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Yes, I love a challenge, always have. Hence my ridiculous goal lists and whatnot. But a lot of ideas/challenges barely make it out if the starting gate before fizzling out. And normally, then, no one ever heard about it. But today you will, because... well, I haven't written about anything in awhile and I can't think of anything else that isn't... actually, I can't really think of anything else at the moment. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's to do what you feel inspired to at the moment. Otherwise you just lose interest partway through and... hey, look, a bunny!
So today at lunch I was over at the library, randomly browsing shelves. I pick up a lot of movies that way, some good, some terrible, some just baffling (I'm looking at you, The Fairy). And of course I randomly grab craft books. So there I was, staring at the cookbooks and pondering the "open a cookbook to a random page and make whatever the recipe is" challenge while holding a book on cocktails (gotta admit, it would be an easier one than, say, ending up making a Turducken) and I thought "I really should close my eyes, pick a cookbook, THEN randomly pick a page." Talk about upping the randomness! I could be mixing a drink or making a kebab, you never know. Then I thought, but I know roughly where, on the shelf, the cocktail books are... maybe I should start at the end of the row, close my eyes, walk a distance, and THEN pick a book. That totally sounds reasonable!
And then I thought...
I should do that for every row in the library! Random books! Expand my horizons!
Luckily, the end rows at my library are biographies and history, my two least favorite things. Otherwise, I might still be laboring (albeit briefly) under the illusion that this is a good thing.
I was going to give myself one veto and the ability to skip things I found objectionable or completely useless (childcare/pregnancy books), but still. Still a silly silly idea.
Because even though I randomly grab movies off the shelves, I 1) read what they're about and probably put back twice as many as I check out and 2) movies aren't nearly the investment that books are, time-wise (plus, I tend to be doing other things when I'm watching a movie, so even a bad movie is not a complete waste of time).
And I had to remind myself of the time I decided to be "well-read" and attack the classics I'd never read before, and how miserable it made me to be reading something I didn't really want to be. And that's when I decided to say "suck it" to all the reading lists out there that claim these are the books you *must* read. I'd rather be happy than someone else's idea of well-rounded.
And so thus ended the challenge before it was begun, and I think it's for the best. I will still challenge myself to try new things, but in a more controlled and discerning manner.
So today at lunch I was over at the library, randomly browsing shelves. I pick up a lot of movies that way, some good, some terrible, some just baffling (I'm looking at you, The Fairy). And of course I randomly grab craft books. So there I was, staring at the cookbooks and pondering the "open a cookbook to a random page and make whatever the recipe is" challenge while holding a book on cocktails (gotta admit, it would be an easier one than, say, ending up making a Turducken) and I thought "I really should close my eyes, pick a cookbook, THEN randomly pick a page." Talk about upping the randomness! I could be mixing a drink or making a kebab, you never know. Then I thought, but I know roughly where, on the shelf, the cocktail books are... maybe I should start at the end of the row, close my eyes, walk a distance, and THEN pick a book. That totally sounds reasonable!
And then I thought...
I should do that for every row in the library! Random books! Expand my horizons!
Luckily, the end rows at my library are biographies and history, my two least favorite things. Otherwise, I might still be laboring (albeit briefly) under the illusion that this is a good thing.
I was going to give myself one veto and the ability to skip things I found objectionable or completely useless (childcare/pregnancy books), but still. Still a silly silly idea.
Because even though I randomly grab movies off the shelves, I 1) read what they're about and probably put back twice as many as I check out and 2) movies aren't nearly the investment that books are, time-wise (plus, I tend to be doing other things when I'm watching a movie, so even a bad movie is not a complete waste of time).
And I had to remind myself of the time I decided to be "well-read" and attack the classics I'd never read before, and how miserable it made me to be reading something I didn't really want to be. And that's when I decided to say "suck it" to all the reading lists out there that claim these are the books you *must* read. I'd rather be happy than someone else's idea of well-rounded.
And so thus ended the challenge before it was begun, and I think it's for the best. I will still challenge myself to try new things, but in a more controlled and discerning manner.