The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau first got on my radar last last year when he was interviewed on one of my favorite podcasts. Guillebeau talked about the benefits of a creative pursuit and the satisfaction you can get from a quest of some kind. At the time I was well in the middle of planning my trip to Europe, so I filed the book and idea away for a later date.

As I was trying to decide on my One Little Word for the year, the idea of a pursuit or a quest kept coming back to me. I ultimately decided on a different word, but I still felt like starting my year with a book on the benefits and logistics of taking on quest would help get me off on the right foot. Happily, The Happiness of Pursuit was just perfect for that purpose.

First, I think it’s important to share how Guillebeau defines a quest. This definition is pretty broad and a little long, but it does give a sense of what kinds of challenges or projects Guillebeau had in mind as he was doing interviews for the book:

• A quest has a clear goal and a specific end point. You can clearly explain a quest in a sentence or two. Every quest has a beginning, and sooner or later, every quest will come to an end.
• A quest presents a clear challenge. By design, a quest requires that something be overcome. Not every quest needs to be dangerous or next to impossible to achieve, but it shouldn’t be easy either.
• A quest requires sacrifice of some kind. There is no “having it all” when it comes to a quest – to pursue a big dream, you must give something up along the way.
• A quest is often driven by a calling or sense of mission. A calling need not be some form of divine inspiration. It is often expressed simply as a deep sense of internal purpose.
• A quest requires a series of small steps and incremental progress toward the goal. As we’ll see, many quests are composed of a long, slow-and-steady march toward something, with moments of glory and elation few and far between.

I really like that list, and it makes sense even when you think of quests across a variety of scales. Although the main thread of the book is Guillebeau’s on quest to visit every country in the world, he also profiles many, many other people who have undertaken quests of some time, giving the book a breadth of examples to learn from.

As I got into the first few chapters of the book, I was worried that the book was going to be entirely filled with people taking on incredible physical tasks or elaborate travel quests – running multiple marathons, walking across the United States, sailing around the world. While those are cool projects, they are well beyond the kind of quest I feel like I am interested or capable of taking on. If that were the case, the book would have been interesting but not very helpful.

Luckily, Guillebeau devotes some time midway through the book to “everyday adventures” closer to home. One woman decided to cook an elaborate, multi-course meal from every country in the world. Another couple made it a goal to see all of the basilicas in the United States. Another man set out to finish an elaborate computer science course in a single year. These aren’t as epic as visiting every country in the world, but they have the same characteristics of a quest Guillebeau laid out. I appreciated having some examples of quests on a smaller scale.  

The book is also excellent when it comes to thinking through the steps of a quest or other big project. Guillebeau explores how to find a quest, how to work with friends and family along the way, logistical issues and the importance of documenting your efforts. It’s comprehensive, helpful and practical and makes the idea of an epic project seem possible.

Even if you’re not considering an epic quest, I think the book offers some great inspiration for taking on any big goals or life changes. Set a challenge that is important and meaningful. Make sure you have a clear goal and can outline a set of specific steps to move towards your goal. And be ready to make sacrifices in service of your goal – as the saying goes, nothing worth having comes easily. This was a great book to begin a year where I hope to find a more clear sense of purpose, quest-related or not.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links through Amazon. If you make a purchase through any of those links, I will receive a small commission.

Anyone who is a bookworm knows that words have power. Words matter, and the words we choose to let into our lives can make such a difference in how we see the world. For the last two years, I’ve chosen a single word to serve as a guidepost and a lens for the year and I’m really excited to be doing it again this year.

Coming up with my One Little Word of 2016 was quite a process. For the last two years my words (“curate” in 2014 and “nurture” in 2015) came relatively easily. I’ve had mixed success with each word, but they at least felt solid and right when the year began and I don’t regret having chosen either one. They’re still on my mind going into this year.

I suspect a bit of my uncertainty in settling on a word for 2016 has to go with some general uncertainty in my life. It’s hard to decide what kind of word you want to serve as a guidepost when you’re not quite sure which direction life will be headed in the next year or two or three. I went into this process with a long list of options. Whenever a word popped into my head, I wrote it down and tried to see what stuck.

