In Which I Talk More About Books {surprise, surprise} aka My Reading Plan for 2019 ~

amyofhearthridge

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I will eventually get back to writing here, hopefully, at Hearth Ridge Reflections. I miss just talking of our days and the beauty found in the little moments of life.  I will stop just blathering constantly about books and quotes. 😉 Well, maybe not. Ha. Anyway, I decided to make my own bookish challenge for myself this year. In previous years, I’ve enjoyed the Back to Classics challenge, but I decided to take a break from that. I have so many books that I’ve read a little in or have been meaning to get to at some point. I think that I’m finally ready to challenge myself with a book list. I tend to be an “emotional” reader, choosing based on how I feel, so it will be interesting to see how I do with a predetermined list. I gave myself a pretty broad range of things to choose from except I noticed there isn’t any fantasy and not a lot of modern titles. I’m sure I’ll pick some of those up from my shelf or the public library. I list these here just to nudge myself in a couple of ways: 1. read my own shelf. I’m blessed with a nice sized home library after collecting at charity shops, yard sales, used book stores, and online over the years. I have not read all of them. Ha. 2. finish things you begin. If I don’t finish all of these, or if I read other books, that’s just fine, I just want to give these a bit more priority in my 2019 reading time.

  1. Middlemarch by George Elliot
  2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  3. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dilliard
  4. Home Education by Charlotte Mason (trying to make this an annual reread)
  5. Hints on Child-Training by  H. Clay Trumbull
  6. Persuasion by Jane Austen (reread)
  7. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (reread)
  8. Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge (reread)
  9. Island Magic by Elizabeth Goudge
  10. Make-Believe by Elizabeth Goudge
  11. Stillmeadow Road by Gladys Taber
  12. Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery
  13. Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery
  14. Gerald Manley Hopkin’s poetry book
  15. Joy of Snow by Elizabeth Goudge
  16. The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith
  17. So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger
  18. Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
  19. Springtime in Britian by Edwin Way Teale
  20. On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
  21. The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer
  22. Larkrise to Candleford Trilogy by Emma Thompson
  23. The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (reread)
  24. The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
  25. The Art of Eating omnibus by M.F.K. Fisher
  26. Babette’s Feast and Other Stories by Isak Dinesan
  27. A Walk Around the Lakes by Hunter Davies
  28. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
  29. Three Squares by Abigail Carroll
  30. Ruth Bell Graham’s Collected Poems

I own all of these books with the exception of Island Magic by Goudge, a poetry book by Hopkin’s, and Virgil Wander by Enger. I will be getting them through the library, as part of my personal challenge is to stop buying personal books for myself for a bit. I still will purchased gifts or books for my children’s education, but for me, I’m pulling on the reins. I’m still going to keep track of what I read here at the end of each month and again, I hope to give these priority. Many of these, I’m well into already, or at least started. I noticed that I have some thicker non-fiction, but a good selection of beautiful, old fiction as well. I also included all five of my favorite authors! Can you guess who they are? 😉 What do you think? Is this doable for this year? What are your reading goals?

Happy 10th Day of Christmas and Happy Reading!

~

 

28 thoughts on “In Which I Talk More About Books {surprise, surprise} aka My Reading Plan for 2019 ~”

  1. I think it is doable, and I noticed that your favorite authors are there.

    I too want to read more from my shelves, and I also think I am an emotional reader, and a social reader, lol. It’s a lovely list, catered to your own goals. I see old friends in it. Like you also, I will be reading poetry. Sherry has taught me to love it, and I love reading it. That and some spiritual or christian reading, and non fiction.

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    1. Thanks, Silvia! 🙂 That’s a good point about you being a social reader. I don’t think I’m that as much, but I think that can be a fun way to go about it and also a motivator, if I’m reading along or in a book club. ❤

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  3. I see some old acquaintances and quality reads I need to read. Middle march keeps pecking away at me wherever I go as a need to read. Silas Marner proved a meritable read but Middlemarch seems so daunting…

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  4. I think your list looks wonderful! You have two massive chunksters on there, Middlemarch and Les Miserables, but with dedication they could be managed in one year. The goal of reading from my own shelves is one I share, I have too many books that I don’t even look at because I’ve had them for so long. They deserve better.

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    1. Hi Lory – thanks for commenting! I’m 100 or so pages into Middlemarch and 400? into Les Miserables so that helps…but yeah…those are going to be difficult. I just rifled through ONE of my shelves and was a bit ashamed by all the lovely stories left there to gather dust. The perils of being a bibliophile, right?

