365 Books in 365 days

Self-Actualization, for me, is finding out what am I capable of becoming? Am I living up to my full potential? And just who the hell do I think I am thinking that I can earn my doctorate?! Have you ever felt like that in your life? Perhaps in your profession or your schooling? Often, in my life, I have found out too late that my failure to embrace those days in school or at work have cost me more then I care to dream about. Please know that I do not consider myself a writer in the least. In fact, it is my weakest point from a scholarly and professional perspective. That being said I have been known to produce a decent, legible paper as needed.

As I sit here I reflect on the lost time of life never to be recaptured. So many days playing Atari, Nintendo, Xbox and the like never once feeling satisfied after all those days, weeks, months playing endless games. What about the endless amount of time that I’ve watched television? Where has that gotten me? Just how many times can Jack save the USA? (Although I confess this is still my favorite show)

So here I am typing away in the newly composed Blog wondering if I can reach a new height in my life and attempt to make up for lost time. I have heard of Blogs but I’ve honestly don’t know what I’m doing yet. Thank you Google! I do use something similar in my Doctorate Program. I’m sure there are a 1,000 ways to go about this but I clicked on Blogger and it’s what I will stick with for the next year. It isn’t my intent to actually have people read my blog but rather have a resounding logging of events, thoughts, and statistical data and an over all summary of my progress.

As you may have guessed it’s my intention to read 365 books in 365 days. Some may think, “That’s easy!” or perhaps, “SO?!” But you see, for me, it would be the challenge of a life time. Have you ever tried to stick with anything for a year straight? Besides eating, sleeping, breathing, bathroom breaks and charging your cell phone? By the way Jack Bauer does not do any of the above, at any time, one day out of each year! Another reason is that it’s a chance for me to retrain my mind and be accountable to the blog.

So what are the parameters? I’ve thought about this and didn’t want it to be a scholarly journal, magazine or newspaper. For me, it’s important that it be a book. So what is a book? 20 pages? 50? 100? Fiction or non-fiction? Well I am looking at 15 books, in front of me, and the smallest number of pages is 150. So I think a book, in my quest, should be at least 100 pages and no more than 350 pages (plus or minus 25 pages).

You see one of the things you need to watch out for in setting goals is your own limitations. I am a very slow reader! My brain thinks of a million other things and I often have to go back a re-read a section. Now this is something that I’m looking to improve over the next year but for now it’s my limitation. Another limitation is maintaining focus. Sometimes when I read a book my mind wonders and it might take me an hour to read 10 pages. No joke. So you’re probably thinking, “What how are you in a doctorate program?” Well I find that when I do apply myself it’s as if a light switch turns on and out comes something that frankly has gotten me this far. Call it intelligence, brilliance or ability to focus and multitask but when my back is against the wall I don’t flee… I fight. However, that’s no way to live a scholarly or scholarly-practitioner life.

Depending on page and font size I average 1 page every 1.5 minutes. So reading a 150 page book would equate to 3 hours and 45 minutes of reading. 8 hours and 45 minutes for a 350 page book! One of my goals is to improve my speed, retention and track my progress, via graphs, over the next year. Another thought is that I want at least 6 out of every 7 books adding value towards my doctorate. I think that makes the best sense. This may also mean re-reading prior books which I have currently in my possession. Honestly I haven’t read most of them all the way through just pulled out important pieces of information. However, this isn’t my intention this time around as I look to gain lost knowledge and opportunities. So the 7th book can be a fiction or some kind of “fun” book.

Each night, when finished I will log on the blog APA style, the book, author and direct quotes that impacted me and my brief thoughts on the book. As I progress in this adventure and get more familiar in using this blog format I will post the line up of books in queue.

I am not looking to compete with anyone in this endeavor. Only myself. If you wish to add to the intellectual community then feel free to read along with me and comment at will. Although you might have trouble locating a book or two at your local library since they are fairly new books. When to start? I think a great date would be 5/1/2010. It’s a Saturday and it will give me time to catch up on a 15 page paper due this week and another 10 page paper due next week.

First book? That’s a tough one. Let go with the following for the first 5:
1. (2004). Be, know, do: Leadership the Army way: adapted from the official Army leadership manual.
2. Buckingham, M. & Coffman C. (1999). First, Break All the Rules
3. Lawler, E. (2003). Treat People Right!
4. Sample, S. (2002). The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership
5. Machiavelli, N. (Reissue). (2003). The Prince. New York, New York: Bantam Dell

Now that’s a good easy start. Starting on 5/1 will also give others a chance to get prepped! I will revisit the blog between now and then too add additional ideas that might come to mind.