Happy New Year everyone! Every year I seem to say this, but I am ready for a fresh start and a new year. Last year was difficult and I hope this year will be less stressful. That said, I am very lucky as I have a roof over my head and it is warm inside (and bitterly cold outside) and most importantly I have my health, so I cannot really complain too much, so I optimistically turn to a sunny start to 2018. I hope it is the same for you!
I don't really have any particular plans for the coming year. I would like to read more classics and more books in translation. I hope I can make a better showing when it comes to keeping up with my NYRB subscription, as last year was very hit or miss--maybe this year will see fewer war stories and not so many especially challenging reads, but I am still open to whatever they send my way.
Other than that Stefanie and I are going to read John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids together. I really like his writing and every year I try and read a couple of his books (and it seems as though at least one always ends up on my best of the year list). I am sure at some point, maybe closer to summer, I will pick a theme or country to focus on, but I will see where my mood takes me later on.
That is my night table above. I sort of cleared the decks, but the small pile in the back are the books that have been carried over from last year. I had fun thinking about which books I wanted to start the new year off with. I have a couple of short non-fictions (one is even a Persephone Books title!) and a couple of new novels (including a ARC from Europa Editions--thanks to them!). All told there are four books translated from other languages and two classics, so I am at least starting the new year with a little thought to my loose reading plans. We'll see if I can keep it up.
Oh, and that bottom photo which shows the shelf under my night table has the books that I started but can't quite give up on so am always hopeful that I might get back to and finished. Small miracles might happen . . .
And I still have my January prompt to think about. Speaking of which, I have my list all ready. I was struggling with it at first but after a little brainstorming I ended up with more than I could use and had to decide which to keep and which to pass on. I tried to keep the prompts fairly random. And they are:
January: The Spy Who Loved Me
February: Long Ago and Far Away
March: From Book to Film
April: Don't Bother Me I'm Reading
May: House and Garden
June: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
July: Sailing the Seven Seas
August: A Month in the Country
September: Dear Diary, Dear Friend
October: Exit Stage Left
November: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
December: Beam Me Up Scotty
I'm pretty excited about my prompts. I had a lot of fun with them last year.
This is my last day of winter break and tomorrow it is back to work. It is going to be a very cold walk to the bus stop at the crack of dawn. Although I am looking forward to getting back into a normal routine, I am not looking forward to going out in the cold and dark so very early. But there is still the rest of today and these are what I am spending my time with--a little hardboiled American crime, a short play, and my first 2018 New Yorker. One habit I am trying to get back into is my short story reading--every week a New Yorker story and whatever else catches my attention in between.
If you have plans or are starting out the new year with a special book, do share. If I do have a 'goal' for this year it is to get back into virtual book community--I have really missed keeping up with my online friends. And thank you to those who have stopped by over the course of last year (even with my own absence) as I have really appreciated it.