Back in January, I stated as frankly as I could my plans for the rest of 2021. Namely:
- More books and less films
- More philosophy and less fiction
- Running
Now that we are approaching the end of August I think it makes sense to check on myself and see how I have behaved so far.
More books and less films
I track everything I read and watch on my BuJo so let’s see actual numbers:
- books: 33 (not including strictly university material)
- films: 132 (not including a couple of series)
It doesn’t look promising, does it? In my defense, among the books there have been heavyweights like Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy which I took my time to read slowly and carefully. Still, there is room for improvement here.
More philosophy and less fiction
- philosophy and philosophy-related books: 15
- fiction: 15
- non-fiction: 3
Oh well, it has been going better here! I have been keeping fiction for the evening and that splendid time in bed before turning the lights off. Otherwise, a great deal of philosophy courtesy of Alasdair MacIntyre, Jürgen Habermas, Terry Pinkard, Emmanuel Levinas, Emanuele Severino, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, Etty Hillesum, Søren Kierkegaard and Baruch Spinoza.
Running
And now the sad note: I have neglected proper exercise and not only running this year. I did walk a lot in the wild on holiday, that’s true, but it isn’t enough. One could be on my side and try the “You are such an avid reader!” card, but we all know that that is just a lame excuse for being comfortably lazy on the couch. Work has to be done here.
Conclusion
Honestly, despite the need to leave the desk and the couch more, I cannot complain. Philosophy has proved to be an exceptional exercise for the mind and so somehow I have actually been involved in great training during these months. I will check myself again on December to see if new year’s resolutions do in fact make sense after all.