2002! Y2K plus 2! The sequel to The Space Odyssey! The palindromic year! It's here all right, and to commemorate the occasion, we've come up with not only a bunch of book recommendations, but some NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS as well! Enjoy ... and, hey ... Happy New Year, buddy! You're really looking great these days, by the way. Seriously.

Scott Nafz

Okay, I have a confession to make. I have NEVER made a New Year's Resolution. I don't mean that I've made them and then reneged. I mean, I've never thought that there was any room for improvement ... unless I could resolve to be a bit taller (hey, while I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony and a rocket ship). So, in the spirit of things, I've decided to resolve to be a bit more ... um ... what's the word I'm looking for ... humble. I think that's the word I'm looking for ... I've never actually had to use it in a sentence before. Now, it's not easy for a superior being to be humble ... I mean, I'd have to think I was "less" than some people, right? (Unless you're counting wealth. In that case, I'm less than just about all people.) But I figure one thing we are all inferior to is the size and scope of the very universe we inhabit. For instance, in this day and age, it's common to toss around terms like "lightyear" (a lightyear is a little less than 6 trillion miles), but it is a bit humbling to realize that with all of our achievements on the "final frontier," humans have only traveled one and a half "lightseconds" from the earth (it takes light about 1.5 seconds to reach the moon from here). This doesn't even address the size of the solar system, which is microscopic in universal terms. In an effort to illustrate this incomprehensible scope, the book Powers of Ten takes us on a photographic journey through the cosmos, beginning at about 30 feet above a beach blanket in a park near Chicago's Lakeside Drive. After about five pictures, you'll realize that we really have a long way to go, and that we are likely to be insignificant for the rest of our history. I feel shorter already ....

Meg Smith

Without Rhyme or Reading

I resolve not to read any crap this new year,
Only works that Jon. Franzen too would hold dear.
I expect to delve deep into stories of old,
The classics, the syllabus, the Shakespeare I'm told
Will ennoble, enlighten, entertain, and delight,
Will keep me reading past bedtime and late into night.

Some examples, you wonder, of books that I mean?
The Bible to start, Third Man by Graham Greene,
Then Middlemarch, Lolita again, that new translation by Woods
of Schlink's Flights of Love, then to Durable Goods.
I'll certainly read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,
Or just listen to love songs from the hot Mambo Kings.

This year has been circled in ink, bright and red,
For these heavy tomes that now sit by my bed:
John Adams and Truman, a D. McCullough feast,
The (touted) Corrections, something on the Middle East.
And to keep up with my son, each Henry by Shakespeare
Will over time I am hoping, gradually disappear.

My eyes grow so heavy just reading this list,
I must go to sleep now, but you get the gist.

Gavin J. Grant

Well, this year I'm determined to keep track of my money, especially as -- outside of my glorious day job here at BookSense.com -- I run a small press. Things can get a little bit complicated and I don't think Uncle Sam would approve if I didn't clean up my act. So I went to my local software shop (you didn't think I'd got to a chain, did you?) and bought a copy of Quickbooks -- which is like Quicken, but it has a few extra tools for business. Less than a week later and already I know I need something along the lines of Quickbooks 2002:The Official Guide by Kathy Ivens.

Quickbooks supposedly can be used to track inventory and finances, create reports, determine job costs, and can be customized for personal use. However, not a lot of this is obvious when you first sit down and crank up the old Mac. So, maybe I'll make two resolutions here, keep track of Quickbooks, and read Quickbooks 2002.

My other resolution is to read more comics -- cough -- of course I mean "graphic novels." During the holidays, I spent most of a day catching up on some excellent comics, including Promethea, Tom Strong, and Top Ten. All of these are by Alan Moore and his America's Best Comics line. Moore is the man whom some credit with bringing adults back to reading comics -- you may have seen the recent Johnny Depp film of one of his comics, From Hell. Every couple of years I have to go back and re-read his earlier book, V for Vendetta, a truly extraordinary tale of a scary, possible future. Moore is only one of many writers doing great work in comics (Donna Barr, Roberta Gregory, Brian Ralph, and Dylan Horrocks immediately spring to mind, along with a whole host of others...), and I intend to kick back every couple of months, drink champagne, eat truffles, and read stacks and stacks of comics.

Eric Wallenstein

Aside from my requisite yearly resolution to "get my crap together," I'd like to start writing more fiction in 2002, so I'll probably check out John Gardner's The Art of Fiction, because there's been a steady ruckus about it for years, and lots of big-name writer-types seem to thinks it's tops. And then maybe I'll read Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries (so I can maim and destroy a few characters along the way, of course!). Or maybe I'll jut check out some of the books listed in our Writers Writing About Writing theme from a while back. Heck, I'll just read every one of those books ... Simultaneously!

Linda Castellitto

I've conquered the nail-biting, I'm exercising regularly, and am keeping the cynicism to a minimum. However, I'm still working on the using-four-letter-words thing (sometimes, they're just so evocative), and on...

...winnowing down the pile of papers that seems to move from spot to spot in my abode. Often, the pile is arranged in a logical fashion; always, it is unsightly. I know, I could shove it in an attractive storage box...but that would be GIVING IN! Instead, I will read Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and make the evil paper-pile submit to my will (or at least a few file-folders).

...changing the color of my apartment walls from their current elegant-but-tired icy blue to something more exciting. Red? Violet? Pollock-esque splatters? I'll consult The Perfect Palette: Fifty Inspired Color Plans for Painting Every Room in Your Home for inspiration!

...reading more of the books or authors on my ever-morphing to-read list. Usually, I follow The Haphazard Method of book-selection, by which I read whatever comes across my desk/catches my fancy. This will likely continue to be my preferred method -- I've certainly discovered some wonderful reads this way -- but I'm determined to read more works by the likes of Faulkner, Welty, and Hemingway, for starters.

...rereading Griffin and Sabine and 84, Charing Cross Road. Then, once I'm excited anew about the wonders and joys of letter-writing -- you know, the kind that uses actual pen and paper vs. bits and bytes -- I'll get back to my snail-mailing friends in a more timely fashion, dangit! (I didn't say "damnit"...aren't you proud? Oh. Oops.)