Let’s talk about goals

Happy 2022! I love recycling this image from 2011. It was a winner.

So. Goals. To start with, I joined the Goodreads 2022 Reading Challenge with a goal of 50 books. Last year was the first year I didn’t join since I started in 2011. Somehow, with all that time at home, I not only didn’t find time to read, but I also lost interest in reading. I’m surprised that I got through 26.

This year, though, will be different. I’m back to reading, and I think 50 is an entirely reasonable goal. I’ve been watching a good bit (too much?) of Booktube, and now I want to read all of One Piece, a c h o n k y manga series that’s been going on since I was in my twenties. And that’s been a startlingly long time. Mangas are quick reads, so who knows how many I’ll get through if I give in and subscribe to Comixology or Shonen Jump.

I’ve also set myself up for success with a subscription to Book of the Month, which I’ve been eyeing for years. It’s a super reasonably priced monthly book subscription where you get at least one book you choose from among five. You can also choose up to two add-on books for all of $10 each. And these are all hardback! With free shipping! My first book, A History of Wild Places, by Shea Ernshaw, should arrive tomorrow. You should have a look (this one’s a referral link)!

ANYWAY, I’m hoping I’ll have more energy to read thanks to a new job(!) I’ll be starting on Tuesday. It’ll be calmer and more structured – and most likely a heavy workload, which I’ll welcome – so hopefully I’ll want to come home, pile onto the sofa with the dogs, and read. We’ll see. It’ll be an adventure.

As for specific goals beyond Goodreads, I’d like to get back into the older literary fiction I used to read. Since I’ve worked in a library for the past ten years, I’ve been surrounded by new books between Netgalley and Publisher’s Weekly. I’d like to step back from those and read more Dickens, for example. I just got really pretty Penguin Classics editions of Bleak House (one of my favorites), David Copperfield, and Far from the Madding Crowd, neither of which I’ve read. 2022 might be my year. Beyond that, my goal is just to spend more time reading – by scheduling it if I have to. I’m thinking that having a less creatively draining job will be the most helpful.

Another project I have planned is a repeat of one from 2013: a Zelda fire (as in “It’s dangerous to go alone..take this!”) in our empty fireplace. Luckily, I found the photos I took as I worked on it, so at least I won’t have to figure out the design again.

Last time I used a glue stick to put paint chips on a black foam board. As you can imagine, that didn’t last too long. This time, I’m doing it right. I got a 1/2 inch thick MDF project board, which Palmer cut to size and spray painted black, and I’m going to mod podge the heck out of those paint chips. There’s a little ridge inside the fireplace that will hold magnets to attach it. Now I just have to do the work.

Expect another actual book post soon. I’m a little more than halfway through The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which I’m really enjoying, but it’s taking a while because it’s not a short book. There are so many other books I want to get to, though, so I’m doing my best to power through it quickly.

Happy 2022!