Join Me! Not Literally.

And by "Join Me", I do not mean "Do as I am doing", but refer you merely to Danny Wallace's book, entitled "Join Me". In my efforts to read 10 books this month (it's going quite well now, thanks for asking) Join Me struck a chord, in the same way that pizzas strike a chord when I'm hungry or the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion strike a chord when I'm in the mood for sex music.

It struck a chord because like Danny Wallace does in this book, like Dave Gorman does in his Googlewhack adventure, like Louis Theroux persists in tracking down religious nutjobs, like many of the characters I have read about in recent books, and, of course, like Jesus, I have been given a challenge (or rather have given myself a challenge) and, despite the difficulties and doubts, I have heroically/am heriocally overcoming them.

Yesterday, Thursday 21st February, I read for 9 hours. And today for another 5. And I will make damn sure that I will complete this challenge, even if it means being anti-social and getting arse cramp. Thankfully, I've still managed to achieve other successful criterion in the last couple of days despite my recent buttock-numbing-loner-life:
I've booked a meeting with a Volunteering Agency
I've recorded a song (which I will hopefully put on Soundcloud when it's properly edited)
And I've bought a new suit. (Not relevant to my 12 Challenges, but it does look nice)
I've bought my Mum presents for her Birthday (Again, not relevant, but an achievement nonetheless as she can be very difficult to buy for).

In his book, (I'll try not to ruin it for I imagine you'll all go out and buy it now) he demonstrates the innate goodness in so many people and that inspired me not simply to reach each of my targets, but to want to reach my targets. Especially the ones regarding volunteering and raising money for charity.

So now I'm almost through 8 books, with about 5 days to go. I can smell victory. And the washing-up I haven't done. But the victory smells sweet and I will hold on to that smell/thought over the next week and go on from there.

Finally, I will make sure that through these gruelling and trying times I will do as Join Me encourages; I will be nice.

The Apology and New Hope!

The apology...

Sorry, OK?!

I should be writing regularly but I've been busy READING! Reading as soon as I wake up, reading after work and still, this time yesterday, I had only completed three books. I have now almost completed 5. Since my last post I have also made a character for a story and. get this, have visited TWO MUSEUMS!

Last weekend I stayed with a couple of friends in London, and visited the Barbican Museum and the Museum of London on Saturday. And on the Sunday we went to the Natural History Museum. Of course we did other stuff but telling you about the amazing Katzenjammers pub, complete with Oompa Band (you heard) and the simply incredible food we ate at Bodean's and Meat Liquor is not really relevant. And yet, I still kind of mentioned it. See how I did that? And before you point out that that's three different museums that I mentioned earlier, I can only really count them as two for the following reason:

We went to see the Rain Room at the Barbican but left because it was a three hour queue. Trying to make the most of it, we walked up to the fourth floor but found that the art exhibition cost £12 to enter. And we're tight gits when it comes to anything that you can't eat or drink. So then we went to the Museum of London for only about an hour, and that was mostly spent making inappropriate comments about which flints looked liked penises. I blame Scott and Lynch for that. So I counted them both as "Half-visits", which I am allowed to do because I MAKE THE RULES!

We didn't actually get so drunk on the Saturday that we couldn't see a museum properly on the Sunday, which was a pleasant surprise given my friends' track record. So we spent about 4 hours at the Natural History Museum, saw some dinosaur skeletons, and I bought a notepad made from elephant poo for Adele.

Scroll down for evidence of one my museum visits if you don't believe me.

And so the hope...

I am still behind on my reading objective but had done quite a bit to catch up. Even Sunday morning as my mates were snoring, I woke up, shuffled over to the curtain, where there was a small amount of light, and read. Today I finished reading that book (Catch-22 by Joseph Heller) and have started, and almost finished The Van by Roddy Doyle. If I keep up with pace I am sure that I can make up for lost time over this half-term.

I am also on target for my museum objective now. My next planned visits are a Kings Lynn Museum and Swaffham Museum. Now quite as famous. But they count. This week I also intend to organise some volunteering, go jogging more (actually the word 'more' is quite unnecessary) and sell some stuff on eBay so I can make a start on my garage.

THIS IS TAKING OVER MY LIFE!!

Here's me, Lynch and Scott standing next to a Diplodocus's bony arse. 

And... here's Lynch standing next to standing next to Charles Darwin, which is funny because he is a Christian.

I'll try and write more frequently. So keep checking out my blog. And if you want to keep track of what I'm reading, I refer you again to my Shelfari account:
http://www.shelfari.com/o1514884020

Please believe me when I say that I am reading every word of each book. If I didn't I wouldn't be behind schedule. Currently I'm on about 1,500 pages this month and should be on 1,900 so far. So I'm getting there...

The Problem With Reading And Living

I don't want to moan.

I've been told off for moaning.

So think of this as some unfortunate events that I have observed. I am definitely not moaning.

After completing a book within 3 days by Sunday and remaining on target to complete this month's major challenge, I have since failed to complete another book, 5 days later. This is what has happened so far this week:

Monday - School trip, in which I got back at about 10pm
Tuesday - I had a migraine. I very infrequently get migraines so this was inconvenient to say the least.
Wednesday - My debit card and cash was stolen and I had a parents' evening (reading between appointments!)
Thursday - Had to sort out card incident and give statements (although I did have a small amount of time in the evening to read)
Friday - Going OK so far (except one of my form tutees smashed his face on a radiator), although I have organised to play football and meet up with a friend to play the guitar and record one of my songs. These are good things, except the face smash thing obviously, but they are taking away my precious reading time!

As you can see; very little time. Perhaps the weekend will free up some time to read?

Saturday - A friend visiting in the morning to play golf, watch football and Six Nations and probably drink too much
Sunday - Recover, and meet with in-laws.

I'm finding that having a normal life, and reading 10 books in a month (as well as bloody well writing the occasional blog about my reading of books) to be very difficult.

I said, at the beginning of all this madness, that I did not want to compromise anything, and that's a challenge in itself. So that I can show you my progress of books, I quickly made a shelfari account, which is a fantastic website for anyone who likes to read.

See my profile here: http://www.shelfari.com/?kmi=2986601 - I've only added a few books because I haven't had the time to add every book I own.

So far this month, I've read Stuart by Alexander Masters and have almost finished reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. And I promise you that I am reading every word! Ask my wife, who is day-by-day getting more annoyed with me ignoring her.

Sorry Adele! Next month will be more normal, I promise.

Probably.