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Monday, May 2, 2011

BOOK IT!

Did any of you participate in Book It as kids? Chris and I definitely did!

For those of you that didn't participate in Book It - and I know you are out there - here is how it works: your K-6 teacher enrolls in the program, he/she sets some sort of reading goal for the students (for us, it was to read 5-6 book), and once the goal is completed, the teacher gives the student a coupon to Pizza Hut (we got a FREE Personal Pan Pizza).
Old school Book It! Pin (doobybrain.com)
Whenever we completed one of our books, we got a sticker to put on the stars of these Book It pins. I know that I *secretly* loved showing off my pin full of stickers. And, I swear, Danielle and I still have our old Book It pins lying around somewhere in our her room at our parents' house! The best part was the free personal pizza with the topping of my choice - most likely bacon. And, while I enjoyed collecting the stickers and pins and picking out my own topping of my own pizza, I bet my parents loved Book It even more than us kids because for them it meant a family dinner out, without having to pay to feed us! Win, win situation for all. Let's hope Book It is still around when we decide to have kids . . .

Anyway, on to the point of this post... Chris and I, missing those personal pan pizzas, decided to create our own Book It program, for adults. It all started when Chris realized that I had not read many "classic" and "great" books, such as 1984 and the Lords of the Rings Trilogy, and, that despite his constant haranguing, I still did not read them. (Not only did I not have time to start reading a book like Don Quixote, but I was stubborn and refused to start reading LOTR when Chris had not read Harry Potter.)

So, we decided that we would each read 10 of the other person's favorite books (that we had not already read), and, after we each completed the 10, we would reward ourselves with Personal Pan pizzas from Pizza Hut! Hence, our Book It program, for adults!

Chris' Favorite Books that I have to read:
1. 1984, George Orwell
2. Animal Farm, George Orwell
3. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
5-7. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
8. Candide, Voltaire
9. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
10. Dr. Faustus (David Mamet) Doctor Faustus (Thomas Mann), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), OR, The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
  
My Favorite Books that Chris has to read:
1-7. Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
8. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
9. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
10. Emma OR Mansfield Park, Jane Austen

In reality, we have actually already started this "contest." Chris has finished up the Harry Potter books (just in time for the final movie in July!), and I have read 3 of his books (Since, I have been busy finishing up this semester's classes). Right now, Chris is struggling through Tolstoy, while I am contemplating when to tackle Don Quixote . . . But, soon enough our brains will be full of new books and we'll be enjoying that sweet sweet pizza!

Any thoughts on our book choices? Anyone else have crazy awesome memories of Book It? Or, do you have no idea what I'm talking about?!

7 comments:

  1. This is adorable.

    But I CANNOT believe you wasted 7 choices on Harry Potter.

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  2. I agree with Danielle, I can't believe you used up 7 for Harry Potter books....and since he isnt a 2nd masters student, he should have to read all of those as 1 and you should get 6 more choices. Also, he gets the benefit of many of your choices being movies, so he gets to see them after the fact.

    I can't believe some of the ones you havent read, that is like high school english! Ok- so some I didnt read, but I atleast wrote papers on them based off the cliff notes and awesome skimming skills :)

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  3. Danielle & Kelsey - I would've never have gotten Chris to read the 7 Harry Potters without this challenge (and I wasn't going to read LOTR without him reading HP)! And, thanks to Gone with the Wind and Anna Karenina, Chris is actually reading more *pages* than I am.

    Kelsey - I don't know how I missed those other books in HS english... probably because I spent an entire semester one year reading just Hawthorne! And, we seemed to read a lot of plays...

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  4. Ok I was about to get really excited because I freakin looooved Book It...and I thought there was really a program for adults now, haha.

    But this idea is awesome for you guys!!

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  5. To everyone -- First of all, It's not "Dr. Faustus" by Mamet ... that's a play! Who doesn't know that David Mamet is a playwright and Oscar-nominated director?!! It's Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus", a metaphorical tale of post-WWI Germany selling it's soul to the Devil.

    Secondly, I have to read roughly 30% more words than she does (yeah, I googled the word count of every book we're reading).

    Thirdly, Kelsey ... I may not be a 2nd master's student, but I am a PhD student, so that's gotta count four something. And nobody said Kristin wouldn't be given the chance to watch all 11 hours of LotR (in one sitting), or the gritty rendition of 1984 with John Hurt.

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  6. I LOVE this idea! I never did Book It, but my public library always had a summer reading program and you could win prizes and stuff from that. I think it is an awesome idea to share your favorite books with each other!

    I know I set a personal yearly goal for books for myself, using goodreads.com as my way to keep track of what I'm reading/what I want to read. I'm pretty far behind, but I'm having fun making myself read all the books I've been meaning to for a long time.

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  7. Kara, thanks for sharing goodreads.com, I'm checking it out right now because I do have a loooong list of books to read!

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