Half Through 13 Weeks For Radical Readers and Madman Writers, Turning Up the Heat

Back on October 5 I announced the newest season in my reader/writer variation of Charlie Martin’s 13 Weeks Self Improvement regimen. My goal with this new season was to not just read more as in past seasons but now to up the pace on the writing with more regular, consistent posts connecting big books, important thinkers, and the hot stories in the daily news cycle. I’m pleased with the pieces that have emerged so far this season, which I’ll round up here for those who may have missed an installment:

Tuesday, October 9 on Robert Spencer’s Vital Role in Creating Conservatism 3.0
Friday, October 11 on Ion Mihai Pacepa: The KGB’s War To Destroy the God of Israel
Wednesday, October 16 on Prager University: ‘There’s Nothing Just About Nature. Nature Is Only About Survival.’
Tuesday, October 22: Ed Driscoll: New Media Master and Cultural Conquistador
Wednesday, October 30 on Dennis Prager: The 21 Most Evil News Stories from October
Tuesday, November 5: 4 Blogging Weapons I Stole from Vodkapundit Stephen Green
Friday, November 1 on Ion Mihai Pacepa: The Silver Bullet to Kill Conspiracism
Tuesday November 12: 6 Ways to Change the World Glenn Reynolds-Style

Where I’m disappointed in myself is in the quantity. I wanted to get to daily blogging output this season. And I’m not there yet. Well, it’s time to get more disciplined about it. Three of the great writers I discussed in the series — Ed Driscoll, Stephen Green, and Glenn Reynolds — each model every day how to do thoughtful blog posts that get to the point. I’ll set a maximum word count of 500 for the daily post. That’ll force me to focus on finding the most interesting idea to illuminate the maze of today’s modern media madness with these books.

Reading Goals for the end of the year…

Books I want to finish and blog about in the next few weeks alongside the day’s news stories:

Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption
by Ion Mihai Pacepa (153/426)
Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism by Douglas Rushkoff (106/282)
Schrodinger’s Cat by Robert Anton Wilson (vol. 2, 78/254)
Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia (170/673)
The Mohammed Code: Why a Desert Prophet Wants You Dead by Howard Bloom — available on SmashWords. (94/187)
Getting it Right, a novel by William F. Buckley, Jr.(190/305)
The Hermetic Link: From Secret Tradition to Modern Thought by Jacob Slavenburg (263/357 pages)
A Trio of books about American leaders: Blood of Tyrants: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency by Logan Beirne (74/322), Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Railsplitter Saved the American Dream–And How We Can Do it Again by Rich Lowry (32/240), and The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon Wood (102/246)

For more books that are on my mind right now, you can see the list of books on my “reading now” book shelf at the Freedom Academy Book Club, which you can join for free to access my book list and others. Maybe you’ll find something to get fired up about.