We are a bookworm family. My kids and I love to read — a lot! We have outgrown storage shelves in the house. Where to put the books we continue to buy is becoming a space problem in itself. So when C1 decided to launch her very own project called 50Leaves, it did not surprise me and shows just how far her love of the written word has come.
I am reposting this from my girl’s blog, China Doll in the Philippines, and am the first to formally support her drive to get people reading again. C1’s personal drive is to get the love of reading back into people who have forgotten this joy. The aim is to read 50 books within 2009. Not textbooks or professional journals. Not just chapters of a book (as in assigned class readings). Not magazines. These should be non-academe or non-professional books. The kind you would get at a bookstore for leisurely reading.
In her blog, C1 explains the title of her project and why she decided to make it public:
So why 50Leaves? Basically, my personal aim is to read 50 books in a year. That’s about 4-5books a month. Seems like a hard task, but that’s part of the point. I chose leaves because leaves always remind me of books. It could have stemmed from the word “leafing through books”, but I’m not quite sure. People nowadays don’t like reading books. They’d much rather play video games or watch the boob tube for hours on end, which is sort of sad. Before all these modern technologies, people spent their time reading and expanding their vocabulary, indulging in classics or plays and such. Now, ask a person to read a book and most will ask you if it’s a requirement for school or not. People have lost the love of reading and the love of books. I’m hoping to bring that back for some.
Personally, I think 50 books in a year may be too much as i am now reading a book the thickness of Harry Potter. That alone is probably worth 2-3 books! But what the heck, it is not the quantity but the desire to read that is spurring me to support her worthwhile project. If kids in school can be taken out of internet cafes and computer gaming for part of their lives and to settle down reading noteworthy books, I believe we can raise the bar in terms of education and knowledge power.
We are still working on other mechanics but I encourage you to join this project. The goal is not merely reading 50 books by end-2009. The aim is to rediscover the joy of reading. Relish the journey more than the destination.
I have started a book list on my sidebar to remind me to keep going at reading. Unfortunately, I cannot post my Shelfari bookshelf here due to free WP limitations but you may be able to post yours. That would be a good start!
Here are the mechanics so far (as taken from her blog post):
How to join:
i. Leave a page/entry dedicated simply to this project. Entitle it 50Leaves. I shall leave a comment on your page if the project title will be changed.
ii. On that page/entry write down (in numerical form) A title of the book/s you are reading B author of the book you are reading C a vague idea of the date you finished the book (doesn’t need to be specific, could be just the month, or could be down to the exact date). If the book you are reading gets finished kindly put on bold the entire line. If the year ends and you haven’t finished the book, kindly cross it out/put it on strikethrough. (see examples below)
Ex.
1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (finished around April)
2. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
iii. Once you’ve written a page and followed at least A and B of the previous number, please don’t forget to link to this specific page on your blog (and entitle it as Project:50Leaves) and please don’t forget to leave a comment below with your name and link url to your 50Leaves blog entry/page. You’ll officially be part of Project:50Leaves once I’ve left a comment on your blog and added your name and 50Leaves page into the list of project members below.
iv. At the end of the year, leave a tally at the end of the list saying how many books you’ve finished. It would be easy to count since the books you’ve read will be in bold.
v. Extra bonus. If like me, you like to write reviews, you can choose to do so. Write your reviews on a separate blog entry then link to them via your 50Leaves list. Just please remember to keep your page neat and clean.
Thanks for joining in mom. 🙂