2020's books: A goal exceeded!

My goal for 2020 was to read 24 books... two per month... and I was able to do better than that! I read 31 books in 2020. HURRAY ME!! I am actually pretty proud of myself for the number of books I read in 2020. A global pandemic certainly changed a lot of things about our lives in 2020, but despite that, I was able to read more than the goal I had set for myself! 

My full list of books in 2020:

Wuthering Heights*

There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather

The Heretics Daughter*

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology*

The Giver of Stars*

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society*

Everyday Holy

The Greatest Generation

Homebody

Breakshot: My First 21 Years

Whiskey in a Teacup

Rhythms of Renewal

Boy Mom

Christy

The Hideaway*

One Perfect Summer*

Open Book*

American Dirt*

American Royals

Miss Mayhem

Sanditon

In Cold Blood*

They Came for Freedom

Americanah*

Lady Renegades

The Distant Hours

Parenting

The Dyslexic Advantage

Royal Holiday

The Great Alone

One Day in December*

*=books I read with Chapters

Actual books read per year for the last decade:
2011 = 31
2012 = 27
2013 = 23
2014 = 24
2015 = 12
2016 = 24
2017 = 18
2018 = 23
2019 = 22
2020 = 31

My goal for 2021 is 36 books. That's 3 per month. Fingers crossed!

2019's books plus a review of nearly a decade

One of my goals for 2020 is to blog more. Another goal is to read more. In trying to get organized for a year involving more of both, I got to thinking about how well (or not well) I've have done at these recently. Blogging and Reading are two of my favorite hobbies and yet, life has gotten so full that I've not been able to find the time to make either a priority in the last three or so years. That is almost painful to type because it feels like I've let someone or something down. That I've not held up my end of a bargain or something. Though in reality, it's only myself that I've let down.

So, in the process of getting organized to start towards these goals, I got to looking back at the last (nearly) decade and decided to track the history of my reading progress/achievement here.

Actual books read per year:
2011 = 31
2012 = 27
2013 = 23
2014 = 24
2015 = 12
2016 = 24
2017 = 18
2018 = 23
2019 = 22

2020 Goal = 24

My blogging goal is the same. 24 posts over the course of 2020.

What goals do you have for 2020?

Cute Pic Post -- February 2019

February 2019 was filled with lots of sleeping and wrestling, apparently. Plus a little bit of Valentines and Braces thrown in for good measure.

An old fashioned walkman for the win!

My friend Monek' starts her cookie biz.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable place to lay!

The birthday gift that keeps on giving.

2015's books

It used to be that I would set a goal of reading one more book a year than I had read the previous year. But now, since adding kids to my life, my reading number keeps going down! This year was a new low for me and it's something I feel a bit ashamed of, actually. I'm not a fan of writing this post because the small number of books I read hits me in a place I don't like, so it's taken me awhile. But because it's important to me to have this recorded somewhere, I'm writing it.

2014: 24
2013: 23
2012: 26
2011: 29

2014 was a good year for me. I ran the 5k, I lost a bunch of the baby weight, I did a lot of reading. And now I have even more baby weight to lose and I only ready a handful of books in 2015.

*For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards
Primates of Park Avenue
*Her Daughter's Dream
*Her Mother's Hope
*Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents
*Steve Jobs
*The Astronaut Wives Club
*The Kitchen House
*Same Kind of Different as Me
*The Red Tent
*Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
*Anne of Green Gables, complete series

*Chapters books. This means that only one other book was read and that KILLS me. I intend for this to be a blip and not a trend. Please help keep me accountable to that. I loved For the Love, Primates, The Kitchen House, and all the Anne books. I hadn't read them all before so this was nice for me. Thanks to Cyndi for lending me Primates... I couldn't put it down!

Anyone have a book I should add to the list for 2016?

2014's books

For the longest time, my goal was to out-do myself each year in terms of reading. I wanted to read one more book than the year previous. Well, since having kids, that's gone totally out the window! And in fact, the goal I'm setting for 2015 is half of what I accomplished in 2014--I'd rather find myself with more time to read than less! This past year, I read 24 books. I am satisfied with that number (but of course wish I could read more!) because it's about double what Chapters reads in a given year which means I'm not only participating with my book club, but reading about one extra book a month which means I'm reading the other ones I want to read too.

A summary of the past several years is:
2013 = 23 books
2012 = 26 books
2011 = 29 books

Here is the list of books I read in 2014
The Whole-Brain Child; Daniel Siegel
*Unbroken; Laura Hillenbrand   (top5!)
A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet; Sophie Hudson
The Marriage You've Always Wanted; Gary Chapman
*The Sisters; Nancy Jensen
The Antelope in the Living Room; Melanie Shankle
*Mrs. Kennedy and Me; Clint Hill
Historical Atlas of Russia; John Channon
*One Thousand Gifts; Ann Voskamp
*And Then There Were None; Agatha Christie
Dad is Fat; Jim Gaffigan
Sex and the Supremacy of Christ; John Piper
*Wild; Cheryl Strayed
*The Fault in Our Stars; John Green
*Bread & Wine; Shauna Niequist   (top5!)
Persecuted; Robin Parrish
Wherever the River Runs; Kelly Minter   (top5!)
*The American Heiress; Daisy Goodwin
Gone Girl; Gillian Flynn
People I Want to Punch in the Throat; Jen Mann
*Daring Greatly; Brene Brown
*All Joy and No Fun; Jennifer Senior   (top5!)
The Male Brain; Louann Brizendine
Interrupted; Jen Hatmaker   (top5!)
And technically I've read the first two books of the Anne of Green Gables series because I've finished those already, but they'll go on next year's list because they're to be finished by January's book club meeting.

