The Five Thousand Project

Simply put, The Five Thousand Project is a condition where I read one hundred books before buying any more. Once I have done this I will read ninety nine books before buying one more. I will do this until I reach a total of five thousand books read or reach a ratio of one book to buy for everyone I read. I will make proof of my reading by reviewing every book.

The definition of ‘book’ can be interpreted here, but it is enough to say that first I will focus on books I own. As I believe myself to own far less than five thousand books but more than one thousand it should be of no extraordinary difficulty. As libraries exist, and the Gutenberg Project has now more than thirty thousand books online for free a person could spend most of their life reading and never buy a book.

It should be noted that this would be impossible for the student as they need to buy half a dozen books per semester. It would likely be impossible for the good father to adhere to the rules of this project as he would need to buy books for his children.

Thus, I can say that if ever I would be a student or father I need to complete or very nearly complete this project. Before I can take on these tasks I need correct the flaws in my damaged brain.

Any person having read five thousand books would be a person of skill. Even a centenarian would need to have read and average of fifty books a year for every year of their life to reach such a total. If in this pursuit I read a book every day it would still take nearly fourteen years to complete.

Thus we can say that this is a mammoth undertaking, but my lacking mental faculties require mammoth revision. This is the small work of a lifetime but I have a lifetime to work.