1 January 2015

Our Resolutions for 2015: Natalia, David and Gayle

Posted by the Bookshop


Natalia

To be fair, I dislike resolutions intensely as I often fail miserably at keeping them, and then feel constrained by my choices if I change my mind. Nevertheless, my non-guilty resolution is to read two forthcoming titles: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, to be published in early March, and Arcadia by Iain Pears, coming out in September.

Gayle

Having successfully fulfilled two resolutions in 2014 – a book-based one (read Homer) and a general life goal (visit more megaliths) – I was far too ambitious in choosing this year's, brashly declaring that 2015 would see me visit every place mentioned in Nairn's London. Thankfully, I quickly realised my folly and scaled back my plans: 2015 will see me visit every pub mentioned in Nairn's London. Preliminary research suggests this will involve a fair amount of standing in the street raising a hipflask to long ex-pubs; the trip to a Morrisons near Dagenham that was once the site of the very jolly sounding Merry Fiddlers will be the low point of the exercise, I think.

David

Inspired by two of my favourite books of the year, Fredrik Sjöberg's The Fly Trap and Dave Goulson's A Buzz in the Meadow, as well as by a nice new edition (from Little Toller) of my favourite book of all time, Gilbert White's The Natural History of Selborne, my resolution this year is to keep a proper nature diary. Its chief focus will probably be moths, butterflies and whatever other insects I can reliably identify, but I'll be guided by whatever 2015 brings to my little corner of North London. Now all I need to do is decide on a suitably impressive notebook (Moleskine? Leuchtturm?) in which to fail to note my observations.