I’m out of the burrow. Monitoring the conditions. Checking to see if I’m following my read-o-lutions and resolutions. August already? That’s crazy-talk.
First, Persist. In bookishness, I have been doing alright with this. One long work by each of Wilkie Collins, G.R.R. Martin, and Margaret Atwood offer themselves as proof. (The Robber Bride was a fantastic re-read.)
And even though Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria is just barely 400 pages long, it was a demanding and invigorating read. Danielle and I now are reading The Quincunx, which has 788 Dickensian pages in it.
We remain convinced that there are about twice as many words on each page as there is on any other book’s single page. You know that sort.
(Persistence, in real life? I have been working hard to break unhappy habits and make new ones, and I have to give myself a good talking-to most mornings, and often throughout the days as well. Even then, I ignore myself, at times.)
Next, More Music. Although I did read Paul Headrick’s That Tune Clutches My Heart, which I pictured with this resolution originally, I haven’t done very well with incorporating more music into my daily life.
Yet, there is a clear musical component to some of this year’s other reading: Teddy Wayne’s The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, the soundtrack of Harry’s debt in Mount Pleasant, and the guitar playing in Martin Millar’s The Good Fairies of New York. In a couple of weeks, I’ll also be featuring Paul Headrick’s musically-inspired collection, The Doctrine of Affections, and I’ve just picked up a copy of Ann Ireland’s The Blue Guitar.
But, in real life? I’d like to be listening more. Perhaps because, in contrast with my teenage years, I can’t seem to read AND listen to music at the same time, I recognize very few pockets of time in my days in which I choose to listen to music. (I still want to, though.)
The first story, “The Studies of Fernando Sor”, thanks to a note from the author, did introduce me to some beautiful studies for classical guitar.
Exploring. Reading-wise, more non-fiction and more writers-from-away: I am exploring.
Location-wise (from Jim Ottaviani’s Primates to Ayelet Tsabari’s The Best Place on Earth) to experience wise (from Jowita Bydlowska’s Drunk Mom to Janice van Horne’s A Complicated Marriage), I’m reaching beyond the known.
Geographically speaking, I’ve travelled to Australia with both Jessica Anderson and Alexis Wright, and I’ve made stops in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran and Japan, amongst other unfamiliar scenes.
In real life? Last weekend we discovered the Al Green Sculpture Park, just a few minutes from Yonge Street’s Davisville Station, even though it wasn’t an exploring day.
Taking time to walk off the path (in that case, Yonge Street), winding around a different set of blocks on your way home, choosing to try someplace new for lunch: all good.
Sometimes exploring can lead to new “what I want to be when I grow up” thoughts. Not sure this is a bad thing. Certain that “fearless” is something to pursue.
Take Care, and Eat Well. Tamara Levine’s But Hope is Longer was both personal and informative, and I found myself pulling out Gillian Deacon’s There’s Lead in My Lipstick and spending more time reading ingredient lists.
Choosing books with pretty pictures when it comes to cooking has been quite inspiring.
Mark Bittman, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and Miriam Sorrell have helped keep food front-of-mind this year as well.
And now that the weather is nicer, the farmers’ markets are making it easy to choose veggies and fruits: a true pleasure.
All my favourite cookbooks should have the word ‘mouthwatering’ in their titles. Also occurs to me that cooking and exploring have a great deal in common.
Look beyond the headlines. Gerry Fostaty’s As You Were, pictured with this resolution originally, was unexpectedly affecting for me as a mostly-fiction reader.
And as I mentioned above, I have been reaching more often for non-fiction this year, although perhaps only Thomas King’s An Inconvenient Indian and Carolyn Abraham’s The Juggler’s Children echo contemporary headlines in terms of developments in both genetic research and the Idle No More movement.
There are several books lingering that I haven’t yet picked up this year (e.g. by Charles C. Mann, Jared Diamond, Michael Pollan, and Cordelia Fine), which I would like to make time for.
And, in real life? I’d hoped to be more engaged politically than I have been thus far in 2013.
One of those books that makes you want to tell everyone you know and complete strangers just how essential are the ideas and history therein. And, damn funny at times.
Live creatively. I’ve dabbled in some books borrowed from the library (e.g. Eric Maisel and Julia Cameron), but I haven’t made a match yet.
So far, the ones that I have most enjoyed are Kelly Rae Roberts’ Taking Flight: Inspiration and Techniques to give your Creative Spirit Wings, Suzane Sanaitis’ Kaleidoscope: Ideas and Projects to Spark Your Creativity, and Jennifer New’s Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art.
Even so, in real life, I’m making more of an effort than I was last year.
But if anyone has any ideas for bookish inspiration in this regard, I’d be pleased to hear your recommendations.
Even adding books that are inherently browse-able, not read-them-front-to-back books, is somehow inspiring and freeing. Makes me want to wander more. Seems creativity and exploring are related too. Hmmm.
Refresh. This is the one I’m most pleased about. Not only in real life, but bookishly as well.
Re-reading has been great (Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Hugh MacLennan, Alice Munro, Barbara Pym) and delving into backlisted titles by long-time favourite writers (Thomas King, Sherman Alexie) has reminded me that as tempting as it is to focus on the new discoveries, there’s a reason why old favourites nudged their way onto my reading radar in the first place.
Truthfully, I haven’t done as much re-reading this year as I’d hoped. And by this time last year, I’d actually re-read more books than I have last year.
But all this year’s choices save one feel like deliberate pursuits, whereas last year’s re-readings felt almost accidental.
