From Delight to Wisdom

Robert Frost once said "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom," but that succinct definition of an ideal poem applies equally, in my opinion, to pretty much every good thing we read. At least in my case it does. I get genuinely excited by the whole process of getting a book in my hands, and I enjoy the very feeling of turning the pages, and even the smell of a book, or better yet, a room full of books. I'm probably such a bibliophile, or book lover, at times, I suspect, that I may enjoy collecting the books more than reading them. At this point it is hard to imagine having enough time on this planet left to read all the wonderful reads waiting on my shelf. And since I do not exactly have a procession of people to impress coming through my living room or home, and I am not likely to move these books (again) once I need to move whenever that happens, I better GET READING, fast.

So here's my plan. I want to read my face off in June, July, and August 2014, and I will blog about my reading here. In three months I will read 66 books, and it comes to exactly 20,000 pages. I have made the plan already and calculated the total number of pages. It was going to be 65 books, since I was born in 1965, and I had 50 literature and 15 non-fiction, but I realized I just needed one more book of 193 pages to get to 20,000 pages. I kid you not that it took me less than 3 minutes to go out among my books and find a book that had 193 pages - a collection of short stories - to add to the lot. Now, my reading list has the same number of books at the Bible!

Yeah, I know. How can any reasonable person read 66 books in 3 months? Well, who said I was reasonable? And who said I HAVE to do it in 3 months, anyway? I guess I did, but I won't spontaneously combust if I don't. I am really going to finish these books and do my best to get it done within the time stated, but the important thing is to understand the books and enjoy them, not the schedule. Besides, I kind of do plan to lock myself in one air-conditioned room over the summer for like 10 hours of reading per day. Before you tell me to get a life, I will counter that I am going to exercise outside for an hour first every morning, and try to make it to as many yoga classes in the evening as I can, since I got an unlimited membership and there are lots of cute girls there (including my lovely wife!) and besides, I have wanted to read some of these books on my list for a long time. More on that list later. Wish me luck!