Sometime last year, I noticed that the book of "Genesis" has 50 chapters. Since about 2007, I've used "Genesis" to help me start learning a language. For many English speakers familiar with the King James translation, this might seem odd since, with its archaic grammar (thee, thy, knoweth, etc), it seems harder than in fact it is. The sentences are generally short, the vocabulary fairly elementary and even the repetition, which can be off putting when read in one's mother tongue, comes in truly handy when learning a new language.
Last year, I realized I'd read the first 20 chapters in about 20 languages, and from this simple coincidence came an idea, at once ambitious and daft: why not read the 50 chapters in 50 languages for my 50th birthday? If I hadn't already done about half of the book in about half as many languages, I'd never have considered this, but already having accomplished one quarter of my goal (1/2 X 1/2 = 1/4), it didn't seem too crazy to try to do the whole thing.
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