A Measly Little To Do List
So I have been feeling a little bit adrift, at a loss, recently, and that has showed in my lack of any interesting content on this blog. When there’s nothing to say, well… there’s nothing to say. I need a little bit of a kick to do some things that make me feel at least slightly accomplished, so I believe that I will set some personal goals for myself for the coming year and then write about them as I complete them. After contemplating a lot of unreasonable ideas and outrageous deadlines (such as, reading 100 books in the next year? Debone-ing a duck? I don’t think so) I am going to attempt the below to do list:
- Cook one unnecessary, completely new recipe every month (I did this in December/January, making chocolate babka and peppermint marshmallows, and I wish I’d written about them).
- Create one new scrapbooking page or card per month.
- Learn one new helpful home, shopping or healthcare tip per month.
- Read two Russian novels, a James Fenimore Cooper novel, a William Faulkner, and a James Joyce work (I have been attempting this goal for about five years. I have never read more than three pages towards this goal. The three pages were out of August 1916 by Aleksander Solzenhitsyn. Worst ever.).
I have the most trepidation towards #4. Yet it really is the one that I feel is most critical to my mental well being. You see, I have avoided each of these authors/books for a particular reason, some more or less rational, some… not… but I will deal with those stories in due time. So overcoming meaningless paranoia would be quite a positive benefit. And besides, I am ashamed at calling myself well read and never having read anything from that little list… like a fraud.
So, here goes!
stirred, not shaken 
you can do it! I have never read Cooper or Joyce either… and only… 1 russian novel I think? maybe i’ll join you. and is the debone-ing a duck idea from Julie & Julia? 🙂
This is a great idea! As far as #4 goes:
“One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (sp?) was good, and maybe easier to get through than the typical huge Russian novel. As far as Cooper goes, “The Last of the Mohicans” was excellent (and then you should definitely see the movie with Daniel Day-Lewis). You’re going to write on these as you go?
oooo…reading a Cooper novel sounds pretty rough. everything else on the list looks cool, though. I liked Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and a good short Russian novel is Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground. It has some interesting parallels to Crime and Punishment, so you get two for the price of one 🙂