2014

Here’s the list of my 2014 New Year’s resolutions, inspired by my 2014 resolution post. Check this page throughout the year, as I’ll be crossing off my goals as I accomplish them. You can also see an archive of past resolutions in the dropdown menu.

Reading Goals

1. Read 5 classic books

A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
Dracula – Bram Stoker
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
My Antonia – Willa Cather
Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Crucible – Arthur Miller
The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien (August 2014)
The Fellowship of the Ring – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Two Towers – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Return of the King – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
The Trial – Franz Kafka
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Tubman
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

2. Read 5 books I already own

Ordinary Genius – Kim Addonizio
Eve and Adam – Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant
The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents – Jo Ann E. Argersinger
Looking for the Gulf Motel – Richard Blanco
Slamming Open the Door – Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno
Notarikon – Catherine Bowman
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened – Allie Brosh
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers – Shane Claiborne
Boundaries – Henry Cloud and John Townsend
Vacations on the Black Star Line – Michael Cirelli
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
Blinking with Fists – Billy Corgan
Jesus Freaks, Volumes 1 and 2 – DC Talk
Great American Poets: Emily Dickinson – Emily Dickinson
50 American Plays – Matthew and Michael Dickman
The Art of Description: World Into Word – Mark Doty
Fire to Fire – Mark Doty
Alabanza – Martin Espada
Harlot – Jill Alexander Essbaum
Necropolis – Jill Alexander Essbaum
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Eye of the Fish – Luis Francia
Dark Thirty – Santee Frazier
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
New World – Suzanne Gardinier
City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara – Brad Gooch
The Place I Call Home – Maria Mazziotti Gillan
me and Nina – Monica Hand
Hip Logic – Terrance Hayes
The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing – Richard Hugo
Teaching Poetry Writing – Tom Hunley
Absence is Such a Transparent House – Aby Kaupang
The Temple Gate Called Beautiful – David Kirby
Still to Mow – Maxine Kumin
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers – Betsy Lerner
Breaking the Alabaster Jar – Li-Young Lee
Passwords Primeval – Tony Leuzzi
Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy – C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength – C. S. Lewis
Poet in New York – Federico Garcia Lorca
New and Selected Poems – Thomas Lux
Gloryland – Anne Marie Macari
Ivory Cradle – Anne Marie Macari
Times Alone – Antonio Machado
Wild Domestic – Tamara Madison
What Learning Leaves – Taylor Mali
What Teachers Make – Taylor Mali
Song of Thieves – Shara McCallum
Panic – Laura McCullough
The Endarkenment – Jeffrey McDaniel
Pink Elephant – Rachel McKibbons
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years – Donald Miller
Searching for God Knows What – Donald Miller
The Tiny One – Eliza Minot
More Poetry Comics: Abuse the Muse! – Dave Morice
Western Practice – Stephen Motika
The Essential Neruda – Pablo Neruda
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair – Pablo Neruda
Lucky Fish – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Evidence – Mary Oliver
Pier – Janine Oshiro
Dancing at the Devil’s Party – Alicia Ostriker
Volcano Sequence – Alicia Ostriker
Viral – Suzanne Parker
Convergences – Octavio Paz
Sudden Dog – Matthew Pennock
Boy – Patrick Phillips
100 Poems by 100 Poets – Harold Pinter
Ariel – Sylvia Plath
The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers – Bhanu Kapil Rider
Capirotada – Alberto Rios
Open Secret – Rumi
With or Without You – Domenica Ruta
Shadow Society – Marie Rutkoski
Barter – Ira Sadoff
Grazing – Ira Sadoff
Year of the Black Rainbow – Claudio Sanchez
Striking Surface – Jason Schneiderman
Hurdy Gurdy – Tim Seibles
Measure for Measure – William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
Passion and Pride: Poets in Support of Equality – Bruce Spang
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus – Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg
How Good is Good Enough? – Andy Stanley
American Sonnets – Gerald Stern
Early Collected Poems – Gerald Stern
Save the Last Dance – Gerald Stern
Stealing History – Gerald Stern
Dracula – Bram Stoker
View with a Grain of Sand – Wislawa Szymborska
Phantom Limb – Brian Turner
The Girl Who Feel Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There – Catherynne Valente
Door in the Mountain – Jean Valentine
The Water Books – Judith Vollmer
17 Love Poems with No Despair – B. J. Ward
Jackleg Opera – B. J. Ward
Gospel Night – Michael Waters
This Sharpening – Ellen Doré Watson
Triangle – Katharine Weber
Painting the Christmas Trees – Joe Weil
The Plumber’s Apprentice – Joe Weil
Tortured for Christ – Richard Wurmbrand

