week one

Books Read:
Fifteen Dogs — Andre Alexis
Clean Sails — Gustave Morin

Kilometres to date: 36.84

I didn’t like Fifteen Dogs because it made me miss my dogs but otherwise it was a pretty great novel. I guess the fact that it won the Giller trumps whatever I might have to say about it, whether positive or critical. The nice thing about it winning the Giller is that I found a copy at Costco for $9.95. I think it was the fourth or fifth printing, but whatever. Clean Sails was really great. I really like concrete poetry and I really enjoyed Morin’s autobiographical essay at the end of the book. If you’re wondering if I think that a book that is predominately a picture book is cheating the 95 Book challenge my response is that I’m willing to bet George W. Bush “read” many picture books.
week one
In step one of my cyborgification I bought a Fitbit Surge off of Craigslist and I love it and it was one of the more pleasant Craigslist experiences that I’ve had. The guy seemed really suspicious that I was going to no-show on him and we swapped Claigslist selling horror stories. It’s brand new, factory sealed and saved my over $100 and then yesterday Fitbit announced the Blaze that is basically the Surge but with a colour screen and more features and much finer aesthetics for less money so that makes me just thrilled. Up until Surge I was tracking my running with the Walk Tracker Pro app (it was free from one of those Starbucks free-app-card thingies a while ago) with decent success but the accuracy wasn’t always great–like when it tells me that I ran a kilometre in under three minutes–and I really didn’t want to carry my phone any more. My left knee that I had bent the wrong way in a ju jitsu class a few years [lifetime] ago is starting to hurt more than usual which is a concern. I think I should stretch once in a while.

week zero

According to this fancy over-sized Moleskin calendar here January 1st through 3rd is Week 53 of 2015 and it seems fitting that I should start this in a state of limbo. Yes, I use an analogue calendar.

Last year was my first crack at the 95 Books challenge, and I failed rather miserably, ending up with a paltry 61. It started well enough but towards the end of summer and into autumn I slowed considerably. I have excuses that I’ll not belabour here.

I’ve never considered myself a “runner” and never really desired to become one but somehow it happened, or at the very least I acknowledged that it happened. I’ve been running non-committally for a couple years now but never considered myself a “runner” not until the autumn, I think, when I realized that I was running three or four or five days a week and rarely less than 10 to 12 kilometres per run. I guess I’m a runner now. I still suffer from impostor complex.

Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day I got spammed by Map My Run, the Under Armor scam site disguised as a free running tool that I fell for once for a frustrating hour or so before logging off but neglecting to unsubscribe. The email challenged me to run 1,000 kilometres in 2016 and of course use its tool to track my progress and WIN PRIZES! and it made me think about seemingly simple/attainable goals that are actually rather ridiculous in practice. Like reading 95 books in a year.

I did some math and decided that if I was going to be able to read 95 books in one year I should be able to run at least 2,000 kilometres in that same year. Logic be damned! Hell, I’d already signed up to run two half marathons in 2016–I’m virtually 2.11 per cent there already. Plus I’m at least half way though my first novel.

So for 2016 I’m going to read 95 books, run 2,000 kilometres, and write about my progress on here.

The arbitrary disclaimer: I’m going to write thoughts, impressions and opinions about the books I read. These are my thoughts, impressions and opinions. They won’t always be positive, but they’ll be honest, and mine. It’s okay not to like something.