One of my favorite things about the start of a new year is that I get to start a new book. You see, I always keep a book in the bathroom that has a different reading for each day. (Why the bathroom? Because, really, it's the only place I ever get to sit down and have peace and quiet for a few minutes!) Each morning (usually) I take a minute or two to read that day's page.
This will be the fifth year I've done this, and my literary choices have changed each year. I always try to choose something that has just a short bit for each day (a page or less) and is in some way inspirational or thought provoking. Choose is really to strong a word. I don't go out actively seeking a new book at the end of each year. They just somehow seem to find me, like little gifts from the Muses. These have been the books in my life so far.
2007 - My first book was The Real Witches' Year by Kate West. Although not a witch of any sort (although my husband would sometimes disagree), I find learning about Wicca and paganism fascinating. I like learning about all different belief systems and their histories. Anyway, this book was a light, fun look at the Wheel of the Year.
2008 - Although Barbara Ardinger's Pagan Every Day: Finding the Extraordinary in Our Ordinary Lives is, by it's title, geared toward Pagan's of all stripes, I thought it had thoughts and ideas that would be inspiring to open-minded practitioners of any spiritual practice.
2009 - Jill Badonsky's The Awe-Manac - A Daily Dose of Wonder was a lot of fun. This was the one book I read that really made me want to do many of the creative activities in it, although I never seemed to get around to it. She included journal prompts, bits of historical interest, and a lot of plain silliness. I liked the colorful, light-hearted illustrations, too.
2010 - The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara Call is subtitled "365 Days of Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Unlocking your Creative Spirit." It is organized in days of the weeks rather than days of the year, with each day focused on a different category: Monday - journaling; Tuesday - recycle, reuse or revive; Wednesday - collection, stash and materials; Thursday - personal history; Friday - noncraft inspiration; and Saturday/Sunday - collaborate, gather and experiment. The book had a lot of neat ideas, but honestly, it irritated me. An entire year and I could never get over the fact that because I was following the days of the week, I was off with regards to what day of the year it was. At the end of the year, I still had a few pages in the book to go. Silly!
2011 - I just started The Artist's Way Every Day - A Year of Creative Living by Julia Cameron. Julia is best known for her book The Artist's Way, and this daily reader is composed of favorite and inspirational excerpts from that book and others of hers. I haven't yet formed an opinion of it, but I think it will be good. I keep meaning to dig my copy of The Artist's Way out of the shed. I never finished it when I bought it years ago; maybe now I'll do so.
There, now you know one of the things I'll be reading this year. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them, although I'm not sure I want to circumvent the Muses' plans!
On a totally unrelated front, a coffee mug I ordered months ago finally came in today. Isn't it cute?
I propped the artist's card up next to it. She's Alissa Clark and her work can be seen at alissaclark.etsy.com. Cool stuff - I might have to order more!
