Last night, Christian and I started writing out our own personalized reading lists for 2009. His goal is to read one book a week, mine is one book every two weeks. I'm going to try to stick to this concept as much as I can throughout the year... some of the titles or the order of the books may change, and indeed I may run off track a few times, but overall I believe I can do this! My list consists of both books I own and ones I'll borrow from the library, but all of them are titles I have been meaning to read.
It's part of my unfinished business theme for 2009. In February, I plan to participate in an online community challenge called Thing a Day, where the theme for me will again be unfinished business. I'll do something everyday that I've been meaning to do and putting off for one reason or another. The focus on that month will be creativity. I'm still working on the details. If this is successful, I may extend it to another month after that. I hope to keep track of my successes and failures, my trials and tribulations, via this blog, or my journals. Maybe by the end of the year I'll have enough material to bind it together in a make shift book!
I've always loved reading books with personal essay-type writings about sticking to a challenge and how it effected the writer. There's tons of them out there and I know I've only read a small handful, but the concept has always intrigued me. Two that come to mind: Eat, Pray, Love: one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert; and Give it Up: my year of learning to live better with less by Mary Carlomagno.
One of the books on my reading list this year is a book about writing personal essays, so maybe this whole thing will come around, full circle, and there will indeed be a tangible end result for myself and my efforts this year. If not, the knowledge that I did even half of what I have planned is enough for me to consider it a success!
To kick things off, last night I made a "craft-recipe" of sorts that I've wanted to do for a while. A few weeks ago I had even gone out and gotten all the necessary ingredients in an effort to just do it. So last night, I finally did it!
I made winter potpourri!
So there you have it... 2009 is here! And to continue the theme for this blog: life is good because of new challenges and fresh starts... and having people in your life that can join you for the journey! Happy New Year everybody!
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