Well, would you look at that, we're already day two into the New Year. I was in the middle of making my New Year's post before everything took a turn at home. Long story short, I welcomed in the New Year in the back of an ambulance. Everyone involved is okay, or at least will be, and that's probably the quickest I've ever been in and out of a hospital. However, trying to get a taxi from a downtown hospital during the downwards spiral of New Year's parties definitely did me in. Montreal has been in a Windchill Warning (currently -38C/-36.4F) for the past few days, something I only remembered while trying to flag down a taxi at three in the morning. Starting off the new year with a wicked chill and heavy hitting cold was definitely not what I was expecting, but I'll be alright. With my Buckley's (see, I really am sick), a book, and my blankets (thank goodness I cashed in at Indigo on time), I'll be good as new sooner rather than later.

Speaking of books, time to reset that GoodReads reading challenge widget!


Since I'm only taking four classes at college (German II, Spanish III, Language and Cultural Currents, Phys. Ed.) and another at the YMCA Language Institute (Japanese I), I feel like fifty books in 2014 is possible. Considering I read over thirty in ten months last year, I'm definitely up to the challenge once my health returns. The biggest part of this challenge though is that I'm focusing on PoC writers. The fifty books I've chosen are only written by People of Colour, a demographic of writers I haven't really divulged into with most of the reading I grew up doing was school or "classic" based. In those fifty books, I'm hoping that at least 50-60% of those books be written by an even smaller demographic - Women of Colour. Representation is important, and Dostoyevsky just isn't going to do that for me personally. I'm starting with Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who's now even more popular now that Beyoncé has referenced her TEDTalk on her new album. Beyoncé had people seriously walking into the bookstore I work at asking for recommendations on Adichie's work. Now that, is what you call having pull!

Labels: blog, personal