2013 Reading List

I don't know what it is about the start of a new year - everything in me wants to make lists. Lists of goals, lists of projects, lists of websites, and finally - a list of books to read. Who knows why. My guess is there's a gene that some of us get that causes us to carry around slips of paper, jotting down this and that, and somehow all those slips of paper make us feel like the world is in control.

And - horror of horrors - what would happen if I came up with a book that I HAVE to read, and I forgot the title? I have learned to use the camera on my phone, take a photo of the cover of the book and not bring them all home at once. Saves on fines which makes my husband happy.

So here's my 2013 hearty read list. It's a starting place for me, and I'll surely pick up some others I'm not planning on now.

I had someone ask, after my last post about 2012 reading, if I finish a book once I realize it's a dog.

NONONONONONONONO!!!!!

Life is just too short, and there are far too many wonderful reads out there. If I don't love a book right away I tend to give it a few chapters, or maybe 100 pages. Sometimes, if I'm reading for a purely education purpose, making up for all those college classes I never took, I'll press on. Even if it's difficult or dull or makes me want to twitch a bit. Mere Christianity was one of those; My Antonia was another.

Sometimes I'll skim a book; who says you can't skim? Eat, Pray, Love was one of those. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson was too (didn't love it.) My Life in France by Julia Childs is another in that category. Dreams of My Father by Obama is another. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil I read / skimmed to the bloody end, even though I really disliked it. I guess I wanted to be sure I could, in all honesty, say 'I hate that book.'

I also count audio books listened to as 'read'. I'm not a purist about much of anything, and don't tend to follow 'rules for rules sake' well. I had a brilliant friend suggest that I check out the physical book and also the audio; listen while I drive, then curl up at night with the hardcover. Now that's the way to tear through a book!

So here is my very eclectic reading list for this year: (F=Fiction, NF=Non-Fiction, NBAW - Newberry Award Winner).

#1 Island of the World - F
#2 Margins - NF
#3 Housework - NF
#4 Chronicles of Narnia - F
#5 Olive Kitteredge - F (just read today her next book is coming out!)
#6 One Thousand White Women - NF I think
#7 Quo Vadis - F
#8 Story of Mankind - F - NBAW
#9 Texas (Michener) - F
#10 Westing Game - F - NBAW
#11Caddie Woodlawn - F - NBAW
#12 Holes - F - NBAW
#13 Jacob Have I loved - F - NBAW
#14 Summer of the Swans - F - NBAW
#15 Up a Road Slowly - F - NBAW
#16 View From Saturday - F - NBAW
#17 1984 (Orwell) - F
#18 Brave New World - F
#19 Bible (One Year Version)
#20 George Mueller of Bristol - Biography - NF
#21 The Great Divorce, C S Lewis - NF
#22 Girl of the Limberlost - F
#23 Screwtape Letters, C S Lewis - NF
#24 The Forgotten Garden, K. Morton (just finished) - F
#25The Distant Hours, K. Morton - F
#26 Secret Keeper, K. Morton - F

I'll surely add a few here and there. My daughter, Sarah is an avid reader and often sucks me into reading something she's just finished, and sometimes the book is 200+ years old and has difficult writing style in it. I think of it as my Luminosity exercises.

Happy Reading, everyone, and feel free to tell me what I MUST add to round out my list at around 30 books. Or which on my list is a dog and I'll end up skimming...