Committing

So, it's like this... My brother has been collecting Stephen King's books, in hardback. He has several in paperback, so I found one in hardback for his collection, but it wasn't actually a novel... though it WAS one he didn't have in hardback, yet, so we swapped, with his parting remark of: "not like you'll read it..." The cynic.

It's "Stephen King -- A Memoir of the Craft -- On Writing". I had actually thought to myself: "Fancy! If he already has it, I'll have a groovy book for myself." And now I do, in paperback. And now that he has thrown down the gauntlet, I commit to reading this book.

Within a month.

All 288 pages.

And the cover.

If you know me and the expanse of my interests and how fleeting the focus and attention given to any one of those million interests is, you know what a great feat this will be, should I accomplish it. But you don't know all that, so you don't have reason to doubt. Hrm. Doubt away! I WILL do it! Having a little brother taunt you so is incentive enough, all personal interest in the book aside. (You don't know how many books I've read a couple chapters of and haven't finished.)

Okay, so, Cris, you heard it here: I WILL read it. And I will finish it by the end of August. I'm even cheating myself out of a few days, making this statement on the evening of the 4th, but that's just how determined I am. :)

To make life even more impossible for myself, I also plan to read "Alice in Wonderland", because a friend mentioned it and its clever-ness and I realized I haven't read it as a grown-up. Neither have I read it in English. :)

I also plan to learn as much Mandarin as I possibly can, given the time constraints, in the next year.

Hrm, life is starting to sound unrealistic, again.

Maybe I should start with getting to bed at a godly hour, tonight, after 55 hours of travel. :D