>What I’ve been doing instead

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The first few months of the year are always slow for Evermore.  Most of the time, its perfectly fine.  I like to take that time to re-think my business goals and plan for the upcoming year.  At times though, there is just idleness, which aggravates my depression like no other.  I am a person who needs to keep moving, needs to have goals that I relentlessly pursue, or I stagnate and fester.

Evermore is getting better everyday.  I have a wedding to plan.  And this year I’ve upped my personal book challenge to 26 books.  Plenty to keep me busy, right?  So far I’ve read the above 9, which is a significant percentage (34%) of the goal.  In the more active months for the business I tend not to read as much, but perhaps I can surpass my own goal?

I’d like to talk about my favorites.  Anya Seton’s Katherine was written in the 1950’s but honestly you’d never know it.  It reads like the more modern historical fiction works dealing with the rulers of medieval England.  About halfway through the book I happened to read the back of the book and learned that it is based on a true story.  I won’t give away any details, but the concept of true love among Plantagenet rulers is a novelty, to say the least.  I loved the way this book was written, I loved the story, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.

I read this right after finishing Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir.  In contrast, Weir’s book read more like a textbook.  I loved this approach, especially since not a whole lot is known about Eleanor.  It would be entirely too farcical for my taste to weave a storybook around her; I’d rather know the facts that do exist and not get them mixed up with fantasies that are there for the sake of telling a tale.  I wish this book had been twice as long, though I imagine I will get my fill when I tackle The Wars of the Roses later in the year.

I’d been dying to read Barbara Ehrinreich’s offering, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, for quite some time and it did not disappoint.  I’m something of a cynic, but I try to put a positive spin on things.  I believe this made me the perfect audience for this book.  Needless to say, I couldn’t get enough.  I don’t think it took me even a full 24 hours to read this.  Its odd to think that having a positive attitude could do such damage, but Barbara guides you through how that positive attitude leads to white-washing and denial of problems, gullibility, poor money-managing skills, and a whole slew of other evils that can bring down a nation.  A must-read for anyone who wants to take a lesson from the current state of affairs.  Also, the author was on the Daily Show, and who can argue with that?

I had a really great time with the other books I read this year, but so far these are my favorites.  What have you been reading?  What are your goals for this year?

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