Exam Visual

My comprehensive exam list is supposed to have about 100 books on it.  I went to the library last week to pick up as many of my remaining books as I could, so while my list is not quite finished and I don't have all the books I requested yet, I have most of them in my possession.  This is what that looks like:

By mid November, I am supposed to have the entire contents of these books in my brain.  I'm supposed to be able to speak intelligently about how they relate to my research interests and how they relate to one another.  I'm supposed to be ready to present a comprehensive but specific argument about them to my committee of four professors, after which they will spend the remainder of the two hour exam window asking me anything they want about these books and my project.

Eep.  I'm hoping that by shifting each of these into a "done" pile after completing them, I will be able to reassure myself that I'm making decent progress.  We'll see.  I'll try to post another picture in a few weeks for comparison.