Tuesday, January 15, 2013

2013 Reading Plan

Well, we are halfway through January, so the new year has fully begun, but Ethan and I have not yet had our goal making session. I have a lot of things I want to do, but right now they are kind of amorphously floating around in my brain. So I'll give you an update on my 2012/2013 reading plans.

Last year, I came up with the idea to read a book on my To Be Read list from a different genre every month. I randomly picked 12 genres, and here's what I came up with, including what I read:

1. science fiction -- The Time Machine and I Am Legend
2. biography -- My Life in France (Julia Child)
3. book written in the past year -- Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted
4. scientific non-fiction -- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
5. historical fiction -- The Night Birds
6. humor -- I'm A Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years
7. political/satire -- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
8. classic -- The Good Earth
9. thriller -- The Anatomy of Deception
10. fantasy -- Royal Assassin
11. young adult
12. travel

As you might have noticed, I ran out of steam and didn't finish the last two books. This is partially because I joined a book club, so I've been reading a book every month for that. I don't mind that the book club took over though, because I get more things out of it than I got from a self-assigned reading list. A second goal was to read 30 books in 2012 -- this I succeeded, reading 32 books!

This year, I'd like to read 3 books a month. 36 books sounds like a lot, but as you can tell, I read a lot and I read very quickly. I think 36 is an acheivable goal. And if not, oh well, who cares? It's still just for fun.

I'm not going to do such a structured plan as I had last year, but I still have a goal for this year: I want to read a book written by an author from every continent, excluding Antarctica (duh). For this plan, I've "defined" the continents as the traditional 7: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. I also tentatively have a plan to try to cook a meal from the country the book is set in during the month I read it. We'll see how I do with that part. I would like to expand my cooking repertoire, and that is one way to do it.

I'll update you through the year on how my reading goes! I hope to read some interesting books to share, and make some cool meals too! It will be like traveling without the expense. Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Please post some of the meals/recipes that you cook. We'd love to try some of them too. Also recommend checking out the books read/discussed in "The End of Life Book Club." There is a very wide scope of genre and topic, so lots to choose from. If you might be interested in the book list w/o reading that book, I have a copy that I can mail or email to you.
~M