Month: January 2016

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I am working through my To Be Read shelf and tracking the books I read in an effort to be more mindful about my reading and more critical in my thinking.

I just finished The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff, my January reading club selection. It was a fictionalized version of the story of one of the first transgender people, Lili Ehlbe. I liked it, a bit, but wasn’t overwhelmed by the story or writing. Ebershoff is a professor of writing and was an editor for a long time and I felt like it shows in his writing: he is a very good writer but very conscientious about being a very good writer. I’m glad I read this, and feel like it gave me some insight into how a person might feel that she or he was born into the wrong body, but wasn’t overwhelmed.

In addition to my yearly resolutions, I would like to tackle some smaller goals. Last year I wanted to focus on:

• Picking one or two of the “talked about” series that I have had in my Netflix queue for ever and actually watching them
• Reducing my list of unread books on my Kindle from its current title of 72
• Tackle at least three of the projects from my Pinterest Crafts board
• Do a few of the projects on our house list: something in the garden, something in the DIY, something in the decorating
• Maybe attempt another no spend month and another no drinking month
• Take a tech holiday (this will be hard. Maybe I’ll save it for the month between Christmas and New Year’s.)
• Eat vegan, vegetarian or on Whole 30 for a month.
• Get a girls’ gang, like Stitch n Bitch or a reading club going. I miss hanging out with women, outside of work,sans children and partners

I was mildly successful. To wit, I did a few house projects (the deck, the garden), I took the day of Thanksgiving off from tech (but only because a kid blocked my phone and I couldn’t fix it the day of) and I started a reading club. But this year I think it might be easier to just have new resolutions that last a month only.

Last year I did “Drynuary” and a no spend month in February. Both were relatively easy, so we’re going to do those again.

• January: no drinking. This will be my second year doing it, and last year was relatively easy. I’m looking forward to it again.
• February: no spend month. We’ve done this multiple years in the past, and it has worked before. No spending except for on food, bills, medical or emergencies. The hardest part of this is not eating out.
• March: Read from a book every month. Part of my reading issue is that I spend too much time on my phone instead of reading a book. This will help me get through my to be read list.
• April: finish a craft. I’ve had quite a few ideas brewing, and this month should be quiet enough that I can get them done.
• May: buy nothing month. We will probably want to eat out, so not including that, but I am pledging to not buy anything other than food (or medical, if that comes up).
• June: walk every day. Maybe instead of trying to walk every day for a year, I can walk every day for a month? It should be relatively nice too, so maybe it will be easier.

I’m less sure on the second half of the year. I’d like to repeat the no drinking, walking every day and no spend months, but maybe I’ll think of some other things as we go along.