An In-Progress Problem

I was watching a video clip of Ken Schwaber talking about scrum software development, and he got into an interesting problem. (Well, interesting to some of us.) This is the "in-progress problem." It arises when you find that you have many tasks started, but few or none of them are being brought to a conclusion.

In my case, this applies to my reading habits. I tend to start a book because it seems interesting, or I've been thinking about something related to its subject, or just because it's handy or will soon be due at the library. But then I start another book, and another, and I sometimes find it hard to get back to the earlier book and finish it.

On the current reading list accompanying this blog you can see that I started The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, by Robert Asprey, back on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th, for you heathens in the audience). I started another book, The Vampire Archives, edited by Otto Penzler, on the same day. That in itself is probably a bad sign. Starting two books on the same day indicates that I was not of a very settled disposition. So far, I've read only through page 21 of the 580 pages in The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, or 3.62%.

I haven't done all that well in The Vampire Archives, either, as I am now at page 158, in a story called "Ligeia," by Edgar Allan Poe. That's about 15% of the 1034 pages in the book. But I do have the excuse the I received The Vampire Archives for Christmas 2009, along with a whole CARE package of books. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte I bought in a small gift and bookstore in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in 2003, so it's been cluttering up my bookshelves for nearly seven years.

What am I going to do about this situation? Well, if experience is any guide, someday, perhaps a rainy, gloomy day like today, unfit for other pursuits, I'll pick up Asprey's book and start reading it. At some point, I'll be so far into it, and it will have engaged my mind in such various ways, that the reading will acquire a momentum of its own. And then I'll finally finish the book.

Commentary's Books: January 2009

Commentary doesn't have a "bestsellers list," like the one in Foreign Affairs. They do have reviews of five or six books in every issue, and some of their articles are centered on some new book or books of interest.

The January 2009 issue of Commentary had the following reviews:

In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served - from JFK to George W. Bush. Ivo H. Daalder and I. M. Destler. Simon & Schuster. 372 pp. $27.00. Reviewed by Daniel Casse.

Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-century Totalitarian State. Steven Heller. Phaidon. 224 pp. $90.00. Reviewed by Michael J. Lewis.

Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. Charles Murray. Crown Forum. 224 pp. $24.95. Reviewed by Wilfred M. McClay.

A Manifesto for Media Freedom. Brian C. Anderson and Adam D. Thierer. Encounter. 200 pp. $21.95. Reviewed by David L. Lange.

Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds. Joel L. Kraemer. Doubleday. 640 pp. $35.00. Reviewed by David C. Flatto.

In addition to the book reviews, there was this review article, which should be of interest to fantasy and science fiction fans.

Algis Valiunas, "No to Poe," pages 42-45 in Commentary, January 2009. This article was inspired by Poe: A Life Cut Short, by Peter Ackroyd. Doubleday. 224 pages. $21.95.

There was also "In the Ruins of Vilna," by Michael Kimmage, about Vilna (or Vilnius), Lithuania, invoking From That Place and time: A Memoir, 1938-1947, by Lucy S. Dawidowicz. Introduction by Nancy Sinkoff. Rutgers, 376 pp., $24.95 (paper).