Books on New Beginnings

January is a time for New Year’s resolutions for many people. I am never 100% convinced by making New Year’s resolutions – I think I know myself well enough to realise that I am setting myself up to fail!

That said, there is always the potential for a few ‘tweaks’ around the edges. One of the books that my partner has found really helpful is Getting Things Done. The book is designed to help you organise and take control of our life, be that at work or elsewhere. Interestingly, this book is seen as a bit cult-ish by some people, but my view is that implanting the whole of the system is probably a bit much, but it is worth giving some of the techniques a go.

If you are hoping for a fitter 2015, then there may be some good news for you if you are looking for a way to achieve this with minimal (although intense) effort. Fast Exercise is based on using ultra short bursts of exercise to achieve better health.

The resulting combination of those two books is obviously going to leave you with a lot of time on your hands, which is excellent for fitting in some fiction reading. It can sometimes be more inspiring to immerse yourself in a great story – and new beginnings and changes can be great material for this. So here are some books about new beginnings that might inspire.

You could try The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - never has going out to post a letter taken quite so long. It is a tale of casting off the mundane and finding a purpose, through a gentle story of what becomes a walk from one end of the country to the other.

If you want something a walk that is bit harder edged, although not a work of fiction, you could read Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found, which is Cheryl Strayed’s account of her journey along the Pacific Crest Trail following the death of her mother and the end of her own marriage. The book is more inspiring than this description suggests!

You could also read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, which tells the story of a very literal new beginning. Ursula Todd is born several times on 11 February 1910, and as a result gets an infinite number of chances to live her life – and in so doing has the potential to make different choices and not make previous mistakes. An interesting concept, even if not entirely realisable in our own lives.



All of the books are here: