Holy Week Challenge
Like the Christmas (bah!) season, Holy Week in the Philippines is a time of extended break. Almost all schools and offices are closed during these times, along with many government agencies. In this predominantly Roman Catholic country, I find it worth noting that the calendar dates that mark the birth, death, and resurrection of the Christian deity, Jesus Christ, also coincide with the peak rates and occupancies of beach and mountain resorts. ;-P
So, here's a challenge for the coming Holy Week: Come Easter Sunday, I challenge visitors of this blog to have finished reading one novel. Just one. That's not much, right? Unless it's as thick and as wide as a phone book, most novels can be read in a week of no school or work, probably less. The more avid readers among you can raise the number to two, or even three novels. If you're not in the mood to read a novel, then I offer an alternative: Read between 16-20 short stories. A mid-length anthology contains around that many stories. Go for double the number if you can. There's no excuse for not reading short stories in case you don't have a novel on hand, flimsy as that excuse seems to me (Go to your nearest bookstore! Even a secondhand one!). Many ezines offer their tales for free, and they're not hard to find. Even short stories by local authors aren't hard to find on the web (in fact, if you want to up the challenge, make a good number of the short stories you will read be by Filipino or other Asian authors).
Wherever you will be, whatever you will be doing, whether you'll be up a mountain or by the shore, attending religious services or not, or just bumming in what will surely be a quiet and tranquil Metro Manila, I'm sure you can spare half-an-hour a day reading. Do it first thing in the morning, or do it in bed before going to sleep, or do it anytime inbetween. Let's check the math: Half-an-hour is a fair enough time to finish a couple of short stories. At the end of the week, you would have read about 14 tales. So all you'll have to do is find an extra half-hour during this week away from school and work to read an extra two stories. Tada! 16 stories read, the minimum I'm asking.
Now here's a further challenge: Make a relative or friend join you in reading a book, too. Heck, bring more than one person along for the ride. Of course, the goal is for you and those you know to continue reading even after Holy Week is over.
In the interest of full disclosure, I plan to read the anthology A Time For Dragons, and a mystery, Valley Of The Shadow by Peter Tremayne. I may even get to a third book, one which I haven't decided on yet. (It being Holy Week, the chances are also big that I will end up watching Monty Python's Life Of Brian ;-P).
Drop a comment here to let everyone know what you plan to read! I'm sure that by Easter, you would have found the time with your nose in a book well spent.
So, here's a challenge for the coming Holy Week: Come Easter Sunday, I challenge visitors of this blog to have finished reading one novel. Just one. That's not much, right? Unless it's as thick and as wide as a phone book, most novels can be read in a week of no school or work, probably less. The more avid readers among you can raise the number to two, or even three novels. If you're not in the mood to read a novel, then I offer an alternative: Read between 16-20 short stories. A mid-length anthology contains around that many stories. Go for double the number if you can. There's no excuse for not reading short stories in case you don't have a novel on hand, flimsy as that excuse seems to me (Go to your nearest bookstore! Even a secondhand one!). Many ezines offer their tales for free, and they're not hard to find. Even short stories by local authors aren't hard to find on the web (in fact, if you want to up the challenge, make a good number of the short stories you will read be by Filipino or other Asian authors).
Wherever you will be, whatever you will be doing, whether you'll be up a mountain or by the shore, attending religious services or not, or just bumming in what will surely be a quiet and tranquil Metro Manila, I'm sure you can spare half-an-hour a day reading. Do it first thing in the morning, or do it in bed before going to sleep, or do it anytime inbetween. Let's check the math: Half-an-hour is a fair enough time to finish a couple of short stories. At the end of the week, you would have read about 14 tales. So all you'll have to do is find an extra half-hour during this week away from school and work to read an extra two stories. Tada! 16 stories read, the minimum I'm asking.
Now here's a further challenge: Make a relative or friend join you in reading a book, too. Heck, bring more than one person along for the ride. Of course, the goal is for you and those you know to continue reading even after Holy Week is over.
In the interest of full disclosure, I plan to read the anthology A Time For Dragons, and a mystery, Valley Of The Shadow by Peter Tremayne. I may even get to a third book, one which I haven't decided on yet. (It being Holy Week, the chances are also big that I will end up watching Monty Python's Life Of Brian ;-P).
Drop a comment here to let everyone know what you plan to read! I'm sure that by Easter, you would have found the time with your nose in a book well spent.
posted by pgenrestories at 10:40 AM
3 Comments:
I know this may be out of topic but when is the horror edition of the PGS coming out? thank you!
@anonymous: I truly apologize for the delay. It's actually ready, but my backers won't let me release till some issues regarding previous issues are resolved. I expect that soon, especially since Holy Week is nearly over. I will make the announcement very soon. Thanks!
thanks! looking forward to reading it!
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