2015 – A Year in Books

So, for the past few years I have been trying to set up a list of books and read through them in a year.  I’ve set a pretty unambitious goal of 24 books a year and yet, I have yet to meet my goal.  I may read 24 books, but they are never all of the ones on my list.  2015 was no different.

Here is the post detailing my book reading goals.  I did pretty good in the beginning, but then life happened.  We bought a house and farm that needs a LOT of work.  I was accepted into two book launch teams.  We spent the summer with family and friends with all our possessions in storage (still).  And I got a job!

Here’s what I finished from my list:

Has Christianity Failed You? byRavi Zacharias

Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker (alast minute substitution for 7 by Jen Hatmaker)

A Scandal in Bohemia (SherlockHolmes) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Here are the books I started, but didn’t finish:

Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton

The Making of an Ordinary Saint by Nathan Foster

The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung*

And here are the ones I read that weren’t on my list:

For the Love by Jen Hatmaker

What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey

Out of Sorts by Sarah Bessey

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

And a few other fiction books that were just quick, fun reads

All in all, not a great outing, but at least I kept reading.  Toward the end of the year, things just got nuts and I didn’t get to do nearly as much as I had hoped.  I’ll be posting my new list soon.  I’m leaving several open spots this year, at least at the beginning of the year.  I hope to have them filled by March with either recommendations from others or just wait and see what comes along my path.

*I started The Hole in Our Holiness and didn't finish, but it wasn't on my original list.

August Books?

Anyone who has followed be for very long, knows my love of books.  And lists.  So it totally makes sense for me to make a list of books that I want to read for the year, right?  So I did.  And I did really well, for a few months.  But I am so sad to say that I have pretty much abandoned my list.

I've still been reading some, but I haven't followed much of my list for several months.  I've actually had several books cross my path that I had to read, such as For The Love by Jen Hatmaker.  But I've also had a couple cross my path that I just needed to read, like Kevin Yancey's What's so Amazing About Grace?  Both were amazing and I would highly recommend them.

Last month I came across The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung.  I started it immediately.  I am just beginning it (and haven't made enough time for it), but I love it.  I think I am on quite a personal journey exploring righteousness, holiness, and grace and the inner-working of all those things together.

Even with my major deviation from my list, I'm not chucking it out just yet.  Perhaps I'll return to it at some point this year.  I'm not ready to call it a failure, just yet.  I have to remember that the point of my list is to keep me reading.  My goal was 24 books this year.  This doesn't seem overly ambitious to me.  I have friends that will read double that by year end.  I just want to make sure that I am continuing to feed my mind and being challenged.

So, what are you reading?  What has caught your eye this year?

Oh, My Books...

Does anyone else make book lists for the year?  One of my favorite bloggers clued me in to this.  I started in 2014 and made an incredible ambitious list that included several classics, such as Plato's Republic and Jane Eyre, as well as several books that I guess can best be described as theological?

I'm very sad to say that I only read 4 of my 24 books*.  That's not to say that I only read 4 books in 2014 (perish the thought!), but of all the books I read, only 4 were on my list.  I posted about the first one I completed.  I was pretty excited.  If only I had carried that through the rest of the list!

In any event, I have made my list for 2015.  I really want to do better this year.  I decided to split it up, thusly (yeah, I said it).  I figure I can realistically probably ready 2 books a month (with the books that I have chosen).  So, I picked 11 works of literature and 11 non-fiction (theological-ish) books.  That way I can read one fiction and one nonfiction book a month, when I tire of one, I can switch to the other.  I'm also leaving two slots open for new books that catch my fancy.  (8 days into the year and it's already happened)

Now, one of the books is on the subject of Spiritual Discipline, of which there are 12.  So, I decided to focus on one discipline a month (more on that in future posts).  This means that I will be reading one book over the course of the year, one chapter a month (this will also teach me the discipline of patience because I can't imagine taking a year to complete a book).

And without further ado, here's my list:

  1. Has Christianity Failed You? by Ravi Zacharias
  2. Emma by Jane Austen

  3. Housewife Theologian by Aimee Byrd
  4.  The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe

  5. The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight
  6. Jane Eyre by Emily Bronte

  7. The Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore
  8. Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (haven't decided which story yet)

  9. Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure
10. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

11.  Three Free Sins by Scott Brown
12.  A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare

13.  Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton
14.  Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

15.  Restless by Jennie Allen

16.  Faith Unraveled by Rachel Held Evans
17.  Walden by Henry David Thoreau

18.  Crazy Love by Francis Chan
19.  Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider

20.  Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker (this has already changed from 7 also by Jen Hatmaker)
21.  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

22.  The Making of an Ordinary Saint by Nathan Foster -  this is the book I will read over the course of the year.

Some of these are new to me and some are classics that I love and can't wait to re-read.  Some are books that I've picked up and started to read and didn't get through (rare, but it happens).  It's not an overly ambitious list, that's for sure, but I wanted to be realistic and leave room open for any new books that might come my way.

If you have read any of these, let me know what you thought.  Or if you have a book list, please share it.

*The books from my list that I actually finished for 2014 are:  Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist, A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans, Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel, and Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey