cozart’s corner » a non-resolution new year’s resolution

a non-resolution new year’s resolution

January 1st, 2007

so i’ve never been one to make new year’s resolutions because i think they’re silly. but i’ve been thinking a lot about what and how much i read (and what and how much i don’t read). several friends of mine keep running lists of what they read each year, and i think this is a good idea. i didn’t keep one for this year, but as i thought back on what i had read (from what i could remember, at least), i found that i pretty much only read non-fiction. i probably knew this all along, but i had never stopped to think about it.

so not only am i going to keep a list for 2007 of what i read month by month, but i guess you could say that i’m resolving to read more fiction. this was a difficult thing to decide to do. looking at the fiction section of the bookstore, i found myself staring stupidly at book after book, author after author, and thinking, “where the heck would i start?” so i decided to be a fiction snob and only stick to classic fiction. i plan to read at least one fiction book per month and will be starting with My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. i’ve read this book before, but not in a very long time and i really want to read it again.

i’ve also started to plan out the other fiction books i will be reading, because if i don’t then this “resolution” will most likely end up where 99% of the world’s resolutions end up: unfulfilled and forgotten. so here is the list i have so far (not in any order):

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer

any other suggestions?

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1 Comment »

Wright says
Some more suggestions:

Novels
Jane Eyre, for the language
Byzantium, for the marvelous historical sketch of the 9th century
Magnus, for the grippping story
Quo Vadis, for the historical picture of 1st century Rome encountering the Christians

Poetry
Anaything by Herbert
Holy Sonnets of John Donne
Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (which he considered his greatest work). The theology is a bit off, but the language and content are magnificent.
Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. Despite the awful title, this work was meant to show us how to progress in holiness, and is filled with gorgeous poetry, memorable stories, and inspiring tales of a noble night in the service of his virtuous lady. A man’s book.

March 3rd, 2007 | #