Or in other words, my New Years resolutions, done with reckless abandon, wild dreaming and unbridled imagination.
We’ve all been there, haven’t we? That place where we feel full to bursting with desires to accomplish myriad impossible things. For readers in particular I believe this time of year is one fraught with heady aspirations of all the worlds we just might be able to explore. Whether we put voice to them or not, readers (and book bloggers in particular), are thinking of all the challenges we can set for ourselves or take part in and accomplish. We are thinking of the hundreds of books we could get through if we could just get rid of some of those annoying obligations…like sleeping, for example. We are full of optimism knowing that this will be an amazing reading year.
But this is true in many areas, not just reading. We have these admittedly false hopes of untold changes we fully expect to make in the new year in our finances, relationships, health, career paths, spirituality as well as those pleasure areas like reading. It is intoxicating to dream these dreams, more so to write them down and generate conversation regarding them.
And I believe that is healthy, to a point anyway–that point being that it is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. I believe it is important to set goals and that it is a worthwhile exercise to embrace tradition and set resolutions, for lack of a more effective word, for ourselves at the start of the new year, provided these giddy, emotionally charged moments don’t turn into depression-inducing shame spirals later on.
It doesn’t break my heart when reality sets in and I cannot accomplish all the goals I set for myself. Such is the stuff of life.
And so in the spirit of having fun I am going to do this differently this year and just give into the bliss of imagining the truly impossible.
For example, here are a sampling of the random thoughts in regards to reading that have charged through my little grey cells over the past several weeks. I am giving these in the form of “challenges” merely to stick with the silly, long-worded blog post title. These are not REAL challenges in the sense of things I plan on hosting. No, instead this is some of the reading I would hope to get done in 2013 if I had all the free time in the world and could somehow replicate myself to have a clone to go to work, mow the lawn, etc.
Disclaimer: some of the images used in this post are from Flickr, used under Creative Commons License. Clicking on the image will take you to the site of the photographer.
The “Keeping Up with the Jones” Challenge:
One of the great pleasures of reading in a community is discussing new books as they come out, when many people are reading them and their opinions are newly minted. So often I find myself missing out on many active conversations of the latest books because, though I often buy newly released books, I rarely read the right away. Additionally it would be fun to be more abreast of the latest offerings in the genres that I enjoy so much, notably science fiction, fantasy and mystery. So yes, it would be great to utilize all the eye-catching “coming out this month” book posts on the ‘net to inspire me to head out to the bookstore or library to snag, and read, a book while the ink is still wet.
The “Don’t go in the basement…without bringing a book back with you” Challenge:
This one is pretty straightforward. I have a basement with shelves (and piles) full of paperback science fiction, fantasy, detective novels, pulp fiction, mystery, and gothic fiction. 90% of these are books purchased for the cover art but I am still on that road paved with the good intentions I have had to read them. In my dream world I would grab one of these each week, finishing it in a day or two at most, and then head back down for another stab at buried treasure.
The “How can you call yourself a Trekkie if you have all these unread Star Trek novels in the house” Challenge:
I have seven novels and a short story collection in the Star Trek Vanguard series sitting directly in front of me at eye-level on a bookshelf. I also have several Star Trek novels down in the aforementioned basement. I recently read a list of Star Trek books being published in 2013 and there were several Original Series novels that caught my eye. If I purchase those books I am interested in and add them just to the eight I have whispering to me less than 5 feet away I would have enough Trek books to read one every month and not get them all caught up by the end of 2013. So in this “challenge” I would either be reading at least one Star Trek book a month OR I would go on a massive Star Trek binge just prior to and right after the release of the newest film. Ah…to boldly go.
