This year, I’m gearing up for an INSANE reading challenge that may result in my disappearance.
At least until I re-emerge from underneath this massive stack…
I’m going to be reading 200 books this year, but that’s not even the hardest part of the whole thing.
It’s which books I’ll be reading that will be the hardest part, and so I’m challenging myself to read the 12 books that I mention below in this article, 1 per week, for the first 12 weeks of the year.
After that, I’ll pick 40 more books to bring the total up to 52 long and/or difficult books for the year (along with 148 “easier” books), but I want to tell you something very important right up front.
I talk about it in this video, but I believe that if you’re not trying to achieve something epic in life (at least epic for you), then you’re missing out, in a very real way.
And, honestly, it doesn’t even matter if you actually achieve it!
You can fail, but you can’t not try. As J.K. Rowling has said, if you don’t try, then you fail by default.
Having something to look forward to each day — some big, looming, massive challenge that pulls you out of bed and beckons you forward — really does make life worth living, and I highly recommend finding something that fits that description for you.
I believe that every human being has infinite value simply by virtue of being alive and conscious, but big dreams and challenges bring out the best in us.
With all that said, here are the 12 books I’ll be reading, 1 per week, from January-March:
►►► The Count of Monte Christo, by Alexandre Dumas
►►► Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio
►►► Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
►►► War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
►►► Phenomenology of Spirit, by Georg Hegel (I warned you)
►►► Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes
►►► Middlemarch, by George Eliot
►►► The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
►►► The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James
►►► The Arabian Nights, by Anonymous (Anonymous sure does write a lot of books haha!)
Going Forward
My strategy is this: If I don’t eat, sleep, or go outside, (or talk to any friends), then I MIGHT just complete this challenge!
I’m half-kidding, of course, but it WILL require quite a commitment to take on this reading list!
I’m looking forward to it, though, because like I said, it’s during the attempt to achieve something epic that we discover something real and enduring within ourselves.
We get to find out just how strong, capable, and effective we really are, and we learn that we can make big things happen in our lives.
Helping people discover that about themselves is one of my greatest joys, and I want you to know that you are capable of far more than you know.
But tell me: what goals or dreams or visions are YOU striving to realize right now? What actions are you taking? When do you plan to take that next step?
Having answers to these questions helps you turn the impossible into the imaginable into the possible and then finally into the actual.
All the best,
Matt Karamazov
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