I had this idea a year ago.

I would read a book per week in 2009.

Today I can tell you, that to the surprise of many and my own, I finished 52 books in 52 weeks.

You can read the details about what inspired this challenging "new year's resolution" on my friend Michael Surtees' post. He wanted to know some details because he is going to do it himself in 2010.

I learned a lot of things from the content of those 52 books, but I also learned a lot during the experience of reading so much, so often.

These are some of those learnings (and some stats):

I read 45 books on paper. (two are missing from the picture above because my wife is reading them)
I read 7 books on the Iphone kindle.
If you do something every single day, you can accomplish anything.
Originally I wanted to send an email to each writer as I finished the book to thank them.
I tried with the first 11 but I couldn't find but one email address.
And I never heard back from the author.
Because I have very bad memory I wrote on a blog my thoughts about the books.
I could only do it until March.
It took me two days per book to write the summaries on the blog.
The most important factor to be successful is receiving support from the people close to you.
When I read "Lincoln" I fell in love with the challenge of reading.
I thought: If each book can bring as much knowledge and discovery as this one did, this is going to be so enlightening.
Most books were truly enlightening.
But Moral Clarity by Susan Neiman, Lincoln by David Herbert Donald and Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud had a unique flavor to them.
A sense of universal relevance.
Reading in the subway requires a high level of concentration.
From what I see, New Yorkers are very good at that.
Innovation was the surfacing concept during the year.
I would work at Ideo and Pixar making photocopies.
Stephen King is truly remarkable.
There is a discipline to everything.
Creativity needs discipline.
It took me a long time to convince myself of this.
52 books make a pretty convincing case.
The Odyssey had more than 42,000 "pages" on the Kindle for the Iphone.
I thought that I would never end that book.
I never chose a book before ending the previous one.
Some interesting coincidences came up:
I read Lincoln the week before his 200th birth anniversary (February 12)
I read Born to be good and Moral clarity back to back.
They both support the idea of humans being good by nature.
I did plan on finishing with another book about Lincoln.
There is a lot to be learned from his life, personality and presidency. A lot, a lot.
When I got to week 26 (half year), I knew I could finish 52 books.
I had this book since 1997 "Just Listen" by Nancy O'Hara in my shelves.
I should have left it there.
I never found the point.
I finished it.
Just 200 pages but it seemed to last forever.
Like what you do.
You'll never have to "work" again.
People are less rational than we give ourselves credit for.
We imitate a lot.
Our ability to adapt is second to our ability to be compassionate in our evolutionary journey.
We like to cooperate.
We love to find similarities.
We are good.
But because of all these factors.
We are highly influenceable.
We want to fit in.
We need people to like us.
The books I enjoyed best were told by passionate people sharing things they had discovered.
The books I enjoyed less were told by people who passionately wrote about themselves so we can discover them.
It sounds like the same but there is a big difference.
Research, preparation and hard work is the secret of successful people.
Sorry.
There is no magic.
No big revelation.
Ideas are born from the juxtaposition of experience and curiosity.
Creativity is not about having ideas.
Is about creating ideas.
To create is to bring to life.
And finally:
All this knowledge, all these words, all these thoughts and principles and arguments...
All these books take just two shelves in my life.
Two shelves filled with one year of reading.
One incredible year.
Two shelves!
Which means one thing:
There is plenty of room for more.

Thank you @hazeliz, Amaia, Avi, Alani and Ander.
Michael for the recos and support.