As the New Year moves into its second week, many people are probably still considering how to act most effectively on their new goals and resolutions for 2013. This is a time-honored process, and even famous people and historical greats have done it, as evidenced by the recent post on Brain Pickings by Maria Popova, “Famous Resolution Lists: Jonathan Swift, Susan Sontag, Marilyn Monroe, Woody Guthrie.” Before the momentum slows, consider my own variation on this exercise, the Total Life List. I’m grateful to Marie Kaddell of LexisNexis, who has re-posted my guest blog post about this topic for the New Year, on the LexisNexis Government Info Pro blog. Marie has generously provided both writing and speaking opportunities to me during the past four years, as I noted last year in “Gratitude and Guest Posts.” I’m honored to once again be included in her terrific yearly publication 2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries: Pushing Boundaries; Mobility…Community…Accessibility.
I’m also grateful to Deborah Kalb, who interviewed me recently for her wonderful Book Q&As website. With her father Marvin Kalb, Deborah wrote the 2011 book Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama, which recently came out in paperback. In our Q&A, she asked thought-provoking questions that helped me to reorder my thinking about what I’ve written, and what I plan to write in the future. Deborah has interviewed many excellent fiction and nonfiction writers since her site started last year. The interviews are all brief and to-the-point, and will give you insights into books you are already familiar with, as well as introduce you to others you’ll want to add to your what-to-read list for the new year.
