One of my goals (I prefer that term to "resolutions.") for 2009 is to study more literature. For me that involves two strategies: taking my time reading specific works and reflecting more on them, including reading more literary criticism.
With that in mind, I bought Vladimir Nobokov's Lectures on Literature a few months back. In the book, Nabokov discusses seven works in detail:
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Swann's Way - Marcel Proust
"The Metamorphosis" - Franz Kafka
Ulysses - James Joyce
My specific goal is to read each of the above works this year, then read and reflect on what Nabokov has to say about them. (That doesn't mean I'll stop with Nabokov, but he's a good starting point.) I just finished Mansfield Park a few days ago and am in the middle of Nabokov's essay on the novel which not only is enlightening, but also makes me want to read the novel again.
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