This is going to be one of my weirder fantasy book reviews. When I first thought to alternate between classics and fantasy, I assumed that the fantasy stories would have shorter, less academic-sounding reviews than the classics. Now I realize it all depends on the book. The Three Musketeers is a fun high-adventure story, so it got a fun review showcasing its best features. This week we're diving into one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dense, not-so-popular works. I’ll reflect on my own experience with the book and give helpful tips and strategies for those who want to read it.

I started reading classics because school teachers, published authors, and various other pedagogical authority figures told me I should.  In the last few years, I’ve read a number of them, ranging from The Importance of Being Earnest  to  Crime and Punishment. Some I’ve loved, some I’ve hated, and some I kept hoping would get better later in the story (they usually didn’t). The Three Musketeers isn't one of those classics. It’s a classic for a long list of reasons, most of which would spoil the story or make this post way too long. You should read The Three Musketeers, not because it’s a “classic,” but because it is a great freaking book.

Before I get into today's topic, a quick announcement:

I'm actually going to start posting every week.

It seems like forever that I’ve wanted to blog regularly, but it's been a challenge to find a focus that is both relevant and broad enough that I don’t get bored. I finally found that focus: books.

 I study, er, read tons of books every year; I want to write books for a living. I feel kind of stupid for not realizing this sooner.

Three Month Goals Update

About three months ago, I published this post on my goals for 2018. Since then, my life and my goals have changed a bit. The rest of this post is all about my progress in the goals I set, as well as the ways I’ve tweaked those goals to fit my schedule when I’ve added things like blogging to my proverbial plate.

Family/Romantic:

I’m still having date time with my husband on Sunday afternoons, at least most of the time. The weather hasn’t been quite good enough for hiking yet, but we’ve taken a few walks in the park by our apartment.

I love goal setting. I'll do goal work any time of the year, because goals and the routines that come with them are vital to my productivity. Without goals, I'd spend all of my free time dorking around on the Internet and playing Guild Wars 2 for a week at a time. Not that I've ever done that... *cough*

The last couple of years I've been late in setting my New Year's goals. Last year it was February, this year it was the middle of January. Maybe next year, if the trend continues I'll actually make it to January first or a couple of days before. In this post, I'm going to break down my 2017 goals, talk about my progress, including a check-in I had with myself in July, and then go into my 2018 goals. This post is going to be long, and it's more for me than for you (it's pretty much all about me), but for those who want to stalk me er, get to know me better, taking a look at my goals is a great way to see what drives me.

I am blessed to be at a time in my life where I don't have to work full-time and I don't yet have children to care for. This won't always be the case, and I am determined to take advantage of this stage of my life to educate myself and to develop time-management skills and habits that will serve me in the future.

Goals of 2017

Family/Romantic

My family goal wasn't exactly lofty--just to keep spending Sunday afternoons/evenings with my husband as date days. We started the year off strong, but by July had fallen out of the habit. When I revisited my goals in July, I made a point of making it a priority again. We had to cancel a few times when other social or work things came up later, but that was relatively rare. We spent most of our time watching anime, eating popcorn and banana ice cream, and talking to each other. We watched a lot of anime.

I also suckered my husband into making goals with me in 2017, which proved to be a fun date activity, but there were definitely some areas where he just made goals to keep me happy. So maybe don't push your spouses to make goals with you unless the goal is relevant to them and they enjoy doing it, like financial milestones, or when you plan to have kids.

For our fourth anniversary we went on a hike in a park that I had never visited before---which I think is just a couple of miles away from my parents' house. Gofigure.