1. Christmas week flew by in a haze of family engagements and with little to no progress. I’m trying not to let that bother me too much, as it is Christmas.

2. Though it occurs to me that learning how to feast properly is as much a skill as learning how to fast, and in some ways even more difficult.

3. I started this yesterday, but had to drop it as I was going to John K. King’s Books with some family members. Those who are not from the Detroit area, or even some who are, may not be aware of just what that means. To say that John K. King’s is a used book store is rather like saying that New York City is a ‘settlement;’ it’s true, but it doesn’t really convey the reality of the subject. King’s contains over one million books arranged across four floors of a converted factory. Everything from antique folios to magazines to textbooks to paperbacks crammed in as tight as they will go. To visit King’s books is an event; you must expect to spend several hours there at least, just browsing, to come away laden down with books you never imagined even existed, and to leave feeling as though you’ve only scratched the surface.

If you ever visit Detroit and have any literary inclination at all, King’s Books is a must see.

4. This time I picked up an edition of Henry Adams’s History of the United States During the Jefferson and Madison Administrations (four volumes), The Diary of Samuel Cowen, Loyalist (two volumes), a trashy-looking ’80s thriller in paper back, a Dean Koontz paperback (Intensity), and a few old textbooks that were in the ‘free books’ section.

I was also tempted by a book from the early 90s confidently predicting war between the United States and Japan sometime around 2010, but ultimately left it be. You absolutely never know what you might find at King’s.

5. Anyway, that and going out to dinner after ate up my entire afternoon and evening, and then today I was mostly just resting from the exhausting schedule of the past week, though I also did some cleaning.

6. The end of the year is almost here. This past year, I feel, has largely been wasted on my part; I didn’t complete a single major project, only a few shorts, and I spent most of it un or underemployed.

Though to be honest, I’m looking forward to the new year with more optimism (at least as far as my own life is concerned; very different story with public affairs) than I have in the past. I feel I have clearer ideas about what I should pursue and how than before. And as for writing, all I can say is that I intend to correct that lack in the coming year.

7. Happy New Year, everyone