Should I NaNoWriMo?

I love to read but I've never been much of a writer.  I don't think I've written a story or anything creatively since middle school (I didn't have to take a single engilsh class in college).  I enjoy writing (hence the blog) but I just haven't had much instruction or practice.  This brings me to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writting Month), where you are challeneged to write 50,000 in the month of November.  I think that I have good ideas for writing a novel but I've never sat down and organized my thoughts and tried to write them all down as a story.  I think I'm ready to try, and I think NaNoWriMo is a good opportunity for me to do just that.  I haven't signed up yet since I'm still a little unsure but I like the idea of it and I'm almost ready to pull the trigger!

I'm hoping to get some pointers from anyone out there who has done it before (or something similar).  I work full time so I'm worried about how much time I can commit and how to be the most productive with the time I have.  Should I update my blog during that month or devote all of my writing to NaNoWriMo?  How can I keep myself interested enough in my story to keep writing so much everyday? Anything else I should prepare myself for?

Since I think I will be writing a dystopic novel (my favorite genre right now), I decided I should read as much as I could in that genre before all the writting starts.  This brings me to the second point of this post a link up with Seven Day Push.  The challenge this week is to read a book and I will gladly take on that challenge.  I'm going to read Genesis by Bernard Beckett (a nice short book, yes) but it is one I've been wanting to read for a while.