Phew. Is it just me, or did the end of 2013 sort of crush us all? Finishing the year with the Express Media Awards is always a great way to look back on the year and celebrate all the amazing things happening in the literary world, but it makes for a mad rush to the finish line.
As the year has kicked off Express is already one project down for the year. Our NEWS conference, where incoming student media editors from all over the country converge on us here at The Wheeler Centre for two days of workshops and panel discussions, is already a thing of the past. This year was wonderful, as they all are, and made me nostalgic for my own student editor days at Rabelais. You truly don’t realise when you have the autonomy and the budget to produce those publications how lucky you are. It’s a damn hard job, but setting your own agenda and pursuing it wholeheartedly for your elected term is a privilege.
I have set myself the same Goodreads challenge for 2014 as I did for 2012 and 2013; to read 52 books throughout the year. That’s one per week, which sounds manageable, but I haven’t managed to reach the goal yet. Here’s hoping this is the year. I have the lofty goal of trying to disengage with reading so much online, and delving back into books. I spend an inordinate amount of time reading articles, news reports and so forth on the internet. These can be great reads, but they don’t substitute for the pure joy of reading long form fiction or non fiction. It should be a good year to reach that 52 book mark.