The Great Book-Off of 08

It is my predicament that for centuries to come, descendants of the Bucknall family will forever view 2008 as the year of 'The Great Book-Off'. For you see a little war has been forged between the women of this household. And as with all battles waged by women - the stakes are high. Things are going to get nasty.

Pride and purse are on the line as Kristianne and I will compete to see who can read the most books this year. The prize - a much coveted $100 Amazon gift voucher - will be supplied by the loser, along with a video message admitting their defeat. The humiliating footage will then be displayed on the victor's blog as a trophy. A crown of sorts if you will.

As with any challenge, there are rules. So here they are:

Rule One: No buying more books until you've read the ones you've already purchased this year. Did you read this rule Kristianne?! NO MORE BUYING BOOKS TILL YOU'VE READ THE BOOKS YOU'VE ALREADY BOUGHT THIS YEAR INCLUDING BOOKS YOU TALKED ME INTO BUYING FOR YOU.

Rule Two: Books are classified as a written work between 400 and 800 pages in length. This means any novels under 400 pages count as a half and any novels over 800 pages will count as two.

Rule Three: The length of the competition will run from 1st January 08 to 31 December 08.

Rule Four: This competition will be conducted as a blog-off. Therefore, the reader MUST post a brief blog entry on the book for it to be counted in her tally. A running tally should be kept on the sidebar of the blog.

Rule Five: Any form of fiction is acceptable and non-fiction within reason (obviously cookbooks and magazines don't count.)

So that's it. There's the rules. Now some people might think it's unfair that I have already read SIX AND A HALF (three of my books are half size) books this year and Kristianne has only read two and a half. Some people might think that gives me a head start or even an unfair advantage but I have agreed that all the books that Kristianne has to read for Uni can be counted as part of her tally. Rest assured we have already argued this point contentiously (because neither of us like to lose). After much debate it was decided that the tally shall remain how it is on 6.5 and 2.5. It won't make a difference to me I'll beat by more than 4 books anyway. I suppose I could always let her count up the pages of all the books she's started and then got bored with, that would give her at least another 2 books to her tally!

It's war.

Check out Kristiann'e blog at http://thisisnotmynovel.blogspot.com/