Resolutions for 2012

The short version:

Read more books.

“Books” defined: Complete, self-contained works printed on paper.

The long version:

The amount of time spent reading books should, by the end of 2012, be greater than the cumulative time spent doing the following:

• Checking, reading, or writing email.
• Checking, updating, or otherwise using Facebook.
• Watching Twitter or any other continuously updating content stream, such as network television.
• Consuming any material, written or video, online or offline, the existence of which I had not known about five seconds previous, e.g. memes, viral pieces, articles linked by friends and strangers, and self-help features in print magazines in waiting rooms.
• Arguing about things that, with 30 seconds of research, can be proved factually one way or the other.
• Arguing about things that are essentially matters of opinion, when it’s obvious to everyone involved that no opinions are going to change.
• Arguing with people who enjoy arguing.
• Arguing with people who could not possibly understand why they are wrong, without reading books that they will obviously never read, or having experiences that they will obviously never have.
• Drinking.
• Dating. This includes everything from reading personals to sex to flirting to engaging in any activity the underlying purpose of which is essentially about finding sex or love, in general or from someone specific.
• Buying books.
• Wandering around in bookstores.
• Going to and from bookstores.
• Reading book reviews.
• Blogging.

Time Has No Moral Qualities

Book lover. Bookworm. Book store. Book reading. Book festival.

The weight of soon-to-be-read books in a bag. The smell of freshly-printed books. The little kick of someone seeing a book under your arm, and, with genuine curiosity, asking “What are you reading?” It’s a book. You are book people. That’s how it works.

As a kid, I always had a book with me, reading first thing upon waking and at night, in bed, until I couldn’t keep my eyes open, under the desk in a boring class, riding on buses and in cars, holding a book in front of me while I walked to school, struggling to find a way to read a book while I rode a bicycle.

When someone exclaims, as book people often do, that they simply love books, that they are a reader, that what they really want to do is go somewhere cozy and just read and read and read, I want to hug that person and say, Read the rest of this entry »