Resolutions.

I'm not one for resolutions. I mean, I already go to the gym regularly, I already keep in touch with what's going on in the world, and while I think there's always room for personal improvement I don't think that such things must be undertaken with January 1 as the launch date.

However, earlier this year I did make one resolution: I resolved to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I have fallen laughably short of that goal. Part of the reason was the fact that I read so many magazines (Economist, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, etc.) that I was constantly just trying to keep somewhat current with all of them.

So next year I have decided weekly news should still be taken in, but books are getting the priority. I've already got a stack that has been slowly growing over the last few months and I'm going to try and knock most of those out in the opening weeks of 2007 and get a decent head start. It seems a little silly to set a sort of goal for me reading, since taking in books are one of my favorite pastimes, but I guess as we get older and time becomes a scarcer commodity sometimes we have to forcibly carve out a few moments even for the things we love.

For this exercise all books count. Serious lit-rah-ture, graphic novels, music compendiums, tomes of almanac-ian knowledge, no book is too low-brow or high-brow to count for inclusion. I like them all! I'm looking forward to this, and you should too, since my writing always gets a little sharper when I'm a reading bender.

My other resolution? To not get filled with blind rage over January and February when the gym gets invaded by the resolution newbies that will hog all the machines and then drop off one by one as their own resolution wanes.

In totally unrelated news, don't forget to catch the big Elfvis show at Double Door tonight. I'l be giving a full preview of the festivities on Chicagoist later today, but trust me when I say that it is quite possibly my favorite holiday extravaganza of the year. Next to my own, of course. And since I didn't mount a "holiday" show, although I did have a few bills pop up around the holidays, I think I will officially marks tonight's gig as the best holiday show I will attend this year.

Unless, of course, we want to count my Hideout bill on December 30, in which case that one wins. Aw hell, let's just say everyone's a winner and catch both shows, huh?

Oh yeah, one other reminder? Keep this Saturday open too for my Subterranean show. Maybe that's be my holiday show?