Happy 2010, Attic Salt readers! I still have yet to formally write down my New Year's resolutions — maybe I should add "stop procrastinating" to the list — but I've also set some reading resolutions for the new year as well.
1. Read 50 books — I came close to 40 this year, and that was in a year where I was very slow getting started (I read one book the first two months of the year). 50 is nearly a book a week, but still gives some lee-way if I'm reading a particularly long book or am sick/on vacation/otherwise busy.
2. Read all six of Jane Austen's books — So far I have only read Emma, and after paying a visit last month to the Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library in New York, I'm finally ready to read her six novels in order. I'd like to have some conversations about her novels on this blog, so if you'd like to join me, or have already read them and want to chime in, that would be lovely.
3. Read some of the books that have gone unread for years on my shelves — It's kind of embarrassing what percentage of my bookshelves are unread. This year, book-buying needs to slow down, as does my library-habit, while I finally read books like Sacred Games, Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides With Samuel Johnson and Light in August.
Does anyone else have any 2010 reading resolutions? Any books and/or authors you've decided that it's finally time to read?
Monday, January 4, 2010
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One of mine is to start using Goodreads in earnest. I like the idea of keeping track of what I've read, and my thoughts at the time - I just haven't been doing it. But I'm with you on #3 too.
ReplyDeleteLike Hilary, I'm hoping to keep track of everything I read for the year, only I'm angling to do it primarily in a journal, to help fulfill my other resolution-- write more.
ReplyDeleteAnd please, please keep us updated on your Austen schedule. I'm hankering to re-read Persuasion (my tied-for-Pride-and-Prejudice-favorite) and tying it in with your reading schedule would be a great excuse for it.
I too should read some of my unread books, both purchased and checked out of my library for an unscrupulous length of time (the secret dark side of friends behind the circ desk)... but I just checked out six more from the Cambridge Library yesterday, as well as buying one in hardcover, so I don't know if it's a realistic goal.
In college I worked at the library and would monitor my and my friends' accounts so I could renew their books - something I wish I still had access to today.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes - I will be updating about my Austen schedule. I think Sense and Sensibility is up next after I finish the books I'm currently reading.
Admirable resolutions, you should definitely check back in as the year progresses to let us know how you're doing.
ReplyDeleteI have a handful of reading resolutions myself, well two so far: a)I want to read more philosphy, in particular I've been wanting to tackle Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and b)as an unspoken resolution for the last two or three years I have read a different translation of War and Peace. I once read somewhere that a man had read the book 12 times and felt he could finally say he had figured out life itself. Who knows?
I've read a couple big Russian novels, but never "War and Peace." Is there a translation that you've particularly liked?
ReplyDeleteOut of only a handful, I'm partial to the Anthony Briggs translation which came out in 2005 I believe. Definitely recommended.
ReplyDelete