I am 29.7% towards my goal. I'm going to round up and say that I am 30% towards my goal If my calculations are correct, $4.20 will make this a reality, and $45.87 will get me to 33%. Yes, statistics are a fun way to procrastinate, especially since I'm doing well. Most importantly, I've surpassed 25%. I read somewhere on kickstarter.com that something like 92% of projects that raise 25% of their goal end up being successful. Of course, getting past 25% does not make it inevitable that I will succeed, but it is a very good sign.

Someone asked me today how much they would have to pledge to get a physical copy of my book. The $100 reward does include a signed copy, but there is no reward below that that gets you an unsigned copy of the book. I'm not certain how much the book will end up costing from Lulu.com (it depends on a lot of things- the content / format of the book, the style of printing I go with, etc.), but I aim to make the physical book reasonably priced. I do know that if I also sell the book as an ebook on Lulu.com, I will probably sell it for $15- slightly more than the price you pay to get it as a reward through Kickstarter, yet less than the price I'd aim for as a physical copy. Of course, it is a very real possibility that I will license the book under a Creative Commons license, so if you have a friend who ponied up when it mattered, you could get copy. Which brings me to the most important point: pledge now, even if you want a physical copy later. The book's existence depends on your support now.

In future updates, I will try and include a snippet about a potential project that I'm considering as a part of the summer. As this project has become more real in my mind, I've had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas for things I can do. In addition to the list of books I keep at Goodreads, I keep a local list of potential products. Remember that these projects may or may not be a part of the end product, and they may be different, because "Flexibility is an important element for any autodidactic pursuit".

Last summer I wanted to re-read all of the Harry Potter books, but I couldn't rationalize undergoing the task because I'd already read all of them and didn't want to take precious reading time away from new, non-Program books. So during this project, I want to read all of the Harry Potter books in a week or maybe a little more (one a day may become too rigorous, we'll see) and write an essay about a) their literary merit (in light of my AP English Literature course, and a year at St. John's), and b) my memories about them as a formative childhood experience.

Keep pledging, and spread the word!