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Reading Resolutions

by

Lauren Roberts

It’s been years since I made New Year’s resolutions because so often they seem rooted in negativism or chance. “I want to lose weight” is a common one, but at its most basic, it translates to a dissatisfaction with life as it is and is usually accompanied by a strong if unconscious sense of deprivation that achieving the goal may entail. Wishing for more money as in winning the lottery is unlikely at best and tends to promote a foundation of belief that what will make life better is luck rather than hard work.

I’ve come to feel it’s far better, when choosing resolutions, to focus on making changes that depend on me and on choosing things that please me. Such as reading. So this column is a (gulp) public declaration of my reading resolutions for 2007. By doing this I am in essence giving you permission to call me on it a year from now. How did I do? Am I  happy with what I did?

I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of weeks, and what I’ve come up with are ten resolutions that encompass some specifics and some generalities. (The reason for the latter is that I cannot know what books will be published in this new year, and must allow room for those delightful discoveries.) Here then are my Reading Resolutions.

1) Read a minimum of eight books considered to be classics.
Though I have a love of classics, there are an astonishing number I’ve never read and will, sadly, never get the opportunity to read. Still, I’ll do what I can. If half of them can be from women, countries other than England or America, and centuries other than the nineteenth or twentieth, so much the better. Definitely on my list for 2007 is author George Sand. I will also solicit suggestions from BiblioBuffet’s Nicki Leone, Henry Carriagan and our newest contributor, Gary Baldridge, all of whom have a deeper immersion into this particular literary lake than I do. 

2) Read at least two collections of classical poetry, one of them Thomas Hardy.
Why? Because I don’t recall having any exposure to poetry throughout school. My memory is likely bad since I was in private (Catholic) school through the 12th grade, but if I had it I don’t remember. That alone is sufficient reason to give myself the treat of fine poetry, but I have a far better incentive that that: I want to immerse myself in this most royal of arts.

3) Pick one topic and read deeply about it, enough to become a lay specialist. 
In thinking about the subject, I roamed over my favorite categories and sub-specialties within them. I am familiar with the subjects on which I own books, but the depth I wish to acquire will require an enduring, focused passion on my part. I debated the merits of astronomy, Vincent Van Gogh, 20th century American culture and Robert Oppenheimer. All of them interest me enormously, and it was difficult to pick one. But after considerable vacillation and with some regret for holding off on the others, I have settled on Van Gogh. 

4) Read for fun.
I’m looking for simple, lighthearted but intriguing books whose purpose is to entertain me. In the past I’ve read a few mysteries and the rare thriller, but I find these don’t always hold my attention. So for me it’s back to nonfiction. This resolution is one where I am going to see what comes up this year. Ideally, they will be on the order of Them, Stiff or that oldie-but-still-a-goodie, Into Thin Air, but really, anything that entices me is fair game.

5) Read at least two books in genres outside my preferences.
Here’s an opportunity for me to explore some areas where I normally wouldn’t tread—meaning probably fiction. I am leaning towards at least one book from Persephone Books (a small UK publisher specializing in forgotten classics by twentieth-century authors, mostly women) and something new in 2007 from one of the small or medium-sized publishers on which BiblioBuffet focuses. Who knows; maybe I’ll even try fantasy or science fiction.

6) Develop one new literary interest sufficiently large to make it a new category in my library books list.

Of course that could be as few as three books, but it does mean creating an awareness of a subject I’ve never before explored and a desire to own books about it. It might be the history of American blues or gardening novels or even something I haven’t yet thought of but will find when I browse my local independent store with this resolution in mind.

7) Increase my audio book consumption by listening to a minimum of one audio book per month.

I don’t have to be persuaded to listen to audio books. I really like them. It gave me great joy when I was able to turn my father onto them when print became too difficult for him to navigate. But I own more than I have listened to, and I want to reverse those odds. It helps that my library has an excellent collection on both cassettes and CDs. If the book is one I’d normally read, I do that first before listening to the audio version; this routinely happens with Simon Winchester and Bill Bryson. But other books—mysteries, say, if they are read well—can often hold my attention where the book in print would not. So this will be an interesting way to increase my “reading,” perhaps into areas where audio has an advantage.
 
8) Take my books outdoors.
My home is a comfortable reading environment. Stocked with cats, two sofas and pillows, a warm bed and lots of bookcases, it does its job of keeping me content. But I think that 2007 might be a good year to take more of my books out of their domestic environment, to read them at the beach, at a park, at outdoor cafés, even at work during breaks. A few valuable ones might not get that opportunity, but the majority (excluding, for practical reasons, the oversized and overweight art and fine art photography volumes) would probably enjoy the excursions. The truth is, we both would. So it will be.

9) Journey around South America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia through their recent literature and nonfiction.
It is natural for native English speakers to read primarily what we have been taught—that is, British- and American-published books. Some classics such as Flaubert, Tolstoy, Plato have been translated and become part of that set. But how many books published in these countries (and others) are a routine part of my reading? Almost none, I am ashamed to say. I have a decided Eurocentric bent to my home library, and this year I am going to start to change that.

10) Prepare one meal a month devoted to the theme of a good book.
Okay, it’s not reading but it is a tribute to the book, its author and my enjoyment of it. An example (which I am not going to do because I have re-read this book recently and do not plan to read it again in 2007) is Dracula. Such a meal would include a salad of sliced red tomatoes and roasted red beets drizzled with garlic oil and balsamic vinegar, a broiled steak, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, and treacle pudding for dessert. The latter is included not only because it is a traditional English dessert but because treacle was a medicinal compound formerly in wide use as an antidote against poison, a perfect culinary tribute.



Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines have reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 750 bookmarks and nearly 1,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

 
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