I resolved to read and understand the Koran.
Nina Sankovitch, the Connecticut woman who resolved to read a book a day for a year, finished up with Pete Dexter's "Spooner," her 365th book of the year that began on her 46th birthday, Oct. 28, 2008.
Two things happened: I went to see the Coen Brother's revival of True Grit, loved the dialog, and resolved to read the novel.
I'm not even going to resolve to read the "impressive" books I shamefully long to be able to drop into party conversation, like Ulysses or Infinite Jest, though I plan to read them someday (apparently they're pretty good).
As penance, I resolved to read the book, trusting that Goodwin had written something at least mildly interesting and re-opening my mind to the possibility Sullivan might have a legitimate point.
The resolution to read the whole of Proust's masterpiece is (like the resolve to read Joyce's Ulysses) more honoured in the breach than the observance.
When I finally have the time and resolve to read something new, I become a promiscuous commitment-phobe, taking up with another book nightly until I find the one I'm ready to go the the distance with.
"Our working notion of what books look like," Baker wrote in his 1995 essay, "is on the verge of becoming frozen in a brownish fantasy phase that may estrange us from, and therefore weaken our resolve to read, the books we actually own".
* I resolve to stop reading all those awful business books and start reading more history.
I resolve not to read the work e-mail at 5 p.m. that infects the dinner I'm cooking with all the stress of my inability to deal with it until after bedtime.
