Ok, a little while back, my friend KM tagged me in her “Gotta Get Goals” post. I think I’d been wanting to write some up for a while now, so that provided the necessary provocation, and here they are. Thanks KM.

1. Leave the country. Not for good, mind you. I’ve just never been outside of the U.S. And considering that so much of my imagined life (i.e. reading) has occurred elsewhere (pretty much everywhere else), it would be nice to see some of those places I’ve always imagined. England and Luxembourg (I don’t know why) top the list of places I want to see. It’s a long list though.

2. Translate the New Testament on my own. I’ve enjoyed taking Greek quite a bit, and oddly, I’m really good at it, considering the short amount of time I’ve been studying it and the past difficulty I once had picking up foreign languages. With a little help on vocabulary, I can translate things written by John already (he’s the easiest). It’ll be a little while until I can tackle Paul and everything else. This one, I know, will be a long-term goal. I imagine it’ll be awfully nice, though, to be able to sit down and read the whole NT in Greek and translate it and see how that makes me read and hear and see.

3. Do that doctorate. I’ve been debating this with myself for a long time, and I’ve decided that I’m slightly stuck. On the one hand, I was a little bit miserable in grad school before, and although I would be more prepared now than before to go on with my studies, I’m betting it still wouldn’t be a joyride. On the other hand, I’ve realized a couple of things. First, I sort of like reading a little, and that’s basically what I’m good at. I rather like teaching, too. So, I should probably figure a way to work within the literary culture in some way (that’s not in a library). Second, I’ve come to the realization that I’ll always be a little bit disappointed in myself if I never achieve a doctorate in something. This is silly, I know. But I guess I had invested quite a bit into that vision, more than I had realized, and plus, I hate quitting anything. So, according to my thinking, only one of these two miseries (getting a doctorate vs. not getting a doctorate) ever has a chance of ending. I’ll put this down as a long-term goal though.

4. Ok, the family thing. I’ve never really taken a position on this. I’ve never exactly not wanted to build my own family, but I’ve also always figured that I’d also be perfectly happy if I were to remain single. I’ve always just held that what happens will happen in this area of my life, and I’d not particularly prefer one way over the other. Although I’m still sure that I can be content with my life no matter which happens to me, I must admit that recently I’ve noticed myself leaning much more in the direction of wanting to build a family. Maybe, I’m just much closer to being prepared now than I was before.

5. Stay in Texas, or at least come back. I don’t really want to leave Texas for life. Increasingly, probably along with those family sort of urges I mentioned previously, I’ve been wanting to keep close to my original communities, my immediate family and the people of rural West/Central Texas. So, I want to make sure I manage to spend a real good portion of my life here.

6. Be more involved in church life. This has been a pretty big struggle for me in the last few years, for several bad reasons. First, I’m afraid I sometimes have a tendency to fall into the church critic mode. I go to a church for a while and am happy with it, but over time, negative impressions accrue, and I find myself wanting to try somewhere else out. I need to stop doing that. Second, I’ve become much more shy ever since I left TTU (and I was already pretty shy beforehand). I’m not entirely sure why I’ve changed in this way, but it definitely doesn’t help a whole lot when I’m trying to move deeper into church life. I keep seeming to spend all of my energy trying to push myself to church (which I succeed at doing nine times out of ten), and once I get there, I’m too exhausted to force myself to actually meet anyone. Most of the rest of my spiritual life has been pretty strong the last couple of years. Privately, my spiritual life has flourished during the last year. And teaching has been what I’ve considered a pretty valuable sort of ministry. Significant church involvement, though, has been sorely lacking, and life within the church, I’m pretty sure, is the most important aspect of Christian spiritual life to be good at.

