Ordinary Reading

I calculated last year that if I lived a slightly-above-average lifespan and read a book a week for the rest of my life, I could read about 2500 more books in my lifetime.

This does not seem like nearly enough.

But I won't even read that many if I keep up my current pace, so we'll need to step up our game in 2014.

Now, if I read two books a week for the rest of my life (presuming a slightly-above-average lifespan), I could get a good 5000 more books read.  And that seems more reasonable than 2500.

So I decided to set 100 books a year as a goal.

I can't decide whether to get a list going and be organized about it or to grab the nearest book and read.

If I had a list of 100 books, I'd always have an idea of what to read next.  And I could put together some mutually illuminating selections.

If I just grabbed books that looked good, maybe I'd finish more books.

It's tough to say which is better.

It's hard to self-educate.  Much easier when someone else is assigning your reading list.  My best grad school classes had a one-page syllabus.  15 weeks, 15 books, one paper.  Boom.

Maybe I should just make up seven courses with 15 books apiece.  There's an idea.

In any case, I've already finished my first book of the year.  The fact that I only had twenty pages left to read is irrelevant.  I'm declaring myself off to a good start.