I’ll be honest folks; I’m tired. I miss the sun and being warm and am very much in need of a vacation. So this is gonna be a relaxed post featuring, unsurprisingly, resolutions. This year, I’m taking it easy with my aspirations. I’m making my goals small, simple, and (hopefully) achievable. Also, crucially, my list of resolutions is short. I’m not looking to revamp my whole self within a measly 12 months, but I am looking to build further on who I already am and improve my habits.

Which, coincidentally, is quite similar to what we’ve done with our reading challenge! The broad strokes are the same—read a certain type of book a month—but the prompts are different and, most excitingly, we are now offering a prize!

That’s right, if you take on the challenge and submit the log by email or in-person, you’ll be entered into the Grand Prize Draw: your choice of a private cooking session at VMC in the VSES Teaching Kitchen, or a guided maker session with one of our Creation Specialists at Pierre Berton Resource Library or Civic Centre Resource Library!

And actually, that ties into resolution #1: to read 12 books this year.

The twist is, they have to be books I own. Why? Because my personal library is 90% books I’ve never gotten around to reading. (Disclaimer: I got most of them for free, so I don’t feel too guilty about it.) And I do want to read them, but because I own them, there’s no sense of urgency to actually do so. Nobody’s waiting to borrow them and there are no due dates. Therefore, I’ve put it off and put it off. So here are three books I own that I’d like to read in 2025!