Thursday, January 2, 2014

Books in Review and 2014 Reading List

I love books almost as much as I love knitting.  If I could find a way to read a book AND knit at the same time I'd be a happy girl.  Yes, I know that I could download an audiobook onto my iPod and listen to it, but that feels a little strange (and unsociable) in my own house.

For now, the 2013 review.  I turn to the fabulous tool Goodreads, which is so much better than keeping an Excel spreadsheet or (eek!) writing down all of those books in a notebook.

I left 2013 with 185 books on my "to-read" shelf.  This isn't an accurate portrayal of what I will actually read.  I put books on that "to-read" shelf if they catch my fancy for any reason.  Once in a while I go through and delete some of them in a "what was I thinking??" moment.

I read 96 books in 2013!  This includes books that I read aloud to the boys.  (Yes, I do think that they count.  I read them, didn't I?)  2013 was the first year that Will started reading books to himself, but I make sure to read out loud to him too, because I know that he loves it.   We are still plugging through the Harry Potter series, having finished the second book sometime in December and seeing "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"  during this past Winter Break.  I debated giving him "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"  for Christmas, but ultimately decided to take a short break and read something else.  He got a little afraid of some of the situations in the second book and the books get darker as the series moves on.  Perhaps this Spring we will start it, sooner if he breaks me down by begging.

Here's my list of books that I would like to read in 2014.  I'm trying to get some of the books that I queued on Goodreads when I first got my account (2008!)   There are other books, not counting any knitting books, and who knows what will catch my fancy at the library this year!

1.  The Yarn Whisperer.  (Clara Parkes)  I received this as a Christmas gift, so it will likely be first.

2.  More books from the Dresden Files series by James Butcher.  I stopped at the third one but will definitely keep going into the new year.

3.  Home Front.  (Kristin Hannah.)

4.  The Thirteenth Tale.  (Diane Setterfield.)

5.  The Post-Birthday World.  (Lionel Shriver.)

6.  Growing Up Amish:  A Memoir. (Ira Wagler)

7.  Bowling Avenue.  (Ann Shayne.)

8.  His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman) One knitting friend told me that these books were enormously satisfying after finishing the Harry Potter series for the second time and missing them.

9.  The Wander Year:  One Couple's Journey Around the World.  (Mike McIntyre)

10.  The Signature of All Things.  (Elizabeth Gilbert.)

11.  We Are Water.  (Wally Lamb)

12.  Nothing Daunted:  The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.  (Dorothy Wickendon)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhh, I love this post! Makes me want to write one too! Like you, I am addicted to Goodreads and probably have 80something books on my 'to-read' shelf?? And you're right, if you read it to your kids it counts as you reading it...this is the first year Zoey read more to herself than I read to her, and I noticed the number of books I 'read' in 2013 significantly dropped off. ;-) And now your 2014 list is making me want to add even more to my to-read shelf...love it!