Friday, January 09, 2009

2008 Resolved

Well, that was 2008 wasn't it.  Did it whiz by for you as fast as it did for me?
And here we are, in a new year, with a new number at the end.  The last or penultimate, depending on your viewpoint, year of the first decade of the 21st century.  What is the last year of the noughties going to bring for us I wonder?

Before musing on this year, I will do a quick revision of 2008 and my blogged about goals.  Here is the pithy version, with those items achieved in green.

Parenting



- Introduction of solid food;
- Begin potty training;
- Have a happy, healthy and active daughter;
- Get more sleep.

Creativity



- Blog consistently from now on;
- Follow through with twelve months of photography challenges;
- Finish Noah’s Ark;
- Finish Fantasy Triptych;
- Finish Angel Proclamation.

Personal Pleasures, Treasures and Measures



- Read 24 books or more;
- Lose “X” kilograms of weight that my daughter brought with her as a gift for me, and left behind once she arrived;
- Spend some time on family history research and break through one brick wall;
- Perhaps attempt an overseas holiday with the family, baby temperament allowing;
- Try one new recipe a week.

Work



- Create the new website;
- Update the content of the website;
- Improve the international marketing.

Well, that was a bit of hit and miss wasn't it.  Just fractionally over a third of stated goals achieved.

Here are the official excuses for non-achievement. ;)

Ms O is simply not at a stage to begin the potty training seriously.  I did look into the Natural Hygiene idea, but decided that I would need to be far more patient and organised than I felt able to be, so this was put to one side in favour of waiting until the more conventional age and readiness came around.

Absolutely no excuses, other than laziness, for not at least attempting to be more creative.  I'm not sure if I can genuinely consider managing two or three posts a month to be blogging "consistently" unless I allow for "consistently infrequently".   As for stitching - Ms O has itchy fingers and occasionally sticky ones too - and I couldn't really be bothered with the 'pull it out - put it back' for the sake of 30 minutes of stitching time.  I'd barely manage to thread the needle in that sort of time frame.  ;)

Then comes the weight issue.  I did manage to shift some of the excess, just not the whole X kilograms.
As for adventures with food, yes.  That idea didn't last long.  It's definitely one of my "would love to do's" but not one of my "must do's".  That won't reappear on any 2009 list.

And finally, the work things.
By mid-year I decided that doing any large chunks of work from home was just not possible for me, as much as I wanted to.  But by the end of the year I was going to work once a week, most weeks.  Once there I found myself drawn to working on mundane but necessary administrative jobs and tidy-ups like the filing system.   I am a chronically messy person, in the loose paper and books manner, but I can only stand so much junk and mess and fuss.  I won't regale you with tales of what I found in the filing during my purges, some of it beggars belief and clearly indicates that filing is primarily storage for paper that you will never look at again.  Ever. Until throwing it out.

So, that was 2008.  Welcome aboard for 2009.
I will probably be working on some goals for this year, if for no other reason than it gives me something to blog about.   :?
But they will probably come out in dribs and drabs over the next couple of months.  In the meantime, my 2008 goals page will disappear from sight and I will be doing a bit of rearranging of the blog as well.  You probably won't notice too much though.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

The Month of December in Books



The last month of the year turned out a total of four books all up.  Here they are:

Fiction:




The English Patient

This is the 1992 Booker Prize winner by Michael Ondaatje.
Set in Italy as the Second World War is coming to a close.  It follows four characters living in a Villa and was made into an multiple Oscar winning film by the late Anthony Minghella.
I did a full review of this book in December, which you can read here.
Would recommend it if you have the time, and haven't had your fill of war-based novels, unlike myself.



Captain Corelli's Mandolin
This is number 19 on the BBC Top 200 list.  Personally I would not have rated it that highly, but then clearly many others did.  I did my review of this novel on Christmas Eve and it was pretty much the last book read for 2008.

This novel is partly romance, partly political commentary, partly a war story.  Covers many bases.  It's flaws and foibles I have mentioned in the review.  The upside is that despite the extraordinary amount of obscure words, it is for the most part an easy and enjoyable read.



Watermelon

This is the first in the series of stories about the Walsh family.  This is the tale of Claire.  Her husband walks out on her the day she gives birth to their daughter, and the story continues on from there.
On the one hand this should be poignant, and it is.  On the other hand it is plainly silly.   The book is very, very, very long.  Much longer than it really needs to be.  The other novels about the Walsh girls are a step up from this, in my opinion.  Try Rachel's Holiday, which I reviewed back in April 2006 or Angels, which I read in October of this year, instead.


Dead Man Docking
Well this little story wasn't really worth the effort.  The two lead characters were irritating and childish, despite being (presumably) in their 60s.  At least one review suggested that this is well under the usual standards of author Mary Daheim.  Personally, I'd hope so.
The premise is two cousins - Judith and Renie - are going on a cruise through Renie's business with the cruise line.  The owner of the company is murdered at the pre-launch event and the story goes on from there.  It is given a very 30's taste with the choice of language and supporting cast.  A martini-swilling, upper class couple and a gumshoe detective using language straight out of the black and white movies.  Unless you are a die-hard fan, don't bother picking this up.

***

And to cap off 2008, here is a quick review of the statistics for the year.



32 works of fiction for the year.
4 novels from my Booklitzer Challenge - 2 BBC Top 200 and 2 Bookers.
10 works of non-fiction for the year.

26 different authors, of which 19 were new to me.


How was your year in books?