7. Finish “The Great List.” I’ve always loved lists (which probably could tell you a good bit about my personality), and there’s one list that matters above all others to me: The Great List. I began it back when I was a freshman in high school. I just thought one day that it would be a good idea to start writing down the classic novels I wanted to read, and then I could mark each off once it was done. It started small, but very soon after I began it, the Modern Library publishers came out with their own list: The Top 100 Novels of the Century. I read it, and added almost all of them, and all of a sudden, my list had grown rapidly and wasn’t going to stop. And it didn’t just grow in length. Before long, I had rules for what sorts of books could get on it and what had to stay off, and I had a system of symbols by which I rated the books. Also, I documented on the list whether or not they were at the San Angelo and Menard libraries (they were the two closest). Plus, I determined that I would try to eventually try to own a copy of each book on the list (which, since they’re all classics, isn’t difficult to manage with used-book sales). Anyway, the list is currently 500 titles long, and I’ve read 186 of them. I own 243. I’ve been debating expanding the rules so that non-fiction texts could be included. Even if I add those, I want to have all of them read and owned before I’m gone. I have some catching up to do.

8. Be as financially just as possible. This is difficult, largely because it’s hard to know what all being financially just entails. So part of this goal is that I spend significant time during my life doing the necessary research on how responsibly to utilize whatever resources I’m given. Generally, I know that I want to live simply and avoid wastefulness, not taking up more than my share of the pie. I just want the car that’ll get me there and a house big enough to live in, you know. I want to buy locally, be environmentally responsible, avoid usury, and contribute significantly to charities and to the church.

9. Play the piano more. I’m fortunate to own a piano, inherited from my grandmother. I don’t play it very often, though, largely because it hasn’t been tuned since 1972, and I would probably not be very popular with my neighbors for very long if I did. I only seem to play it when I’m busy (it helps me focus) or depressed (I cheers me up). I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t been depressed or busy enough to be driven to playing it, but the bad thing itself is that I haven’t been playing it. I need to pick my habit of playing back up. I don’t need to lose what few skills I got.

10. One Year: Do Something Crazy. I finished my bachelor’s degree in three years, and when I did, I promised myself I’d use that year I gained at some point in my life to do something totally crazy. There would be only two stipulations. The first would be that I wouldn’t just be devoting the year to myself; it’s required that I help people in some way. Second, I can’t make any money doing it. There are a variety of things I’ve considered. A couple of years ago, I thought really seriously about joining the Peace Corps. I didn’t consider myself mature enough, though, at the time, and so I didn’t. I was right about that then, but the future’s still open. I’ve also considered mission work of various sorts, both internationally and domestically. There’s another opportunity I may try to take in a year or two to go and volunteer to teach at a Christian university in Lithuania (I would have considered it this year if I hadn’t been too late to get it funded). And, of course, there are a whole host of ways I could put my (conveniently, already non-existent) career on hold, and work within some human rights sort of organization like IJM. At some point, I’m going to have to do this.

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Ok, several of the people who occasionally visit this blog have already been tagged by KM, so I’ll not tag those of you again. You’re already it. I’d also like to see, though, the goals of Kalyn, BJ, Will, Emerald, Kayla, Brittany, Emily, and Allie if you happen by.

Things To Do Before I Die #4

They announced the new winner of the Pulitzer Prize yesterday, and so I thought that this would be a good time to post my Pulitzer Prize book list. This should be my last reading list to post (thank goodness). It’s another one that I’m sort of stuck with since I made my little vow to read all of these back in junior high (or early high school—I’m too old to remember now). Still, several of these have become my favorite novels, so it’s not that bad a vow.

I’m not doing so good on this list. I’ve currently read 26 out of the 90 books on the list.

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

2006 – March: A Novel – Geraldine Brooks

2005 – Gilead – Marilynne Robinson

2004 – The Known World – Edward P. Jones

2003 – Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

2002 – Empire Falls – Richard Russo

2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon

2000 – Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

1999 – The Hours – Michael Cunningham

1998 – American Pastoral – Philip Roth

1997 – Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer - Stephen Millhauser

1996 – Independence Day – Richard Ford

1995 – Stone Diaries – Carol Shields

1994 – The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx

1993 – A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain – Robert Olen Butler

1992 – A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley

1991 – Rabbit at Rest – John Updike

1990 – The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love – Oscar Hijuelos

