I have never been as successful with my New Year’s resolutions as I was last year. In fact, I can safely boast that it was the only resolution I maintained through to the very last day of the year. That, my friends, is because I resolved to drink more.
It earned me lot of laughs and a lot of understanding looks at the beginning of the year; I was going through a divorce and what better way to handle it than with a laugh and a full glass of wine? Oh, I joked a lot, but don’t worry, I never took it too far.
All the same, I think for this year I might attempt a more moderate resolution: I want to read at least 25 books. A friend of mine dares to read as many as 50, and I think – depending on how many lunches I’m forced to work through – I might be able to catch her. But I hate to set myself up to fail; unfortunately, I only made it as high as 20 books this past year. To be fair, two of them were over 1,000 pages (The Fountainhead and The Stand). But, still. I would hate to forever think that the only resolve I had was to drink.
In fact, I’ll even place a friendly little wager on it. For every book I read, I’ll set aside five dollars. At the end of the year, if I meet my goal, I can spend the money on anything I want – no matter how frivolous. If I fail, well, I’ll have to spend it on something useful, like socks and trash bags or something.
I have a fair start – I’m coming out of a dry spell and I have more than a few books I can hardly wait to dive into. You know how sometimes you can’t think of a single book you want to read and even the old standards you read and re-read just don’t sound very appetizing? This ain’t one of those times. I’m finally getting into The English Patient (I think I’m the very last American woman to either see the movie or read the book). I’m at the part where – SPOILERS AHEAD – Hana has declared her love for Caravaggio to the readers and Kip finally has a name. I’m not insanely in love with the story, but I look forward to reading it at night. Next on my plate I have to choose between either The Eyre Affair by Jasper Pfff-Forde, which I received for Christmas from my sister, or Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella, which was lent to me by my dear friend Crisanna-Crisanna-danna. One seems slightly more…hmmm…shall we say sophisticated?…than the other, so I guess I’ll wait and see what sort of mood I’m in after The English Patient ends.
I’ve also go to squeeze in a dozen or so Agatha Christies before August and I’ve been meaning to try some P.D. James and I’m sure there are a zillion others that are lurking in the back of my mind, queueing up even as I type. Now if only one of you would resolve to add more time to the day so I could read as much as I like, well, I would be much obliged.
Tags: Books, literature, New Year's, reading, resolutions
January 2, 2009 at 11:10 pm |
read the eyre affair! read the eyre affair!!!!! and dont skip that darling little post-it i KNOW the xmas elf slipped in there! lets see i read 1/2 of a ginormous antholgy book + 22 books last year =0P i only broke even and then beat by 2 because of brit lit though so i only sorta read more books…assigned books only sorta count…unless you grade yourself when your done, which you’re doing this year so maybe i really did beat you! really good resolution this year!!!
January 2, 2009 at 11:11 pm |
ps when i read your title i instantly thought “ooooh yuck! yuck!!!” =]
January 3, 2009 at 8:22 am |
Now this is the kind of resolution I can get behind. I had sort of resolved the same thing for myself, though not officially. And I’m going to try to be more adventurous in my reading — reading things that I might on first glance not choose. Maybe we should start an online book club?
July 14, 2009 at 7:16 am |
[...] please)…I finished 25 books. HP6 marked the 25th book that I’ve read since setting my goal for 2009. And I’ve done it in just over half a year! If I can keep up the pace, I wonder if I could [...]
December 30, 2009 at 12:03 pm |
[...] else I’d never remember anything. But getting back to my point: back in January, I resolved to read at least 25 books during the year. Reading is essential to who I am and I’ve found that whenever I fall out of [...]