Monday, January 12, 2009

Lists

I am obsessed with making lists. I think it is some vestige of wanting to be organized, though in my traditional half-hearted manner I often consider having made the list to be quite enough to be going forward with, and stop there. The obvious exceptions to that are, of course, grocery lists and work to-do lists, the latter of which I am so obsessed with if I complete a task that is not on my to-do list, I will add it so I can cross it off. But to my point, for blogging like list-making causes me to ramble: it is that time of year when one puts down resolutions, and though I didn't do so good with my list from last year I tried again this year. Some I am doing pretty okay with (making the bed everyday); others are already starting to fall by the wayside (walk to the speedline? In 20 degree weather? You must be joking). I also wanted to make a list of books to read, because I am falling a little behind with new reading, and having a list would have the added benefit of being able to tick them off as they are completed or abandoned. Because I like being able to cross things off of lists. It has something to do with my personality.

Well apparently I should have put an item on the resolution list about resolving to make that secondary list, because I have not seemed to be able to get around to doing it. One of my main motivations are all the books I actually own but have not read; I have consumerist tendencies that lead me to wanting to possess books that look really good without having a concrete desire to actually sit down and read them. This is exacerbated by two current trends in my bookish life, that of using the hell out of both my university and public libraries, to the point of taking out more books than I can possibly read in the time allotted, and that of re-reading the entire Harry Potter series. Yes, again.

So it looks as if my resolutions this year will not be all accomplished either, seeing as how I can't seem to even finish the list of them. Oh well, I guess there's always next year... but January is such a good time for Harry... and I don't really want to read about the Iraqi-American experience....