War and Peace Readalong and Other Business

I wanted to make a quick post announcing that I am going to participate in A Literary Odyssey's War and Peace Readalong.  It begins January 1 and (theoretically) ends February 28.  Throughout the readalong, I'll have four update posts: January 15, which will focus on volume 1, January 31, which will focus on volume 2, February 12, which will focus on volume 3, and February 28, which will focus on volume 4.  It works out quite nicely because just last night I mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of reading War and Peace as my first book of 2011.  I think it was fate because this morning I saw the readalong.

I also finished The Happiness Project yesterday afternoon.  I enjoyed it immensely.  I decided to do my own happiness project of sorts in 2011.  I'm going to focus on getting my stuff in order--body, relationships, finances, career plans, among other things.  I guess mine will be more of a wellness project than anything, but I'll have a similar format and a resolutions chart like Rubin to keep myself organized and motivated.  I'm not sure if or how I will incorporate my blog into this, but I imagine I'll check in periodically with updates.

In 2010, I made it a goal to read 52 books and not count books I only read because they were assigned for school.  If a book was already on my list and I was assigned to read it, I could count it.  Otherwise, no.  At the beginning of my Christmas break, I saw that I was within shooting distance of meeting this goal...if I counted books that I read for class and only for class in with the ones I read for fun.  I looked through my shelves and began picking out short books that I could read in time to meet a modified version of my goal.  Then I paused for a moment and realized that what I was doing was completely contrary to my purpose for reading anything in the first place, much less my purpose for reading over Christmas break.  You see, I read for enrichment and escape.  But I was reading for brevity, which included some pretty...insipid books.  So, I abandoned my goal and decided to read the three books I wanted to read and then see what I wanted to read next.

This experience helped me come up with my reading goal for 2011--I decided that I wanted to just focus on reading the classics.  Nevermind how many I finish, nevermind how many pages I read.  I just want to read some of the great works on my own time and get out of them what I will.  I want to go back to what got me reading in the first place--a love of language, a love of a good story, and a love of interesting characters and places.  Anyway, that's my plan for 2011.