168

I knew this goal was going to be very long term when I started, but the scale of that long term is starting to sink in. While I don't think about the entire mass of the books to read as one big thing to consume, 168 is a large number. I've read that many books over the last four years so it's definitely something that I can accomplish, but the number of books do not tell the entire story. There's a big difference between reading The Sister Brothers or a 007 book and Proust or Joyce. Short and easy to consume books take a few days. Harder titles can take months. Committing to those challenging books is hard. Taking on the challenge is the entire point of forcing myself to read them. My unread books represent unrealized aspirations. They are things that I want to do that remain to be done. It's the realization that my time to do these unrealized things is finiite and slowly ebbing away that drove me to commit to reading all my unread books in the first place. Some will be quick reads that are fun and easy (like Seveneves, my most recently completed title) while other will be challenging slogs that require a focused and concentrated effort (The Radicalism of the American Revolution falls squarely into this category. It's an extremely interesting book written by a true master of the material, but it's kind of boring and not the easiest book to read). 

The reading of the book, not just finishing it, is the entire point of picking it up in the first place. I want to have my horizons broadened and my mind expanded. I want to be shocked and amazed and made more aware of what is hidden and hard to see in our world. There's talking and there's doing. Buying the book is talking. Reading the book is doing. It's the reading that counts. It's the will to embrace the challenge and stick with it despite the difficulties and challenges that counts in this effort. The books will always be here, but I will not. Getting through these books helps me make the most of that limited time.