new year resolution #1: read more books
In recent years, I haven't kept track of the books I read in any easily referenceable way (it's in my paper journal, which lacks a search feature), so I can't say with any certainty how many books I read last year, but it was probably fewer than 10. That feels like a pretty small number to me, especially when I consider that as a teenager, I generally read at least 12 books every two weeks (that was how many you could check out from the library at once, and how long you got to keep them). Granted, those books were on the whole shorter than the ones I read now, but still, it's a vast difference in numbers.
It's not even like I can say it took me all year to get through 10 books, which could have reasonably happened if I'd started a program of improving myself by reading Important and Really Freaking Long Works of Literature, which I can say with certainty will never happen. Most of the time, I wasn't in the middle of reading anything. I read three of 2005's 10ish books in the second-to-last week of the year, and I had stretches of two or three bookless months at a time. I'd like to make reading a habit again, so that I always have a book going and dip into it often enough to keep track of what's happening, even if I don't read for long.
On the first of the year, I started The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, and I've done a good job of reading at least a few pages most of the days this week. I also haven't written this week since Sunday, but I don't think that I've been reading when I otherwise would have been writing, though there is the danger of these two activities competing for time. A couple of years ago, I used to read while working out on an stationary bike, and it looks like that's going to start being my primary form of exercise again, so this should help with my goal of reading more.
I own maybe three hundred books, and have only read perhaps a quarter of these (both estimates are extremely rough), so I have no shortage of books to read. Perhaps I'll come up with some sort of queue of what books I plan to read next, and I'll definitely start keeping a record of what I read, which might just consist of talking about them here.
It's not even like I can say it took me all year to get through 10 books, which could have reasonably happened if I'd started a program of improving myself by reading Important and Really Freaking Long Works of Literature, which I can say with certainty will never happen. Most of the time, I wasn't in the middle of reading anything. I read three of 2005's 10ish books in the second-to-last week of the year, and I had stretches of two or three bookless months at a time. I'd like to make reading a habit again, so that I always have a book going and dip into it often enough to keep track of what's happening, even if I don't read for long.
On the first of the year, I started The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, and I've done a good job of reading at least a few pages most of the days this week. I also haven't written this week since Sunday, but I don't think that I've been reading when I otherwise would have been writing, though there is the danger of these two activities competing for time. A couple of years ago, I used to read while working out on an stationary bike, and it looks like that's going to start being my primary form of exercise again, so this should help with my goal of reading more.
I own maybe three hundred books, and have only read perhaps a quarter of these (both estimates are extremely rough), so I have no shortage of books to read. Perhaps I'll come up with some sort of queue of what books I plan to read next, and I'll definitely start keeping a record of what I read, which might just consist of talking about them here.