Saturday, January 3, 2015

Reviewing My 2014 Book List

I'm sharing some thoughts today on my 2014 book list.  I read 58 books this year, plus The Book of Mormon and was able to finish the Old Testament.  

Nonfiction  

I was able to read 6 out of the 14 nonfiction books on my list and am currently in the middle of 4 of them.  I'm definitely a slow non-fiction reader, taking my time and reading a few pages at a time.  I know finishing up the Old Testament this last year took a lot of my nonfiction reading time and the 4th Thousand Years also took me awhile to get through at the beginning of the year.  I have decided to add these books to my 2015 list.  I wasn't going to, but decided that I do want to read these, and since I have given up on shortening my new list of books, I just tacked these on as well.

Autobiography of Ben Franklin by Ben Franklin (Free On Kindle) (started reading)
The Republic by Plato (Free On Kindle)
The Aeneid by Virgil (Free On Kindle)
A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book by Elsie Larson


Fiction

I was able to read 20 out of my 23.  Not to bad.  I've also started two of these and am almost finishd with Les Miserables.  


I was able to read all of my book club books this year.  Even though I only attended a couple of the book groups, I was motivated to read these fun titles!  I read 8 out of 8 of these titles.
Read Alouds

I read 8 out of 13 books, but I did decided that Magic for Marigold and Emily of New Moon were not a good fit for my kids right now.  Jakob isn't interested and Isabelle seems to young.  Read alouds have been tough.  Since school started this last fall, our schedule has been full, and we have had a hard time finding a good rhythm for reading time.  My children are rarely all together and we are also trying to read scriptures in the evening together as a family, so that takes up a chunk of our family time.  This next year, I'm determined to find a solution that works for us.

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Betsy-Tacy and Tib by Maud Hart Lovelace

More All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Babe:  The Gallant Pig by dick King-Smith
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Little Britches by Ralph Moody
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (Free on Kindle)

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Magic for Marigold by L.M. Montgomery


Books Not On My List

I always read a few books that are not on my list, books that inspire me, and I just want to pick up and read.  I read 16 of these books.   I was surprised to see how many of these books I was able to tackle this year.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Motherhood Realized by Power of Mom
Lessons From Madame Chic by Jennifer Scott
The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Searching for Pemberly by Mary Lydon Simonsen
The Dirty Life:  Memoir of Farming by Kristin Kimball
Delancey:  A Man, A Woman, and a Restaurant by Molly Wizenberg
Finding It by Valerie Bertinelli
Surprised by Motherhood by Lisa-Jo Baker
Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Code Name Verity by Lisa Wein
The Halloween Party by Agatha Christie
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Light Between Oceans by L. M. Stedman

Such a great year for reading.  I listened to some of these books on CD, in the car, while I was cleaning or cooking, or while I was making, stitching, and creating.  I kept stacks of books by my bed and tucked them in corners around the house.  I kept one or two in the car and took them with me on errands or on trips.  When I would take a break during the day, it was almost always with a book.  I would skip TV or movie watching to head to bed as soon as my kids were tucked in, to get some reading in.  Reading became habitual in all those little moments throughout the day.  A few months before the year ended I started making my 2015 book list.  The more you read, the more you want to read, and the more books you find.  I'll be sharing my 2015 book list tomorrow.

You can find my Book Reports that gives a short review of each of the books above here.

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1 comment:

  1. You did lots of reading, great list of books!

    ReplyDelete