So, new year, new beginnings.

Along with some clear-eyed reflection on the previous year: to wit, my writing style and this format were not working out well together. I dearly love picking literature apart, and while I enjoyed everything I wrote during the first half of last year, I realize now they were all too long in the writing and far far too long in the reading.

So, a new plan emerges: about one book a week (which is all the faster I can read them), with a maximum word count in mind. Film and music reviews as time allows.

I also created a plan for reading this year: an equal number of “junk food” books (mostly in the form of paperback mysteries), literary novels, and non-fiction. There will be a break in the routine over the summer to work on my remedial education in childhood classics.

A secondary goal is to write something worth bragging about, and then brag the hell out of it. While I enjoy the process of sorting out my thoughts about a book, I’d like even better to have a chance to discuss books with more than one other person. Which I’m 99% sure is the current readership total ’round here.

So, after a few posts to catch up on what I’ve read so far in 2009, you’ll see one book each week, discussion strongly encouraged.