Volume A

Today is October 18, 2008.

Pacific Branch Brooklyn Public Library.



I am reading the first volume- A today. Aberration-Abijan-Abolitionist-Absolutism.

I had difficulty finding the volume today; it wasn't replaced in its shelf in the reference section. I asked the librarian and discovered it on the cart waiting to be reshelved. I was relieved. There is almost nothing worse that getting set to read a particular entry or volume and the being unable to find the volume desired.



Before I could get in the library comfortably I ran into a friend I met a a women's group that used to meet at the library. She asked me where the meeting was being held, thinking I was at the library for the meeting. I told her that the meeting was at another location and that I didn't attend the meetings any more. Little did I know that I would do relatively little reading today.



I settled into my nook, the big table in the back of the library, pulled out my notebook and and picked up where I left off at Abu Dhabii. I had just finished absolutism when my friend approached me and we talked and talked and talked. This meant that some how I was going to have to find a way to not be interrupted from my reading or some how weave the interuptions into the story of the project.



Luckily, I can access the World Book from the New York Public Library database and read from home. Unlike, A. J. Jacobs I have no space at home to put a complete set of the World Book, nor do I have the money to order a complete set. I am at the mercy of the resources of the library systems here in New York, which I must say are grand. Left to my own mischief I have found a great project in which to immerse myself.



I come from a family of educators. My parents were teachers. My mother taught business in the District of Columbia Public Schools and my father taught music in the D. C. Public Schools. The household was focused on education. There were books everywhere. There were four sets of encyclopedia in the house, including an old set of Funk and Waggonels, the name of which tickled me to death.



I am sad when I think of their early deathes due to cancer. Everything good that I am and have been has come from them.



Today, I live in a residence for people who were formerly homeless and who have mental illness, which is located two blocks from the library and two blocks from the subway station. Other libraries are within a mile away. While my living arrangements are not what I expected at 49, I am grateful for them. To be near the libraries is nirvana.



Back to Volume A.



I always learn many things when I set out to read the entries in the encyclopedia. Today is no different. I can now answer correctly questions about the capital of Ivory Coast. and the relationship between Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates.



I am now remembering that I never finished reading the entry for John Abbott, the prime minister of Canada in the 19th century. Now, I must find a way to mark my page. I trust that these things will work themselves out as the project progresses. I browse the online encyclopedia for Abbott and find I had read the full entry.



There is something calming and peaceeful at the library. Books stand read there to be read. A total atmosphere devoted to study and scholarhsip,that is, except when the kids come in from school after 2:30PM. Then the library gets noisy and loud. Before then and on Saturdays, it is heaven.

Introduction-October 18, 2008

About three or four weeks ago I started reading the World Book Encyclopedia. I started at volume 20 (U-V) believing it to be the thinnest. Every Saturday I walk to the Pacific Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library or the Central Library, pull down a volume and sit down to read.





Not only what I found was fascinating, what I learned was funny. You see, I am an impaired physician. I retired from the practice of medicine in 2000 and have since been struggling with begin retired at now 49. The fact that I can't work makes the predicament even more, well, droll since I must find something to do with my time, so since I am unable to concentrate to read any period of time, the short entries are perfect.



This is not the first time I attempted to read the encyclopedia. Last year I started with N or P and the volume was lost.

I reserve the right to read any volume at any given time and so not to read the set in order. I am conscientious enough though to try to get through all twenty one volumes of the 2008 World Book Encyclopedia. It is very close to the end of the year and the 2009 set weill be out soon. I plan to focus on the 2008 set. I am not sure when the project will be complete. I have not given myself a deadline. At the rate I am going it will be more than two years.




I am vaguely aware, though I have never read his books, that A. J. Jacobs wrote the Know-It-All about his attempt to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover and I suppose what I am doing fits in the same category. I don't know ifmy father ever attempted to read any encyclopedia cover-to-cover or whtether my brother, who read the World Book when he was younger, ever completed the 20-odd volumes. Whether it will yeild a similar product is yet to be seen. This is my blog.