One of the things I have not done enough of since moving to Ouaga is read. Volunteers spend a lot of time reading - since you may only be able to charge your computer a few times a month if you do not have electricity in your village, computer time is precious and not to be wasted. So your only real refuge when village life gets frustrating is in books. Living in the capital city, this is no longer the case. There are any number of distractions, and time to sit down and relax with a good book becomes scarce. Among my new year's resolutions for 2012 is to read more, while browsing around Oprah's website today I came across links to two challenges that would be perfect for meeting this goal. Challenge N° 1: The 50/50 Challenge
Read 50 books and watch 50 movies in the year. Any books, any movies. This translates to roughly 1 book and 1 movie per week.
Check out this blog post, where a bookworm realizes the importance of the movie half of the challenge.
There are different theme lists on the website, complete with ideas of titles if you'd like to focus you're reading efforts. Here's an example of a passport-themed list that one participant put together.
Challenge N°2: Around the World in 80 Books
This challenge officially started on October 1st, but it's not too late to get started.
The idea is to read books that take place in 80 different countries in the world. You have to hit each eight geographical regions of the world (North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania/Australia), and Antarctica is optional. The essential part is the setting of the book, not the nationality of the author, and if the book touches multiple countries, you can only count one of them.
I haven't decided which challenge I'm going to take up. I think I may go for option 1, though, since acquiring books from 80 different countries may be a bit hard to come by in Burkina, even in Ouaga.
Check them the reading challenges, curl up in your favorite spot and join in the fun! Along the way keep a journal to keep track of your reading experiences; invite friends to join you in the challenges and have regular get-togethers to talk about books; start a blog - make 2012 a year to expand your mind and challenge yourself! And look for regular updates here as I go get going on my reading journey.
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