We've got our minds on New Year's resolutions as Johnny Cash's funny and touching To Do List wins the most Loved vote
January is a time of resolution: "new year, new you" as the rather cringe worthy adage goes. It is the month where we strive our hardest to cast aside our vices, replacing them with new habits that will ensure healthier, happier living for the year ahead. Perhaps it is for this reason that this funny and touching To Do List by the late, great Johnny Cash struck such a chord this week, securing the Most Loved vote for AnOther contributor, Gillian Hopper.
Filled with resolves of varying difficulty – from "pee", "eat" and "kiss June [Carter, his beloved wife]" to "not smoke" and "not kiss anyone else" – the list is the perfect embodiment both of the surly musician's sardonic wit and his tendency to overindulge. The list is featured in last year's brilliant publication Lists of Note – the follow up to Shaun Usher's best-selling Letters of Note – and sits alongside a delightful array of discovered lists, including Michelangelo's illustrated shopping list, Nick Cave's handwritten dictionary, and a list of The BFG's favourite words (from spongewiggler to spitzwoggler) by his creator, Roald Dahl. So before we sit down to compile our own lists for self-improvement in 2015, we catch up with Hopper to discover why she chose to Love this list and what's at the top of hers.
Why did you choose to Love this list?
I loved Shaun Usher’s previous compilation, Letters of Note, and am guilty of unnecessary list making.
What would be the top things on your to do list?
To learn to cook without the aid of my George Foreman grilling machine. I'd also love to take a course in flower arranging. But one domestic hurdle at a time.
What was your New Year's resolution and have you stuck to it so far?
To drink more water. And yes.
What's your all-time favourite celebrity coupling?
Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston.
Johnny Cash was famous for wearing only black. Do you have a signature style trait?
Black studded boots, an assembly of gold jewellery and something grey.
What's your favourite romantic gesture in popular culture (on film, in books etc)?
Mr. Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice – “you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
What are you looking forward to most in 2015?
Travelling to somewhere exotic. Bali, India and the glass igloos in Kakslauttanen, Finland are currently topping my very necessary travel list.
Lists of Note by Shaun Usher is out now, published by Canongate Books Ltd in conjunction with Unbound.
Words by Daisy Woodward
