(NOTE: if you came here via AJATT, there's a good chance that you were directed to only this post, but not the rest of this blog. Click on the title of the contest at the very top of the page to be re-directed to more recent posts.)

       Hey, you! Yes, YOU!

            Do you remember what it was like being a kid? Those good ol’ days, when decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-moe”? When money problems were settled by the banker in Monopoly, and “old” referred to anyone over 20? When having a lunch box plastered with Power Rangers stickers made you the coolest kid in school, and a trip to Toys ‘R Us seemed way cooler than going to the mall? 

            Back then, everything you did in school had some connection to something fun. Y’know, those good ol’ days when “learning physics” really meant “watching ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ videos”, and math class involved as many pictures and drawings as it did numbers. Back when fifteen whole minutes of reading guaranteed you getting a big, sparkly sticker, thereby making you the superstar of your class.

            This April, 2010, I (Maya) am inviting you to go back to those times – to get back into the “if it’s not fun, f*ck it” mentality. I’m inviting you to join…

            That’s right – a reading contest. Here’s the scoop:

• The contest is web-based; everyone, regardless of location, is welcome and encouraged to join
• Contest starts April 1^st, 2010 and ends April 30^th, 2010 local time (whatever that is for you)
• Winner = whoever reads the largest number of pages
• One “page” = a page in a book; 10 pages of a manga/comic; a webpage; one newspaper article, etc
• Participants will be encouraged to give weekly updates of their progress (for extra drama J ), but only the end (monthly) results will be considered final
• Winners will be awarded sparkly e-stickers, along with the glory of looking cool on the internet
• Non-winners will be awarded… not sparkly e-stickers
• All participants will get the chance to be inspired to do more reading in a month than they might have done otherwise
• Learners of languages other than Japanese are also welcome to join

That’s all. Participation is (of course) free, and dropping out halfway through is also

allowed. If you’d like to join, please leave a comment under this post with your name (doesn’t have to be your real name) and the language(s) you will be reading in (for this contest, any reading done in your native language(s) will not count).

That’s about all. Let’s get the reading started!