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Happy
New Year, reader-types!
Well,
happy New Year to you. I'm currently writing this on
December 30th, 2007 (how awesome is it that you are reading
this from the future?). Here at HBCHQ, we're busily
making preparations for our night of champagne wrestling and
listening to Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers
on repeat for six hours. Let it never be said that we don't
know how to party (because that would be factually inaccurate).
I would
like to first take this opportunity to thank everyone who
clicked on the Amazon and Powell's links before doing your
Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza/winter solstice/Festivus shopping.
You've done us a total solid, dudes and dudettes. I invite
you all to be my New Year's kiss—a topic which segues
nicely into the next paragraph.
What
are your New Year's resolutions? Do you want to lose weight?
Be less of an introvert and party all the time? Be more of
an introvert and manage to make it through the weekend without
waking up at local petting zoos, naked except for a t-shirt
that says "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!!"? Resolve
to ask that dreamy guy out finally (I can be reached at hipsterbookclub@gmail.com)?
Start a band? Ride your bike more? Start a sweet bike gang
called the "Freedom Riders" and have weekly get-togethers
where you go ride bikes to eat burritos and then play dodgeball
at the park? Read more? I hear that one a lot.
I attempt
to read about 50 books a year. I'm unsure where that number
comes from, and Lord knows I've never truly accomplished it,
but it's a nice goal. I've technically read 52 books, but
a knee-high stack of graphic novels has helped pad that number
considerably. To my credit, my disability prevents me from
reading as rapidly as I'd like (I only have half an eye. I
know that doesn't make any sense, but believe me, it doesn't
make reading easy).
Still,
it seems like I talk to people all the time who vow that they're
about to undergo a radical transformation and are promising
to read more. I believe about half of them, but I'm rooting
for all of them. I'm sure I don't have to sell you
on the virtues of reading more, as you are spending your leisure
time perusing a book review website. Beyond that, you're reading
the letter from the editors, so you're probably pretty serious
about books. Or you're my mom. Because she's supportive like
that.
But,
if you're a casual reader who has stumbled upon these words
through one of the secret links we have covertly placed all
over the internet, I hope you follow through on this New Year's
resolution. Reading is entertaining, relaxing, and mentally
stimulating. It's basically the opposite of so much of life.
It's like a calm little island amidst a sea of stress and
boredom and inanity. And, if you're like me, that island often
has zombies and vampires on it, and that's pretty awesome.
<3,
Kyle
(January,
2008)
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