Act Four: The habit I'm trying to break in 2017

I reread too many books in 2016.   Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics   (Greywolf Press) The Act Four Live chat returns on Jan. 9. Get your questions in here! Last year, I made a whole list of professional resolutions and published them on Act Four, hoping that the act of making them public, and making them as promises to all of you, would somehow inspire me to keep them. Sadly, that did not turn out to be the case. My good intentions got swamped by my giant series on policing in pop culture, the personal irritation of some serious dental surgery and the national tsuris that was the 2016 presidential election. So I’m not going to repeat that failed experiment, even though I’m still plugging away at my continuing film education. But there is one bad habit I fell into in 2016 that I am going to attempt to break this year: rereading old books rather than reading new ones. Now, there’s nothing wrong with revisiting books that you love and that have had an impact on you. But I found that in 2016, I relied too heavily on reading the same books over and over simply because they were comforting when the news felt unpleasant. I reread Katherine Addison’s “The Goblin Emperor,” Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” and “China Rich Girlfriend” and Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s “The Royal We” not just once, but over and over. Now, I read quickly, so this didn’t prevent me from reading dozens of books that were new to me, as well — my best discovery in 2016 was Joseph Wambaugh’s police novels. But I did feel as though these repetitions weren’t really about getting new things from these books, all of which are tremendous fun. They were just a method of self-soothing. So in 2017, I’m going to try to be disciplined about reading mostly new books, and about rereading selectively. Over Christmas and New Year’s, I read Richard Price’s twisty police novel “The Whites” and Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric.” Neither book was remotely soothing; instead, both made me feel sharply awake. And in 2017, that’s precisely what I need. ADVERTISEMENT   A 2017 resolution for all Americans: Remember what we like about one another Americans are polarized and frustrated with one another. But our relationship with one another and our country is worth saving. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘Weiner’ and ‘Zero Days’ will make you feel bad about 2016 — and worse about 2017 You could use either of these two movies to interpret the presidential election, but the bigger, scarier questions they ask about the future are even more important. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘The Birth of a Nation’ didn’t save black storytelling in 2016, and it didn’t have to It was a good year for black storytelling. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   We lost Carrie Fisher and so many others in the year when we needed them most In 2016, we lost artists who showed us how to live and what the world could be. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ‘Hail, Caesar!’ foresaw how a liberal mash-up of culture and politics faltered in 2016 By bowing down to politics, artists sapped their own power -- and overplayed their hands -- in 2016. By Alyssa Rosenberg  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   Intersect The corner of the Internet and interesting, in your inbox weekly. Sign Up »         Share Act Four:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you signed up for Act Four. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here. We respect your privacy. If you believe that this email has been sent to you in error or you no longer wish to receive email from The Washington Post, click here. Contact us for help. ©2017 The Washington Post, 1301 K St NW, Washington DC 20071