UMP's New Years Resolutions

With 2013 now in the past and the new year ahead of us, we at the University of Missouri Press have come up with some literary-based suggestions for those of you who may have some trouble thinking of New Years resolutions on your own:

1. Read a Shakespeare play... without annotations.

I know - it's a scary thought. But thou hast the requisite fortitude of mind to succeed.

2. Judge a book by its cover.

This colloquialism has become so universal that it actually applies better to other situations than to literal book covers. We publishers work really hard on our cover designs! So go ahead and grab one that catches your eye.

3. Use your Kindle more for reading than for the apps.

With all the cool stuff they can do now, sometimes it's easy to forget that Kindles can still be used to read books. You remember, that whole reason they were invented?

4. Read the book version of a movie BEFORE seeing the movie.

Spoiler alert: all of your friends are going to be super impressed... as long as you don't ruin the movie for them.

5. Start writing your book.

There's no reason the spirit of NaNoWriMo should be limited to just one month of the year.

So, what are you going to do for 2014?