Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy 2011! Reading Challenges and New Years Resolutions

I've made it back to Boston from the NYC/NJ area so this means my holiday vacation is officially over.  How sad.  I had a great time seeing family, meeting up with friends and doing nothing more strenuous than reading or playing on my computer.  It was wonderful and getting back into the work swing of things is going to be difficult but I'm sure I'll manage through it.

This is usually the time of year for New Years resolutions.  The normal "I'll exercise more/learn a new language/eat better/make myself a better person/blah blah blah" promises that are usually broken after a month. As is probably clear, I'm cynical towards the tradition and don't usually make my own resolutions.  I figure if I'm going to do one of these self-bettering things I shouldn't be waiting for a new year and I don't need to make a grand gesture of it; I should just do it.  I guess that's my way of rationalizing it anyway.  I also know that whenever I feel like I'm being made to do something I'll do the opposite.  I can be annoyingly stubborn like that.  Likewise I've had the same reaction to reading challenges.  There are so many and some of them look fun but I have this feeling if I were to sign up for one I'd never actually read the books, even if they were books I wanted to read anyway, because I was being told I had to read them.

I know lots of people take part in these reading challenges, so can someone tell me why you sign up for a challenge?  Are there certain challenges you always sign up for or are there other types you'd never sign up for?  Are there challenges you thought you'd hate and in the end were really glad you participated in?