A New Year’s Toast
Thank you to all who have stopped by for a visit. To those who have shared their thoughts: I appreciate every idea and kind word.
For the upcoming year, I wish for you and your families love and hope and joy in moments unexpected or commonplace. And, as always, may you find your dreams well within your reach!
For 2013 I only have one real resolution: be healthy. Of course, everyone says “I want to lose weight,” but that’s not really my plan. While it will be an added bonus, I am more concerned with boosting my immune system and upping my vitamin intake naturally (without vitamins). I want to feel energized and like I’m on the right track with food.
My sister and I watched several videos recently about a more vegetable centered diet: Forks Over Knives, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue. And, something clicked for me. I’ve known for years that my diet left much to be desired, but I just didn’t feel compelled to change it. Now, I think I am ready.
Will I be a strict vegan? Not going to happen. I refuse to give up my leather shoes and I like honey.
Will I be a strict vegetarian? Probably not.
What am I willing to change? I will overhaul my kitchen. I will make healthy food decisions. I will listen to my body when it tells me that I need something (like watermelon or onions or hot peppers). I will cut out soda, milk products, hfcs, and most meat.
How am I preparing for the changes? To be honest, the only big change I’ve made is homemade muesli for breakfast most days since Thanksgiving. It is quite yummy and it fills me up well–not a single snacking impulse even though I don’t usually eat lunch until 2 or 3. Two smaller preparations: I started drinking more water this week (although I’m still woefully below daily recommendations) and I readied a notebook to be a food diary.
The last days of 2012. Mostly my food intake right now is dreadful and horrid and blush-worthy. And I’m going to enjoy it until midnight on December 31!
Smaller committment things signed up for in 2013 (so far):
The Classics Club
Because I really need to get my butt in gear with reading the classics, I want to really splash into it this year! I’ve decided to give each month a theme so I can feel more excited about my progress.
While I will be reading more modern novels and other things besides classics, I thought I would try to finish at least two of the classics listed each month. This will give me choice and flexibility…which, as a flibbertigibbet, is key to a good plan.
January (Adventure Month): Treasure Island (Stevenson), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Verne), The Three Musketeers (Dumas), King Solomon’s Mines (Haggard)
February (Travel Month): Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), The Time Machine (Wells), Around the World in 80 Days (Verne), Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
March (Fight Month): The Nibelungenlied (unknown), Beowulf (unknown), The Last of the Mohicans (Cooper), Les Misérables (Hugo)
April (Anything Goes Month): Moll Flanders (Defoe), Madame Bovary (Flaubert), Eugénie Grandet (Balzac), Vanity Fair (Thackeray)
May (Maybe Mystery Month): The Complete Sherlock Holmes vol 1. and vol 2. (Doyle), The Moonstone (Collins), The Big Sleep (Chandler)
June (Ah, Love! Month): Adolphe (Constant), Wuthering Heights (Brontë), Evelina (Burney), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
July (16th/17th Century Play Month): Plays by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ford, Molière, and Webster
August (Hot as Hell! Month): Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde), The Divine Comedy (Dante), Paradise Lost (Milton)
September (The Dickens you say! Month): A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist
October (The Creeps! Month): Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson), Dracula (Stoker), Frankenstein (Shelley), In Cold Blood (Capote)
November (Forgive me, it’s Nanowrimo! Month): The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
December (Punishment Month): Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky), The Mayor of Casterbridge (Hardy), The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne), The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
I’ve been wretchedly lazy this year about reading, but I thought I’d take a look at what has been accomplished.
Breakdown
Total books: 40 (+1 that will be finished before the New Year)
Rereads: 17
Classification:
Total pages read: 18,676 + 759 = 19,435
Average book length: 474 pages
Books begun in 2012 and not yet completed:
Why were these books not completed? Mostly the problem stems from sheer laziness on my part. Two are not complete because I have a bee in my bonnet about them and am irritated with the writing and the content. Two are not finished because I had to return the book to the library for another patron and have not checked it out again.
What am I most pleased about? Nothing really. I didn’t manage to get through all of Austen this year. I can’t seem to finish Sense and Sensibility and I haven’t begun Mansfield Park. I’m mad that my list for “not finished this year” is ten books long! I am a bit grumbly about only finishing 41 novels…and 17 of those are re-reads! Geez. My 2012 was not a year for books.
What do I hope for 2013? I really want to get on with my Classics Club list. I am going to make a tentative goal to complete at least 30 classics next year. No more waffling!
Well, really, it’s just the flipping of the calendar, isn’t it. Who got their panties all in a bunch about this “end of the world” drama…geez.
Unfortunately, that means my grading must resume…
So, about an hour ago I finished up with Cold Days. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it all yet and I think I’ll have to have another listen through to really feel like it is integrated into my Dresden world knowledge. [Also, it is too early to be honestly awake after being up most of the night!] It really does set up for some major confrontations in books to come…
Also, it marks my finished goal of 40 books for the year. Yes, I have been utterly lazy about reading this year and I’m kind of embarrased. Mostly I keep my goal so low because it makes me feel superior when I blow past the finish line and rack up books well beyond the limit. OK, I know it is a cheap trick, but it works for me. But this year, wow. If I manage one or two more books, I’ll be shocked!
I’ve picked HP 7 back up and am going to get reading again. Sleep is overrated.
Mmmm. The Winter Knight.
Guess where I’ll be for the next few days?
Listening to James Marsters croon at me with a lovely, lovely story.
What is your favorite memory of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Have you ever read it? If not, will you? Why should others read it rather than relying on the film adaptions?
My mom always used to watch the old 30’s version of A Christmas Carol every year. She said it was the best version of the film. So, I grew up watching that and I’ve probably seen most of the film versions since at least once. Who could miss them?
But, last December was the first time I ever sat down to actually READ the book! [I know, I know. Shame on me.] And guess what I found? It read mostly like the movies with the exception of a few exposition points for clarification here and there.
Why should someone read the book?
I’m not sure if I will get to it again this year, but definitely next year as I want to tackle all of Dickens in one go!
Hey everyone–
The Classics Club is going to kickstart the new year with a big 24-hour readathon on Saturday, January 5th. Woohoo! Since that will be my last Saturday before school starts back up again, I thought it was excellent timing!
[Click the pic for more information…]
Since I still have plenty of books on my list of potentials for the Classics Club challenge, I think this will be the shortlist of choices for the readathon:
We shall see. Who knows…it may be something entirely different!
Allegraphy 