Resolutions Gone Awry
My resolution going into 2023 was to keep track of what I've been reading better. I opened a good reads account thinking I'd put all the books I've read and all the books I want to read in there.
I opened the account and... crickets.
There's one book in there and it remains in my to be finished pile.
I feel like that's been a running theme this year. Never before have I started so many books and then abandoned them.
Is it a sign that I'm unfocused or that what I'm choosing to read isn't interesting?
I've been trying to work on my craft so I've picked up a fair few non-fiction on storytelling, creativity and the impact of poetry. Into the Woods, Languages of Truth, Are You Judging Me Yet? and The Creative Act all remain unfinished.
Poetry books have also been abandoned. Rendang, and Motherland, Fatherland, Homelandsexuals, whilst captivating were too much for my brain and I need space before returning to them. Or at least a more relaxed mind to process them.
Finished collections include Death Magazine, How to Burn a Woman, All The Men I Never Married. Far from my aim of a poetry collection per month.
On the advice of an article in Writing Magazine, I started a spreadsheet to document everything I was reading and writing. Whilst I can see how useful this practice could be, the reality of keeping it up to date is far too much for me. I need something looser to record the best bits of what I'm reading. Or else schedule one day a week (or month) to do the admin of getting it into a doc.
I got myself a new kindle with my birthday money which was supposed to make reading easier but I've ended up downloading loads of books without finishing, some of them I haven't even started. But, you know, us bookish types love to have a mountain of unread.
At no point throughout the year did I check in with my resolution and try to steer it back on course.
So, here's what I did read (standout is highlighted):
Fiction - Swimming Home, Breasts and Eggs, Brainwyrms, Magpie, the Reading List, Harry Potter 1-3
Poetry: Death Magazine, Forward Book of Poetry 2022, A Portable Paradise, How to Burn a Woman, All The Men I Never Married, the English Summer, probably some Mary Oliver
Non-fiction: Gift From the Sea, Salt on Your Tongue, On Poetry, Novelist as Vocation
What was left unfinished:
Fiction: the Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Best British Short Stories 2022, Venemous Lumpsucker, the Teleportation Accident, Chasm, To the Lighthouse
Poetry: Rendang; Motherland, Fatherland, Homelandsexual; the Cat Prince; the Poetry Review (spring, summer & autumn)
Non-fiction: Into the Woods, Languages of Truth, the Warren Buffet Way, the Creative Act, the Icarus Deception, Are You Judging Me Yet, Funny Weather
New Year New Me?
Next year I'd like to finish more books, read more poetry, make more notes, read more from the pile of the great unread, buy more secondhand and from indie booksellers. You know, the usual.
Will I make it a resolution? No. Probably, I'll keep on buying from Amazon and not making any register of what I've read.
What's the point of this post? I don't know. I just wanted to write it down. Give it some air. Acknowledge my shortfalls and the space between the reader I want to be and the reader that I am.
How do you read and keep track of what you've written? Honestly interested to see what I can steal.
Are you thinking about setting creative resolutions or goals? Does the idea fill you with dread? Are you the kind of person that sets ambitious goals and then abandons them because they get too much?
The Creative Intentions Setting Workbook allows you to embrace your creative fluidity and set an overarching vision for your creative practice.
