Sunday, June 28, 2009

Dueling Books

Usually slapping a leather glove (or bookmark) in someone's face means pistols at dawn. In this case, it means books at dawn, on July 1. The books that I'll have read, more than my esteemed co-worker has. She is going to lose. Big time. My Irish is up, and so is my competitive streak. No way am I going to lose.

Last year I took the 50 Book Challenge one further and decided to try for 100 books. When I heard my co-worker talking about her goal this year, the challenge was set. We might talk about winning pizza or cake, but what's really at stake is bragging rights. The truth is, it's been fun. I've always loved reading, but through this challenge I've discovered a new dimension to it. Yes, I want to win the contest, but I also want to read more than I have in a while. I suspect she does, too. The winner might walk away with the prize in a few days, but we've both already won something. We've won renewed joy in books.

That being said, this is still very much a contest. Since I see how many books she takes out I sometimes panic: can she possibly read as fast as I can? Or is she spinning a web to confuse me? I'll have to ferret out the answer to that question.

One thing is not in doubt, though. Come Wednesday, I'll be eating chocolate cake!

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