1989 – Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler

1988 – Beloved – Toni Morrison

1987 – A Summons to Memphis – Peter Taylor

1986 – Lonesome Dove – Larry McMurtry

1985 – Foreign Affairs – Alison Lurie

1984 – Ironweed – William Kennedy

1983 – The Color Purple – Alice Walker

1982 – Rabbit is Rich – John Updike

1981 – A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

1980 – The Executioner’s Song – Norman Mailer

1979 – The Stories of John Cheever – John Cheever

1978 – Elbow Room – James Alan MacPherson

1976 – Humboldt’s Gift – Saul Bellow

1975 – The Killer Angels – Michael Shaara

1973 – The Optimist’s Daughter – Eudora Welty

1972 – Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner

1970 – Collected Stories – Jean Stafford

1969 – House Made of Dawn – N. Scott Momaday

1968 – The Confessions of Nat Turner – William Styron

1967 – The Fixer – Bernard Malamud

1966 – Collected Stories – Katherine Anne Porter

1965 – The Keepers of the House – Shirley Ann Grau

1963 – The Reivers – William Faulkner

1962 – The Edge of Sadness – Edwin O’Connor

1961 – To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

1960 – Advise and Consent – Allen Drury

1959 – The Travels of Jamie McPheeters – Robert Lewis Taylor

1958 – A Death in the Family – James Agee

1956 – Andersonville – MacKinlay Kantor

1955 – A Fable – William Faulkner

1953 – The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

1952 – Caine Mutiny – Herman Wouk

1951 – The Town – Conrad Richter

1950 – The Way West – William B. Guthrie

1949 – Guard of Honor – James Gould Cozzens

1948 – Tales of the South Pacific – James Michener

1947 – All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

1945 – A Bell for Adano – James Hersey

1944 – Journey in the Dark – Martin Flavin

1943 – Dragon’s Teeth – Upton Sinclair

1942 – In this Our Life – Ellen Glasgow

1940 – The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

1939 – The Yearling – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1938 – The Late George Apley – John P. Marquand

1937 – Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

1936 – Honey in the Horn – Harold L. Davis

1935 – Now in November – Josephine Johnson

1934 – Lamb in His Bosom – Caroline Miller

1933 – The Store – Thomas Stribling

1932 – The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

1931 – Years of Grace – Margaret Barnes

1930 – Laughing Boy – Oliver La Farge

1929 – Scarlet Sister Mary – Julia Peterkin

1928 – The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Thornton Wilder

1927 – Early Autumn – Louis Bromfield

1926 – Arrowsmith – Sinclair Lewis

1925 – So Big – Edna Ferber

1924 – The Able McLaughlins – Margaret Wilson

1923 – One of Ours – Willa Cather

1922 – Alice Adams – Booth Tarkington

1921 – The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

1919 – The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington

1918 – His Family – Ernest Poole

Things To Do Before I Die #3

Well, I’ll continue my book-list vows now and get them out of the way on the blog.

So, I’ve also vowed to read all of the Newbery Winning books. This is sad; I know. I decided this back in junior high, and I’m stuck with it. I should have done a little more about it back then, too, I guess.

Anyway, this one should be much quicker than my other booklist assignments. Plus, a lot of the Newbery Winners I’ve read have been excellent, and I still enjoy them. I probably actually look forward to this little reading task more than to my other reading lists.

So, here is the list. I’ve currently read 59 books on the list (out of 84 total). The books in bold I've read.

