Friday, October 24, 2008

Day 1--Get all my books in order

Welcome to The Patrick Challenge.
The problem:  55 books that I have "been meaning to read" sitting around my house.  I keep moving on to new and different books.
The solution:  Create a list of all the books I want to read.  Do not buy any more books until they are finished
The Rules:
  1. I am allowed to skim books if I desire (I have difficulty skimming though, I usually get drawn into the text and forget to skim).
  2. If I do not like a book, I am allowed to move it to a later position or remove it entirely. There is freedom in this list to scrap junk books.
  3. I am a fiction junkie. So to keep myself straight, I have 1 non-fiction book for every 4 fiction. That still may seem like not enough non-fiction for some of you, but that's how I roll.
  4. I am allowed to introduce a new book if it pertains directly to youth ministry or performing my job better. I tend to read these at the office, but have been making them home reading as of late (I'm just so dang interested in modern movements and youth movements)
  5. 25 is the initial goal. After 25 I can revise my list to introduce a (small) handful of new books.
  6. My own initiative to not purchase books does not apply to my loving family who likes to feed my book addiction, I'll just add the books to the end of my list...
The Books: (Don't be offended if I have not gotten around to that book you gave me two years ago.  I really DO want to read it, that's why I made this challenge!)
I'll post the list soon.  I have to finish my "Book 0" first.
Book 0:  Anathem by Neil Stephenson.  (937 pgs).  I have 250 to go!  Wish me luck!



3 comments:

j.j. said...

Welcome to bloglandia! Not sure yet if I'll join the challenge, but I will enjoy keeping up with how YOU are doing!!

Rob said...

Very cool, Patrick. I'm a follower.

Ben said...

Patrick,
Kudos on setting up a blog. You should send it out to the sola crowd.. they'd probably be interested in taking part.

I've started piling up the books on my list. After 1 bookshelf and 1 nightstand, I'm up to 15 books. 3 more bookshelves to go!

Ben