This is 30

30 has been good so far. I feel older but not in a negative light. I don't put pressure on myself when it comes to my age. I know that I will always progress at my own speed and I have accepted that for a long time. I am where I want to be. I am on my own, working, being independent, living in my own place, doing what I want, living the single life [although a companion can be nice], having no kids, all these things I wanted. I have been a work in progress when it comes to myself, in terms of my personality, my social life, my coping skills, etc. I have made a lot of changes within myself over the past several years that I am deeply proud of. However, there is still more to come, it will never stop.

I happen to be writing this shortly after the new year, and while I don't believe in new year's resolutions, I do believe in self reflection and transformation. There are a handful of things I wish to work on with myself, to continue the progress I have been on.

First of all, my only real goal for 2018 is to read more. I recently made checklists of nearly all the books I have [as seen below]. I blacked out the boxes for the books I completed and shaded in partially for books I have only partially read. I have always been curious just how many books I own and how many of them I have actually read. If I constantly buy anything without guilt, it is books, I always buy them and they just keep piling on, I often ask for books as gifts too. Often I find myself saying that I probably have only read a small portion of the books I read. Finally I did the math, I own just over 300 books and have read just a little less than a third of them. Therefore, my goal this year is to stop buying books, with a few exceptions, and just to read the ones I already have.

I made a list for each shelf, this is one example.

 Before I get into what the exceptions are, I need to share some news. Early July of last year, a friend of mine had a little game night party. After most of the people have left, there was just 4 of us left. Somehow we got onto the subject of books, not uncommon with this crowd, and we spontaneously decided to make a book club. A couple of us were drunk, myself included, and we came up with a ridiculous name for our book club which is supposed to double as some new sex act we wanted to invent on Urban Dictionary. I still don't fully know how we came to it, I don't love it, but it's us nonetheless. We picked our first book that night, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. One of the members has read this book several times and knew that we would love it. So the rest of us went on Amazon and ordered a copy. We made a tentative meet date a month later. We have been meeting regularly ever since. I finally finished the book just the night before New Year's Eve. That book, has changed my perspective on things in so many ways, it deserves its own post, one that I hope get to in the future. We are having the last meeting for that book in a couple of weeks, after that the next book is my pick. I didn't even have to think about it, the book I chose is The Alchemy of the Mind by Diane Ackerman, the very book that this blog was named after. This book club has been fantastic and I am extremely grateful for its presence. I have grown closer to my friends in the club and look forward to our meetings. It has also gotten me into the spirit of reading more, even despite my lack of time to do so. Which in turn inspired me to make this goal.


So, for the year of 2018 I want to read more of my books. I usually don't start books without finishing another, however the past couple of years I have done otherwise. Mostly it's my mood that has diverted me to start other books, however, I am eagerly finishing the ones I started. I finished Lolita finally, The Story of O, and I still have to finish The Lord of the Rings, and a couple other short books. Aside from the next book for the book club, I plan not to start any new books until I have finished what I have left. As for the exceptions to the rule of not buying new books, first I will buy any new books required for the book club. Second, the book club has planned to go to the big annual book fair held here in February. I will buy anything and everything that I wish to. Third, if I get rid of any books, I will buy some to replace them if I feel compelled to. Lastly, if there are any good sales on new books and/or Kickstarters I am or will support, I will allow myself those books. After a year of this I want to see my progress and will decide then if it is worth to continue or not.

As for other works in progress for myself, or goals, I intend to donate blood more than I did last year. I want to move up or out of my current job position. With my new membership with Movie Pass, I hope to see more movies in the theater, at the very least twice a month which will pay for the monthly premium. I want to distance myself from people at work. I want to explore the idea of maybe going back to school and/or getting some type of official certification. I want to work on things with my personality that I do not like, or that have been revealed to me by close friends that I find unpleasant or difficult. I want to get a head start on my financials that occur around this time of the year such as my lease renewal and income taxes. That pretty much sums it up, there are many other things that I always say I want to do more of, but I'm being realistic. I want to paint and write more, but those are harder to do because inspiration has to strike. To really do those things more, I have to create an inspiring environment for myself. Perhaps I should explore what it takes to do that...

I know that watching movies, listening to specific music, reading, taking time off work, and spending time in nature are all things that put me in the mood to create. So I guess I should do those things more. Happily, gladly, I will try my best. All in all, I am happy it is a new year and happy to be 30.