Newbery Winners

2006 - Criss Cross – Lynne Rae Perkins

2005 – Kira-Kira – Cynthia Kadohata

2004 – Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread – Kate DiCamillo

2003 – Crispin: The Cross of Lead – Avi

2002 – A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park

2001 – A Year Down Yonder – Richard Peck

2000 – Bud, Not Buddy – Christopher Paul Curtis

1999 – Holes – Louis Sachar

1998 – Out of the Dust – Karen Hesse

1997 – The View From Saturday – E.L. Konigsburg

1996 – The Midwife’s Apprentice – Karen Cushman

1995 – Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech

1994 – The Giver – Lois Lowry

1993 – Missing May – Cynthia Rylant

1992 – Shiloh – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

1991 – Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli

1990 – Number the Stars – Lois Lowry

1989 – Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices – Paul Fleishman

1988 – Lincoln: A Photobiography – Russell Freedman

1987 – The Whipping Boy – Sid Fleishman

1986 – Sarah, Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan

1985 – The Hero and the Crown – Robin McKinley

1984 – Dear Mr. Henshaw – Beverly Cleary

1983 – Dicey’s Song – Cynthia Voigt

1982 – A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers – Nancy Willard

1981 – Jacob Have I Loved – Katherine Paterson

1980 – A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal 1830-1832 – Joan Blos

1979 – The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin

1978 – Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson

1977 – Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Mildred Taylor

1976 – The Grey King – Susan Cooper

1975 – M.C. Higgins, the Great – Virginia Hamilton

1974 – The Slave Dancer – Paula Fox

1973 – Julie of the Wolves – Jean Craighead George

1972 – Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – Robert C. O’Brien

1971 – Summer of the Swans – Betsy Byars

1970 – Sounder – William H. Armstrong

1969 – The High King – Lloyd Alexander

1968 – From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E.L. Konigsburg

1967 – Up a Road Slowly – Irene Hunt

1966 – I, Juan de Pareja – Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

1965 – Shadow of a Bull – Maia Wojciechowska

1964 – It’s Like This, Cat – Emily Cheney Neville

1963 – A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle

1962 – The Bronze Bow – Elizabeth George Speare

1961 – Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell

1960 – Onion John – Joseph Krumgold

1959 – The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Elizabeth George Speare

1958 – Rifles for Watie – Robert Keith

1957 – Miracle on Maple Hill – Virginia Sorensen

1956 – Carry On, Mr. Bowditch – Jean Lee Latham

1955 – The Wheel on the School – Meindert DeJong

1954 – And Now Miguel… - Joseph Krumgold

1953 – Secret of the Andes – Ann Nolan Clark

1952 – Ginger Pye – Eleanor Estes

1951 – Amos Fortune, Free Man – Elizabeth Yates

1950 – The Door in the Wall – Margurine De Angeli

1949 – King of the Wind – Margurite Henry

1948 – The Twenty-One Balloons – William Pene Du Bois

1947 – Miss Hickory – Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

1946 – Strawberry Girl – Lois Lensky

1945 – Rabbit Hill – Robert Lawson

1944 – Johnny Tremain – Esther Forbes

1943 – Adam of the Road – Elizabeth Janet Grey

1942 – The Matchlock Gun – Walter D. Edmonds

1941 – Call it Courage – Armstrong Sperry

1940 – Daniel Boone – James Daugherty

1939 – Thimble Summer – Elizabeth Enright

1938 – The White Stage – Kate Seredy

1937 – Roller Skates – Ruth Sawyer

1936 – Caddie Woodlawn – Carol Ryrie Brink

1935 – Dobry – Monica Shannon

1934 – Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women – Cornelia Meigs

1933 – Young Fu of the Upper Yang-Tze – Elizabeth Foreman Lewis

1932 – Waterless Mountain – Laura Adams Armer

1931 – The Cat Who Went to Heaven – Elizabeth Coatsworth

1930 – Hitty, Her First Hundred Years – Rachel Field

1929 – The Trumpeter of Krakow – Eric P. Kelly

1928 – Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon – Dhan Gopal Mukerji

1927 – Smoky the Cowhorse – Will James

1926 – Shen of the Sea – Arthur Bowie Chrisman

1925 – Tales from the Silver Lands – Charles Finger

1924 – The Dark Frigate – Charles Boardman Hawes

1923 – The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle – Hugh Lofting

1922 – The Story of Mankind – Hendrik Willem Van Loon

Things To Do Before I Die #2

This one is pathetic, but I decided it back before I knew what I was thinking. So I’m stuck with it. So it goes.

