The Manifesto

For the next year I'm going to read 100 pages a day.

I want to be a writer. To be a writer, one has to be a reader. I am a reader. I've been a reader all my life. But lately, which is to say, in my adulthood, I've let the habit slip. Reading is a pleasure I enjoy all too rarely. This is an opportunity to enjoy it a little bit more.

36,525 pages. I've already picked out almost 10,000. And I've got another 5,000 or so generally reserved, inasmuch as I know that a book or an author will be on the list, but may not know what edition of the book, or which book I'm going to read. Frankly, there are a few on the list that scare me (Ulysses, The Pelopennesian War). Some books, I've tried to read for more than 5 years, and just haven't gotten through them. The shame of public failure will, I hope, encourage my best efforts this time. I plan to hold somewhere around 5,000 pages in reserve for good books that have come out in the last five years, up to and including this year. Lastly, I'm taking suggestions. The list is fluid, with a few anchors. Someday soon, I'll publish the List So Far.

Does this effort value quantity over quality? Maybe. I've got the Bible, Hamlet and Leaves of Grass on the list. People have spent their entire lives studying these books. I might breeze through them in 3 weeks time. On the other hand, I am going to read Travels with Charley, Parliament of Whores and Can't Anybody Here Play This Game, each of which will likely take about an afternoon to read. I read Travels With Charley every few years, I've probably perused it at least ten times. It's not a crash course in Literature, Western or otherwise. I'm not trying to do the Great Books list (though I freely admit stealing from it). The point is that I want to read these books. The knowledge therein, the treasures to be found, are what I'm after. Were one to mine for gold, one could spend a lifetime exhausting a lode, or search all over, finding veins in many different places. Whether you're a poet or a financier, it pays to diversify your sources.

On completion of a book, I'll write a review. I'll probably post tidbits along the way. Don't expect something quite as wordy as what appears in the NYT Book Review. It's new media, baby. I don't want to get into a lot of tl;dr. This verges as it is. It would be a lie if I said I didn't care if anyone followed along. And I'd be a fool if I thought this would bring me fortune and glory. This is an autodidactic exercise in self-discipline. Ultimately, it's about me. But I hope that it's interesting in the execution.