When 2012 arrives this weekend, there will be resolutions aplenty. Diets! Exercise! Get organized! Figure out Google+! Quit smoking! Jacket Copy asked writers, editors and publishers what their literary resolutions will be. Join them and tell us yours.
Ben Ehrenreich, author of the novel "Ether" and winner of a 2011 National Magazine Award for his article "The End": That's an easy one: write, write, write and write some more.
Richard Lange, author of the 2013 novel "Gather Darkness" (Mulholland): I'm going to reread "Moby-Dick," "Crime & Punishment," and "The Scarlet Letter." Every time I go back to books that I loved as a kid, I learn more about myself as a writer now.
Dana Spiotta, author of the novel "Stone Arabia": I have many books I want to read this year. For example, I have this inviting stack of Hollywood biographies and memoirs: "Rosebud" by David Thomson, "Frank: The Voice" by James Kaplan, "Run-through" by John Houseman, "Memo" by David O. Selznick, "A Girl Like I" by Anita Loos, and "Vanity Will Get You Somewhere: An Autobiography" by Joseph Cotten.
Antoine Wilson, author of the 2012 novel "Panorama City" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt): For 2012, I expect to be doing more interacting with strangers, thanks to the new book coming out, so my resolution is simple: To be able to clearly and concisely answer the following question: "What are you reading?"
Jervey Tervalon, author of "Serving Monster" and founder of Literature for Life: Start working on a new novel that will amuse and consume me; and I will not allow myself, not even for a second, to dwell on the bleakness of the publishing industry.
Elizabeth Crane, author of the 2012 novel "We Only Know So Much" (HarperPerennial): I don't know if this is exactly literary, but the only real resolution I'm considering, which I haven't etched in stone yet, is to give up watching entertainment shows (ET, etc). This might or might not help my writing, if only insofar as it will free up an hour of my life every day, but the hope is that it will help my celebrities-and-celebrity-news-makes-me-want-to-pull-my-hair-out problem.
Rachel Kushner, author "Telex from Cuba," a National Book Award finalist: This year I am inspired by my friend Marisa Silver's resolution from last year, which was no internet (except e-mail and occasionally facebook). My resolution is exactly that. Perhaps that's bookish, in that it might create more time in which actual books can be read. I feel better already, sensing the loss of this convenient form of self-sabotage--of time. Time is of a premium. I don't want to waste any. I have a feeling I will miss out on very little without the internet. Whatever it is, if it's important enough it will find me.
Marisa Silver, author of the short story collection "Alone With You": Read more poetry. Use fewer commas.
Evan Ratliff, founding editor of the multimedia iPad magazine The Atavist: I'm not a big resolution maker, but I would say on the literary front mine is pretty simple and obvious. It's building on something I started late this year, which is to carve out specific, disconnected, undistracted time to read every day. Sometimes it's sitting outside with a paperback, having left the phone and all other devices back at the office. Sometimes it's actually reading a book on the phone (as you might imagine, I'm a big fan of reading books on the phone!), but having turned off all the phone's connections. It's like exercise, for me: The whole day gets better if I set aside the time for it. And as much as I love reading digital texts, it's not the same if I stop three times in the middle to deal with some seemingly-urgent-but-not-really email........
25 literary resolutions for 2012. What's yours?http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/12/25-literary-resolutions-for-2012.html
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