I’m about a quarter of the way through Journey to the End of the Night and really enjoying it thus far. The main character’s self-centered, heightened reality reminds me a lot of both John Fante and Charles Bukowski’s characters. I don’t want to go into too much detail about the plot at this point, in case anyone hasn’t read the book. But look for a slightly longer, spoilerific piece on the book in early February.

Which leads me to February’s book, which I just ordered today:

Figured I could use some #nerdcred.

While I haven’t finished compiling the list of the books for the year, I did manage to select the first one and order it on Amazon. It arrived a couple days ago and I’m starting it today:

Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

I’ll be writing little updates about the book as I read it. Feel free to read along!

Generally I’m against New Year’s Resolutions. They’re all-too-often vague and, as a result, impossible to take direct action on. Still, I can’t help but reflect on stuff I wish I’d done better or that I wish I’d done at all over the past year. To try and resolve all my shortcomings would be a nearly insurmountable task, so I’ve decided to just focus on one thing over the next year:

Read more books.

I used to read every day. A year and a half ago, you could’ve asked what I’d read lately and get a laundry list of titles that I was in the middle of devouring. But life is more hectic now and the odds of me keeping more than one book going at a time are slim. But I know I can, at the very least, commit to one book per month. Not a lofty goal, to be sure, but a solid, achievable one. The problem is I have no clue what books I want to read. This is where you come in.

Suggest books to me. You can comment on this post, email me (cwatkins at gmail dot com), IM me (capstinence on AIM), @reply me or DM me.

Feel free to suggest anything you want: Fiction or Non-Fiction. In a few days, I’ll pick (as randomly as I can) twelve books to commit to for the next year and post the order of them as soon as the list is ready, so anyone who wants can read along as well. Each month I’ll write a report on the book I read and let you know whether or not I’d recommend the book to anyone else and why.

Thanks in advance for helping me out I’ll be sure to also post the full list of everyone’s suggestions.