At the end of each year, I like look over what books I’ve read over the last 12 months and this January is no different! I didn’t really worry about the number of books I was getting in - I’m learning to not care about quantity, and focus more on quality when it comes to reading.
Earlier this year on a road trip to Arizona, Kris and I stopped at a gift store somewhere (I can’t remember where now!). I always tend to gravitate toward the book section in any store and while looking over the titles, I began flipping through some journals. One that stood out to me was a “Books I’ve Read” journal. On each page, you write the name of the book you completed, the author, date, and any other important info. Then there was a question section - what was the basic plot? What stood out to me most from this book? Would I read this again? Recommend to someone else? I thought that was such a good idea!
I’ve kept a word document of all the books I’ve read each year since 2013, but since looking through that journal, I decided to step up my game a bit. I began adding the date I finished each book and a couple sentences describing what it was about. I’m definitely going to keep doing this next year! I don’t always have time to write out a full book review that I’d like, but this will be a simple way to help me remember what each book was about.
And just for fun (and because I saw another blogger do this), some statistics on what books I’ve read this year.
38 books
Novels: 11. This year, I read more novels than I’ve had in awhile. But, if reading good novels helps me read more, I’m kind of okay with that. :-) 3 of these were audio books (two Mark Twain, 1 Jane Austin), which I generally think should be easy to listen to. Also on this list were a couple Louis L’Amour books (I have a soft spot for those), two Christian fiction (Frank Peretti, “Left Behind”), Jane Eyre (loved, loved, loved this book!), and a couple other historical fiction books not worth mentioning.
History: 6. I was tempted to lump both history and biography together, but that would just make one massive category and I wanted to keep things clear here. :-) 5 out of the 6 books were on WWII, some better than others, but all pretty good. My favorite in this category was “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand (this can be a hard book to read; not for young kids. It’s such an amazing story and I do not want to ruin it for anyone, so I won’t say any more).
Biography: 6 I read a wide range of biographies from missionaries to pilots. Honorable mentions include “Hiding in the Light” by Rifqa Berry (about a Muslim girl who converts to Christianity), “Bruchko” by Bruce Olson, and “Ann Judson: Missionary Wife” by Jennifer Adams.
Spiritual: 3. This was another hard-to-define category because I could have also included in this some very spiritually encouraging and challenging biographies and books on marriage/motherhood. But, the three spiritual books were some of the best - “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper, “12 Ordinary Men” by John MacArthur (about the 12 disciples), and “When God Writes Your Life Story” by Eric and Leslie Ludy.
Marriage/Motherhood: 5. The books that I appreciated the most were “The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex” by Sheila Gregoire (very good! Would recommend to anyone engaged, newly married, or even married for 50 years!) and “Loving the Little Years” by Rachel Jankovic (I know I’m not in that season yet, but this book was super encouraging and challenging! I hope to write a review on it soon. And I know this is one I’ll read again and again.)
How-to: 7 This section covered a vast field of different subjects - saving money, writing, health, decorating and hospitality. The books that I will be referencing again are “America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money” by Steve and Annette Economides, “Creating Character Arcs” by K.M Weiland, and “The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith (I’ve read this one before and mentioned it in last year’s book blog post. :-)
For 2018, I’m not going to worry about reading goals. Life will be busy and crazy, and whatever reading I get in will be a bonus, not a chore. I’m sure I’ll be reading lots of books on motherhood, health, babies, etc. ;-) We’ll see where the next twelve months takes me. :-)
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