2024 Reading List

It wouldn't feel like a new year without a fresh new list of books to read. Most of the books on my list this year have been recommended to me by a friend, a blogger, an article, or one of my own children. 

Fifteen of my choices are sequels or additional books written by authors who I have already enjoyed. Too often I have "saved" these books for some future date when I have time to be frivolous. But it isn't frivolous to enjoy what you enjoy. Maybe it is even necessary and healthy!

On to the list . . . 

2023 in Reading: Did not finish!

2023 was my fourth year of creating a reading list for myself. It was my second year of writing my own list without any reference to a reading challenge.

Before I tell you how I did, let's review:

• In 2022, I completed my reading challenge
• In 2021, I completed my reading challenge
• In 2020, I completed my reading challenge
• In 2019, I read 36 books without any reading goals

2023 Reading List

This is my fourth year of creating a reading list for myself for the year. It is my second year of writing my own list without any reference to a reading challenge. I have so many things I want to read (thank you Reddit!) that it feels disingenuous for me to force them into someone else's categories. 

I'm also finding that I read so much faster and effortlessly when it is a book I really want to read rather than a book I want to have read. So this year I'm focusing on books I find easy to read, which include memoirs, true-crime or true-adventure, science fiction, 19th-century literature, and short classics. 

2022 Reading List Update

For 2022, I made a nice, meaty list of great books to read. And in a year when so many things I had hoped or planned for did not get done, it felt amazing to finish my last book on the list on December 30th!

I never read as widely as I have these past three years since I began setting reading goals (2021 recap, 2020 recap) and I am loving it. I feel like a more interesting person to myself and I feel better able to home educate my kids as well as be a good example to them of a lifelong learner. To me, it has nothing to do with the number of books read, but rather that I'm feeding myself a rich feast of ideas. 

Spring Update

 

To Spring by William Blake

O Thou with dewy locks, who lookest down

Through the clear windows of the morning, turn

Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,

Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening

Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd

Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth

And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds

Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste

Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls

Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour

Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put

Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head,

Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

It has been a long time since I gave any kind of update around here. This time of year has me raring to get started on too many projects! But first, a look back at the last few months:

2022 Reading List

I had another great reading year thanks to my reading goals, so I knew I wanted to intentionally plan a list of books to read this year. 

But, some big ideas that have been percolating in my mind have given way to a new desire for less structure in many different areas, including my reading goals. I really needed these reading challenges the last two years to get me reading different types of books and to push me to read "harder" books. 

And that diet of excellent books has helped awaken my natural curiosity to read more widely. So I already have a great list of books on my TBR list. And it seems disingenuous to force them into arbitrary categories on a challenge.

So this year, I will plan to read most of the books on my list below. Maybe next year I will be back to Books and Chocolate, Schole Sisters 5x5, or this art one from Rebecca at A Humble Place.

Reading Goals 2021 Recap

It took a hard push from November on, but I was able to successfully complete a title in every category of my list, although it took me until Christmas Day to do it! While I would be 100% fine to not get to every title, it does feel good to set a challenging, but realistic goal and achieve it. 

Here is my original post where I laid out my plans to complete the Back to the Classics Challenge 2021 and the Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge which I also completed in 2020. And while I read fewer books overall this year over last, my reading in 2021 was much more focused and challenging in a good way.

Odds and Ends: March Edition

Spring

Spring is in the air even if this week will be colder than last week. We've been keeping a family Calendar of Firsts since 2018 and even though we forget to put a million things we see into it, it keeps us on our toes to notice all the firsts of the year.

This year, we've noted our first skunk cabbage, robins, grackles, geese flying north, daffodil shoots, tulips emerging, rhubarb tips, crocuses, red-spotted newt, tadpole, spring peepers, and wood frogs. 

Reading Goals 2021: Back to the Classics Challenge and Schole Sisters 5x5 Challenge Plans

In December 2019 I made my first true reading goals list (here's how I did with it!). I loved having a reading plan because it got me reading outside my comfort zone. Although most of my choices were ones I would have read anyway, by including "easy" nature lore and a handful of classics, I discovered more favorite authors, made my homeschool prereading feel more purposeful and continued to inspire myself to push towards more time in nature for myself and my family.

This year, I hope to focus on classics a bit more and find motivation and focus through the Back to the Classics Challenge 2021 hosted by Books and Chocolate and I plan to choose other categories to help me read outside of my comfort zone through the Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge which I also completed last year.

Reading Goals 2020 Recap

Last year I decided to set reading goals for 2020 not knowing how well I would enjoy having such a comprehensive reading plan. In the past, I would list a few books that I hoped to read and then fill in the rest of my time with prereads for homeschooling plus whatever piqued my interest.

I chose books for two challenges: Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge and the Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge, but I double counted, so the same book sometimes appears on both lists.  I kept it realistic by including many juvenile titles on my list that I preread or preview for homeschooling and by choosing very few "challenging" titles. 

And my goals were . . . a huge success! I read more this year than any other year in recent memory thanks to pregnancy, newborn time, a blank calendar, and finally learning how to love reading ebooks (thanks to library closures . . .) And while I absolutely did not read all the titles I had initially chosen for each category, I did manage (through a final hard December push where I finished 5 books) to complete a title in every category that I set out to read.

The best part of any challenge like this is not "winning" at it, but rather discovering new genres and new authors that I will keep coming back to over and over!

Reading Goals for 2020

For the first time ever, I decided to list out some reading goals for myself! I do this with full permission to change titles and even completely walk away from my goals if I'm not enjoying myself. Just being honest :-)

I've chosen books for two challenges: Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge and the Schole Sisters 5x5 challenge, but I'm double counting, so the same book can appear on both lists.  I'm purposefully only listing a very few difficult titles, with many books being ones that I was hoping to pre-read ahead of our next homeschool year. Yes, that means many of the books were written for a juvenile audience. So hopefully this will make completing the challenges more manageable.

Thus far, I'm off to a very strong start to my reading year, so I have high hopes of completing both challenges. But with a new baby due in July, anything can happen!

My Year in Books: 2019 Reading Recap

I tallied them all up from the beginning of the year until now and I've read 36 books this year, which is very in keeping with my overall pace of 3 books per month. I know that some people find the time to read MANY more titles than this in a year, but without any effort, this is the natural pace I seem to keep year after year.  And it works for me!

This number does not take into account family read alouds, or any book that I have read before, but it does contain several children's books, which were either read for my own pleasure because I missed them during my own childhood or part of my hit-or-miss prereading for homeschooling.

I've grouped the books into some broad categories and I love to see that I haven't read too narrowly. However, this year and every year recently, I've picked up books without any prior planning. Either they piqued my interest from my library's new books feed, I came across them online, a friend was also reading it, or it came into my life from a book sale.

I really do love choosing books serendipitously. However, sometimes it feels a bit scattered. Next year, I'm going to try an easy-to-accomplish reading challenge to branch out just a little bit more,   Don't worry (I say to myself) there will still be plenty of room on my reading schedule to choose books on the fly.