The Ritual Master Reading goals for 2022,
a special winter tea
and Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk
Here we are, a new year, an opportunity to make it better than the last. I always find the idea a fresh new start better when you’re expecting it, and less exciting when you have to actually do it. So January has sort of a stagnant energy for me, maybe because all the enthusiasm of Christmas is behind us, and the idea of spring is not exactly ready to bloom any time soon. Rituals are especially important whenever I feel like this, so let’s begin with a nice cup of tea.
Since we are still in a period of deep cold, teas that have undergone fermentation, oxidation or roasting are always a good idea. Black tea is a warming beverage for the body, not only because it is hot, but because it stimulates the blood flow. So I can indulge freely in this special edition I received for Christmas from a dear friend. Jingle Bells is the delicate blend of a well-balanced black tea and the aroma of well-ripe grapes, that evokes a fruity sparkling wine. A tea to bring some lightness of flavour after months of spices and pumpkins, like a promise of a fresh new idea.
The entire bookish community is effervescing with reading goals for the new year. There is a collective enthusiasm that spreads around with every new YouTube video or Instagram post, and it’s easy to go with the flow. For years I found the ritual of goal setting on GoodReads one of the most exciting things to do on January 1st. It gives you accountability to publicly declare your intentions, but they speak only of volume and nothing of quality or even feeling.
So while I still set a yearly goal of number of books to read, I no longer stress about making it in December. Especially since I see all around me numbers that absolutely amaze me. 150, 230 or the maximum I have seen, 510 books read in a year. We are all as unique in our reading as we are in every other aspect of our lives, so there is no judgement nor comparison possible.
All I can say is that I have never read more than 50 books in a year, that is still my current goal and it will take into account the fact that I never scan the page, I don’t use speed reading techniques, I enjoy every preposition and comma since its presence is intentional, and I intend on taking a journey into every book I read this year, so that I may transform them into inspiring videos for this channel. This takes time, and I am willing to invest mine.
And since I spoke of quality, one of my other reading goals this year, is to spend more time reading Nobel Laureates for Literature. I remember reading André Gide in highschool and thinking “ooooh so this is what a Nobel laureate writes like”, so I would like to revive this feeling and take this opportunity to enrich my reading palate. Of course, no prize is a guarantee, and we all know how unjust jurys can be, but it is a starting point. And this January, I’m spending some time with Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.
Nobel Prize motivation :
“who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.”
“Snow” is the first of his novels I read, and while I sensed the importance of the subject, I didn’t have a great time reading it. So I was in no hurry to discover his most famous novel, “My name is Red”.
Boy was I wrong, and in admitting it I realize I have a hard time reading about tragic events of recent times, let’s say starting with the 20th century, but have less of a problem with more distant tragedies. I still feel empathy but somehow less of a burden on my own state of mind. So the story of miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire was more suited for my taste, with just enough action to keep me going for the 700 pages of my French edition, and a richness of symbols that was overwhelming.
Contemporary Turkish literature has a poetry of its own, that I am beginning to sense more and more as I navigate between Elif Shafak, Orhan Pamuk or Ahmet Altan. A delicate yet unflinching affirmation of a culture that draws its strength from centuries of observing the East and the West in their most glorious and most vulnerable moments.
A good start to my Nobel Prize journey, and a January first step into an exciting new year !
Until next time, enjoy your reading, and your rituals !
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