The “My Hobbit Hole” Reading Challenge:
Ever since redoing my office and making it a reading room (I promise, a post with pics is coming up sometime soon), I have found myself internally referring to it as my Hobbit Hole. This is in part due to the many Lord of the Rings related books and memorabilia that inhabit the room and in part due to the fact that the space feels comfortable and homey in the way Tolkien describes the dwellings of the Hobbits. On the shelves in this room I have 81 books in my SFF section that are either unread or in a state of being partially read. 81 books. That doesn’t count the mysteries and art books I have in here that I have yet to read. And I desire to read all of these books. If I set myself a challenge to read only books from these shelves in this room those 81 books would be more than my average year’s worth of reading.
The “Books from Uncle Dean’s Bookshelf” Challenge:
I have written before about my uncle and how his generosity to me strongly fueled my passion for science fiction. His small shelves held worlds of untold adventure to me in those days. I often think it would be fun to gather the many copies of books I have collected over the years that I remember from his shelves (some that I have read and others I haven’t) to take an extended trip down memory lane. Doing so would mean that at the very least these books would be on my reading list:
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison (reread)
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You by Harry Harrison (reread)
The Stainless Steel Rat for President by Harry Harrison (reread)
Armada by Michael Jahn
Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster (reread)
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede by James P. Hogan
Foundations Edge by Isaac Asimov
Homeworld, Starworld and Wheelworld, all by Harry Harrison
Han Solo at Star’s End, Han Solo’s Revenge, Han Solo and the Lost Legacy by Brian Daley
and those are just one I can recollect off of the top of my head that I own.
The “Read a Short Story Every Week” Challenge:
Over at the Classic Science Fiction Book Club we take turns hosting a month, posting a weekly short story read. I always have a good time discussing these and yet often get distracted and miss weeks…months…of participation. I hate that. My friend Rusty also posts regular reviews of SFF short stories that can be read free online and I am very remiss in participating over on his site. I would love by some miracle to be able to keep up with these on a regular basis.
and finally (for this truly could go on and on and on)…
The “Ray Bradbury Falling in Love” Challenge:
My friend Jeff sent me a link to this article, the last printed words of author Ray Bradbury before he died. It is my New Years wish for you. Please read it, you’ll no doubt connect with it as I did. In my mind I see this as a challenge to just go out and read a wide variety of things throughout the year. Not as a challenge to “get out of my comfort zone”, which can be an admirable challenge but not something I generally care about in my reading. No, this is more about walking into the library wide-eyed and willing to wander and to take home and start reading some book that leaps to hand, figuratively speaking. It involves wandering past the fiction part of the library. I’m tempted to actually put together a challenge like this and even if I don’t I am strongly considering putting some energy behind this idea personally.
We’ll see. As I mentioned earlier, there are a great many pipe dreams when it comes to the way I feel about the year ahead in reading every time I find myself approaching and arriving at New Years Day.
While it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for me to probably complete any one of these dream ideas during the course of 2013, the one thing they all have in common is this:
“…I see that I was simply falling in love. Day, after day, after glorious day, I was falling in love with books.”
~Ray Bradbury
I look forward to many more love affairs in 2013.
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On the Health/Fitness front I am at a place where I honestly never dreamed I would be, largely because of past goal setting that never got beyond a day or two of commitment. I am 54 pounds lighter than I was on this day last year. I spent the Summer and Fall participating in multiple running events. I ran a Half-Marathon in November. I do some form of exercise at least 5 times per week. I eat healthy but still indulge in fun stuff, just with moderation. And although it still takes a conscious effort on some days to stick with this, most of it has become habit. And what is even more unbelievable about it all: I enjoy it!!!
It is great to feel good about my health, to like the way I look in clothes again, to experience the benefits of being more fit and healthy. My resolutions along this line in 2013 are to do more of the same. I plan on participating in a great many running events including at least one if not two more Half-Marathons as I contemplate whether or not I want to try a Marathon. As I get into the new year I will probably set down some more specific goals regarding the number of miles I would like to run in the year and specific races I will aim to participate in as that will motivate me to stick with it.
