Sunday, December 10, 2023

Update on Reading Challenge 2023

Hi friends, Every year I set a reading challenge. It helps me keep moving forward in my reading. I remember when I started the challenge I was just coming out of a lengthy period of very poor concentration and could barely read a page before great fatigue would set in. I've come a long way since then.

This year my goal was to read 50 books or 20,000 pages.  Fifty is a much smaller number than I've set in previous years. I was flexible and didn't mind reading more if time permitted; especially since 50 books wouldn't likely reach 20,000 words.  I wanted to read more than a few books but not be so pressured that I didn't have time for anything else. 

I've read 63 books to date for a total of 23,169 pages, thereby exceeding my goal. In fact this is the most words I've read in any given year since I started keeping track over a decade ago.  The good news is I didn't feel any pressure whatsoever to read.  I'm currently reading 3 more books (Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge (224 pages), Coming Home to Eat:  The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods (336 pages) and Accessing the Blessings of Heaven's Currency:  Withdrawing Power from Your Heavenly Account for Answered Prayers (196 pages).  Once I finish there will be another 756 pages to add making a grand total of 23,925 pages for 2023 if I've done the math correctly.  If I have time I will read another book or two between Christmas and New Year's Day.

I enjoyed a number of books in 2023 and others not so much.  But as each year goes by I'm challenging   myself to read new genres or expand the scope of my reading within a particular genre.  For example,

  • Confederacy of Dunces (hard to classify but seems to fit into comedic satire)
  • The Removes (historical fiction based on expansion of the American west and the mistreatment of Native Americans)  
  • The Sorbonne Affair, (murder mystery),
  • There, There, Valley of the Birdtail, Bad Cree (all written by indigenous authors)
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures (fiction centred around friendship between humans and an octopus). 
  • One Drop (biography written by the daughter of a man who passed all her life and the impact of finding out her real roots).
I enjoyed Valley of the Birdtail a lot, followed by Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Sorbonne Affair, but I would recommend all of the above books for various reasons.

Having reached a reading milestone in 2023, I'd like to say I'll continue reaching new heights.  The truth is, I'm not quite sure what reading goal I'll set for 2024.  I suspect it will be a more modest goal because there are a lot of other projects I would like to get to but we will see.

I hope you too have had a successful year of reading. Happy reading in 2024!

 
YOUR 2023 BOOKS
  • One Drop by Bliss Broyard
  • The Sorbonne Affair by Mark Pryor
  • I'll See You in Paris by Michelle Gable
  • Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor
  • Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah
  • When in Rome by Liam Callanan
  • The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
  • The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
  • The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
  • Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
  • The House in the Pines by Ana  Reyes
  • Summer on Sag Harbor by Sunny Hostin
  • The Woman on the Bridge by Sheila O'Flanagan
  • Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
  • Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
  • Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict
  • Spare by Prince Harry
  • Chita by Chita Rivera
  • You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap) by Tammy Strobel
  • The Removes by Tatjana Soli
  • Stoneface by Stephen Kakfwi
  • The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
  • Verity by Colleen Hoover
  • Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly
  • Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly
  • There There by Tommy Orange
  • Small World by Laura Zigman
  • The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning
  • Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes
  • If a Poem Could Live and Breathe by Mary Calvi
  • The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn
  • Paris by Edward Rutherfurd
  • The Comforts of Home by Caroline Clifton-Mogg
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • Kaffe Fassett in the Studio by Kaffe Fassett
  • His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie
  • The Little Wartime Library by Kate          Thompson
  • Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
  • The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable
  • The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
  • In Royal Service to the Queen by Tessa Arlen
  • Valley of the Birdtail by Andrew Stobo Sniderman
  • I Love You, Send Money by Jordan M. Alexander
  • The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
  • Little Family by Ishmael Beah
  • Cottage by the Sea by Debbie Macomber
  • Riding the Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon
  • The Joy of Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free Baking by Peter Reinhart
  • A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
  • Naturally Sweet Baking by Carolin Strothe
  • If Not for You by Debbie Macomber
  • PlantYou by Carleigh Bodrug
  • Little Wishes by Michelle    Adams
  • A Russian Sister by Caroline Adderson
  • The Girl Next Door by Phoebe Morgan
  • Happy Homemade by Yoshiko Tsukiori
  • Lotta Jansdotter Everyday Style by Lotta Jansdotter
  • The Last Debutantes by Georgie Blalock
  • Dear Emma by Katie Heaney
  • Simple Healthy by Jean-François Mallet
  • Revenge by Tom Bower
  • Bakerita by Rachel Conners


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