I really wanted to see how differently a reading of some of my favourite authors’ works compared and contrasted with earlier readings, and pulling specific books off the shelf with that in mind feels tremendously satisfying.
Harper Collins, 1990
One other piece of bookishness to tidy up mid-year. The give-away of a copy of A Complicated Marriage, which I featured in my week of feminist reading in June. The randomizer chose Lara as the recipient, and I do hope she enjoys the book even half as much as I did.
In case you missed it, the other works featured in a Week of Women’s Words were Sally Armstrong‘s The Ascent of Women, Janet Hepburn‘s Flee, Fly, Flown, Rachel Kushner‘s The Flamethrowers, Lydia Perović‘s Incidental Music, and Carolyn Abraham‘s The Juggler’s Children.
And, yes, that was a mini-reading-project. Alongside ongoing reading projects, like the Alice Munro stories, but that’s the stuff of another post for sure.
How is your reading year moving along? Is it turning out the way that you imagined/hoped when you were looking ahead at it? How’s it looking from the perspective of all-things-August?
You’ve been having such a busy and fulfilling year it seems, how marvelous! I’ve hardly read anything off my reading goals list but then I’ve been sidetracked into exploring all sorts of interesting gardening/permaculture/sustainability/nature things that I did not foresee back at the end of December 2012. It’s been great and I have learned so much.
This post was a true inspiration for me! It seems so logical to make resolutions and then reflect on them along the way, but I am never quite tempted to do it. Yours however.. they sound worth persuing and I’m definitely going to keep some in mind for 2014. Anyway, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for saying so, Iris. I’ve not done it like this before myself, but simply from a reading perspective, there was a gigantic space where my reading should have been for December through March, so I really needed some kind of structure to get things moving again, and keep them on something-like-a-track. Just this weekend, for the first time this year, my little progress bar on GoodReads (I’m mostly a LibraryThing girl now, but do like the Challenge at GR and some of the groups there) no longer says that I’m behind. Slowly but surely…
My reading so far is very slow going. I’m enjoying the books I’m reading but they just require a bit more attention so of course I had to add a couple of mystery/thrillers to the mix to feel like I was making progress.
Do you ever read Kelly Rae’s blog? She just seems so nice. Would love to take a class at her studio. Hope you enjoy her book.
So, no, I hadn’t been to her site (which is here, BTW, for those who are curious, like me, so, thanks for that. I absolutely love the tagline she has there: artist, author, possibilitarian. I think I’ll be adding that, or shifting to that, for a resolution in the future!
I know what you mean about the need to feel as though you are turning the pages, even while taking on longer/more demanding reading projects. Last weekend, I just settled down on the porch for a day with a re-read and a couple of graphic novels, just to have that sense of movement through text. I do like the sense of slowly embracing a book, one which is truly stretching and pulling me as a reader, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by that, too.
Great look at the year thus far. I picked up Quincunx when it first came out, and that was right before I got married. I actually took the book with my on my honeymoon (Mary and I were big readers right from the start) and finished it then. We were actually visiting my home town at that point, staying with my parents, and one night I stayed up really late because I couldn’t put it down and had to keep on til the end. One of my favorite reading memories. I can also still remember how the pages/ink of that book smelled.
That’s a great reading-memory, Carl. Thanks for adding it, as it makes me feel fonder about the book overall. I bought my copy when it was first published. It was my second “real” (i.e. full-time) job, while I was saving up for school, and it was the first time I’d paid that much for a paperback (but, oh, it is a beautiful paperback, and, yes, lovely paper quality) which felt delightfully indulgent (even with my staff discount) at the time. See, my memory is not half as romantic! Now I am curious to see if I have a similar experience with the end.
It’s an accomplishment to move even a little toward your goals each year. It’s those small movements (& your reflections thereon) that result in your life – its qualities and accomplishments.
I find that I can’t listen to music and work at the same time anymore either. I think I could read & listen, but, obviously, I haven’t tried that in recent memory. 😉
My reading this year is somewhat less harried. As you know, I entered too many challenges last year and they consumed me. And as you also know, this year I have a few informal entries that make a core monthly reading list of 6 books. After that, I’m free to go where I please.
I’m not sure what you’re after in the creativity category, but I found great bookish delight in Madeline Arendt’s Altered Art for the First Time.
This is an inspiring post. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Thanks, Debbie. I’ve added the Arendt to my library list; it looks like something I’d enjoy looking at (even if not doing, as I’m great with browsing through these kinds of things and rarely actually DO anything with them). I tend to pick up the books about crafts which have some obvious link to books/paper, but I like browsing through all sorts. The majority of the creativity/inspiration books on my shelves are writing- and journalling-related, but I’m borrowing a lot of different things from the library this year, more to get the habit of reserving time for it daily.
I really like the idea of a core set of reads for a month (I know that one of yours is the Pym project, which I really wish I’d been more organized about taking on, as there have been some good discussions in that group), a balance of structure and whimsy. You must have crossed a tonne of books off your reading list last year, with all those challenges; I think there’s something to be said for an occasional year like that (providing there is enough accomplishment and satisfaction to balance out the demands and strains!).
Which Collins did you read?
Agree with you on Quincunx – it was so long I got a bit tired of it before it ended
It was Woman in White. Do you have a favourite of his? I’ve collected a few by now. I did enjoy WiW a great deal, but would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been switching from contemporary to classic writing style every time I picked it up. I think when I choose a classic, I need to limit my usual multi-book reading stacks, and just immerse myself in the classic style for a spell.