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As for other resolutions, I resolve to continue growing in my walk with the Lord and want to be open for opportunities to be of service to others in the coming year. I resolve to spend quality time with my close friends, even if all of our busyness means it does not happen often. I resolve to enjoy the last 9 months that my daughter will be living at home before her marriage. We will be experiencing many transitions during this time and I want to savor our time together as a family. I resolve to not let important but ultimately trivial resolutions like my reading goals and even my running goals interfere with these last resolutions which are far and way the most important things in my life.
And I resolve to make sure that Stainless Steel Droppings remains a place where you feel safe and comfortable to express whatever opinions you want, where you can share about the things you are passionate about, and where you can take an active, participatory role.
I thank each and every one of you for every comment, every opinion, every book, film and television recommendation, every word of encouragement during my health/fitness changes, every group read and challenge (or non-challenge) that you participated in. I thank you for the kind words and the support and most importantly for just being you and allowing me to share in a little part of your life by the discussions we have had here and over on your blogs as well.
Thank you, dearly, for being a part of my 2012. And thank you in advance for a great 2013.
“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”~William Arthur Ward
As always, you are an inspiration to us all. I have set some “stretch” goals on the reading front. I plan on 50 books and at least 52 short stories. After reading your Star Trek challenge, I have similar feelings. I now plan on reading at least the Vanguard series this year. Happy New Year.
Ah, thanks Jim, and Happy New Year.
I’ve read the first Vanguard book, long ago, and really liked it so I have high hopes for the rest of the run. And I better get on it because there is an Original Series novel coming out at the end of January that I want to read, lol!
This is a very inspiring post. I have plenty of reading goals and don’t need any more for 2013, but I need the health goals. Be more active especially. I like to hear that I am not the only one who buys some books for the cover art. I hope you reach all the dreams that you want to in 2013. What a beautiful family! Happy new year!
A huge majority of the books I own are ones I bought for the cover art…and I’ve discovered a great many authors that way whose work I ended up really liking.
Thanks, and Happy New Year to you and yours as well Tracy.
Can I just come and live in your basement, in front of the Gothic fiction shelf? Thank you, that would be awesome.
Good luck with all your plans for 2013 and congratulations on your daughter’s upcoming marriage.
Yes indeed, Delia. Come on by. You can help me get some of my stuff read, lol!
And thank you. I’m sure the marriage plans will start getting more and more hectic as the year rolls on, although the majority of things are done and set in place. Now its all down to the time passing and the money being spent, lol!
Indeed you are very inspiring… however, I am very old! This includes my eyes for reading so.. no challenges for me! But I will certainly read! and here in the “winter months” I will walk quite a bit! This year I did something that’s never happened, no matter how I tried, before in that I lost 19 lbs! 8 more and I will hit my goal, which is not thin but allows me to wear clothes that I wore 4 yrs ago!
I hope this year does NOT see those lbs come back on but at my age nothing surprises me anymore! so “never say never”. And I’ll leave it at that…
so..here it is January 2013…get crackin’ on reading the Dragonriders of Pern! :o)
Old? Come on! You are going to live to be 200, aren’t you? 🙂
Congratulations on your weight loss and meeting your goals, Pat! Great for you!!! Keep up the walking, I’ll be doing that along with my other exercise this winter. It helps a lot.
I started Dragonflight yesterday while waiting to see Les Miserables and I got through the first chapter or two and am liking it very well so far.
super!!! if nothing else I do believe Dragonriders has very memorable characters (along with memorable dragons) lol
What a very lovely post. I can’t wait to see your hobbit hole. I wish I had one of those! And I would also like to come and look at your Gothic fiction shelf – perhaps you can host some tours!!
I hope you have a fantastic 2013 – you’ve certainly got lots to look forward to and I’m already looking forward to your sci fi event and readalong.
Thanks Carl for being a great host, book blogger, friend and patient person.
Lynn 😀
Thank you! My dad is building us one more bookshelf and I have some pictures to hang up before I take the pics of it and share them. It is a really nice space and I’m glad we finally completed this resolution that I had set for the last couple of years.
