Last year, much like this year, I
didn’t make an resolutions. Not really. I thought about a few things. I
mentioned them in passing. But at no point did I state to myself and others
that I wanted to do X. instead I noncommittally rattled through the year with
thoughts that never materialized action.
The thing is, when I put my mind to
something, I make things happen. It isn’t always the success I envisioned but
it is generally some kind of forward movement. And when it is something that is
wholly in my control, well that is when I really kick things up a notch.
In 2014 I resolved to read at least
two books a month. It was meant to be a reckoning between my “abroad” self and
my “stateside” self. More and more I realize how differently I live when I’m in
the comfortable familiarity of the United States versus the unknown (and
sometimes uncomfortable) reality of another country.
Abroad me explores more, goes home
to tea or dinner with strangers, takes local trips, befriends (and is
befriended) by strangers. Abroad me also reads. A lot.
Part of my voracious literary
appetite stems from me spending substantial amounts of my “abroad” time in more
rural locales with limited electricity and the things that run on electricity.
New Zealand was an exception to that rule, and I read far less there then I did
in South Africa or Liberia.
Places with more electronic
distractions, or places to go after dark, divert my attention. New Zealand
offered city life and city life after dark options, Uganda offered the internet
and bootleg movies on the cheap. I read less, easily distracted by flickering lights
of all kinds.
In South Africa and Liberia I was
insatiable. I read anything I could get my eyes on. Liberia served up three of
the four Twilight books and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff
(one of my favorite random reads). South Africa inspired me to read Anna
Karenina and Doctor Zhivago one after the other in a single week,
leaving me to meld those stories into my head as one big depressing story about
snow and sadness. Both places gave me lots of free time to dedicate to the
written word.
Oakland is flashier than rural South
Africa but I still have time on my hand. Rather than be constantly entertained
by Netflix, for 2014 I resolved to read more, to bring at least a piece of my traveling self home.
More than the reading itself,
settling on books was the most difficult piece. Once I learned that I could
check books out of the library onto my Kindle my whole world changed. Of
course, the downside to living in the hyper literate Bay Area is that everyone
wants to check out library books on their kindle. Add to that the difficulty in
settling on at least 24 books I wanted to read.
I spent a lot of time asking people
what they were reading, what they loved. I checked “best of” lists and blogs. I
read things that interested me and things that I finished almost entirely
because I was dedicated to my goal.
Ultimately I was successful. I read
35 book in 2014, averaging almost three a month. Of course some were shorter
than others and most of them weren’t literary masterpieces. Still, it was an
amazing feeling in December when I looked back over the list and realized I’d done
exactly what I’d set myself up to do.
It’s a good way through 2016 and my
only resolution is to finish the book I’m working on. I’m hoping for the same
kind of success 2014 reminded me was possible.
My 2014 Reading List- the “*” indicate
books I loved and the months are indicated on the books I could remember:
1. The
Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (August)
2. The
Fault in Our Stars*
3. The
Giver
4. Truth
and beauty (March)*
5. Snacks
and seduction
6. Never
Let Me Go
7. Run
(August)
8. The
Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian (August)
9. And
the Mountains Echoed (July)
10. The
Westing House (July)
11. As
Nature Made Him (July)*
12. Hundred
Thousand Kingdoms (July)
13. The
Great typo Hunt (June)
14. The
100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (May)
15. Americanah
(April)*
16. Girl
in Translation (May)
17. A
Dirty Job (May)
18. Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (May)
19. Mountains
Beyond Mountains (March)
20. Redefining
Realness
21. The
Language of Flowers (February)
22. The
Idealist (February)*
23. The
Gathering Blue
24. The
Miseducation of Cameron Post
25. The
Interestings
26. World
War Z (September)*
27. The
Circle (October)
28. Before
I Fall (October)
29. Lucky
Us (October)
30. Leftovers
(November)
31. Let’s
Explore Diabetes with Owls (November)
32. I
See You Made an Effort (December)
33. Boy
(December)
34. Dear
Committee Members (December)
35. The
Age of Miracles (December)
