The New Year

Ever since I was little I've loved the start of things.  I suspect that it is because I see it as a time to change things. I always enjoyed shopping for new school supplies, and enjoyed thinking how this year I would become the amazing note taker and studious student that I always wanted to be.  When I take a vacation from work, I always anticipate that when I go back to work I'll implement all the changes that I think about and become the most amazing, most on top of things nurse that there has ever been.  And then there is the New Year, the most widely regarded time for changes that I know of.

January 1st sees millions of people making resolutions, usually aimed and becoming a better version of themselves.  I'm fairly certain that I've resolved to lose weight every new year since I was 16, and my results have been mixed.  I've resolved multiple times to get out of debt, and while I've made some progress, and good portion of my paycheck still goes to pay for things that I already own or have already experienced.  So, while becoming more fit and more financially sound are still on my list, I decided to add a resolution this year that is a little less mainstream.  This year is the year that I'm going start making a dent in the list of classic books that I want to read.

I've been a prolific reader since I was a child, and generally I feel like a well-read individual, but there are still thousands of worthwhile books out there that I haven't read.  I firmly believe that classic literature helped to shape our society, and that one of the best ways to understand the past is to read the literature that our ancestors read and wrote. To that end, I am going to start working my way through the stacks of classic literature that I haven't yet touched.  I expect that I will also reread some of the books that I read when I was younger but didn't fully appreciate.

To help encourage me to keep up with the reading of the classics, I plan to join The Classics Club, which is basically an online group where you commit to reading at least 50 pieces of classic literature within 5 years.  That is only 10 books a year, a very reasonable number (especially once I finish writing my thesis and am able to read guilt free again).  That does mean that I need to create a list of classic books that I want to read, which will take some more thought.  My next post should include my classics reading list.

Until then, read on!