2017 Resolutions! Also introducing, THE BOX!

Alright! New year, and that fleeting sense of optimism until things get rolling and we’re all reminded we’re living in the crappy cyberpunk future now. Ehem.

In any case, I thought I’d take a little time to take stock of things, looking back on 2016, and plan ahead for the future. 2016 was honestly kind of an odd year for me– I did some cool (read: nerdy) stuff, traveled a little bit (though possibly not as much as I should have), and hammered out some blog posts along the way. With any luck, I’ll be able to make 2017 an even better year, so here’s to hoping! But yeah, here are a couple of resolutions that I hope to work on over the course of the year.

Resolution 1: Read More

Pretty simple, right? According to my ‘Books I read in 2016’ tag, I read 53 books over the course of 2016. This is not counting comics/graphic novels, reference books, RPG manuals, and so on. A book a week is a respectable number, but I here’s to hoping I can beat that as 2017 goes on.

Resolution 2: Buy fewer books.

At a glance, this flies in the face of resolution #1. Except for the fact that I’ve got a heck of a backlog in my to-read pile as is. The dollar bin at the used bookstore has always been my weakness, and as a result, I’ve got plenty of random-ass old sci-fi novels to work through. I suppose I could have worse habits, though I really should put in some more shelving at some point.

In any case, I think I’m good on random-ass dollar books for the time being, as a few weeks ago, I found … THE BOX.

the-box

At 9.99 for 29 books, that’s about 34 cents a book. And, assuming that each book takes a couple hours to read, well … that’s a heck of a entertainment-to-time ratio, right there. Here’s a quick peek at some of the books inside (not all 29 are shown ’cause I had to take the first layer out to get a good shot). Don’t suppose any of you have any requests at what I should take a crack at first?

fullsizerender

And this is on top of the pile of unread books I currently have on my shelf. And the real funny thing is, I can think of at least a half dozen new releases that I’d like to pick up … but that’s what the library’s for, right? So we’ll see how well I can stick to this buying less stuff resolution.

Resolution 3: Write more stuff.

A side note thing I’ve mentioned in passing before, but I dabble in writing of the non-review variety. Go figure, right? I’ve been pretty good-ish the last couple of weeks on getting stuff written (even though the election really threw me into a non-productive tailspin in November). Still, good news is, I’ve gotten back on track, though at the moment I’m just dabbling with a few shorter projects instead of one big one. Still, I have a couple of ideas for a proper novel (or at least a novella)– I’ve taken a couple of cracks at it thus far, and always seem to peter out around 10,000 words … I’m gonna have to try to work past that this year. Oh, and I need to think of a video game to write about for a Boss Fight Books pitch. I’m thinking maaaaybe a Zelda? Though that seems like a tall order. Maybe Double Dragon II, instead? Wild Arms? Space Westerns are the shit, after all. Who knows! Boss Fight Books’ submissions usually open up in the summer, so I’ve got a couple of months to figure it out.

So yeah. There’s a couple of resolutions for 2017! Let’s see how well I can stick with them. Feel free to prod and pester me along the way.

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