Book 2: "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

I've always disliked Dickens but, to be fair, I hadn't read any of his works since high school. So, I decided to give him a second (and possibly last) chance.  368 pages meant about 53 pages per day  but it ended up being not-so-bad.


He's still overly wordy, but the story was engaging and kept me interested through to the end.  I have to say, I wouldn't mind reading more Dickens... later... much later.

Book 1: "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

For a science-fiction book published in 1951, this book was surprisingly not-dated.  The only part that felt a little out of date was the over-optimism about atomic power.  Asimov seemed to feel that nuclear power was the answer to most of humanity's problems and their key to the future.

Again, I'm reading a book that is the first in a series.  In this case it's a much more extensive series encompassing at least 7 novels, more if you include other authors writing sequels.

This book was so good, in fact, that I finished it in 3 days.  Leaving some extra time for my next, dreaded, book... Dickens.

Book 0: "The Red Wolf Conspiracy" by Robert V.S. Redick

This book wasn't really a part of the project.  I read it as a proof of concept, just to see if I could really read a book in one week.  At 462 pages, I needed to read 66 pages per day.  With just my round trip on the bus to work I was able to do it pretty easily.

I saw this one on the shelf in the library and thought it looked interesting.  And, to my surprise, it was quite good.  It had been a while since I read any fantasy books.  This one had a nice, complex plot, a rich world and lots of great characters.  The only real problem is that it's the first in a trilogy, which means that now I have to add volume 2 (The Rats and the Ruling Sea) and part 3 (The Night of the Swarm) to my reading list.

Getting Started

For some time I'd been lamenting the fact that at my current rate of reading, approximately one book per month, I would only get through about 600 more books in my lifetime.  Clearly not enough.  So I thought that it would be much better to try to read one book per week, which would add up to about 2600 books in my lifetime.  Much better!

This blog will follow this project from beginning to end.  I started with the idea to try it for 8 weeks and have now decided to extend it to one year.  52 weeks, 52 books.

Wish me luck!