I started reading Dragonflight yesterday for the group read and am enjoying it thus far.
I wish you all the best for 2013. It has been such a pleasure spending time with you this past year. You’ve added so much to this little community and I thank you for that.
Have you read the Star Trek Stargazer novels. They are about Picard’s first command. They are easy YA type reads but i actually really enjoyed them.
I hadn’t even heard of those John. I have not read many Star Trek books outside of original series novels. I didn’t get into Next Gen when it was originally on until the last couple of seasons and haven’t felt as connected to those characters. I’m trying to change that now though as my wife and I are making our way through all the seasons of Next Gen. Mid way through Season Two right now.
If you can’t dream big at the beginning of a new year when can you? Most of my bookshelves are in the basement too only I have to go downstairs at least once a week multiple times in the day to do laundry. If I had to grab a book each time, I’d be in trouble! Good luck with all your plans bookish and otherwise. Happy New Year Carl!
Exactly! I can ride the fumes of this euphoria for the rest of the year, lol!
I’d be in trouble too if I grabbed a book every time I went downstairs…but then again maybe I’d get some of those books at least in my line of sight. 🙂
Happy New Year to you Stefanie.
Happy New Year Carl!
You too! 🙂
Happy New Year, Carl! I’m so on board with the Keeping Up with the Jones Challenge.
Great job on your fitness endeavors for 2012 and I’m looking forward to your adventures in 2013.
Thanks Joy, same to you! Thanks for all the encouragement you do on the tweets in regards to fitness. I’m looking forward to an adventurous new year and I wish the same for you.
Excellent and inspiring post, Carl. Thanks for mentioning my site! I think all of those goals are worthy, and even if you only do more than you did last year then that will be great. I’m looking forward to pics of your Hobbit Hole!
By the way – I loved the Bradbury article about going to the library!
You are welcome Rusty. At the very least I’m hoping to be more balanced, and by that I mean keep up a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy over the course of the whole year since that is where my primary interests lie.
So glad you read that, I had been wondering today if anyone had. It is such a delight and one that I think all book lovers should read.
happy new year to you Carl!!! I LOVE all of your self made challenges 😀 They’re wonderful!! What you accomplished in 2012 is really just remarkable and I have no doubt and absolutely hope that 2013 is just as good and so much more!!! Look forward to my SEVENTH year of knowing you!! Crazy, huh?
Thanks Chris, and although I wished you one on your site I’ll with you a Happy New Year here too! 🙂
7 years. That is crazy. Yes, I’ll have been blogging 8 years later this month. Hard to believe. Very hard to believe.
I’m looking forward to getting healthier in 2013 and am glad now that I have a good foundation to build on.
I love how optimistic and inspiring this post is 🙂 I think it’s a great thing to go into 2013 wide-eyed with excitement, anticipation, and hope to get all of these things done, even knowing that it realistically won’t happened because come on – we only have so much time in the day!
I’m new to your blog, but congrats on your health and fitness progress, and I look forward to reading more of your posts this year! And I love that Bradbury quote!
Happy 2013!
Thanks Sarah. I’m generally a pretty optimistic person anyway, but I feel especially so as I start a new year. It seems natural to me to look at the change over of years as a time of renewal and a time to be excited and anticipate great things.
If you have time check out the whole Bradbury article. It is lovely.
Happy New Year to you!
I love your dreamy resolutions – and I’m heartened to see someone embrace the spirit as opposed to all the “I hate resolutions so let’s call them something else and still make them” type stuff I see all on the internet 🙂
Yes, I’m not really into the whole denial factor when it comes to making resolutions. It is fun to do but I’m okay with people not doing them if they feel it puts them into bondage to some rules or something that makes them feel bad.
It is the new year, we should have a license to dream big and make plans even if they get abandoned the very next day.
