frumiousb

I was feeling badly, as I dislike being so late with these yearly reading lists. However, I now notice that I am precisely one day earlier than this time last year. If I continue with this trend, I should be on top of my reviewing in time for the year's change in around 20 years.

I continue to enjoy using this blog to read and review books. I'm sorry to those of you who find it tiresome (and I know that you're out there), but as I like to remind myself and you at the beginning of each new year: This journal is more for me than it is for you.

click here for the whole year.

click here for the ones that I particularly recommend. I'm not going to do a top 10 list-- it was a pretty good year for me and 48 of the books that I read are particularly recommended.

( more, if you're bored )

It always takes me a little while to put my thoughts together around the New Year. What I want to achieve, what I hope to have, where I would like to be at the end of the year. Some people are good at setting general very high level goals, but I only find that frustrating.

In the end, my goals are simple. In no particular order:

1. Continue working on my health. This was a goal for last year, and I worked on it very hard in 2007. In total, I lost 35 pounds, all of the pregnancy weight. I am still a little bit heavier than I would like to be (aren't we all?), but weight loss is no longer the key goal. In 2008, I want to work on fitness more than body size. Last year, I sometimes skipped the gym if my weight was low. This year, I will attempt to go three times per week to the gym. And for at least two of the other days I will either walk to and from the train station in Delft or do at least 20 minutes of other kinds of exercise. If I look back at myself at the beginning of 2007, I did very well with this goal. My blood pressure is still what they politely call labile, but it normally hangs out at 110/60 these days.
   
   
2. Remember my paper journal. Something that I would like to go back to, is all. I had no relevant similar goal last year.
   
   
3. Get ready for our move to the new house with as much organization and poise as circumstances will allow me to muster. This one is kind of self-explanatory.
   
   
4. Get more on top of my paperwork. I can excuse myself for the lapses last year because of the situation. But my grace period is officially over.
   
   
5. Count my blessings. Get my sparkle back. Appreciate my lover. Pet my cats. Grow herbs. :)