New Year's resolutions can be very secret things, whispered in hushed tones, only after furtive glances over one's shoulder.

Just ask Agatha. Sitting at a table outside Verite Caf/ on NW Market Street, the young Ballard resident was deeply engrossed in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. When asked what her resolution for 2006 is, Agatha paused and agreed to tell me only if I did not use her real name. Her employers receive the Ballard News-Tribune, she explained, and she is worried about what their reaction would be.

Her resolution?

"To read more classic books," she said.

"Especially ones by English authors."

The books serve a greater purpose. Agatha likened them to mental warm up laps. Currently, she has a "silly desk job", but she is planning to go to graduate school to study educational counseling. Her employers, she said, wouldn't be too excited about her plans to leave. So for now, officially at least, her new year's resolution is simply to read more English classics.

Gary John's resolution involves classics as well, though not the literary kind. He intends to spend 2006 pursuing his passion; restoring vintage muscle bicycles from the 1960s.

"I don't smoke, drink, or do drugs, so I can't swear any of those off," John said, sitting outside the Tully's Coffee at NW Market Street.

"Bikes and cars are my addictions."

His 1968 Schwinn Sting-Ray Lemon Peel bike was sitting not far from him. He found the bike in San Diego, and restored it piece by piece. When John showed the bike at some vintage car shows this past year, attendees flocked to see the bike. "It reminded them of their childhood," he said.

A few seats away from John sat Juan Carlos. The Ballard resident's resolution this year is to learn a third language. He already speaks English and Spanish. Carlos started German classes last fall, and needs to get pretty good soon.

"I want to go to Germany next year and see the World Cup," Carlos explained. A lifelong soccer fan and player, Carlos intends to cheer on his native Mexico in the tournament, and it wouldn't do to root for Mexico if none of the Germans could understand him.

Learning a new language is a popular resolution for 2006. Another bilingual Ballard resident, Hardev Singh, wants to learn Spanish because he works with so many Spanish speakers already. Singh, born in New Delhi, India, already speaks Punjabi and English.

Seth was enjoying a cigarette in the mid-afternoon sun. He hopes it is one of the last he will have. His resolution for 2006 is a traditional one; kicking the cigarette habit. It's not easy, walking away from tobacco road. Most smokers have to try a few times before they succeed. But since November, voters have decided to give smokers one more reason to quit, with the passage of a ballot measure that bans smoking in public places.

"They've made it harder and harder, so what's the point?" Seth said, exhaling a plume of smoke. "It definitely makes going to bars harder."

Seth predicted, a lot of smokers will try quitting, given the only place people can smoke now leaves them exposed to Seattle's gloomy winter weather.

"Who wants to smoke in the rain?" he said.