New Year’s Eve & Reading Goals for 2019

Seattle New Years Eve Fireworks 2011 (8)
Rajiv Vishwa [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Hoping all of you have a lovely New Year’s Eve, whether it’s already past midnight for you, or, like us West Coasters, you’re still waiting.  🙂

I typically spend New Year’s Eve all warm and cozy at home with a book.  It’ll probably be AI Superpowers (published just this year), which I started a couple days ago.  So far, it’s really intriguing:

As mentioned in my Top Ten of 2018, this was a great year in terms of number of books read, though it yielded fewer great books than I’d hoped for.  However, given some unexpected personal challenges in the second half of this year, I’m just glad I kept reading.

Some goals for 2019:

  • Blog at least once a week.  Because of new work responsibilities, I’m unlikely to resuscitate the podcast any time soon, sadly to say.  Till or if that happens, I plan to blog more frequently instead.
  • Get spun up on philosophy.  I’ve read bits and pieces of philosophy in the past, but next year, I want to really fill in the gaps.  My hope is to learn about the influence of various philosophical movements on literature, history, and Christianity.
  • Read even more nonfiction.  In part, by committing half of my Mount TBR list to nonfic!
  • Quit more books.  I hate leaving books unfinished…but life is short and the reading stack is long. If I give a book a decent chance and I still dislike it, I commit to not finishing it.

Thank you to everyone who’s read my blog or listened to my podcast this year!  This bookish community is such a joy to be a part of, and I can’t wait for the conversations to continue next year.  🙂


    Comments

    10 responses to “New Year’s Eve & Reading Goals for 2019”

    1. happy new year, marian!

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    2. Happy New Year, Marian!! I've been finishing up Sir Gawain for 2018 and read to begin George MacDonald's Phantases for 2019. Work gets in the way of so many important things, doesn't it? Let me know when you choose some philosophy books, as I may join you. I've been wanting to read Does The Center Hold for awhile now but, of course, other reads have taken precedence. Your plans look wonderful and I can't wait to see what transpires!

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    3. Happy New Year! I'm very interested in your current read…it's on my Amazon watchlist, just waiting for a used copy to hit circulation.

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    4. Thanks, Mudpuddle – you too!!

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    5. Looking forward to your thoughts on MacDonald…I've always been curious about his writing! Right now I'm reading a sort of \”crash course\” philosophy intro (appropriate title Philosophy 101), to get my bearings. Probably in February, I'll be starting either Seneca or Descartes, whom I rescued from the thrift store. 🙂

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    6. We need some kind of personal library delivery service… or maybe a giant zip-line. 😀 I'm really enjoying this book so far, though the beginning is historical & technological background.

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    7. I've never heard of this book so I'll be looking forward to your review. Hope you're able to keep blogging. I enjoy reading your posts. Happy new year.

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    8. Happy New Year's!AI Superpowers looks to be so interesting. I tend to like books that examine these big issues. Though it focuses on some different issues, I highly recommend Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence. I have been filling in the gaps in terms of reading philosophy for a long time now. I have found it to be a lifetime project.

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    9. Thanks Sharon, Happy New Year! 🙂

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    10. Thanks for the rec, I'll look into it! I honestly am just venturing into AI for the first time, but the overlap with other fields (history, society, ethics) is part of the fascination.

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