First of all, dear readers and beloved patrons–Happy New Year! We here at the Library hope that 2017 is a year full of joy, adventure, learning, wonder, and fulfillment for you and those you love.
Like Lady Pole, I am not a big one for New Year’s Resolutions. There is enough weight, enough hope, fear, and desire attached to this time of the year, and I don’t think it’s fair to hang any more baggage of my own on there. More than that, I know that none of us will be the same person in February or June or November of 2017 that we are today, so trying to change that person just seems a little unfair.
So what I like to do, instead, is to help my future self feel more prepared, and stronger. I like to make a plan to learn new things, to try out a new skill, to take in some new art….and, of course, to read.
Which is why the Library is the perfect place to kick off a New Year. We have books on “how to do” any topic you can imagine, from knitting to robot building, from small-spot gardening, to the rules of canasta, to help you develop your skills, or learn new ones in the coming year. We also have a sizable collection of The Great Courses on CD–classes on everything from the History of the First World War to How the Brain Works. For those who prefer visual learning, check out the crazy amounts of videos available on-demand via Hoopla, including exercise, yoga, and meditation.
You can also check out our Creativity Lab, which is constantly offering classes and opportunities; check out Kelley’s sensational blog posts to learn more about all the wonderful things you can do in the Creativity Lab, and just how vital and fulfilling making things can be. Keep your eye on our calendar of events, as well. We offer classes and programs throughout the year on a really quite shocking number of events, from Book Groups to yoga, from How to Use Facebook to Poetry Readings, from Intro to Microsoft Word to Coding. And all of it is free.
For those who enjoy settling into the New Year with a good book (or two…or a tower…), we have got you covered, as well. We’re going to be talking about Blanket Fort Reading Lists very soon, but as a way to kick-start your New Year’s Reading, there are a wealth of “Resolve to Read” challenges out there on the Internet with which the Library is more than ready and willing to help. A few are listed below for your perusal. Feel free to come in some time and chart your own reading course for the year, and your future self, as well. We’ll be here to help you every step of the way!
Resolve to Read 2017 (click the title of the challenge for full details and information):
BookRiot has been hosting a Reading Challenge for 3 years now, and 2017 looks to be their biggest year yet, with author suggestions, a Goodreads reading group, and oodles of recommendations across their site. The premise is fairly simple–there are 24 challenges (which means approximately 2 books a month)–that each help you broaden your horizons. One challenge, for example, is to read a fantasy book. Another is to read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+. This challenge is great because it not only encourages you to browse shelves that you never have before, but it also encourages you to try out a different perspective on the world, and to interact through reading with people you might not meet in everyday life. And there is no better way to shape your future self than by giving that self all the opportunities possible to see what a big, creative, diverse world we inhabit.
Bustle: 10 Resolutions for a More Feminist 2017
I think it’s fair to say that 2016 was not a great year for equality, tolerance, respect, or inclusion. But rather than yell about it on Facebook, or yell at the TV, or…yell in general, I think it’s time we tried to make things better. And books are a sensational way to do that. Literature can touch people in a way that Facebook can’t. They can speak to a person’s psyche in a way that awkward dinner conversations will never be able to do. And they can give you the courage to change the world–or, at least, your world. That is why Bustle‘s reading challenge is so neat–it ties reading into history, the present, and the future, offering concrete steps to exploring feminism, women’s writing, and women’s place in literature, in small, bite-sized chunks.
Girl XOXO: The Master List of 2017 Reading Challenges
Ok, I was going to draw from this list to populate mine here, but there are too many good ones, and too much fun to be had looking through them. If you are looking for a reading challenge by genre, you’ll find it here. If you are looking for a reading challenge by social cause, religion, subject, or author, you’ll find it here. If you’re challenging yourself to read a specific number of chapters or pages or books, you’ll find ways to count that here. So go to this list, and peruse all the potential reading challenges the new year holds–and we’ll be here to help you make it a reality!
Happy New Year!