Wanna Join the Crouch Family Book Club?

One of my Facebook friends mentioned the other day that she has kept track of every book she's read since she was 13 years old.  She's close to my age (maybe a bit younger), so this struck me as an amazing feat, especially considering the year she probably started and the technology available back then.  I thought it would be cool to begin doing the same thing, albeit when I'm 40 instead of a teenager.

I hesitate slightly to mention this, but I decided recently to invest in a couple of pair of reading glasses, which could even accelerate my reading speed.  They aren't necessary all the time, but some text certainly seems smaller than it used to be.  :)

What got me started?  Well, I saw several people talking about Julien Smith's post entitled, "How to Read a Book a Week in 2011", which made me start to wonder about how many books I read in an average year. 

This year, we'll find out. 

I also decided today to ask my two older kids if they would be interested in participating as well, to make it a sort of family book club.  Since we homeschool our kids, I thought it would also be a fun addition to our normal curriculum.  I told them that I would provide prizes for every 5th book that they read. The only stipulation is that comic books don't count (they would break the bank quickly).

They are 12 and almost 10, so it could be interesting for them to look back and see:

• 
  
• the quantity of books they've read over the years
  
• the actual books themselves, since it would demonstrate where their interests were at any given time
  
  

My guess is that I typically average more than a book per week, but I may be wrong.  I know that I read about 10 over the past two months or so, since I ended up making a stack on one of our bookshelves in the bedroom.

So, if you're game, join us on this journey.  If you need a tool to help along the way, you can consider using GoodReads.com or the Facebook Booktracker application.  I might use the latter myself, or (since I am remarkably old-school when it comes to keeping track of stuff like this) I might just use a blank document or a spreadsheet on my computer.  My daughter got excited and made a chart to use for hers.

There are few skills that are as important as reading, so I am challenging myself and my kids a little bit.  It's already working. My son surprised me by picking up one of books I got him for Christmas and quickly reading five chapters earlier today.  My daughter decided to start "A Wrinkle in Time".  Good stuff!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/2549674908/sizes/m/in/photostream/