A Year In Books - 2019

So, like my making output, my book reading also had a slump. I was cooking right along, but with the beginnings of divorce proceedings I found myself just not in the mood for books at all in any form. So I took a break for several months, trying not to be too hard on myself. So this is the first time in 5 years I did not meet my reading goal for the year :/ But that's ok! I set out to read 50 and I managed 31, which is still not a number to sneeze at. I enjoyed what I did read, and while there weren't any enormous classic books like I am prone to choose, there were quite a few books that have been on my "to read" list for years. I can be happy with that. And while I did not write a single book review (bad Megan!), I would be happy to let you know about any of these books if you're interested. Just leave a comment below. So here are the 31 books I read this year:

1. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
2. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
3. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
4. The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
5. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

6. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
7. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
8. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
9. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

10. The Library Book by Susan Orlean
11. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
12. An American Princess by Annejet van der Zijl
13. Tangerine by Christine Mangan
14. Jaws by Peter Benchley

15. The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
16. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
17. Florida by Lauren Groff
18. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
19. Normal People by Sally Rooney
20. Noir by Christopher Moore
21. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
22. How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims

23. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
24. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
25. The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt
26. The State of Affairs by Esther Perel
27. Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson

28. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
29. The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
30. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
31. Going To Pieces Without Falling Apart by Mark Epstein, M.D.

As far as my top books, I added 3 more to my 5 star list:

• The State of Affairs
• Maybe You Should Talk To Someone
• The Problem of Pain

I also find it interesting the books that I didn't give 5 stars to but they stuck in my mind and I talk about a lot. There were several this year:

• The Coddling of the American Mind
• The Feminine Mystique
• The Happiness Hypothesis
• The Starless Sea
• Going To Pieces Without Falling Apart

So, while I didn't hit my goal, I did get a lot out of the books that I read. I will say, I also had the problem of starting a few books and not finishing them. I have a goal to finish them all this coming year. 

Anyone else out there find they want to read less at a certain time? I'm very curious if I'm a weirdo. Every other time I've had craziness in my life over the past 6 years or so, I've turned to reading as an escape and read voraciously. It was very indicative of the total upheaval and change I went through though, I guess. I still love to read and look forward to learning more in the coming year :)

A Year In Books: 2017

It's that time again - time to look at all the books I managed to read last year. And since I love the graphics Goodreads puts up, that's what you see here (thanks, Goodreads!). Speaking of, if you are on Goodreads, drop me a line (click here for my profile).

I made it a point to diversify what I read this year. I read everything from giant classics (War and Peace, David Copperfield), to super popular (The Lovely Bones, Into the Water), from self help (You Are A Badass, The Millionaire Next Door ), to brain science (Who's In Charge?). I didn't have as many books knock me off my chair this year (as you will see in my 5 star list), but I enjoyed quite a lot and still contemplate things about their stories long after I've read them. Others were total throw aways that I couldn't wait to finish. Definitely an interesting mix!

I did pretty well with writing reviews on the books I read until about halfway through the year (as you will see - I've linked each title to blog post review if it had one). Maybe I can blame this on the hurricane as well? lol Man that this really messed up my schedule. Moving on! I also changed my posting format to have one review post for every 5 books, which I much preferred because it made each review feel less ominous to write. Did you like this set up better? Should I include more reviews in each post so you can skip them? lol Let me know what you thought. 

So here are my books from 2017:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
2. Joy on Demand by Chade-Meng Tan
3. You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero
4. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
5. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

6. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
7. Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
8. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
9. The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter

10. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
11. Naked by David Sedaris
12. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
13. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
14. My Week With Marilyn by Colin Clark

15. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
16. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K Rowling
17. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
18. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

19. The Remains of the Day by Kasuo Ishiguro
20. Tenth of December by George Saunders
21. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson
22. My Ántonia by Willa Cather
23. Who's In Charge? by Michael S. Gazzaniga

24. The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking
25. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
26. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
27. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

28. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
29. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
30. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
31. Theft By Finding by David Sedaris
32. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

33. White Oleander by Janet Fitch
34. Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss
35. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
36. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

37. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
38. You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
39. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
40. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
41. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

42. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
43. MirrorMask by Neil Gaiman
44. The Lovely Bones by Alice Siebold
45. Believe Me by Eddie Izzard

46. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
47. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
48. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
49. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
50. Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

51. Children Playing Before A Statue of Hercules by David Sedaris
52. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

I really squeaked out the 53rd book - I finished it at about 9 pm on New Year's Eve. I tried to focus on reading a balance of new fiction with books on the Books Everyone Should Read type lists. Click that link to take an epic quiz and see how many you've read. I found it last year and was at 99, now I'm up to 109 - not bad in my opinion. 

• You are a Badass 
• The Subtle Art
• We Should All Be Feminists
• The Omnivore's Dilemma

I didn't get a chance to write a review of The Omnivore's Dilemma, but seriously it's so good. I'm not sure if I just need to be more discerning of what I read to get more 5 stars or if I've read so much that it takes more to impress me on that level. Who knows?

I managed to yet again beat my goal on Goodreads :) I really love keeping track of everything there - I can look back on when I read something and what I thought of it. I can also see who I read the most (David Sedaris and Neil Gaiman this year) and other interesting statistics. I'm obviously a nerd (in case you didn't know) so I like things like this, lol. 

So that's my year in books! I've set a goal of another 50 books in 2018 (I've decided this will be the year for Crime and Punishment at last), so stay tuned for what I decide to read and my reviews if you're interested.

Keep Track of Your Reading with Goodreads

One of the hardest parts of joining The Thousander Club has been trying to remember all of the books that I have already read! I've been reading above 8th grade level for longer than I can remember (fyi - 8th grade level or higher is part of the club guidelines for the book to count), and I used to get books from the library all the time as a kid.

As I was counting my books and discovering "my number", I knew there had to be a better way to keep track other than my not-so-great memory. So, I asked The Thousanders - how do they keep track? Cortney (one of the group leaders) recommended Goodreads.

Goodreads is a website/app designed to keep track of your reading and share with your friends. You can list books you've read, give them a star rating and review, what you are currently reading, what you want to read, see what your friends are reading, have books recommended based on your likes and much more. I'm still learning all the different features of this site and it's lots of fun. I like to use the app on my iPhone and I love the "scan" feature. You can scan the barcode of a book and see the reviews, ratings, etc as well as add it to your own library.

As I've racked my brain to remember books I've read, I am up to 184 books I've read. I know that I'm missing some, so I'm guessing it's closer to 200, but until I remember what they are I'm just going to go with the ones in my Goodreads library. You can even join The Thousander Club Goodreads Group and be connected with me and all the other group members to see what we are reading :)

So, check out this app if you're getting more into reading like me :)