My year in books

At the beginning of 2014 I told myself that I wanted to read 50 books through the year. It was a challenge to myself because I used to read all the time and at some point I started spending my time in different ways, but I still love a great book and I wanted to spend more time with those stories. Reading is especially important when you love to write, which I do, so that was another reason to pick up more great books.

I finished the year with 54 books read, some others that I started and stopped, and one that is currently on the go that will be number 1 on my list for 2015.

It was an interesting year in books because a friend added me to a book bingo group on Facebook. There is a bingo card with squares that have types of books to read – a book with a number in the title, a book with a non-human character – that changed the way I chose my reads in a delightful way.

I read more non-fiction than I usually would, which turned out to be a very good thing for me, and I highly recommend Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly. I also discovered that I really enjoy Stephen King’s books and that if I pick up a Mary Higgins Clark I likely won’t put it down again until I’m done. Also John Green will never write a book that I don’t read.

Below is my list of 54. I look forward to many more books this year and a new bingo card.

1. The Shining, Stephen King
2. Come, Thou Tortoise, Jessica Grant
3. Doctor Sleep, Stephen King
4. Daring Greatly, Brené Brown
5. The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days, Ian Frazier
6. Tooth and Nail, Ian Rankin
7. Reasons Mommy Drinks, Lyranda Martin-Evans and Fiona Stevenson
8. My Journey, Olivia Chow
9. Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
10. Serena, Ron Rash
11. A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
12. The Good Mother Myth, Avital Norman Nathman
13. Bones of the Lost, Kathy Reichs
14. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
15. The Amazing Thing About The Way It Goes, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
16. Wild, Cheryl Strayed
17. I Just Want To Pee Alone, Various authors
18. Paper Towns, John Green
19. Devil’s Knot, Mara Leveritt
20. Raising the Spirited Child, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
21. HIde and Seek, Ian Rankin
22. Show Your Work, Austin Kleon
23. Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman
24. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
25. Room, Emma Donoghue
26. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
27. Veronica Mars: The thousand dollar tan line, Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
28. The Dinner, Herman Koch
29. Growing Up Duggar, Jill, Jinger, Jessa and Jana Duggar
30. Nurtureshock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
31. Where are the Children?, Mary Higgins Clark
32. Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
33. Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth
34. The Blood of Innocents, Guy Freel
35. Landline, Rainbow Rowell
36. Life After Death, Damien Echols
37. Without You, Anthony Rapp
38. Us Conductors, Sean Michaels
39. It Only Takes a Moment, Mary Jane Clark
40. The Farm, Tom Rob Smith
41. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
42. The Moth, Various
43. When Day Breaks, Mary Jane Clark
44. This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
45. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
46. Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham
47. I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai
48. Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King
49. Yes Please, Amy Poehler
50. Dark Spell, Mara Leveritt
51. Shouldn’t you be in School? Lemony Snicket
52. The Look of Love, Mary Jane Clark
53. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King
54. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan