I don’t do New Year resolutions. People who do always seem to fail and then feel bad about it, often as early as January which is the graveyard of good intentions. At the end of the year I had not gone to the gym once and I was fine with it, but if I had made a resolution to go I would have felt terrible.

Having said that, I do have a bit of an intention for 2025, which is to read less. I know it is more usual for people to say they intend to read more books but I intend to read fewer books and watch more TV. Last year I read 125 books, and the year before that read 120 books. While reading 10 books a month, on average, has to be good for the mind that is a lot of time that I am not doing other things.

I know that I do have a lot more time on my hands. A few years ago I would have been spending almost as much time reading council reports, agendas and other paperwork instead and so reading a load of Ian Rankins has to be better but I have noticed that I am watching a lot less television and walking a lot less. I used to hit the 10,000 steps more than half the days, sometimes every day for weeks on end, and sometimes reaching 20,000 or more. These days I might only hit 10,000 a couple of times a month.

But I am not resolving to walk more. I am just going to read less and see what happens. I probably should. I have been putting a bit of weight back on. I am still a good 35kg lighter than before the cancer, and I know I was probably underweight by at least 5 or 10 kg at one point but unfortunately I bought a lot of clothes then and they are starting to get a little snug now, so maybe shedding 5kg or so now would be handy.

Although I intend to read less in total, I am also going to try and read more non-fiction. In 2023 I only read 17 non-fiction books and last year only 2 of the 125 books were non-fiction. I have already downloaded a few non-fiction books to my Kindle ready to go.

While I was at it I, rather optimistically, downloaded a teach yourself French book and a teach yourself German book. I don’t expect to become fluent in either, but I hope to visit France and Germany again during the next few years and every bit helps.

Maybe I should just resolve to buy fewer records, but I know I would fail there. I have already been on two shopping trips this year, and going out to record fairs and shops gives me an excuse to get out on my bike. But of course, then I come home, put an LP on, and read a book.