Happy New Year! My only resolutions are to read more and lose some weight (but probably not as much as you did!) in 2013. I have resisted buying STAR TREK novels. I’ve passed on boxes of them at library sales. Same with STAR WARS novels.
Happy New Year to you too George, and to your better half as well.
I haven’t read many of the Star Wars novels besides those I connected with as a child. Timothy Zahn’s being the only exception (I’m reading his newest today). I didn’t start reading Star Trek novels until I was in my later 20’s and I truly read both for the pure nostalgia of it all. I love these characters and it takes me back to my earlier days of reading SF when I read the original series novels because I connected with Kirk, Spock, etc. when I was a kid. When done well they are good SF adventure stories and are very entertaining. But there is no way I can keep up with them, nor do I try. 🙂
I always come up with way, way too many goals or plans for the new year too. I love the way you’ve structured this post — it’s exactly the way I think about my reading projects when I come up with them 🙂 Thanks for the Bradbury article too, I’m off to read it now. Happy new year!
You are welcome Kim, it is a lovely article. For the last few years I’ve kept my new years resolutions pretty easy…and even then I didn’t always follow them…but I thought this year, at least with my reading, it would be fun to throw caution to the wind and just go wild with what I wish I could do.
Happy New Year to you and yours Kim.
I love that Bradbury piece. It had me in tears the first time i read it, and again just now! Hear’s to rising to challenges! Happy 2013!
Isn’t it wonderful? It is quite the piece and I was as drawn to it when I read it again the other day.
I definitely get that same feeling at the beginning of the year–so many wonderful things I’d love to do (and read) in the new year. I am trying VERY hard not to overcommit on my reading plans. Sounds like you have all sorts of fun ideas–I hope you get to pursue at least half of them! 🙂
Oh, I’ll pursue aspects of all of them and won’t complete any but its fun to just let loose once and spew my impossible dreams all over the place. 🙂
I want a Hobbit Reading Hole–I picture a cozy chair by a roaring fire and endless cups of tea. Happy New Year Carl. I wish you the best of luck with all of your goals. I like to set lofty goals myself–I enjoy the challenge and even if I don’t accomplish all of it, I get a decent start. Enjoy the journey and don’t concentrate on the end. Have fun!
Mary and I each have a cozy chair. Our ‘roaring fire’ is one of those fake stoves that does an amazing job of warming up this usually chilly room and the logs and flame have that nice romantic look to them. And of course we are surrounded, quite literally, by books!!! It is very relaxing.
I will indeed enjoy the journey, and I hope you do as well!
Wow, great job on the fitness front! That’s excellent! Good luck with all your goals this year.
Thank Chris, it feels good to enter a new year…feeling good!
Ha!
I love the list brother!
Congratulations on the longest blog post title of all time!
Thanks Jimmy! It was fun coming up with the title.
looks like a wonderful year, indeed. I love your “challenges.” I have been thinking about what goals I need to make–because I really need to at least make them–and reading what I have on the shelves is going to be on there.
so an late summer/autumn wedding for the daughter? I wish her well–and her parents, of course, with the transition and celebration…
I am so proud of you and all the running you did this year. Sean was tinkering on his bike this last week, we’re all thinking about how to get the exercise while making it the most enjoyable as we can. witnessing others’ determination, success, but also their enjoyment is good encouragement.
Looking forward to another year in community with you Carl. Feeling very grateful to have found you and the friends I’ve made through your blog here.
I am wanting very strongly to see the number of unread books on my Hobbit Hole shelves diminish while at the same time reading more published in 2013 books. I hope to utilize the library for some of those, and hard-to-pass-up deals on the Kindle.
Yes, she is getting married Sept. 28th. It seems a long time away and yet will be here before we know it. Crazy how quickly time passes. You’ll blink and Natalya will be at this same phase in her life.
Glad to hear about Sean and the bike, makes me smile. I enjoyed his bike posts but haven’t been to his blog forever, is he still doing it?
