A Chapter a Day in Your New Year's Resolution!

The tinsel and Christmas tree pine needles are swept up. The ribbons and gift boxes still sit underneath the tree. The last sugar cookie left for Santa Claus has long ago been eaten, and the first snow of the year is falling outside your window.

Perhaps you feel a sense of peace, or even restlessness, as you peer about the room. Maybe you are lucky and someone has bought you a great book or two which you can browse through as you sit reading next to the fire. The New Year beckons outside like pages waiting to be turned, and a blank pad of your list of New Year’s resolutions sits propped on the table next to you.

Before you begin writing down your resolutions, do something different this year! Give yourself a gift of time and knowledge, and at the top of your list of exercise and diet plans, write the following words:

Read more Great Books.

Sound intimidating? It doesn’t have to be. But, don’t stop there.

After the first sentence on your list, add:

Read a Chapter a Day.

Now, you might be asking, what book should I read? And, where do I find it?

Well, since this column is primarily dedicated to American Literature, a good place to begin would be the following link which gives you, as my title suggests, a "Chapter a Day" of American literary classics. Here is the URL:

http://www.americanliterature.com/ARCHIV...

This is a beginning, and hopefully you will find many books on the list that you will find enjoyable.

However, if you can’t find what you are looking for on this list, in the realm of classics, American and otherwise, there are many other critics and book lists which can be found, from Harold Bloom’s suggestions, to Mortimer Adler, but I particularly like Clifton Fadiman’s list taken from his book “The Lifetime Reading Plan” which can be found at the following address:

http://mason-west.com/MasterWorks/fadima...

In my writings to come, I will discuss the best way to read and appreciate a book once you have selected a piece of writing that looks interesting to you.

Now is the time to get started reading! So, get a jump on the New Year, and begin!

Happy Reading!