One word I came back around to a few times was the word “change.” It seemed like maybe I needed to think about changing things up. But after I thought about it for awhile, I realized that “change” was really a word of 2015, not necessarily my word of 2016.

I’m relatively good at adapting to change. I don’t love when life throws curve balls, but I’m pretty good at managing them. I did a lot of that in 2015, especially at work. New processes, new programs and new people on the job were the biggest adaptations of my year and I’m coming into 2016 better for all of them. I’m also decent at changing when there’s something in my life that obviously isn’t working. I can throw things out altogether when it’s clear something has stopped being useful, which I also did quite a bit of in 2014 and 2015. Not everyone can do this, and I’m grateful that I still have the flexibility and creativity to look at problems and be open to solutions.

What I’m not so great at is making change when things are going smoothly. I’m deeply risk averse (thanks, perfectionism), and so when something is merely ok or just fine, I loathe to blow it up – or even tinker too much around the edges – in order to explore something new and potentially better. I’ve gotten by this way for a long time because life had a bunch of those inevitable quakes that shake things up and force change. But I don’t really have that anymore and I’m feeling a little adrift. Life is pretty good right now, but ever since I got back from Europe I’ve had this feeling of… what’s next?

2016 is the year I’m going to turn 30. I want to be zen about this, but I’m also deeply, irrationally anxious. Not because I’m getting older, but because 30 feels like the time when life starts to settle… the way you are is the way you are, meaningful change is impossible, risks become inherently more, well, risky. Admittedly, I know that’s not fair and not even close to being true… so please, no need to pop into the comments and tell me how totally wrong I am about this, I know already! But nonetheless, it’s the little game of mental gymnastics I’m playing with myself as the calendar turns over.

So, what does this all mean? I don’t think 2016 is going to be a year of major changes or upheavals. I don’t need to make a 180 degree turn, but I do think I need to start a slow, deliberate pivot. I want 2016 to be a year where I start to figure out what comes next. What do I want to be working towards? How am I going to get there? What to I want my life to look like 10, 20 or 30 years down the road?

And, even more importantly, I want to be open to whatever possibilities emerge as I think through these big, intimidating, necessary and wonderful questions. 

There’s a lot more to the word “open” than that. I want to approach my relationships with an open heart. I want to live wholeheartedly. I want to be less cynical and gossip less. I want to be open to finding new stories and new ways of telling stories. I want to be honest and continue to work on communicating frankly with people. I want to be brave and be bold. I want to be be open to all of the good things I already have and the good things that I know are yet to come.

So, that’s the meandering story of how I finally landed on “open” for my One Little Word in 2016.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” – Jawaharlal Nehru

I want to suggest two sources if you are considering doing a One Little Word for 2016. For the last two years, I’ve signed up for Ali Edward’s One Little Word workshop ($31 for 12 months of workshops – when I commit and complete the assignments, I see results). I also used Susannah Conway’s (free) Find Your Word 2016 email class to help me settle on my word. If you’re having trouble settling on a word, as I was, this would be very helpful.

Woo, new books! Although I’m not as on top of upcoming new releases as I’ve been in year’s past, I’ve still been keeping a short list of titles I’m excited about as I come across them. The list is a mix — books I’ve pre-ordered, books I’ve requested for review consideration, and books I’ve just made a note to look for at the library after the publication date.

Since I know others are interested in what’s coming out in the next few months, I thought I’d try to do a semi-monthly feature on some of the books that have caught my eye. As you’ll see, it’s a pretty eclectic list. 

January

Poor Your Soul by Mira Ptacin – A memoir about Ptacin’s unexpected pregnancy and unexpected medical diagnosis paralleled with her mother’s story of losing a son to a drunk driver. (January 12, Soho Books)

American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis – “A sharp, funny, delightfully unhinged collection of stories set in the dark world of domesticity” sounds right up my alley. (January 12, Doubleday)

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry – A trusted reader friend, I honestly can’t remember who, gushed about this book. When I saw it described as “Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife” I was sold. (January 26 from Razorbill)

Why We Write About Ourselves edited by Meredith Maran – A collection of essays by popular memoirists about the origins of their memoirs. I love stories behind stories, so I think this could be cool. (January 26 from Plume)

