When it comes to reading, January is my favorite time of year. The holiday celebrations and work parties are over, my evenings are free from last-minute baking and gift-wrapping, and now, as we dig into the heart of winter, is the time to hibernate with a good book. If it's a little cold in the house I'll throw a blanket over my lap while I curl up in the comfy chair in the living room. Before you know it, the evening has slipped by and it's time to drift into a deep, winter sleep.
January is also a time for resolutions - a time for breaking old habits and creating new, better ones. Last year at this time I resolved to read a certain number of books over the course of the year. Did I meet that goal? Well that would involve A) remembering what the number was, and B) keeping track of the books I actually finished. Hmmm...
Once again I find myself at the start of a new year wanting to encourage myself into reading more, but not quite sure as to how to go about it. Should I read all the winners of the 2008 National Book Awards? Or just those that are fiction? Should I again give myself an arbitrary number of books to read this year, only to lose track of the goal? How do I inspire myself to read more, without making it seem like a task?
Granted, it's not the next couple of months I'm worried about. I have books and time galore. It's the rest of the year, when I'm suddenly working like mad on the garden, or going on long walks after dinner, or throwing parties out on the deck. Wait a second - I don't want to give up any of that!
Maybe I should just revel in the fact that now is the real season for reading. The more I read now, and the more fun I have doing it, the more likely I am to jump into a book later in the year, recalling the pleasures of winter. For now, I'm just going to pick up my latest book (Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje), grab a cup of tea, and settle in under my blanket.
So do you have any reading resolutions? And what are you reading now?
Whatever your situation - Happy Reading in 2009 - may all your books be eloquent, your evenings long, and your local bookstores well-stocked.
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Enjoy!
I go to bed early,
then rise
long after midnight
and drink milk in the dark
while snow floats down
beyond the window.
My fourteen-year-old
black Lab rouses,
staggers into the kitchen
to see what I'm up to
the first few hours
of the New Year.
Glad for her company
I offer the last
cold slice of pizza
but she won't eat.
She's shivering,
upset I woke her.
I go back to bed.
With great effort,
she slowly follows,
circling her blue pillow,
collapsing, curling,
sighing a deep good-night.
In sleep she unfolds
stiff arthritic legs,
shifting her paws,
claws clicking
lightly on the floor
as, in a dream,
she scoots
free of her leash --
running ahead,
though I call her name,
into woods of falling snow.
Richard Jones
"New Year's Eve" is one of the poems in THE BLESSING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, Richard Jones / COPPER CANYON PRESS, Post Office Box 271, Port Townsend, Washington 98368 / www.coppercanyonpress.org / Copyright 2000 by Richard Jones / "New Year's Eve" posted here with permission
Currently on deck:
* "Peers, Pirates, & Persuasion" by John Logie file under work related
* A youth / children's book about Chagall and his work file under family reading
Otherwise I'm open to suggestions!
HOW TO KICK THE FOOTBALL / Edward J. "Doc" Storey
PORNOGRAPHY AND SILENCE, Culture's Revenge Against Nature / Susan Griffin
THUMBS UP, The Life and Courageous Comeback of White House Press Secretary Jim Brady / Mollie Dickenson
I don't have any books about the wounded police officer or the wounded secret service agent.
Stretch your arms toward the sun
Say something in Chinese
And go to Paris
Every minute, somewhere in the world there is morning
Somewhere, people stretch their arms to the sun
They speak new languages, fly from Cairo to Warsaw
They smile and drink coffee together
Anastasia Baburova
[CAUTION: Internet search results for Anastasia Baburova contain violence]