After I wrote Friday’s post about not really wanting to drink… I changed my mind. And probably drank more in the last weekend than I have in a long time. Oops! Like a 21 year old on their birthday, drinking was a novelty that was too fun to pass up – and when combined with a wedding that reunited me with my NYU sorority sisters, it was even harder to resist.
But now that it’s out of my system, I think I’m going to be cutting back again. I’m not going to the point of invoking Alcohol-Free September (though BF was swearing to it when he woke up on Sunday morning after a day of football watching and beer drinking), but I think I’ll probably be drinking a little more than I did in August but a little less than I did in July. (Of course, with the notable exception of the Belgian Beer Festival in Boston this Saturday that I can’t wait for – my Untappd account has gone neglected for far too long!)
So what is my September challenge going to be? Glad you asked. I tossed around a few different ideas (30 days of yoga, Sugar-Free September…), but none of them really spoke to me that much. I honestly don’t eat that much sugar (though I do find it hard to resist Tasti D Lite when I pass one in NYC), and the reason I don’t do yoga more is because I have other priorities – and that’s fine with me. When I thought about what would be meaningful to me, I realized it was already one of my goals for the year that was important to me – but had somehow fallen by the wayside. Reading!
I set my 2012 goal to be the same as 2011 – read 100 books. I know that you should always push yourself to do more than you did previously, but last year I made it to 100 even and don’t think I really could have read many more. And this year, I’m totally behind (though I haven’t taken any beach vacations yet, and I make up for a lot then). But then I happened on Dan’s inspiring post, Three Books in Three Days, and I realized that getting back on track may not be as hard as I thought. Maybe one book a day isn’t sustainable for an entire month, but if he can do that for a few days, maybe I can do a lighter version for a month?
And so with that, I propose: 15 books in 30 days. In addition to enriching my mind and forcing me to watch less TV, the third bonus is that I often read on the stationary bike – so I’ll be getting my biking muscles in shape. Good thing, since a friend is organizing a bike/wine tour of Colorado in early October where we’ll be covering 50+ miles a day! I’m going to be in trouble if I don’t put at least a little work in.
Already read: The First 20 Minutes, by Gretchen Reynolds.
Next up: You Are An Ironman, by Jacques Steinberg
Get Smarter in September has begun!
You must be a much faster reader than me! I can’t imagine having tme to read that many!
I really liked You Are an Ironman (even though I have no personal interest in doing one). On a similar topic, you have got to read Iron War by Matt Fitzgerald (about Kona); it is just riveting!
If you want to get smarter in September, why not throw some classics in there? Many of them (like Of Mice and Men, for example) are only 100-200 pages and can be read quickly.
A great non-fiction book I read a couple of months ago was Kontiki by Thor Heyerdahl. Definitely enlightening.
How did you like Gretchen’s book? I read it a few months ago!
Thanks Laura for the props!
Hey and following up on Anonymous’s point on fiction/classics: you could throw in Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” another short–and truly great–book.
Dan @ Casual Kitchen
Celia – I’ve been lucky enough to be a fast reader even since I was a kid!
Kristin – I definitely want to read more Ironman books now that I finished You Are An Ironman; will add that to my list!
Anonymous and Dan – Was mostly joking about “get smarter in September”, though good point about potentially including some classics. I’ll check out Kon-tiki! That said, I’m not at all looking to sandbag by including short books. My reading list/order is mostly dictated by when the books I request from the library come in and how soon they’re due back!
Laura – I liked it a LOT. I thought it had enough for both newbies and experts, in that it incorporated a wide range of studies.