40 weeks to go and 97 books to read = 2.43 books/week.

I was getting frustrated with the dynamic of adding books to my list faster than I can read them, so today I thinned the list.   Each week I have a better idea of which books are most immediately relevant to my current work and which books can be read another time.

41 weeks and 107 books makes for 2.61 books/week.  

Looking back over the last few weeks, I started with 106 books to read, dropped to 103, then crept back up to 108.  This week I have 107 left -- almost back to where I began despite reading far more than 3 books each week -- but I'm also considering whether I need to read  books by Chilton and Levenson, which could put me even higher than my original total.  This process of "three steps forward and six steps back" is frustrating, but I'm also trying to be thorough.

An additional factor in the reading process is that I'm becoming more discerning about whether to buy a book or order it on ILL as well as whether to study a book closely or skim quickly.   The principle furstration with books that I decide to ILL is waiting for them to arrive.

Today I have 108 books left.  I read way more than 3 books last week, but the books I read lead me to new books to add to my list.  I hope soon to get to the point -- since I am reading backwards chronologically -- that the rate at which I add new book will decrease consistently.  With 42 weeks to go -- including this week -- that puts me at 2.57 books/week.  That number is a bit disheartening; I'd like it to go down.  But at least it is under 3 books/week for now.

Andy Rowell writes, "Did your seminary work adequately prepare you for doctoral work? Yes seminary prepared me well and I bet your seminary prepared you fairly well.  But one needs to be passionate about the field they are interested in and to have read beyond seminary courses. Reading needs to be a barely-in-control-passion in your life.  :-) ."

Indeed.

For me, the week begins on Monday.  And, this week I have 103 books left on my list.  (I'm not even bothering to count all the essays and articles in the total; it's not worth it.)  With 43 weeks to go, including this one, those numbers means I have 2.4 books/week to read.  At this point, I won't read 3 books/week as long as the total doesn't top 129 books -- so I still have some cushion to read other books that I come across.  Also, since I have finished reading all of the 2008 and 2009 books, I am, each week, decreasingly likely to come across books and articles that I haven't already evaluated.  Soon I hope to be through all the 2007 books -- perhaps by the end of March.

The main problem with reading this aggressively is that, besides my work at the church, I do not have much time left over for any other activities.  In other words, if I'm not at the church, I'm reading.

I haven't posted on this blog in a LONG TIME.  One reason (which I can see now in retrospect) is that "letting go the ego" has not necessarily been aided by pursuing a dual degree program. Continuing education too easily can become "brandishing" the ego or "building" the ego.

So, with that dynamic in mind, I'm considering making this blog into 'truth in advertising' for a while and blogging about my progress toward completing my dissertation.  This process is most interesting for me to look back and have a record on my journey, but is this writing is live on the internet, perhaps someone else might  find it interesting.  

My current goal is to finish the reading for my dissertation by the end of 2009, and submit a draft -- approved by my advisor -- by December 1, 2010.

There are currently 44 weeks left in 2009, although it's about to be 43 since this week is almost over, and I have 106 books left on my "to read" list.  The trick, of course, is that I keep adding books to the list.  However, I'm reading in reverse order (starting with the most recently published book and working backward).  So, hopefully, the rate at which I'm adding books to my list will lessen each week as I read older and older book and are increasingly obsolete and, therefore decreasingly relevant to my topic.  

So, crunching the numbers, I need to read 2.41 books/week at this point to finish by the end of 2009.