Reading in 2005

Some of you who read this blog will snigger up your sleaves, barely suppressing a hearty laugh, at what I am about to reveal. Nevertheless, I achieved something significant for me today: I competed reading my 40th book of this year, 2005.

Target reached.

Now, I know some of you write more than this on your blogs. For you, the merest glance a book is to simultaneously read and digest. Analysis and commentary are burning the ends of your fingertips. Such fire can only be salved by typing and publishing.

For me my target was important. I have written before about how my reading rate has been poor all my life. I have been too dithery and ill-disciplined in my thoughts and so wasted a lot of time. I have been working hard to rectify this in 2005 so that I can make much more progress. This has resulted in several obvious practical steps:

1. I switch off my computer


2. When t'computer is on I read less blogs. Sorry to those of you who write long entries, but as I have also written, if the blog entry I am reading is long, I seriously question whether or not there is not more value spending the time in a chapter of a book. Then I switch the computer off.


3. I get in a good chair. Not the sofa. Too comfy. Too many zeds get logged.


4. I use my lap timer on my moby phone to crack down on dastardly daydreaming. This lets me set targets. Targets achieved get rewards - like coffee.

In spite of all this it still remains that the majority of the books on my shelves are completely or partially unread. So, next year's target? Let's try 60!

For exhaustive completeness, here is the breakdown under various categories (I don't know how to format the table properly):

• Theology: 14
• Commentaries and biblical studies: 8
• Christian Ministry: 6
• Biography: 2
• Devotional: 2
• Christian Living: 2
• Church History: 1
• Apologetics: 1
• Other Non-Fiction: 3
• Fiction: 1

As you can probably see, it is not very well balanced. I need to read more history and apologetics. And I want to read more fiction - I want to know how people think. Roll on 2006!