I'm starting to feel like it is time to make the transition from reading to writing.

In the past, I've always felt like I had to stop researching prematurely due to an external deadline imposed by a professor. With my dissertation, I'm experiencing the opposite: an internal prompt to stop reading and start writing -- with the accompanying sense that continuing to read will result in decreasing marginal returns at this point.

To that end, my current count (although I need to process some recent notes that may result in some added books) is the following:

46 books in 18 weeks = 2.56 books/week.

Biking home yesterday I decided that I should commit to upping the ante and recalibrate to finish my dissertation reading by the end of November 2009, then use December to outline, so that I can start writing in January.

Here's the new data:

58 books in 19 weeks = 3.05 books/week.

Not too shabby.

59 books in 24 weeks = 2.46 books/week.

I'm pleased that the total numbers of books remaining has decreased steadily the past three weeks from 66 to 63 to 59.

I'm also hopeful that I'm going to get quite a bit read in the next two weeks.

63 books to go in 25 weeks = 2.52 bks/wk. I feel like I'm getting back on track again, and I'm excited to see where I'll be by the end of August (after which the fall schedule picks up again).

In the short run, I'm glad to be down three books from last week, which is my approximate goal these days: three books or so per week -- with, of course, the complicating factor of occasionally finding new books to add.

66 books to read in 26 weeks = 2.54 bks/wk.

I've just finished one of my busiest weeks this year (I think), so I expect to pick up the pace again soon.