When I was in elementary school, we had some reading challenges. We would track our personal progress in terms of how many books we’d finished reading within a certain amount of time and we’d get little stickers or marks on a poster. I can’t remember if finishing a book was a point or every 100 pages was a point, but it was certainly one of the earliest competitive achievement-based reward systems I encountered.

And I did what I tend to do when faced with such a situation: I tried to win. I tried to win pretty badly. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything but read for a month. And I did win. I obliterated everyone else in my class. To top it off, I’m pretty sure I even lied a little bit about finishing my very last book (something epic, like Moby Dick).

I don’t really read anymore. I flip through the Entertainment Weeklys that come each week and read a novel out loud to Katie once a week or so. I sometimes read something in the public domain slowly on my iPhone. But that’s pretty much it. With no stickers on a poster, I guess there just isn’t enough incentive.

So, I guess the trick is tricking myself into thinking there are stickers for reading or actually reward myself for reading with ice cream or something equally compelling. I do want to read more. Convincing myself that it’s worth the effort turns out to be the tricky part.