Books with an * are ones I read with Chapters, my book club of 5+ years! I've written "(top5!)" after the ones I think are the top 5 best books I read last year. I would recommend nearly all of the books I read, though not exactly all, so ask if you're looking for an opinion on a certain book.

Note: I keep track of all of this via Goodreads. If you read a lot and don't use this site/app yet, start doing it now!

Do you have a reading/book goal for 2015? Can we help hold each other accountable?

2013's Books

You know what adding a second kid to the family does to your reading? Chops it, people, simply chops it. I used to have a goal of reading one more book per year than the previous year, but that's pretty much impossible now. I've been keeping track of my books since about 2010 when I began using Goodreads (If you like to read, you have to use this site! It's SO helpful for tracking things!), and my reading has gone down, not up. Boo. But I just keep reminding myself that it's a season. All of life is a season.

Anyways, I read 28 books in 2011, and 26 books in 2012 and just 23 books in 2013!

Here is my list of 2013 books:
*Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed; Glennon Melton
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible; A. J. Jacobs
MWF Seeking BFF: My yearlong Search for a New Best Friend; Rachel Bertsche
Live, Love, Laugh, and Laundry?; Terri Bonin
Beyond Ordinary: When a Good Marriage Just Isn't Good Enough; Justin Davis
*The Secret Keeper; Kate Morton
Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load; Jen Hatmaker
*Anna Karenina; Leo Tolstoy
Farewell, Rob Bell: A Biblical Response to Love Wins; Larry Dixon
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking; Susan Cain
*Shepherding a Child's Heart; Tedd Tripp
Raising Godly Tomatoes; Elizabeth Krueger
Read the Bible for Life: Your Guide to Understanding and Living God's Word; George Guthrie
*Pollyanna; Eleanore Porter
The Pollyanna Plan; Talli Roland
Pollyanna Grows Up; Eleanore Porter
*SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bobers Should Buy Life Insurance; Steven Levitt
*Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith; Jon Krakauer
The Well-Lived Laugh: Designing a Life That Keeps You Smiling; Rachel St. John-Gilbert
Sh*t My Dad Says; Justin Halpern
*Life of Pi; Yann Martel
Bebe By Day; Pamela Druckerman
*Sparkly Green Earrings; Melanie Shankle

My favorites (of various categories or reasons) are MWF Seeking BFF, The Secret Keeper (you were right, Ashley!), Quiet, Raising Godly Tomatoes (you were right, Lisa!), and Sparkly Green Earrings.

What did you read this year that you loved?

*= Books I read with Chapters, my book club of over 4 years.

To compare this list with 2012, click HERE.
To compare this list with 2011, click HERE.

2012's books

In looking back at 2012, I feel like I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked. And in compiling this year's book list (26), I found it shorter than last years' list (29), so that confirms that feeling. (And I had really hoped to read at least 30 books this year; I wanted to do more, not less.) Nonetheless, since I always get asked about book recommendations, here's the list of books I read in 2012:

How to be a Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships  John Townsend
*Heaven is For Real  Todd Burpo

*The Front Porch Prophet  Raymond Atkins

*The Hunger Games (#1)  Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire (#2)  Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay (#3)  Suzanne Collins

*The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  Rebecca Skloot

*7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess  Jen Hatmaker

*A Voice in the Wind (Mark of the Lion Series, #1)  Francine Rivers
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Stay-at-Home Moms  Jack Canfield
Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith  Jen Hatmaker

*An Echo in the Darkness (#2)  Francine Rivers
On Becoming Toddlerwise: From First Steps to Potty Training  Gary Ezzo

*As Sure As the Dawn (#3)  Francine Rivers
Bossypants  Tina Fey
Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus  Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to say No, to Take Control of Your life  Henry Cloud

*Uncle Tom’s Cabin  Harriet Beecher Stowe

*Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother  Amy Chua

*Bringing Up Bebe  Pamela Druckerman

*The Light Between Oceans  M. L. Stedman

Her Ladyship's Guide to Modern Manners  Lucy Gray
*From Ruby Ridge to Freedom  Sara Weaver
Bah, Humbug!  Heather Horrocks  
The Last Noel  Michael Malone
From Notting Hill with Love... Actually  Ali McNamara

My favorites from 2012 are: How to be a Best Friend, 7, Bossypants, Boundaries, Battle Hymn, Bringing up Bebe, and From Notting Hill.

The best thing I learned about this year is that Barnes and Noble offers a free book every Friday for the Nook. I have the Nook app on my phone and our new iPad mini, so I got the last two books that way. I signed up to the follow the blog so I get notification each week (you could also just set a reminder to look for it each Friday). I then did a search on Amazon for free books for the Kindle app (which I also have on my phone and the iPad) and came across the Bah, Humbug! novella. I very much enjoyed those last three books and given that they were free makes them even better!

What's your favorite book you read in 2012? Any other neat tips to share (free books and the like)?

*books: Books I read with Chapters, my book club of the last 3.5 years.