Girl Through Glass: A Novel by Sari Wilson – “An enthralling literary debut that tells the story of a young girl’s coming of age in the cutthroat world of New York City ballet – a story of obsession and the quest for perfection, trust and betrayal, beauty and lost innocence.” Sold. (January 26 from Harper)

February

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee – A sensation of the Paris Opera is offered the role of a lifetime, only to discover it’s based on a secret she’s been hiding. (February 2, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection by Marissa Meyer – Short stories set in the world of the Lunar Chronicles, some previously published and some new. (February 2, Feiwel & Friends)

While the City Slept by Eli Sanders – “A Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter’s gripping account of one young man’s path to murder—and a wake-up call for mental health care in America.” Yes, please. (February 2, Viking)

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri – A memoir about the author’s challenge learning a different language by immersing herself in the language. (February 9, Knopf)

The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America by Ann Neumann – A journalist and hospice volunteer examines what dying well means in America. After Being Mortal, I’m curious to read more on this question. (February 16, Beacon Press).

So there you are, 10 books coming out in the next two months that have me curious. What titles would you add to the list?

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links through Amazon. If you make a purchase through any of those links, I will receive a small commission.

I don’t know about you, but the new year seemed to really sneak up on me. All of a sudden it was the last week of December and and it was time for reflecting on the year and setting new goals for 2016.

I was talking to one of my coworkers about this, and she said that our unusually mild weather – we didn’t get significant snow until mid-December – really threw her off. It’s amazing how the weather can have such an effect on the feeling of time passing, especially in a place where I count on four seasons to get through the year.

Anyway, I decided better late than never on looking back at the few challenges/goals I set for 2015 and firmed up my reading plans for 2016.

Looking Back at 2015

The one year-long challenge I continue to try over and over again is the TBR Challenge. I signed up in 2015 and, despite my good intentions, failed pretty miserably. On the bright side, I read more books from that list (four!) than from any other year I’ve signed up and failed:

1. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara (2013) (fiction)
2. The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (2012) (fiction)
3. An Astronaut’s Guide to Love on Earth by Col. Chris Hadfield (2013) (memoir)
4. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013) (fiction)

So, maybe call that one a draw? The host elected not to continue the challenge again this year, so I don’t have to worry about signing up and failing again!

In 2015 I also found myself casually participating in Book Riot’s Book Riot’s 2015 Read Harder Challenge. By my calculation, I managed to finish 19 of the 24 tasks for the year. The five I didn’t finish were a book written by someone when they were under the age of 25, a book written by someone when they were over the age of 65, a book that is by or about someone from an indigenous culture, a collection of poetry and a book published before 1850. Not too shabby.

I mentioned my other big reading goal in my stats post earlier this week: I hoped that 25 percent of the books I read would be by authors of color, and I hit that goal by reading about 26 percent.

2016 Bookish and Blogging Goals

I try not to set too many restrictions or requirements on my reading because I, above all, want reading to be fun… when there get to be too many rules, it gets to be less fun and then I don’t want to read at all. That said, I do have a three little goals I want to keep in mind this year:

• I want to read more books by authors of color. My goal for 2016 is 30 percent authors of color. Just a note on this one: I know race is an extremely limited way of considering diversity, but focusing on that number drew me to a lot of great books in 2015 (and, I think, diversified my reading in other ways as well). I also want to think about other ways to diversify reading, but don’t have a solid plan on that. 
• I’d like to take a stab at Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge. The 2015 challenge was a lot of fun, and I think many of the categories this year will be fun.
• I want to Read My Own Damn Books. When I did my big office organization over the weekend, I had to double stack books on all of my unread books shelves. By the end of the year, I want all my unread books to fit, single stacked, on those shelve. And I want to set and follow some rules about buying new books. I don’t quite know what that means, still noodling, but I’ll think of something. 

The one other project I’ll be blogging about a bit this year is One Little Word, my way of setting resolutions and intentions for the year. Lots of other bloggers do this, and it’s been fun to see posts popping up the last few weeks. I’m still trying to settle in on my word, but I’m hoping to post about it soon. 

What reading or blogging goals have you set for 2016?