I’m very thankful for the blessing you, Sean and N are to my life. It is a pleasure to know you and I’m excited about what 2013 will bring us.
I’m formulating my list of books to anticipate in 2013…like Gaiman’s new one (what a lovely cover!).
love that time of year for weddings. And no kidding about blinking. You know Doctor Who has something there about Blinking and in a moment life has literally passed them by thanks to Weeping Angels… sorry, N (re)watched Angels Take Manhattan yesterday.
I think he may pick the blog back up soon-ish. He is finally getting a paint job, debating parts and clothes. and his commute will be changing at the end of the month (but then, so should the weather to more snow and colder temps).
I’m looking forward to that list, I may end up doing one of those posts as well as the number of books I’m looking forward to is piling up.
Yes…not fond of that kind of blinking! Love the episode though. Chilling!
What, no fun riding bikes in snow? 🙂 Spring will be here before we know it (he says optimistically).
Thanks again Carl for another year of informative, inspiring and uplifting posts. Congrats on your weight loss (I will be trying again this year!!). I still think you should write a book. Maybe that’s 2014! 😉
Stuart.
You are very welcome Stuart, and thank you for the congratulations and the support throughout the year.
If I had a better command of the English language, punctuation, knew how to write dialogue and wasn’t so lazy I might just write something…:)
Happy New Year, Carl! Wonderful resolutions and I love your pipe dreams–my sort of goal list. Here’s to a wonderful 2013.
Thank you, it was fun to dream and to write. Here’s hoping that the reality of 2013 is just as magical.
There is no way on earth I can possible convey how very much I loved this post; from start to finish, it was just pure awesomeness. And the title–well, only the best blog post title EVER!!! You’ve totally made me want to sit down myself and do this–just lay it all out there, everything I wish I could do. And then glory in the fact that I accomplish pieces here and there of it. Yeah, I could definitely think of worse ways to spend an hour or two, just writing it all out…
And no matter what you achieve of those wonderful resolutions, Carl, I hope your year is simply the best it can possibly be!!!!
Aw, thanks Debi! 🙂 It was incredibly fun to write. You should do it, I’m not kidding in that it was a total blast to do, especially doing it not as a commitment but just as a “hey, you know I have some wild dreams/wishes and here they are”.
I will accept your well wishes and shoot them right back for you and your whole family in 2013.
Confession: I was a little teary by the end of this post! You totally kicked butt last year in the fitness department, and I am so thrilled and proud! Thanks for sharing that journey with us. Your enthusiasm is so inspiring.
The opening paragraphs and title of this post reminded me of why I usually love the New Year. I love soaking up the optimism, making plans, gazing starry-eyed at the empty canvas of the coming year, and taking a deep breath and plunging in. I didn’t realize until I read this that I didn’t feel any of that this year. I think I’m still in survival mode: get through every day with as much strength and grace as I can muster while still reaching the rather high standards I set for myself in my personal and professional life. My crazily optimistic side got buried last year; finding her again seems like an impossible task. It’s a process, I know, and I just need to be patient with myself (not my strong suit!). My point in all this rambling is to say thanks for sharing your time and enthusiasm with us. I know I’m not the only one who appreciates it 🙂
All the best for 2013, Carl!
Thanks Emily! The important thing to remember, and I really mean this, is that we are really just competing against ourselves with the health thing and it is a battle we win sometimes and get knocked back others. Just keep at it.
I too love the optimism of the new year. Work stuff is trying to drag my optimism under right now but I don’t plan on letting it happen. And I’m doing a great job actually keeping several of these silly resolutions right now so that is fun.
I don’t think patience is any of our strong suits! That whole ‘one day at a time’ idea can sound cliched but it really can help if that is where we keep our focus, on just trying to triumph today over whatever is thrown at us and to try to do so while holding on to hope and joy.
I hope your crazy optimism comes back quickly this year and explodes all over the place. 🙂