Resolutions

Now that we are two weeks into the New Year, most people have already cast aside their New Year’s Resolutions because they were too numerous, too abstract or too extreme.

My singular resolution is to read more. My goal—one book per week—is right on the edge of what is realistic for me. It is difficult, but possible, for me to read one book per week. Of course, the degree of difficulty is determined by the length of the book and the density of its subject matter but so far, so good.

My first book of the year was Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Hariri—definitely worth the read for anyone who considers themselves human. My second book was a book on Eastern Christianity, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann.

I am currently reading the Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky in the morning, listening to the Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn on audiobook while doing tasks throughout the day and reading the Shortest History of the Soviet Union by Sheila Fitzpatrick on my kindle before bed.

I am sensing a theme so far for my reading (Schmemann included). I tend to go through phases like this and I always learn more than I expect. It is a mystery why some people find certain things interesting but whenever I get interested in something I try to embrace that moment and learn something about myself.

As much as I love reading bedtime stories about the Soviet Union what I will read next month will be something completely different, as to yet unknown. Reading is a journey across space and time, through history and even into the future.

The more I read, the more I love human language and the stories we tell.