I don't make New Year's Resolutions; they don't stick.
However, I made a few New Year's wishes for myself. The first is to read more books. I love to read. Curling up with a good book is one of life's precious gifts. Over the last couple of years reading has taken a back seat to "messing around" on the computer. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing so I'm going to try to turn this around by reading more and playing on the computer less.
Listening to books on CD counts. Once a week I make a two hour round trip commute to a satellite office south of Seattle to see patients. I used to drive in silence (which was meditative...almost) and sometimes would turn on the radio. But now I listen to books on CD.
I'm currently just about to finish up Three Cups of Tea which is likely the most inspiring account I've ever encountered of how one person can make a difference, an enormous difference. One American man's promise (Greg Mortenson) to local villagers in a remote region of northern Pakistan to build them a school to educate their youth in the 1990's changed his life and the lives of thousands of students as he went on to create the Central Asia Institute and built dozens of other schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan. His commitment to the education of girls in particular is astonishing. Highly recommended reading or listening.
What books are you reading right now?
My daughter gave me two books for Christmas and I couldn't decide which one to start so I have started both of them: "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell and "SuperFreakonomics" by Steven Levitt. Both look good.
ReplyDeleteI just finished "Plant Dreaming Deep" by May Sarton. LOVED it! This morning I read from a poetry collection by William Carlos Williams and... something else? I am waiting for the Amazon delivery of a three-book-volume by Annie Dillard. I am studying her this month... and syncronistically... one of my photographic challenges today is to take a photograph including books! Watch for me to post it on my blog. I am a BOOK LOVER and Junkie like... well, almost like none other.
ReplyDelete(Thanks for your congratulatory comment on my blog, too. I so appreciate it!)
I recently read "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davis.
ReplyDeleteIt is a wonderful fabric of intertextuality, partially built on a pattern of Medieval narrative with elements of Dante's Inferno, the Canterbury Tales, etc. A story about reincarnation and redemption through love. It is about this man who suffers severe burns in a car accident and keeps getting these visits from a strange woman who works as a sculptress and makes gargoyles. She claims to know him from a past life. In the end it is because of her that he turns his abonimable lifestyle around. Another fascinating book I would recommend is "Pope Joan". Even if the story is unlikely it is the story of a gifted woman struggling to assert her abilities in a hostile world years behind her time-Tina Banerjee
I love your idea of a New Year's wish. I want to read more books again, as well. I'm trying to find the balance between time on the computer, writing time and reading time. It is challenging. And I used to be a voracious fiction reader. I want to read that book! However, I've been spending far too much time reading nonfiction.
ReplyDeleteI've just finished "This is Not How I Thought It Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood to Get the Lives We Want Today" by Krisin Maschka. It is where I am right now, and it resonates!
Kate -- I highly recommend The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey. It's one of the best novels I've read in ages.
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