I don't know if it rises all the way to the level of a goal, but one of the things I'm trying to do this year is be less of an illiterate slob. I've already mentioned Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail which is still my favorite thing I've read this year. Seriously, you'll have way more fun reading this than you will at any Tom Hanks/Ron Howard movie. Another fun read was Cult Vegas, a look back at the Vegas-that-was. Mobsters, lounge singers, Elvis, the Rat Pack... what's not to love. While traveling last week, I read two books -- very different from each other, but both recommended. On the way out I read Frank Kelly Rich's The Modern Drunkard. Subtitled "A Handbook for Drinking in the 21st Century" it's a smartass celebration of all things alcoholic. On the way back I elevated the tone and read Daniel Boulud's Letters to a Young Chef. A bit slight perhaps and not as in-depth or as much fun as Jacques Pepin's the Apprentice but still an excellent read, esp. if you're an unreconstructed foodie.
On a food related, but non-book, note, Phat Duck is another blog so good it almost makes me lose the will to write. Mostly food-based, in this case pastry. In a way, it's the reverse angle of the Boulud book, the experiences of someone starting out in the restaurant biz. Esp. worth going back in the archives to April and May of last year, when she was doing a stage at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant in the UK. Amazing stuff!