New Year’s Resolutions

It is said that only 8% of people can keep their new year’s resolutions. I definitely belong to the 92%, but my inability to do what I have determined to do has never prevented me from making new resolutions each year. Probably I am hoping to be a different person even if I know it is a false hope.

I think I want to do the following for 2024:

At Least One Metaphor

I tried to write one little poem everyday for 2023, but I couldn’t keep that promise. At one point, I thought I would just do a little haiku, but even that was not doable. So for 2024, I would adjust it to one metaphor a day. I will try to write at least one metaphor a day. Even very bad metaphors count.

In those days that I can’t even come up with one bad metaphor, I will go to look for a metaphor and quote it. This sounds quite achievable, doesn’t it?

Wider Range Of Books

I have been reading a very narrow range of books and I want to change that in 2024.

• More BLB and GLG Books: I just finished reading “Theory” by Dionne Brand and I just love the book so much. It is a girl-love-girl book and it really makes me wonder what other girl-love-girl books are like. So I got two books like that, “Hex” and “Everyone Knows How Much I Love You”. I will try to read them and see how that goes.
• More Books by Minorities: I’ve said this many times before, but I still read very few books by minorities. Actually I don’t really care who writes the book as long as the book is interesting. And of course we all know that the previous sentence sounds fair and square and justified, but it is not. Our taste is developed over time and we all tend to read certain books (or do certain thing) according to our habit. It takes effort to break that habit and try something new.
• Read Several Books by Ryōtarō Shiba: I read one of his books in high school. He was a popular Japanese write who wrote historical novels. I should have read him more back in high school, but I didn’t. My misspent youth. I think at the time I didn’t like his style of protracted description and endless ranting. Why couldn’t he be more compact? I dismissed him due to one minor dislike. However every writer has some quirks and eccentricities. I like his book overall and can very well overlook one element of imperfection.
• Read Several Books About the Mongolian Steppe and Central Asia
• Read More Books by Dionne Brand

Read Reviews And Write Reviews

I haven’t been able to read reviews and reviews after I read a book. I really want to do that, but for some reason I’ve never felt motivated to do it. I write very unsatisfactory reviews.

Organize The Notes

I have realized that I need to review the notes after I read a book. And after reading a book, I should even export my notes from kindle and keep a copy of it. I will try to do it this year.

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