Book a week - 34/52

I'm thinking about start a book-a-week program, modeled after the guy at the Largehearted Boy blog. My wife reads probably more than a book a week, and I used to do this myself before grad school. I'm going to try to do it again starting this week. There are several reasons I'm going to try this book a week program:

1. The same way I'm into running to develop my physique, I'm starting this program to develop my intellect. The habit of reading makes a person knowledgeable, competent, and articulate.

2. I already have a large collection of books, and I like books. I tried audiobooks and eBooks, these did not work out for me. I have a hard time reading eBooks due to the limitations of current eBook readers - no I haven't tried the Amazon Kindle yet - and I find that I have a hard time retaining information listening to audiobooks. I tried reading stuff on the internet - but it is just way to easy to get distracted when researching a subject on the internet - I find the majority of my internet research devolves into digg.com or youtube. The amount of information on the internet is practically limitless - I like the idea of a book as finite unit of information.

3. To develop expertise in a number of areas - these being business and finance, economics and politics, and computer science. I don't know if I'll be able to read a tech book a week, as these tend to be a lot longer than the average book and require a lot of interactivity. I guess I'll deal with that as I go along.

This is the 34th week of 2008, 18 weeks left to go in the year. This week's book is 'The Total Money Makeover' by Dave Ramsey.