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  5. Hello Amy! If anything gets me to crawl out of the woodwork to comment- it is book goals. AND, of course, that amazing news in your newsletter that floored me about you being pregnant. We read the Christmas letters aloud at the table and when that was read I said “Wait….WHAT?!? Read that again!” I couldn’t believe it! Had you mentioned it before on your blog or anything? I can’t believe how far along you are too! You are an exceptional secret keeper. Either that or I am a LOSER friend. (Please tell me it is the former!)
    All of this babbling belongs in a real bonafide letter which I vowed to write as soon as all the Christmas stuff was done and over with (it isn’t- tomorrow we host our last shin-dig here so today is cooking/baking day. And the oven is currently baking bread so all other baking projects must wait- which means I get a chance to sit down for a minute!) but then I read your comment and had to comment on the books and it all just kinda spilled out.

    All this to say- CONGRATULATIONS! I need some serious details, girl! I am so happy for you!

    Now. BOOKS! I like your goals and I like your list and I love that you are going to keep up on the end of the month “What you are Reading” posts. I always love them. I have a similar goal to yours- I have a bunch of canon press/ Doug Wilson books on our shelves that we have accumulated over the years and all of them are such GOLD but I haven’t read them in so long, one of my goals is to read off my shelf ONE Doug Wilson book a month.

    And there are many books on your list that I would like to read this year too. Virgil Wanderer— good thing we aren’t in the same library system! 🙂

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  6. Yes – so many books! Just sitting on my own shelves! Ha 🙂 This is the year to read a few of them. And to get acquainted with some new authors. Love your list…and Middlemarch seems intimidating. But I’ve heard it’s a great one!

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    1. It is!!!! (great, and it was intimidating to me too, but then I found it not intimidating at all)… boy, the classics are so fabulous, and while all seem intimidating, -specially the long ones-, most end up being truly ‘easy’ to read. Granted that everything XIX century or older usually requires our undivided attention, and at times, with our media distractions, that’s a challenge.

      But I’m suspecting that maybe all the great things somehow repeat or appear in all these wonderful classics, so, as long as we get to a few good books, -and specially a few long ones, for long novels have added gifts to the reader, it’s just a blessing.

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  7. A list. Wow. I’m not sure I could be anything like that disciplined. I usually start several books after finishing one and often keep going with two or three before one or other becomes my focus. Then I may pick up one of the others again, or start two or three more. It means I have a lot of half read books lying around. There are several books on your list which I own, but haven’t yet read, five I think. I haven’t come across Springtime in Britain or Edwin Way Teale before, so I shall be on the look out for that now. Enjoy your reading.

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    1. Mark, you may like A Walk around the Lakes as well by Hunter Davies – that’s in your neck of the woods! 😀 I actually read very much like you described so this is a new-ish idea for me…I really like Springtime in Britain and can’t wait to finish it. I’m actually sketching a little map as I read it.

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      1. I have a ‘Walk Around the Lakes’ somewhere and I’m going to read it just as soon as I’ve finished ‘The Complete Saki’ and a book about Apples and, ironically, a book about idleness and …you get the idea.
        I’ve been meaning to read Middlemarch for ages. Likewise the Jane Austen novels – I’ve read P&P and S&S and I thought they were both hilarious. I would have already read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but I started it and put it down somewhere ages ago and now….who knows where it is? I did that with a Lawrence Durrell book, very annoying. Then there are numerous books I’ve borrowed, which look at me particularly severely when I pass them over again in my ‘to read’ pile. It’s a complicated business!

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      2. Oh yes. So complicated, I agree! Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has some lovely lines, but I confess sometimes she’s a bit TOO stream of consciousness, or something. She’s not easy to read. I also agree that P&P is hilarious…the movies make it so about “romance” and that’s a disservice. It’s much more humor and sarcasm about society etc. 🙂

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  10. I, too, decided to do my own personal reading challenge this year. I talk about it on my blog here:
    https://thesimplyblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/reading-goals-for-2019/

    I’d love to know what you think of Virgil Wander. I really liked Peace Like a River and have been considering reading his new one. Les Miserables is also on my TBR list. I have been thinking about tackling that this year. Maybe once I finish Don Quixote…….Although, I have to try and read Anna Karenina for my IRL bookclub so I may not get to Les Mis this year.

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