For the past 12 years my chief New Year resolution, when I have been moved through sentimentality or pressure from friends and family, has been to finish my book. This year is no different, except this time I mean it. The only resolution I have ever successfully kept was 2007's "to smoke more", and even that was something of an accident.

The whole idea of New Year resolutions is preposterous, but they do serve to remind us of the frailty of the will, and that the chief soundtrack to life is the shards of broken promises crunching under our boots.

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