I did it, peeps! I read 52 books in eight months, four months ahead of schedule.
On January 1st, I made it my intention to choose reading over social media, Netflix and general farting around.
I am simultaneously chuffed and satiated, not the least because, simply put, I love reading soooo much (arms spread as wide and high as possible).
Over the past years, reading has taken a back seat to boring stuff like responsibility and adulting. Not that working full-time, taking care of fids, fur kids, a teen, and aging parents stopped me from purchasing books left, right and centre. Yes indeed, I have a serious literary habit.
Here is my book list so far. I don’t have a sophisticated rating system apart from like, love, and blech. Luckily, there was only one major blech so far. For the sake of brevity, I will only identify the blech and the absolute loves on this blog. Anything without a rating merits a “like”. I will re-post this list with any new additions at the end of the year.
(For those of you curious about the lone blech, I leave you with this video review. Click here.)
Books Read 2019
- The Little Paris Bookshop — Nina George
- I Know You Know — Gillian MacMillan
- Life After Life — Kate Atkinson LOVE
- Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert LOVE
- And Then She Was Gone — Lisa Jewell
- Bridge of Clay — Markus Zusak
- Grit — Angela Duckworth
- The Marrow Thieves — Cherie Dimalin
- To the River — Olivia Laing
- The Atomic Weight of Love — Elizabeth J. Church
- Siddhartha — Herman Hesse
- Lying in Wait — Liz Nugent
- Less — Andrew Sean Greer
- The Woo Woo — Lindsay Wong
- A Noise Downstairs — Linwood Barclay
- Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott
- The Organist — Mark Abley
- Homes — Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah with Winnie Young
- The Haunting of Hill House — Shirley Jackson
- Brother — David Chariandy
- The Best Kind of People — Zoe Whittall
- It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of War and Love — Lynsey Addario LOVE
- The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye — David Lagercrantz
- All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr LOVE
- Songs for the Cold of Heart — Eric Dupont
- By Chance Alone — Max Eisen LOVE
- Life’s too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious — David Dark
- Agatha Christie — The Mystery of Three Quarters
- The Travelling Cat Chronicles — Hiro Arikawa
- Case Histories — Kate Atkinson
- Gift from the Sea — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
- Under the Visible Life — Kim Echlin
- The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
- A Gentleman in Moscow — Amor Towles
- The Leopard — Jo Nesbo
- Gingerbread — Helen Oyeyemi BLECH
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine — Gail Honeyman LOVE
- The Moon Before Morning — W.S. Merwin LOVE
- The Word Is Murder — Anthony Horowitz
- My Brilliant Friend — Elena Ferrante
- The Wild Edge of Sorrow — Francis Weller LOVE
- Warlight — Michael Ondaatje LOVE
- Flash Count Diary; Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life — Darcey Steinke
- Natural Causes — Barbara Ehrenreich LOVE
- Voices in the Air (poems for listeners) — Naomi Shihab Nye LOVE
- The Blue Between Sky and Water — Susan Abulhawa
- One Good Turn — Kate Atkinson
- When Will There Be Good News? — Kate Atkinson
- Grief is the Thing with Feathers — Max Porter LOVE
- Bird Therapy — Joe Harkness
- Lanny — Max Porter
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz — Heather Morris
And there you have it, folks. Do feel free to comment about your love of reading below and include any books you are currently reading or ones you recommend I put on my to-read list. The best part of this whole experience has been in the virtual sharing of books, truly an inspiring exchange.
Finally, believe it or not, I am still in search of a real-time book club to join! Nothing like drooling over books with like-minded people.
I love your passion for books! The video of the book you hated was actually very funny….a pretty far fetched \”plot\”…lol
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Thank you for supporting my habit! Xo
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50 books YTD is something. Great list. If you haven't read \”Educated\” by Sara Westover, I would highly recommend it.
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Thanks, David! Educated is sitting in one of my \”to-read\” piles. I'm looking forward to it! Just started Song of Achilleshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11250317-the-song-of-achilles
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