How it has all begun

Hi,

My name is Jim Agalby, and during a recent overseas flight (from Australia to Vietnam), I watched the movie Julie and Julia. It was not a great movie, but I loved the theme, where Julie cooked the recipes in an old (best selling) cookbook by Julia. Not only did she cook all of the over 300 and something recipes, in a year, she blogged about them. What a great idea.

Watching the movie, I was interested in the whole blogging thing, and I was thinking about the topics that people might like to read about in a blog. One topic that I thought of was books, and book reading. I read a huge amount of books, and I thought the world might like to follow a reading journey with me, over the course of 2010.

So, for the next 12 months, I have set myself a challenge.

Here are some of the rules of the challenge, of reading 52 books in 52 weeks, in 2010.

1. The book must be about a person, place or particular event
2. Each book must have at least two blog posts, one part way through and the other at the end of the book
3. Each book must be summarised in several 'learnings' or key messages (or, in other words, what can the reader of this blog take away from the book, to teach them something, or to help them improve something in their life?)
4. At least 52 books must be read and blogged about by January 1, 2011
5. At least 5 of the people or places depicted in the books must be met or visited prior to January 1, 2011
6. At least half of the books must be purchased second hand or below full retail price (bargain hunting)
7. All details about all books must be recorded, including the book details, the number of pages read, the number of words per book etc (the number of words on page 50 of every book will be recorded - not sure why, but it sounds like a good idea right now)
8. Upon request, my copy of the book must be sent to the person that requested it
9. Each book must be rated out of 5 for readability, storyline and learnings provided
10. Not sure about if a tenth is needed or not. Probably not, but I might add to it later.
Got it - the book cannot be a self help book. That is the only stipulation.

Anyway, I have not read for a few days, in anticipation of starting this little challenge, but I started reading last night (New year's Eve, 2009). That gives me a full 365 days to do all of the above.

I hope you enjoy the blogs, and until next time, read hard.

Jimmy A