Dreams For the Coming New Year

I have come to hate this time of year (as far as next years reading selections are concerned).

In the past couple of years, it seems, whenever I set a goal, I’m assuredly going to fail at reaching those goals. And yet, if I don’t at least try to obtain these goals, I’m just assuredly going to fail as I always have lingering in the back of my mind the things I want to accomplish – book I want to read, how much and how often I plan to write, etc.

And so, here I go, once again.

For the past several years I have made it a point to read Dune. This, year, if I get to it, great, if not, so be it. I do, however, plan on reading the first three books in the prequals Legends of Dune trilogy, namely The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, and The Battle of Corrin. I read the first chapter of House Atreides a few nights ago and immediately got the feeling that this is a series I could easily get sucked into.

Another trilogy I have been looking forward to reading is The Sword of Shannara trilogy: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara. This is another book that I started reading – even though I was reading something else at the time – and got the sense that these are a sequence of books that I could really get to enjoy. What really grabbed me when I started reading The Sword of Shannara is the rich history that the story dives into right off the bat. I love stories like that!

Next, The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick. One thing that I love more than science fiction is history – real history – so reading a book that combines the two must be the best of both worlds, right? I don’t know, but this is another book that has been on my list for a while, and this year I plan on following through.

For now I am going to leave things right there, because I know that there will be other books that I will put onto this list. Namely, I know I want to add some no-fiction (history) books, but I’m not sure which ones yet. Recently, I have purchased some books on Rome and the army and Legions of Rome. Additionally, I am a true crime nut, so I will probably add some true crime titles, although I’m not sure which ones yet. And finally, there will always be the titles that I come across that I simply have to read right now and will most likely drop everything to do so.

On top of my reading goals, I hope to make a goal of writing at least four times a week, and making a concerted effort to at least write a book, of book length, with a coherent theme and plot. To me this means that, when complete, my book would be at least 50,000 words long (roughly 175 pages), and I would like to do this over a 60 day period. Doing the math, that’s roughly 834 words per day. I would then like to spend the remainder of the year editing, re-working, and re-writing.

So that’s it. As added incentive, I plan on printing out this blog post and carrying it around with me in my wallet as a constant reminder of what I have (and have not) accomplished. We’ll see how well I did at accomplishing my goals around this time next year.

Fact Friday: The Winds of Dune

Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert’s latest addition to the Dune saga – The Winds of Dune – is set in between Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. Originally the books title was going to be Jessica of Dune but was changed to The Winds of Dune before publication. No word, that I could find, as to why this change was made.