One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2019 was to write more on this blog, and I failed miserably at it. It’s not that I haven’t been reading – I have, though I also fell short of my reading goal. It was only by two books, and the amount I read of books I started but didn’t finish probably made up those two missed books, but still.
I wish I had a good excuse, but I don’t really. I forget to write, and when I think of it, I can’t decide what to write about. I overthink it, and before I know it, weeks go by and I still haven’t written anything. I suppose that’s probably why I’ve also never finished anything else I’ve been writing.
I’ve also been trying to do stuff around my house. I know, I know, my life is super exciting. But the end goal is a room of floor-to-ceiling shelves for all my books, so it’s worth it, I think.
So, what’s in store for 2020? Glad you asked. I’m being realistic and setting my goal at 50 books again. I know it’s doable because I’ve done it before, and I’m trying to keep it realistic since I still have a lot to do around this place and am hoping to focus a bit more on my writing this year too. Of course, I’m also starting the year off with reading The Count of Monte Cristo for book club, which is a brick of a book with about 1,200 pages. I need to finish it by February 1st, and no, I haven’t started it yet. I also want to read There There by Tommy Orange because it was chosen for the One Book, One Philadelphia project and there are a bunch of events going on around it. Last year, Jesmyn Ward was here, and she was great, so I’d like to go again and start a reading tradition with myself.
My other goal is to read all of Shakespeare. I’m still deciding whether that includes his poetry or not, but I’m leaning toward yes. I guess it will depend on how my year goes. My plan is to read it all chronologically (or as chronologically as I can since there’s no completely accurate list, but more on that another time). I’ve read shockingly few of his plays (for an English major and book lover, anyway) and would like to remedy that since so much modern work is based on them. I feel like it’s a big blind spot of mine, and that I don’t know as much as I should of his writing. That’s pretty much all the thought I’ve put into this… I know there’s a writer who’s also reading all his plays this year, but I had my idea first. Well, before I knew anyone else was doing it, anyway. It’s something I’ve thought about doing before but never got around to it.
And that’s pretty much it. I have a few other goals for 2020, too, and one of them is to be more disciplined about how I spend my time so I can actually get to everything I want. I’m trying to re-learn ASL, and want to practice my drawing more because it’s something I miss doing, and may pick up a musical instrument again. There are the other more typical goals, too, like eating healthy and working out more and trying to be organized and all that, so it’ll be a busy year of self-improvement, but it’s all stuff I’m looking forward to, which I’m sure will help me work harder at accomplishing it all.
Here’s to 2020. I hope yours is great too.
Lindsey Reads Things 