Out of the way

I normally don't do that. I am not much of a maker of resolutions, and I don't really buy into the giving things up for some particular event thing. I gave up lent for lent, and then decided I could live without it.

Which may have been a stupid decision. If I hung around people who were a little more religious, maybe it would be easier to make changes in my life each year. There is always the religion associated with smoking or not, I suppose.

But I ignored that too, and decided to borrow a resolution to read a book a week.

So far, I am only just behind Schedule. I finished Khushwant Singh's "History of the Sikhs" (vol. I) today, having started it on New Year's Day (when I wasn't the least interested in a resolution). And since it is easy to write about books, I have a way of keeping track of this one, and maybe even finding out how much of a difference making a resolution public actually makes.

The book itself is what it sounds like, covering the origins of the Sikhs around the 15th century or so until the death of Ranjit Singh, Maharajah of Punjab in and clearly admired if not clearly the most religiously strict Sikh, in 1839. I learned a fair bit about Sikhism from the book, and I plan to look for Volume II (which I didn't buy at the time I bought the first volume).

I have started a novel "La Sombra del Viento", by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I've read about 5%, but it begins with a book and I have a feeling it will be a bit like Eco's "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" which I read in a couple of days last year and enjoyed.

I think I read a fair bit of history, some authors (Terry Pratchett more or less whenever a new book appears in the airport, Amin Malouf from time to time, a G Garcia Marquez phase over the last couple of years), some other themes (travel, science) and then a semi-random selection of things that strike my eye as I wander around. I am a real sucker for bookshops - food and drink probably beat them for personal expenditure, and perhaps telecommunications (for all that my friends think I am not that communicative. And as far as I know *ALL* my friends think that - which I guess means they are right).

But if I keep this up, we will all find out. It is probably a good general guide to how I am travelling, too. (In a literal sense. I normally try to sleep or read when I am travelling).