The Challenge

We're all busy. That goes without saying. But sometimes our lives are so busy we lose time for what's important, sharing our lives with family, keeping up with friends, watching the Amazing Race when it's new, and most often- books. So the brilliant Kelli came up with a solution to all of those problems (well, except the Amazing Race issue)- the 100x4 challenge. We will read 100 books from the 20th century by the end of the year 2014. The list (chosen by Kelli for whatever reasons she has not disclosed to me) can be found here: http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/radcliffes-rival-100-best-novels-list/.


At first, I thought this challenge would be easy. I can read a translated 300 page novel from the 19th century in about eight hours. An English language 200 page book from the 20th century? Less than four. The problem is that to read 100 books in four years, I have to read twenty five books a year. That averages out to about a book every two weeks. That means that every two weeks I need to find four hours where I won't be reading law books, outlining for finals, trying to find a job, eating, sleeping, working out, talking to my grandparents, or watching the West Wing. Obviously, this challenge is going to be a lot harder than I thought when I agreed to participate. As a competitive person who loves reading, I think I can do it. I think we all can. And so, it begins!


Totals as of October 1st which is approximately when we began:
Lynn (who has an advantage because she's been reading a bit longer than us): 40
Marie (who was an English major): 27
Caitlin (who didn't have friends in middle school): 22
Kelli (who has a lot of work ahead of her): 21