Why am I doing this?

Why am I attempting to read so many books, why do I want to run a marathon and why am I blogging about it? And why did I start this three months ahead of time?

The Amazing Mandi over at http://www.200books.com/ is a huge inspiration to me, though she is not the reason I am reading 100 books.
She says she is not doing her 200 to improve herself, but I must say that I am hoping for a little self improvement. I could certainly use some.

There's a fair bit of excellent literature on my list. Titles and volumes I have salivated over thinking "One day, I'll make that my own..." and having it on the shelf doesn't make it mine, right? I've also got some great history in store and those puritan writers are not to be dismissed, they have wisdom that is so uncommon in our time. So, I'm reading this stuff because it's just the best. Spirulina Smoothies for the brain.

Doing hard things is good, and doing hard things (and maybe trying to make them look easy) with people watching is also good, because accountability is a great sharpening tool.

Reading more than I'm accustomed to will slow me down for a few hours a day. And that sounds marvelous .
All the other benefits of lots of reading are so obvious I won't even start.

I am doing the marathon because I have a notoriously short attention span, and must have a large enough goal to keep me running, or I'll lose interest. I have a goal of running this marathon next October in less that 4 hours and ten minutes, which is the fastest I've ever done one. My idea is to not walk at all and to finish upright.

I am blogging about it for that accountability thing mentioned above. And I love the idea of having all this fun documented in such a way that I can't misplace it or leave it out in the rain or drop it into a tub full of bathwater by accident.

I started now because I wanted it all set up before November 1, because November and December are already packed full of things other than blogging and reading, though I will be running......