eHarlequin.com Issues Reading Challenge to Its Members
eHarlequin.com, the online community for Harlequin Enterprises Limited, has challenged its members to collectively read 100,000 books in one year. The 2008 eHarlequin.com 100,000 Book Challenge will end Dec. 31, 2008, at which time Harlequin will donate the number of books read to the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). To date, more than 350 members have accepted the 2008 Book Challenge and, in one week, they had already read more than 1,000 books.
“Recent studies show that people are reading literature less and less,” says Sharon Darling, NCFL president and founder. “This reading challenge not only will provide an important incentive for everyone to read more, it also will greatly benefit the millions of adults who have low literacy—34 million in the United States alone and 771 million globally.”
eHarlequin.com members can register online to participate in the challenge at any point throughout the year. Participants are asked to have at least 50 percent of the books on their reading list be novels published by Harlequin; the other 50 percent can be any genre by any publisher. Participants also are encouraged to discuss the titles they have read on eHarlequin.com via their own blogs.
“Our readers are very passionate,” says Jayne Hoogenberk, community manager for eHarlequin.com. “They read, talk, think and dream about books 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The median number of paperbacks read in one year by Americans is 12. The median for Harlequin readers is 30. Since we’re always looking for ways to inspire and challenge our community members, we wondered if, as a group, they would be able to read 100,000 books in a single calendar year and through our donation of 100,000 books, share that love of reading with others who don’t have such easy access to entertaining and engaging literature for women.”
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