Bookish Resolutions

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)