Half Read-a-thon! The beginning!

2016!

And... you already know what I am going to say next! The post that I have been putting off for over a month now! But let me begin... finally!

A New Year! New Resolutions! A BRAND NEW ME! A promise to ourselves to be a better version of us from the previous year! A promise to quit all the old habits and start all over again! A desire to finally begin with the journey to where we've always wanted to be!

Alas! It's a vicious circle of life! A couple of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years or in the best case - decades, before we finally decide to let it go and try again tomorrow; all over again! All of us have a desire to do things and a way to dream big! But as they say -

Cowards never start, the weak never finish and the winners never quit!

None of us are cowards, rather we are lazy but most of us are weak. All of us realize that on the first day of every year and still we fail to act on it and be a winner! Personally, I am not strong yet; I am not even weak, because I am yet to begin. It is half past midnight of February 05, 2016 and I have decided to NOT be a coward! I have been a dedicated user of internet and used it to my advantage (and disadvantage, at times) for years. I have tried on several projects (details later) and FAILED; failed more number of times than I can afford to, yet, here I am writing this blog post; ready to take on another challenge and giving my best to work it out this time!

As I mentioned, I have been an ardent fan of browsing the internet for the past few years (a decade). This time, I came across an inspirational blog post answer over my recent pet website - Quora. And then I found this video (embedded below), where the guy (Sam Priestley) learns to play Table Tennis within a year. I, just like most of us, have had dreams of learning a new skill, playing a new sport or just improvise from the past self. I am immensely inspired by this guy's dedication.

I believe in improvising from the past self, regardless of one's failures and ultimately winning at it! For months, I have been trying to finish off reading books that I started reading and then never got a chance to finish or in other words, religiously failing at completing them and moving on to the next one. As such, with this blog post, I initiate my new self-improvisation venture-cum-challenge - Half Read-a-thon.

Personality 1: So, what is Half Read-a-thon?

Personality 2: Half Read-a-thon, as I call it on the terms of Half Marathon, is a personal challenge where I will vie to finish one book every two days!

P1: So, is this why you call it a Half Read-a-thon?

P2: As stupid as it may sound, that is the case - Yes!

P1: How did you come up with this name?

P2: I'm a genius!

P1: I hope that was not sarcastic!

P2: Don't worry! My dog is more sarcastic than I am.

P1: Back to your venture - how do you plan to make it work?

P2: Since I work anywhere between 8 hours - 12 hours in a day and the rest is spent either traveling or dealing with other business, I plan to take out at least 4 hours every day to ensure that I read half of the book in one day that I intend to finish reading in two days. I currently have a backlog of books that I want to finish. I am currently starting off with the first three books on the top of my shelf! I am not looking forward to procrastinating on this one!

P1: I didn't know you procrastinate?

P2: Run and hide while I am contemplating my options, analyzing and determining my future of what would happen if and when I hit you or answer back with utter loath!

P1: I think you better get reading! Which is your first book?

P2: It is The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh. I got this book from a friend a couple of weeks ago and I think I better get going now!

P1: Sounds fair enough! All the best! Here are your reading glasses and a bookmark, in case you need a bathroom break...

P2: Readers never quit! We read and read and read. EVERYWHERE...

P1: Ugh...Alright, then! See you on midnight of February 7th?

P2: Indeed! If I don't be more grumpy than I already am with your talks! Now, shush! Let me read!

UPDATE - This challenge failed but I did read a few very good books, so, overall I ended up in a better place.