Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Read Much, Read Well

I read at least 30 books during this past year. That's pretty good! But I can do better. It helps that one of the classes I took had an extensive reading list. I'm going to make a goal to read more books this year and to read better books. I typically read for escape. That is all fine and well, but that gets tiring after a while, like too much candy. So I'm going to throw in a few literary vegetables every once in a while: something non-fiction, a classic or two. I'm also going to occasionally try out something I wouldn't typically read; maybe I'll try some urban fiction. (Probably not.) Or some murder mysteries, which I never read. I don't know why. Lots of people love them. Anyway, here's a list of my 2012 reads. Not very extensive, and there's a lot of "candy" in there. Still it wasn't a bad year for reading:


  • The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (actually haven't quite finished this one. So maybe this shouldn't count.)
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age by Dale Carnegie
  • A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
  • Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
  • The Ramos Brothers Trust Castro and Kennedy by Roger DeBlanck
  • Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
  • A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
  • The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
  • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
  • Follow the River by James Alexander Thom
  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman
  • The Shadows of Ghadames by Joelle Stolz
  • The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
  • Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald
  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
  • Herbert's Wormhole: The Rise and Fall of El Solo Libre by Peter Nelson and Rhoitash Rao
  • Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey
  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
  • A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin
  • The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
  • Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
  • Borrowed Light by Carla Kelly
  • The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Jane by April Lindner
  • The Maze Runner by James Dashner

So. What was your favorite book you read last year?

7 comments:

Ashley said...

I really enjoyed the following:

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
and I'm in the middle of The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

I'm totally obsessed with Classic fiction. Especially Edgar Rice Burroughs, his stories roll along at a quick pace easily taking you with them. :)

Ashley

drummermlw said...

I read a non-fiction book called Freedom at Midnight that I would recommend. It follows the story of India and her influential leaders (including Gandhi) at the time of the British withdrawal and the creation of Pakistan. It's one of those enjoyable histories that's written like a novel.

In fiction, I read and enjoyed the The Thief series (Christina has probably recommended them to you!), and The Mysterious Benedict Society The Thief books are smart and fun with good surprises. The Mysterious Benedict books are full of cleverness and puzzles and fun dialogue.

drummermlw said...

How was the Carnegie book? I've never read any of those, but I always wondered if they are worth reading. In the past, the seemingly cold titles have kept me at arm's length.

Erin M. said...

I didn't read all of the book, but the parts I did read made some excellent points about how we build our online personas--especially since social networking is a huge percentage of our person-to-person interaction anymore. It really focused on being positive, which I liked. It's really made me more aware of how sarcasm, though funny at times, can be a really ineffective way to influence people for the better.

And yes, the Queen's Thief series is amazing. I actually recommended it to Christina, believe it or not!

drummermlw said...

I should have guessed that she heard about the Queen's Thief from you!

Amanda, Curtis, Ellis, Hugh, Rhys, Graham, Sylvia said...

Wished it had worked out for you to come up last week, but I'm sure you had a good new year celebration just the two of you!

I had a lot of favorite reads from last year, but here are a few that stick out.

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen

Hidden on the Mountain: Stories of Children Sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland Desaix

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Andrea Warren

Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas by Molly Bang
Years of Dust by Albert Marrin

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book III: The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence, Book 1 of the Western Mysteries Series

Unknown said...

lovely list! i'm glad to know i read some of the same books you did :) i'm with you on the resolution to read more vegetable books. i've definitely read more outside my norm this past year thanks to my book club. for some great non-fiction i recommend erik larson. good stuff. happy new year of reading!

Transition

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