FiftyFifty.me Challenge for the Year!!
Here’s the challenge: commit to reading 50 books and watching 50 movies in the next year, 2012.
You don’t need to know what you are going to read or watch right now (but feel free to start a list). All we ask is that you commit to giving yourself a wild 2012, full of new characters, storylines, and inspiration.
Suggestions:
- Consider setting up a blog so that we can follow and include you in our blog roll. We recommend Blogger or Tumblr.
- Post your reviews of what you read and watch, so others can link up with you to find movies and books they will enjoy.
Linking Up:
If you’re Tweeting about doing the fiftyfifty.me challenge, please use these hashtags so we can all find each other! Keep up with us on Twitter @fiftyfiftyme.
- #fiftyfiftyme — general news, suggestions, updates, the book and movies you’re reading/watching
Some Guidelines:
- Recognize you’re doing this for bragging rights (only); although we promise some fun along the way.
- Join anytime you like, but you only have til the end of 2012 to finish.
- Read and watch at your own pace, just get to 50/50 before 2013
- Finish that stack of half-read books, finally! We’ll let you count them.
- Read/watch in any language. 50/50 is global, yo.
FAQ
Do long books count as 2? What about movies?
If your book is over 500 pages, you can count it as 2 books if you like.
However, if the book is 2000 pages, it’s still just two books — not four! We want to encourage you to read longer pieces. This answer has been posted for the benefit of all you Game of Thrones fanatics out there. Go forth and prosper or whatever it is.
Note: A movie is still just a (one, 1, “ONE”) movie. (That said, installments in a series (example: the individual Godfather movies) would each snag an individual point.)
Can I rewatch/reread?
Of course you can rewatch and reread… it just won’t count towards your 50/50 ;)
We hope you will use FiftyFifty to inspire you to explore new stuff! Maybe next year we will include a “Reminiscing” theme, but this year around we’re asking you to go fresh.
What should I read/watch?
Anything you like! We have offered a lot of suggestions and will continue to, on our website; these are called Themes.
For example, one thing we have suggested is that you dive deeper into someone’s work and experience a few in a row (whether it’s an author, director, actor, etc.). What this does is allow you to justify why you stayed home all weekend watching Ryan Gosling’s filmography. It will also allow you to use “oeuvre” correctly in conversation with people (who rightfully probably won’t want to be your friends for long, but that is neither here nor that).
We call this “Majoring” in something (or minoring in it). You can read more about that on this post, and on any posts with the tags “Major” or “Minor”.
NOW GO HAVE FUN!!
I'm a fiftyfiftyme wannabe

As a freelance designer, mom to four who is trying to scratch out illustrations and my own artwork, hang out with the Youth Art Team, keep the house reasonably clean, and maintain my personal sanity, I cannot in good conscience sign up for fiftyfiftyme.
But I want to really bad.
I decided to see how January went. I only finished two books… and I started them both before 2013. But I could not have squeezed in another minute of reading.
I did watch five movies. Andy and I usually watch a movie over takeout on Sunday nights. Date nights! •: This is actually fabulous. He doesn’t want to run out for the food and I don’t want to do bedtime, so I pick up the food (aka alone time) while he puts the kids to bed. Then we feast. :• Ha, we do what we can.
So, it’s unlikely that I’ll read anywhere near 50 books this year – I’m shooting for 25. Either way, the challenge helps keep me from spending too much time looking at my phone and feeds my brain. So I’m going to follow along, but at my own pace.
Here’s my book list from January:
1. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
2. The Odyssey by Homer
And my January movie list:
1. Looper
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Arbitrage
5. End of Watch
Reading now: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Watching next: Anything that sounds good over takeout on Sunday. ;)
Read any good books you think I should add to my stack or seen any movies I should watch? I ♥ suggestions.
Fifty Fifty Me: A literary and cinema challenge
examiner.comMy piece on Examiner.com about the fabulous Fifty Fifty Me Challenge to read 50 books and watch 50 movies in 2012. I’ve got the film part almost done. The books are more of a challenge for me.