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By Nicole Fuscia | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments ()

Gather round, boys and girls. Gather round. As the leaves change colors, the temperature drifts lower, and the curses of football fans fill the air, we find ourselves at the beginning of a new chapter in Pajiba history. Many of you know the legend of the original Cannonball Read, wherein Sir Prisco the Ragey challenged himself to read one hundred books in the span of one year and enlighten us with his reviews on said tomes. Valiant Alabamapink looked at him and said, essentially, “I can kick your ass, so bring it, fool.” Thus was the Cannonball Read born.

Not content to simply watch, several other Pajiblets wanted in on the action as well, and what began as a friendly competition between two of our favorite people grew like herpes sores in Paris Hilton’s Wonder Cave. Some combatants even reached the ultimate goal (Prisco, Sophia, Jen K.) while others, like Rusty, swept the floor with contenders in the 5K readoffs (big books in very short periods of time). The Cannonballers’ reviews were added to the site and inspired literacy and lively debate, and now it’s just as much a part of our collective identity as the MurderTank, Godtopus, and Julie’s breasts.

Beginning November 1st, 2009, we are proud to bring you Year Two of the Amanda Amos Kickass Cannonball Read. Prisco has passed his scepter to me, and you can bet your ass I’ll beat you with it if you step out of line. We’re changing the guidelines a bit, but keeping it simple, because half of you are drunk at any given point in time. Instead of 100 books, we challenge you to read 52 in one year. That’s not so bad, is it? Just a book a week. You can do it, slugger! You read the book; you post your thoughts, opinions, or reactions on your blog (if you don’t have one, get one, and welcome to the twenty-first century), and then do it all over again the next week. Simple. We’re even offering a little incentive: For anyone who reads and reviews all 52 books, we will make a contribution in that Cannonballer’s name to the Little Pink Growing Up Smart Scholarship Fund.

Links to all participants’ blogs (and a weekly count) will be located on a web page here on Pajiba, because we’re getting all streamlined and shit. A Cannonball Read category will even be added to the navigation bar. Reviews are essential; I know Prisco was cool with people just saying “Hey, I read War and Peace but I’ll do the review later,” but I’m kind of a demanding bitch. One of the best things to come out of Cannonball Read 1.0 was the posting of participants’s reviews here on the mother site, and we’d like to continue in that spirit, and expand it a whole big lot. (Yes, that’s a professional literary term.) Meaning, I’m asking you to commit to writing three or four paragraphs about the book, in the hopes that we can share your musings with other Pajibans, who will either check it out for themselves or run away from it in stores. Reviews from participants will continue to be posted on this site at 8 a.m. EST. It’s a great way to become a bigger part of the Pajiba community, honor Alabamapink, and — our ultimate goal here — encourage reading.

So there you have it. Grab a library card, raid your grandmother’s bookshelves, park your ass at Borders for a couple of hours, whatever. There are thousands of books out there waiting for you to put your grubby little mitts on them, rummage through them, and tell us what you think about them. If you’re a continuing Cannonballer, just keep posting them there thoughts of yours. If you’re a newcomer and you want to jump on in (please jump on in; I have a lot of free time on my hands) email either me or Dustin or check out the Cannonball Read group on Facebook.

Read, suckers, read!

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