“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” ― Madeleine L’Engle
Did you read anything good this year?
For me, this year was full of good stories. Many people create lists of books they intend to read throughout the year, but I’ve found that no matter what, my list never quite gets finished. Many books get replaced, new releases often jump on the list, etc. so instead I have a different system. I say system– It’s essentially organized chaos with tall piles and wonky stacks all over the house, but it works. It’s basically the Hogwart’s Room of Requirement around here, but we book-lovers manage.
Here’s a little peek into my crazy system–
The nightstand pile. 1-4 books. Usually one fiction, one non-fiction and one devotional. These are my most current reads and the ones I grab to stick in my bag. Except now I also keep 1-2 on my phone with this.
My to-read next shelf on our big wall of books in the living room. These are my “next reads.”
My next-next reads. This shelf is cleaned out periodically, and usually filters onto my ‘next’ shelf.
The reader’s guilt shelf. (I know.) These books are ones I probably won’t get to any time soon; I keep meaning to begin them but never do. They are there to remind me that I have really no business watching television. Unless it’s Masterpiece which broadens my mind and my anglophilia. (Currently: Sherlock but I can’t talk about it because traumatic things just happened.)
All in all, it was a fantastic reading year. I set out to read 24 books and I only read about 20– but I’m perfectly happy with that many pages. Seeing as several of them were quite huge, I’m looking straight at you, Harry Potter, and it’s really about what we gained from the books and not how many there were after all.
If you’re curious– here they are. And in the comments, I’d love to hear some of your favorite reads this year. If you really recommend them, they might even skip over the next-next reads shelf!
2016 Good Reads
The Hobbit. J.R. Tolkien (A re-read but fun all the same.)
The Lake House. Kate Morton
Delicious. Ruth Reichl
The Bronte Plot. Katherine Reay
What Alice Forgot. Liane Moriarty
Harry Potter Books 1-7. J.K. Rowling (Re-read, but so fun to do them all in a line. Definitely utilized this to get all these pages read.)
Writing Down the Bones. Natalie Goldberg
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. Austin Kleon
Roots & Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons. Christie Purifoy
Curious Faith: Rediscovering Hope in the God of Possibility. Logan Wolfram
The Hiding Place. Corrie Ten Boom
A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens
Harry Potter & the Cursed Child. J.K. Rowling and Jack Thorne
The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Andrew Peterson (Yes that Andrew Peterson. This one was clever and captivating. I cannot wait to read the next in the series.)
Favorite Family Read-Alouds of 2016:
The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
Little Author in the Big Woods: A Biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yona Z. McDonough
Still in Process:
A Portrait of Emily Price. Katherine Reay
Your Turn! I’d love to hear what pages you wandered through this year. We may get a little snow this weekend (our first bit this year!) so I’m already planning my snow day pages. Hooray for Cozy!
Great list! I actually like your system. Mine is just kinda make a stack and fill up the kindle and see what gets read. I’ve started with an audiobook this year because it actually helps me focus on my work to have talking in my headphones to keep me from being distracted. Book and better work? Win-win. I didn’t read as much as 16 as I had hoped. Only 8 books complete (plus a few not finshed) but, I’ve been working on other projects, and as we all know we can’t do EVERYTHING. My goal for this year is 24 books. We’ll see how it goes. I’m off to a decent start (none finished, but 2 well on the way – one audio, one reading).
Of the books I read this year, I really got the most out of Living Your Strengths. I did it through a workshop at the church I attend and it helped me to understand a lot about how to use who I am in ministry in the community instead of just filling in an empty spot. I also get a lot from reading Brene Brown – this year it was Rising Strong.
Must get back to reading Harry Potter books. I’ve only done 1&2.
I have a very similar reading system – which, really, is a self of non-fiction and fiction books I’d like to read next but some of them sit there longer than others. Of course, I have an Amazon list I keep to consult when I’m needing to browse Kindle deals or remember what I want to read while browsing at the library. 🙂 And then I keep an ongoing list on Goodreads and in a blog draft post of what I’ve actually read in a given year. I also really love reading other people’s lists, so thanks for sharing yours! 🙂 Happy new year.
My system, if you can even call it that, is that I take pictures of books that interest me and I take lots and lots of screenshots of what other people on Instagram are reading.
I tried reading curious faith after I met Logan Wolfran at Nest Fest but I couldn’t get through it. I enjoyed reading “It’a Not Fair” by Melanie Dale much more. The books are about similar things and they are IRL friends but I liked the tone & writing style of Mel much better.
This year my goal is to track what I read better. I use Goodreads on and off and I post on IG, but not consistently.
My strategy is very similar! Love it!
Are you on Goodreads? I finally did that this year and love it. You can set a reading challenge for the year and I picked 20 books and had to up to 50! I ended up reading 60 which was shocking and fabulous. I love keeping up with “want to read” lists there, seeing friends’ recommendations, and having all the books I have read in one place since my bullet journal list just never would get updated before I took my books back to the library.
Loved reading about your strategy and your list. I’m currently reading Roots and Sky – she has such a lovely way with words. I’ve also started Choosing Rest by Sally Breedlove and The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo (both recommend by Emily Freeman). I have several other books in various stages of being read (some of them for quite a while now). I tend to flit between several books at once depending on my mood. It somehow works for me. I usually have the most current reads in a stack on a small table, but just today I organized my little roll cart with all the current ish reads so I can take it wherever I need. I hope it keeps me organized. I’m a magazine lover too, so there’s that. Always lovely to stop by and see what you are up to!