Reading Plan 2H2020 to 2H2021

How do I (Richard) plan to spend my reading time for the rest of 2020 and the first half of 2021?

Overview 

My personal martial arts library consists of several collections: print books, digital books, digital papers and articles, and digital media (instructionals, videos, and the like). One of my goals for Martial History Team is to review this material and produce recommended reading (or watching) lists, at least for the topics for which I have coverage and which personally interest me. In doing so I hope to encourage others, whether part of MHT or not, to do the same, thereby making it easier for martial arts researchers and enthusiasts to recognize quality sources and avoid less reliable material.

Thus far I have been reading in an ad-hoc manner, depending on whatever interests I might have at the moment. This weekend I decided to formalize my reading plan such that I could cover certain materials and topics within a defined period of time.

Focus Areas

My current focus is on print and digital books, addressing the following topics:

• Judo history, concerning Japan, the Kodokoan, and the founder, professor Jigoro Kano
• Judo history beyond Japan, and beyond Kano
• Japanese bujutsu and budo, with a special focus on jujutsu
• Brazilian jiu-jitsu history, including the Gracie family
• Minor attention to karate history and texts such as the Bubishi
• Some attention to Chinese martial arts history
• Broad overviews of martial arts via reference texts and encyclopedias
• Introduction to historical European martial arts
• Minor attention to the history of Taekwondo, African martial arts, and wrestling 

An older version of this post listed dozens of titles that I planned to read. Subsequent work has caused that list to grow to over 160 books. Rather than continuously updating the list here, I have removed it. I am sticking with the focus areas listed above, however.

Conclusion

This is an ambitious list, and it's about two books per week. Some of the works, like encyclopedias, do not lend themselves to being read in a week. I will likely spread them over the course of a month, in parallel with other books. In general, I'm reading multiple books at any one time anyway.

I am not tied to this schedule by anything other than motivation. If it slips due to other obligations, I will go with the flow. 

My plan for each book is to read it and then review it for Martial Journal, as I have been doing for other titles.

I have hundreds more books waiting after this initial collection. I will develop a reading plan for them next year. These include books on technique, for example. As this is the Martial History Team, however, my priority is developing recommended reading lists on martial arts history, not techniques.

Outside of this plan, I have a few books waiting for reviews, sent by publishers. I will read and review those in parallel.

Is there a book you would like me to read? Let me know via social media!

If you've read this far, you might also be interested in the notes I'm creating for each title. I might decide to publish those via a Patreon account. I need to think more about this, but I'm considering it.

If you would like to review a book, I say go for it. You might find my post Criteria for Martial History Team Source Reviews to be helpful. I do not lend books from my library, but I encourage you to add to your collection!

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Note: The graphic at the top of the post shows two shelves from my personal library. You may be wondering about the odd looking cardboard at the extreme left of each shelf. Those are placeholders to reserve room for a couple other titles I expect to add to those sections in the coming weeks. In general I like to keep a little extra room on each shelf. Also, I have several more shelves, and I may need to add to them in the coming months.