and movies - two of my most favorite things!

I accept!

Today I started making a list of the movies I want to see and the books I want to read. There aren't really any rules - according to the challenge website - but I decided that it wouldn't be much of a "challenge" unless I imposed one rule upon myself: These must be new (to me) books and movies. No repeats. I figure this will also help me broaden my cinematic and literary horizons.

My plan is to bring my family along on this journey - at least the part about 50 movies - (I'll leave it up to them to determine what, if any, books they read during the coming year) in an attempt to bring a bit of culture and adventure into our lives. I'm sure a little popcorn and soda will grease the wheels a bit if I meet any resistance. As I am the only female currently in residence the genre of these films may come into question from time-to-time...I may have to bow to more manly themes...maybe...once in a (long) while.

When I look at my book list I have feel a twinge of concern about my ability to read "that many" books in the space of 12 months. If I stick to the fluff and mushiness that only takes a few days to get through it will be super simple...but I get the feeling this challenge is not about quantity but quality. Therefore, I will try to read selections from the NYT best seller list as well as my beloved "romance novels" this year.

No matter what the final outcome I think this challenge will be one that pushes the edges of my personal envelope and introduces me to some ideas that I might otherwise not encounter. I look forward to beginning the moment I awake...ok, maybe not THE moment I awake as I will mostly like require medicinal ministrations at that precise moment...but, you get the idea...on the first day of 2012!