A Reading Plan for 2009
I've been thinking a lot about "reading plans" lately. I've been browsing through The Joy of Reading by Mark van Doren and realized that the end of my life is actually in sight. (It's not close, but it's not so distant as to be unthinkable anymore. I'm not depressed about this either, so don't worry about me.) And in my lifetime, I'm only going to be able to read a finite number of books.
I don't have any means of knowing how many books I have left in me to read, but it does occur to me that there are some great books I want to experience before I die, and I should start doing some planning in order to actually get some of them read.
If I live to be 80 years old, and I read 52 books a year (one a week), then I've got about 2000 books left in me.
I guess if I wanted to create a lifetime reading plan, I'd make a list of 2000 books and get started on them. But at the same time, that would eliminate the possibility of reading any books that are written between now and 2050. I guess that a better approach would be to prioritize my reading by which books I think are most important that I read and start there.
And most lifetime reading plans I've seen only include a couple hundred books anyway, so I've got a pretty good degree of flexibility.
At any rate, here's what I'm planning to read in January of 2009, and only one of them is really what you'd think of as a traditional lifetime reading selection:
- The Killer Inside Me (book club selection for my book club)
- House of Leaves (another book club selection)
- A Game Of Thrones
- The Trial by Kafka, which is the classic piece of my selection
posted by Randy Ray @ 3:03 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I just got through reading Same Kind of Different as Me I guess i have 2600 books left in me. I am going to live into my 90's but if I do not make 91 that is okay (still I kind of like 93). I think 97 or more and I will be too much burden on the family. Amy will be in her 70's. Maybe if I live just to 90 and she is 66 and at retirement that would be good. I would like to read a book on every US President. That is a good goal and a bit hard since I do not like every President and think most of the books would be boring. I have read TDR, Jackson, Adams (1st), Lincoln, Grant, Nixon, and that is it.
blog owner approval needed for a comment?! wow that's rich. freedom of speech is great as long as the MAN says it is okay. Still I can understand you don't want any foul language or Zarrella writing about every entry. But hey you can always delete the comment and sometimes what Zarrella says is enlightning (did I spell that right?). oh well, see you Thursday!
hey man... just wanted to let you know I listened to your PAP radio show today and a going to start checking them out every week... they're good. What you said about free poker sites when you were talking about PlentyOfFish I totally agree with.
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