I have a number of ongoing resolutions which I strive for, fail at, and then renew. You know the sort. Keeping the house cleaner, being more focused, taking more walks, and the like.
Then there is the special one I made last year and actually kept, except for my end-of-the-year blowout where I gave myself the week in-between Christmas and New Year's off.
That resolution was my book fast. I didn't buy any books. Our city library is well stocked but if they didn't have it, then I didn't read it. The two exceptions were if my book club was reading something otherwise unavailable or if I needed it for doing the podcast or writing bulletin inserts or that sort of thing. That need didn't come up much, believe it or not.
I admit I did fall off the wagon in virtual space when I got the Kindle and a few extra short story collections somehow fell into my online cart. However, I didn't beat myself up about it and moving on was surprisingly painless.
This is a habit that has now stuck and I am going to continue with it for 2011.
I am tweaking it in a way that has to do more with my reading habits than buying habits.
I'm going to try to read the books that are stacked up at home before getting more from the library (other than those already in the house). Online library requests make it so very easy to flitter from book to book without reading what is right there next to me. Some of those poor babies have been waiting for several years for me to crack their covers. If I try and can't get through them, then I'm going to move on, but I at least should give them a fair chance.
Buoyed by the success of the 2010 Book Fast resolution, I made another.
You can't imagine how annoying it is not to be able to remember it right at this moment!
But when I do, you will be the first to know!
WOOHOO! UPDATE!
I remembered!
The new "resolution" is to return to a habit I used to follow a couple of years ago. Each week I'd try to dip into a different cookbook when planning the next week's meals. This was to try to encourage me to actually cook from all my cookbooks instead of the favored ten or so I always used.
It worked with varying results but I'm going to work my way through the shelves and see how that goes. It will add more variety in cooking as well as helping keep me more interested in the weekly planning and cooking.
If all works out, then I'll have a new recipe to share every week. So we all win!