3. Read 10 books on my Goodreads “To Read” list (September 2014)

1. Damn You, Autocorrect! – Jillian Madison (January 2014)
2. Cinder – Marissa Meyer (January 2014)
3. The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey (June 2014)
4. World War Z – Max Brooks (July 2014)
5. The Book of Blood and Shadow – Robin Wasserman (July 2014)
6. Tiger Lily – Jodi Lynn Anderson (July 2014)
7. The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien (August 2014)
8. The Impossible Knife of Memory – Laurie Halse Anderson (August 2014)
9. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert (August 2014)
10. The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion (September 2014)
11. Horns – Joe Hill (September 2014)
12. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot (October 2014)
13. The Giver – Lois Lowry (October 2014)
14. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – JK Rowling (October 2014)
15. The Gigantic Beard that was Evil – Stephen Collins (November 2014)
16. The Art of Asking – Amanda Palmer (November 2014)
17. Unsouled – Neal Shusterman (November 2014)
18. The Golem and the Jinni – Helene Wecker (November 2014)
19. American Gods – Neil Gaiman (December 2014)
20. Night Broken – Patricia Briggs (December 2014)

4. Read and review the ARCs (both digital and hard copy) that I’ve received in the past two years

Eve and Adam – Michael Grand and Katherine Applegate
Zealot – Reza Aslan
Trying to Be Cool – Leo Braudy
The Diviners – Libba Bray
Back to Christmas – Dennis Canfield
The Tragedy of Fidel Castro – Joao Cerqueira
Dukkha, the Suffering: An Eye for an Eye – Loren Christensen
Empty Mansions – Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.
Matters Familiar – E. G. Frabricant
Love & Math – Edward Frenkel
After Visiting Friends – Michael Hainey
Hunted – Elizabeth Heiter
The Psychology of Twilight – (Eds.) E. David Klonsky, Alexis Black, and Leah Wilson
The Devil You Know – K. H. Koehler
Defy – Sara B. Larson
I Love My Slow Cooker – Beverly leBlanc
Sugar Hill: Where the Sun Rose Over Harlem – Terry Baker Mulligan
Doing Harm – Kelly Parsons
Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey – (Ed.) Lori Perkins
The Last Stratiote – LeAnn Neal Reilly
Lost at Sea – Jon Ronson
With or Without You – Domenica Ruta
The Shadow Society – Marie Rutkoski
A Conspiracy of Alchemists – Liesel Schwarz
Love Water Memory – Jennie Shortridge
Hokey Pokey – Jerry Spinelli
Son of a Gun – Justin St. Germain
Growing in Wisdom and Love: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation – Susan Stabile
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There – Catherynne M. Valente
You Got to be Kidding! – Joe Wenke

5. Read the four Gospels

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John

Creative/Lifestyle Goals

6. Send chapbook out to at least five different contests (May 2014)

7. Spruce up my full-length poetry manuscript to send out to at least two fall book contests

8. Acquire a full-time teaching gig

9. Work on a piece of art every other week

10. Blog at least twice a week

11. Pay off one of my two major credit cards