I’m going to read all of the novels on Modern Library’s top hundred novels of the twentieth century list.

There are only a couple of exceptions on the list. Because of a previous vow I had taken, I will not read the ridiculously hard and meaningless books by James Joyce. I will read his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, but I will not read either Finnegan’s Wake or Ulysses. Also, I don’t feel bound to read all of the U.S.A Trilogy or the Studs Lonigan Trilogy or the Alexandria Quartet. I can sample them. I may claim that same right for A Dance to the Music of Time as well, but I doubt that I will. I’m pretty sure that I’ll love that entire series and will read it all. Also, if I never quite develop the stomach to read all of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, that will be ok, too.

Here’s the list. Those in bold, I have read. It’s funny, but I’ve read a lot of the more obscure books before I’ve read some of the more famous.

I've currently read 33 books on the list.

Modern Library’s Best 100 Books of the Twentieth Century

1. Ulysses – James Joyce

2. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

4. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

5. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

6. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

7. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

8. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

9. Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence

10. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

11. Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry

12. The Way of All Flesh – Samuel Butler

13. 1984 – George Orwell

14. I, Claudius – Robert Graves

15. To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf

16. An American Tragedy – Theodore Dreiser

17. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

18. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut

19. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison

20. Native Son – Richard Wright

21. Henderson the Rain King – Saul Bellow

22. Appointment in Samarra – John O’Hara

23. U.S.A. – John Dos Passos

24. Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson

25. A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

26. The Wings of a Dove – Henry James

27. The Ambassadors – Henry James

28. Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald

29. The Studs Lonigan Trilogy – James T. Farrell

30. The Good Soldier – Ford Maddox Ford

31. Animal Farm – George Orwell

32. The Golden Bowl – Henry James

33. Sister Carrie – Theodore Dreiser

34. A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh

35. As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

36. All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

37. The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Thornton Wilder

38. Howards End – E.M. Forster

39. Go Tell It on the Mountain – James Baldwin

40. The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene

41. Lord of the Flies – William Goldman

42. Deliverance – James Dickey

43. A Dance to the Music of Time – Anthony Powell

44. Point Counter Point – Aldous Huxley

45. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

46. The Secret Agent – Joseph Conrad

47. Nostromo – Joseph Conrad

48. The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence

49. Women in Love – D.H. Lawrence

50. Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller

51. The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer

52. Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth

53. Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov

54. Light in August – William Faulkner

55. On the Road – Jack Kerouac

56. The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett

57. Parade’s End – Ford Maddox Ford

58. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

59. Zuleika Dobson – Max Beerbohm

60. The Moviegoer – Walker Percy

61. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather

62. From Here to Eternity – James Jones

63. The Wapshot Chronicles – John Cheever

64. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

65. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

66. Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

67. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

68. Main Street – Sinclair Lewis

69. The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton

70. The Alexandria Quartet – Lawrence Durrell

71. A High Wind in Jamaica – Richard Hughes

72. A House for Mr. Biswas – V.S. Naipaul

73. The Day of the Locust – Nathanael West

74. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

75. Scoop – Evelyn Waugh

76. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark

77. Finnegans Wake – James Joyce

78. Kim – Rudyard Kipling

79. A Room With a View – E.M. Forster

80. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

81. The Adventures of Augie March – Saul Bellow

82. Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner

83. A Bend in the River – V.S. Naipaul

84. The Death of the Heart – Elizabeth Bowen

85. Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad

86. Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow

87. The Old Wives’ Tale – Arnold Bennett

88. The Call of the Wild – Jack London

89. Loving – Henry Green

90. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

91. Tobacco Road – Erskine Caldwell

92. Ironweed – William Kennedy

93. The Magus – John Fowles

94. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

95. Under the Net – Iris Murdock

96. Sophie’s Choice – William Styron

97. The Sheltering Sky – Paul Powles

98. The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain

99. The Ginger Man – J.P. Donleavy

100. The Magnificent Ambersons – Booth Tarkington

Things To Do Before I Die #1

Attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans.