On New Year's Day, Norman Tuck will settle into his blue and white checkered easy chair to revisit an endeavor he's already completed, 46 times over.

For more than four decades, Tuck has read the Bible each year, taking it day by day.

“You have to want to do it,” he emphasized. “Once you read it, once a year, you will find so many things that will help you.”

Familiar passages resonate in new ways each time as Tuck, 79, navigates different stages of life.

“I stumbled upon things on the 46th time and it blows me away,” said Tuck.

As a young man seated in Clen-Moore Presbyterian Church in New Castle, he suddenly realized he'd never read the Bible in its entirety.

A voracious reader all his life, Tuck could hardly believe he hadn't done so.

“I made a goal, sitting on that pew,” he said. “I made a goal to read the Bible every day, and read it through every year.”

He recalls a teacher telling him, “If you want a good education, read books,” and believes his ultimate education has come from reading the Bible.

“It's amazing how much you find in here that's applicable to today,” said Tuck.

The reading plan in the back pages of his Bible suggests reading morning and evening, but Tuck completes the day's reading after breakfast.

Tuck also reads several daily devotionals during this time.

“I read everything at one time; 45 minutes to an hour is sort of my saturation point,” he said.

“But that doesn't mean I don't think about things during the day.”

Bibles commonly include such a plan, and Tuck even persuaded his pastor in Butler to publish the schedule in the monthly newsletter.

“A number of people are using it,” said Tuck, who's followed the same schedule all along. “I can't believe I'm at the end of reading the Bible; that's how fast it goes.”

Tuck belongs to Hill United Presbyterian Church in Butler and to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

He has served as a lay minister and often presides over Hill's monthly service at Newhaven Court.

Relatively few people read the Bible through even once, said the Rev. Clark Sawyer, pastor at Hill United Presbyterian.

“Reading through the Bible each year, from Genesis to Revelation on a continuous basis, is pretty uncommon,” said Sawyer, who has known Tuck for more than nine years.

“It takes some passion, you have to have heart for it, and it takes some discipline.”

No matter how many times the Bible is read, it remains fresh, said Sawyer.

“It's inexhaustible relative to the teaching and the insight and the truth, and also applicable, as Norm has said, as to where you are in your life,” Sawyer said.

In addition to fostering his spiritual growth, Tuck's Bible-reading project also ties into his New Year's resolutions.

At the start of the year, Tuck jots down no more than five goals to accomplish in the coming year.

Reading the Bible is always his number one goal, he said. Another recurring goal is to walk three miles daily, which he does faithfully, rain or shine.

“Once you write it down, it's easier to keep at it,” he said. “It's in black and white in front of you all the time.”

He folds the list into an envelope and tucks it into his Bible's back cover until New Year's Day.

“It's sealed til that day and it's always a joy to open,” he said. “Sometimes, I don't complete them, but other times I say, ‘I didn't even realize I did that.'”

Tuck said he's gotten some flack for repairing the spine of his frayed, dog-eared Bible with tape, but he said that only means it's been well-used.

“They just wear out,” he said, leafing through the book's pages, now soft and limp from repeated readings.

Faith has been central in Tuck's life since childhood and he vividly remembers becoming a Christian.

Every month, two women visited his one room-schoolhouse in Unionville and told Bible stories, acting them out using a felt board.

He recalls hearing the story of Joseph and his brothers for the first time and feeling enthralled.

“I was hooked,” he said. “Something happened to me there, when I was in the fourth grade.”

Now about to begin his 47th reading of the Bible, Tuck maintains that anyone can do the same if they put their mind to it.

“Inch by inch, anything's a cinch,” he said.