Of course, now that I blogged like an hour (or was it longer?) ago I think of something legit to blog about. Something that if I don't put out there in the public, I may not end up accomplishing.
My goal for 2012 (aside from making more great progress on my 101 in 1001 list) is to read the entire Standard Works.
Book of Mormon. Doctrine and Covenants. Pearl of Great Price. New Testament. Old Testament. All 2468 pages or 1581 chapters/sections of it. All of it. By the end of 2012.
I know that this is insane. I decided I'm going to start in the Old testament, simply because it is the first book in my Quad. I'll read them in the order that they are in the Quad.
In July of this year my Stake Relief Society President issued a challenge to start July 3rd, read 9 chapters a week, and we would finish The Book of Mormon on either Christmas Day or New Years Eve (I honestly don't remember which it is right now). I started, got behind, caught up, kept right on track, got behind, caught back up... it's been insane. Right now I think I'm about 3 weeks ahead. I'm in Ether right now, Ether 11 to be exact. That means I'm super close to finishing, probably sometime in the next week or week and a half.
I think that once I finish, I'm going to start the whole Standard Works challenge. I'm giving myself an extra 20-30 days (depending on when I do end up starting) because I know it's going to be a challenge. I used this scripture calculator that breaks down each of the books into pages and chapters and does the calculating for you. If I go by pages, I need to read 7 (well, 6.76) pages a day to finish in 365 days. If I go by chapters I need to read 5 (well, 4.33) chapters a day to finish in 365 days. I think I'm going to go the chapter route. I think I would get frustrated to get to the end of my 7th page and be in the middle of a chapter.
I have the podcasts of the complete standard works downloaded on iTunes and I like to listen to the chapters. I am forced to focus more when I am listening, that's just the way that works for me.
I think I am completely nuts for attempting to do this, but it will be a great opportunity to read through everything.
Broken down, it should take:
186 days to read the Old Testament
52 days to read the New Testament
48 days to read The Book of Mormon
28 days to read The Doctrine and Covenants
3 days to read The Pearl of Great Price
That ends up only being 317 days. That would be pretty rad. Highly unlikely that I will finish the entire thing on November 12th (that is the 317th day of next year) or October 23rd (if I start 20 days early that would be the 317 day mark). But how cool would that be? Later this week I'll make my reading calendar so that I know where I need to be each week. And I'll have to commit to posting about my progress. That will probably be the thing that keeps me going, knowing that I have someone to report to. Even if nobody reads my blog I like to pretend that someone does. Well, I know that Sarah, Megan, Sandy, and Joanne read my blog, so I suppose that is who I am holding myself accountable to.
I think I'm crazy.
To recap. By December 31st, 2012, I will finish the ENTIRE Standard Works. It's on.
3 comments:
Oh wow! That is quite the goal, but I know you can do it! :-D
That's awesome! We manage to read scriptures every night, and we have been reading in the Old Testament to help the older kids with Seminary, but I don't love it as much as I do the BOM. I can't wait to switch back again.
Sandy
Good Girl! Way to raise the bar to the very top of the pole! You CAN do this. The OT is easy to skim in some parts, and has amazing stories woven into the text. See you in a couple of days!
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