Hello again! Here we go with my second post in 2017...yay! :) I thought today would be a good time to talk about reading goals and plans for this year. While I really love to read, I'll admit that lately I have done a lot more book "collecting" than actual reading. (cough*thriftbooks*cough) Well, I DO read a lot with the kids...our Sonlight curriculum is centered around reading, so if you count that, I have read quite a few books over the past year. But I didn't keep track of my own personal reading, and felt like I didn't end up consuming nearly as many books as I'd have liked. I did have a really bad cold/flu in the summer and zipped through probably half a dozen books during those 2 or so weeks that I was out of commission...but I don't have the time to binge-read like that very often!
Anyway, on to some thoughts about books and goals. First of all, I'm setting myself a pretty manageable goal of reading two books a month. I feel like I could end up reading more than that, but I wanted to keep my goal moderate so I wouldn't feel overwhelmed by it. For January, my two books are:
- Made for More, by Hannah Anderson
- How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, by Dana White
I am really enjoying both of these. I received Made for More for Christmas (along with Hannah's other book, Humble Roots), and I was able to snag How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind when it was on sale for Kindle early last week, for $1.99. Love it when I can get something that's already on my wishlist for a super deal, and having it on Kindle is great because it doesn't add another book to our already full-to-bursting shelves. Win-win!
As I've been thinking about reading goals for the year as a whole, I had considered following along with the reading challenge from Modern Mrs. Darcy, but now I think I've decided to do my own thing and read what I'm in the mood for...although just for fun, I'm going to see what might overlap with some of the categories on the reading challenge list. Who knows, I might just end up reading a lot of things that qualify, anyway!
Two areas that I want to really focus in on this year in my book choices are "home" and "education." So while I'll read just for fun too, I want to make sure to include books in each of these themes. This month's "home" choice is obvious :), but some of the others I want to read through the year are The Life Giving Home, Keeping House: the Litany of Everyday Life, I Used to Be So Organized, and Heart and Home. In the theme of education, I haven't looked over all of what I already own yet, but I know for sure that Teaching From Rest and For the Children's Sake will be on this list.
I've also been thinking lately of how much I enjoy re-reading old favorite books, but you know...there are SO MANY new books (i.e. books that I've bought, but not read), that sometimes I feel guilty taking time to read something that I've already read multiple times. However...I've decided I'm going to banish that guilty feeling and hang out with some of those "old friends" again. I've been seeing this idea of finding a "literary mentor" floating around in a couple of the bookish Facebook groups I'm in, and yesterday someone mentioned how they had taken a year and read through a bunch of LM Montgomery's books. Perfect!!! This resonated with me and I've decided to add my LMM favorites to my list for the year. I'm not setting a specific goal of how many I want to read through, but I definitely want to revisit all of the Anne series, the Pat of Silver Bush series, Jane of Lantern Hill, and The Blue Castle. I think I may read Jane to the kids, but the others will all just be personal reads for me to enjoy by myself. I'd also like to get a biography of LMM and read that as part of my "Year of Montgomery."
Aside from the biography, I already own all of the books mentioned above, so I don't anticipate having to spend a bunch of money to fuel my reading habit this year. Plus there's always the library...and freebies/cheapies on Kindle! So here's to a wonderful year of "improving my mind by extensive reading" (to loosely quote Mr. Darcy). Every day that I can (and when I'm not taking that time to write a blog post :)), I hope to grab a cup of tea and read for twenty minutes.
What are you all reading these days? Any reading plans for 2017?
1 comment:
Your plans look great, Carrie. I am currently "re-visiting" Mitford. Just finished the first book. I find that it's a blessing to me to revisit old friends as you mentioned. I basically only read in bed at night -- but I am also trying to spend a few minutes reading during the day. Your "20 minutes with a cup of tea" idea sounds good to me. For non-fiction, I'm currently reading The Life-Giving Home, and I have several other non-fiction books I've dipped into but have not finished.
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