The Opening Salvo:

Wow. This may be the dorkiest double dog dare of all time. 

In 2010 I set a ridiculous goal of reading 20,000 pages; I hit my mark by the end of September and, with a glorious fist-pump, stopped counting. I thought this was a pretty spectacular accomplishment... until people around me pointed out a few relevant facts. I resembled something Van Helsing would spend his free time hunting down, certain 'social skills' were lacking or absent, and my sweat held the faint aroma of espresso beans.

I've always wanted to be an endurance athlete. 

So the story so far goes something like this - I don't trash-talk about reading all that much. On the other hand, I am easily suckered into pointless intellectual debates. One of my coworkers and friends falsely believes she is capable of matching my voracious consumption of books this year. I quite correctly know that when the last page falls on December 31st, 2012, I will be the undisputed victor. 

As long as we're maintaining this farce, though, here are my stats: 

Strengths: Eight years of age and experience, an autistic-like knowledge of authors and novels, a love of history (history = volume), intuition, coffee. 

Weaknesses: Becomes picky and childish about what to read next, snobbery toward popular authors, complete lack of book-monogamy, Mass Effect 3 in March. 

Strategy: Rely on consistency through massive volumes of history, Neal Stephenson and other wordy authors I can burn through quickly, use of sabotage. 

Tactics: String along several long books without completing them until Spring, then pile on a soul-crushing page count all at once. Marathon sessions of historical fiction. 

Predictions: I know that Kate leans toward serious literature, which will give me the advantage over the long run as I stack thousands of pages of narrative fiction; she's also going to spend more time talking smack than logging pages. I suffer from serious book malaise and a lack of good bookstores nearby which may threaten my competitive efficiency. In the end, though, I'm betting I win by at least 1,000 pages.