Jacob Neusner's Books: Don't Try This at Home (or Anywhere Else)!

Gary North - July 24, 2012

July 24, 2012

Next Saturday, July 28, I hope to post the final typeset volume of my 31-volume economic commentary on the Bible.

//www.garynorth.com/public/department158.cfm

There are also four extra volumes of separate appendixes.

I began this project in March of 1973.

Compared to what you are about to see, this output is barely worth mentioning.

There is a familiar saying: "A man should know his limitations." How Neusner did this is unknown. I doubt that many people in history had the gifts to come close. Isaac Asimov did. He wrote about half of what Neusner has written. He had a book in nine of the ten classification categories of the Dewey decimal system. Here is a list: http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html

It does no good to aim far higher than you can shoot. That will frustrate anyone who attempts this. Acknowledge that others have unique abilities, and move on. Increase your output marginally. Don't try to revolutionize yourself or your output. It's too rare to attempt.

Neusner's first book was published when he was 30 years old. Some of us had earlier starts. But he ran like the hare in Aesop's fable. No other hares caught him. Tortoises would be wise not to attempt it.