Read 2666.Yes! I started it in July and read it on and off till November, but I finally did it.Knock 3 books off the Modern Library list.How about four?! And two of them were books I would gladly recommend to others (CATCH-22, A BEND IN THE RIVER).
- Read the 3 David Foster Wallace short-story collections. All right, I didn't do this. I didn't even read one, although I now own one. Maybe I'll do this this year, but I won't resolve to do it, because I don't know if short-story collections are my favorite thing in general. (That awkward moment when!)
Here's what I will resolve to do in 2012:
- Read more nonfiction. I own plenty and I'm interested in it, but it wasn't until looking through my entire list of books in 2011 that I found a hole there. Most of the nonfiction I did read, although I enjoyed it, was fairly niche. I think this one will complete itself without a problem.
- Knock 6 books off the Modern Library list. Aiming higher.
- Continue to strive to actually read the books I own. Not surprisingly, there are still a lot! Christmas was really good to me in this regard, not that I'm complaining, but now I'm going to read those books.
- Change my blogging process a little. Just going to leave this here since I'm sure the minutiae will just put to sleep. But, see if you notice anything!
3 comments:
Your dedication to the Modern Library list is impressive! I share your determination to read more non-fiction. I actually read quite a bit of non-fiction in 2011, but it was mainly memoir and biography. I would like to read more big-picture non-fiction in 2012, just to better understand the world around me, instead of just individual people's lives.
It's funny that you say that, because I think I should be reading more biographies (but also less memoir); they tend to sit on the shelves for years, in part because most of them are pretty long.
I can't tell whether you're kidding me or not about the Modern Library list. I am not really dedicated because if I were, I would have finished by now; if I decided I would only read those books, I'd probably finish this year. But there are a lot of compelling reasons not to do that, such as being able to talk about more recent books with friends, and no pressing reasons to finish in a certain time. Slow progress is better than no progress.
I was being serious. That is the same reason why I slowed my progress through the NY Times' list. Why read three 400-page Cormac McCarthy novels in a row, followed by four 400-page Philip Roth novels in a row, when they're old enough that few people are discussing them any more, and there are so many newer books that people are actively discussing? Its better to have them as distinct but long-term goals.
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