New Book Resolutions
We're already a few days into the new year and I haven't made a thing that even remotely resembles a resolution. I've shoved my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm into a closet (if you call her "Tuffi" it makes her really mad!) and now it's time to get down to work:
1. Complete Middlemarch. I've already started my 10-year reread, but have gotten a little sidetracked by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
2. Finish the Canadian Book Challenge. I'm stalled at book #4. According to John's rankings, I've been a New Brunswicker for months!
3. Read more Pulitzers. Easy enough -- I've been building my Pulitzer shelf for the past couple of years and now have an excuse to go out and buy another. The next (February 15th, if you're in Seoul) book group selection is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Yes! I haven't read this book since the late 90s and I'm looking forward to revisiting what feels like an old friend.
4. Make frequent use of the library at my new university. Finally getting a library in Korea, even if it turns out to be a little haphazard, is one of the best Christmas gifts I could have received, even if I can't open it until March 1st (start date).
5. Complete the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. I've chosen 3 books for this: Consider The Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher, Fried Eggs With Chopsticks by Polly Evans and Let's Eat Korean Food by Betsy O'Brien.
6. Study Korean. Not formally, but learning a few more nouns and verbs would be helpful.
7. Keep challenges manageable. Yeah, I know. How long will that resolution last? That "books about presidents" challenge looks so tempting.
8. Be less of a slob about writing reviews. The amount of catch-up on my plate is incredible. I won't run out of things to blog about.
9. Read more internationally. Always worth striving for, even though I always fall short.
10. Let non-fiction rule this year. Or at least break even.
I can hear a faint scratching from the closet. Tuffi must be taking notes.
10 comments:
I'm trying to increase the nonfiction this year, too. We'll see how that goes!
Laughing at "keep challenges manageable" and "be less of a slob about writing reviews" - those are kind of universal goals for book bloggers!
I swear completing Middlemarch has been my resolution since the 1980s but I haven't done it yet!
You can do it! go, go, go! I'm overlapping challenges as much as I can...
Those sound like great resolution! I'm with jenclair on the universality of the two she mentions. :) I love Middlemarch, just read it for the first time in 2007, so I'll probably be rereading it in the next couple of years.
New Brunswick?! Why that's just a short trip across the bridge from me; you should stop by.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is absolutely on my top five list for the year. Probably even top three (along with Infidel by Ali Hirsi, The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell, and There is No Me Without You by Melissa Greene - just in case you needed more fodder....)
I loved loved loved Lonesome Dove!! It is an excellent read...I wish I was there for you bookclub!!!
Jenclair,
We can give each other ideas for nonfiction reads!
Katya,
I had a couple of false starts before I finally completed Middlemarch in the spring of 1999.
Care,
I need to remember to overlap...that might be the key. Tuffi thinks it's wimpy, though...
Eva,
You're so cool -- so young and you like Middlemarch.
raidergirl3,
I should come visit...I've been in New Brunswick for months now.
Shanna,
I'm having the best time with AVM. Thanks for the other recommends.
Myza,
I really hate it that we weren't in the bookclub at the same time!
I'm not a big western person, but I gotta tell you that Lonesome Dove is my all-time favorite book, ever. Hope you love it as much as I did!
Oh, and I've given you an award. You can pick it up here!
Congrats. I'm so glad you got to 100. What's the goal for 2009?
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