Reading

Well its taken a bit longer than I anticipated, but beginning to feel like I am getting into the reading on participatory democracy. Some if it is very tough going, some of it really exciting.  The problem is now I don't know where to stop, the more I read the broader it gets. How important is the earlier theoretical stuff, should I concentrate on more recent writing?  How much do I need to know before I start to structure something? And all the while, the more I read the more it feels like I am forgetting.

Every time I go to the library I discover another immobile pile of books, each online search reveals more articles.  It always was going to be a very broad area of reading, I guess I thought I could keep it narrow, just participatory democracy says I.

With a pile of books to one side, a stash of photocopying on the shelf above me, and a drop box folder full of unread journal articles, do I keep going or stop, take stock of where I am and have a go at describing how I might write about this literature?

Recently, I lot of people have started asking 'how is the PhD going?'.... Slow, says I, but it is going.