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.
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