It's 2010, and I'd dearly love to curl up with a good book and while the day away. With the chaos of work and life, we have so few moments when we can really bury ourselves in a book and disappear into that wonderful fantastical, fictional realm of the imagination. We watch what happens, and we imagine.

So, this year, I've resolved to read something every day. It doesn't have to be a full novel a day (that would just be setting myself up for failure), but I will read a little something. I will think about how my reading relates to my life and other works I've read. I will hope and I will dream, but I will also live each day with purpose. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."

I guess, most of us are reading quotes about time and destiny and hope and dreams and planning. We all have our battles to fight, but we also have our successes to count. Emerson wrote about what that means: "To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!"

How will you live each day?

Many of us seem to have hoped that this new beginning would happen sooner. We wanted to forget the year that just took every ouch of heart-and-soul to get through. How many of you have been holding your breath, as you wished for the last moments of 2009 to pass?

And, now, we are blessed with a new year--we forge ahead. For good or ill, we face every day, an empty slate. Perhaps you're searching for stories that will speak to your experience; you want an escape; or you'd rather imagine yourself halfway around the world in another place and time. T.S. Eliot wrote: ""For last year's words belong to last year's language / And next year's words await another voice. / And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Literary resolutions is one way for me to make a new beginning. I learn from (and build upon) previous years. But, the basic premise is much the same: read, write and share. (Take a look at what Allison Morris, Celeste Ng, Kelly Watson, and others say about reading resolutions. I really love the ideas of adding variety to one's reading schedule, attending more author readings, and subscribing to a literary journal.)

Each year, I start off with a clean slate--with so much eagerness and joy for all that I will discover through books in the coming year. I hope you find yourself in the same place--even if you've already devoured all the books you received as gifts last year. May 2010 be a year full of cherished moments... We've only to dive (or fall) in! Join us on the Forum.

Graphic Art © Andres Harambour / iStockphoto.

The nights have been bitterly cold--frozen hands (Little Match Girl), frozen hearts (Snow Queen), and Hard Times (the Charles Dickens variety). Hans Christian Anderson writes: "It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast."

We are all searching for something: warmth, life's meaning, the answer to a broken heart, reprieve from cancer or disease, perhaps even what we call happiness. In the interplay of shadows and light, literature bring us brief glimpses of epiphany, truth, or enlightenment--in those moments of reflection. Henry Rollins once wrote: "If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you. " The writer must let the words flow forth; and we greedily accept. We must read--discover, learn and grow. What other way is there to live?

Henry Miller wrote: "I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it. We must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and the soul." For all that the coming year and decade holds, I hope that books hold much more splendor for you--warmth to comfort in hard times and solace to ease a broken heart. Capture night--hold it in palm of hand.

This holiday season means something for all of us--wrapped as it is in memory and tradition. Is there a common thread--a literary hope and reality for the past, present and future?

Agnes Pahro said, "It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace."

In difficult times, we all need moments of reprieve and comfort. And, literature can offer that for each of us. 'Tis the season for love and happiness and joy. O. Henry's timeless story, The Gift of the Magi, offers a new vision of the holidays. What would happen if we each gave up our most cherished possession, if our actions demonstrated our love?

In literature, we find examples of love and sacrifice--moments of clarity. Families draw together; miracles happen; truths are revealed. Why can't we learn from literature? Imagine Jim and Della's Christmas, or the way Alcott's little women celebrated Christmas. Or, what about The Seven Poor Travellers, where Charles Dickens writes: "Christmas comes but once a year,-which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very different place..."

Wherever you are this year... and whatever hardships you've endured, I hope you can find comfort on this day.