Well, it certainly has been a busy few weeks! I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a jolly good one. I've managed to avoid cooking for the big days so far as my mother hosted Christmas Day, my sister Boxing Day. We have everyone heading to us for New Years day so I need to get a menu sorted.
I wasn't feeling particularly festive on the build up this year. I'm not too sure why. It was remedied to some degree by tackling another book; something festive.
I was awake early on Christmas Eve. Quite annoying really as Sunday is the day I don't have to get up to walk the dog. I remembered I had A Christmas Carol on my Kindle so dug that out. I don't recall being it, maybe it came with the account when I set it up all those years ago. I've no clue now.
That makes 13 books for the year.
I've seen various versions of A Christmas Carol on TV over the years so there were no surprises. I managed to get through the book in a couple of sittings throughout the day, totalling around 3 hours. A lovely easy read and not too long. I liked Dickens' style so will delve into some of his other books at some point.
I'm currently reading Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations by Jules Evans. It was mentioned in Adrian Edmondson's autobiography so I thought I'd give it a go. It has been hard work but is jolly interesting. It discusses the different beliefs of philosophers and how philosophy is the foundation of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
It has sparked an interest so I've got my reading for 2024 planned out. I've two similar books that are meant to be more entry level on philosophy, and the complete works of Plato. I imagine the latter will take me the best part of a year to get through alone!
I've also been working my way through The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. This is also jolly interesting and a great idea. It contains 366 "meditations on wisdom" as you can see from the cover. Essentially, one for each day of the year with a summary discussion point on the meditation for that day. I've enjoyed waking up, reading the page for that day (only takes a few moments), then having a think about it whilst on the dog walk of at other points during the day.
I think it's a book I'll be able to repeat over and over again and probably grow to have a different personal viewpoint every 12 months.
