There is this constant feeling that the older one gets, the lesser the freedom of reads that stretch ahead. Suddenly, the seasons turn shorter, the nights quicker and the perseverance of dreams are met with greater urgency, lesser aplomb but endorsed with a mightier mettle.
And so it is with me.
In the happy struggle to draw up a rough reading list for 2008, I realise that an adventurous spirit will surely beckon. The desire to engage in hardier thinking skills to seek enlightenment with the present world's revolvement around its ideologies, is overwhelming.
I'd like to dabble with the new - delve into fantasy and a more sharply-tuned awareness of world literature.
That's the beauty of online reading.
You can pounce on the thoroughly obscure with relish although here in Dublin, Hodges Figgis bookstore on Dawson Street, is famed for a generous floor space honouring the ancient classics. Then there are the more exploratory non-fiction, drama, modern contemporary fiction, philosophy categories and...it's baffling to consider where it all ends when emotions are topped with a glorious exhilaration.
My soul will always be anchored in the British classics and its accompanying modern fiction.
One thing I have made up my mind on is to muse over reads that interest me or arouse curiosity.
Not the ones that leave me wrestling with a vague apprehension and this, derived from intuition.
More fun to make a list I'd imagine than to copy someone else's.