2019 Reading List

For those still curious about my reading habit, and for my own tracking and interest.  Now that my year of Marathon reading is over I'm not going to keep counting but I am going to keep track just for my interest's sake.  I'm also allowing myself to pursue a series when I feel like it rather than maintaining the "now for something completely different" criteria.

(Updated Oct 12, 2019)

The House of Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros (Jan 4 - 11)
The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum (Jan 7 - 12)
Mistborn: The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson (Jan 12 - 26)
Mistborn: The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson (Jan 26 - Feb 1)
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson (Feb 1 - 7)
Games Wizards Play - Diane Duane (Feb 11 - 17)
Interim Erranty - Diane Duane (Feb 17 - put down for the moment)
New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson (Feb 18 - March 10)
Wicked - Gregory Maguire (March 10 - March 21)
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimon (March 21 - April 8)
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (March 25 - April 2)
Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly (April 3 - 11)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (April 11 - 21)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (April 22 - 30)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (April 30 - May 7)
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (May 7 - 17)
Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee (May 19 - 24)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith (May 24 - June 7)
In Calabria - Peter S. Beagle (June 9 - 11)
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (June 11 - 20)
Lessons from Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog - Dave Barry (June 21 - 25)
Turtles All the Way Down - John Green (June 25 - 28)
The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapowski (June 28 - July 3)
Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan (July 3 - 10)
Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones (July 12 - 18)
Sword of Destiny - Andrzej Sapowski (July 12 - 21)
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (July 22 - Aug 5)
Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapowski (July 21 - Aug 5)
Mary Poppins - PL Travers (Aug 6 - 8)
Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng (Aug 12 - 16)
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K Le Guin (Aug 19 - 22)
Inferno - Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle (Aug 26 - 29)
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (Sept 4 - 24)
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (Sept 25 - 26)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (Sept 26 - 27)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows (Sept 30 - Oct 7)
My Man Jeeves - PG Wodehouse (Oct 3 - 9)
A Fair Maiden - Joyce Carol Oates (Oct 9 - 11)
The Grownup - Gillian Flynn (Oct 11 - 12)
Brokeback Mountain - Annie Proulx (Oct 13 - 13)
Slade House - David Mitchell (Oct 14 - 15)
The Left Hand of Darkness (Oct 16 - 21)
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Stephen King (Oct 21 - 24)
The Emperor's Soul - Brandon Sanderson (Oct 24 - 28)
The Art of War - Sun Tzu (Oct 28 - 30)
The Hidden Power of F*cking Up - The Try Guys (Oct 30 - Nov 5)
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good - Helene Tursten (Nov 5 - 7)
Time of Contempt - Andrzej Sapowski (August 7 - Nov 9)
Storm Front - Jim Butcher (Nov 7 - in progress...)

A Year of Reading

On January 1st, on the plane back from visiting family for the holidays, I finished my 37th book of the year (I'm willing to give myself credit for that last one in spite of technically finishing it in 2019, largely because I know I didn't start my first book until a few days or so into 2018--so ultimately the "year" is still in tact).  For those interested in the literary content of my year, I have kept track of my reading and dates in a previous post.

This is the first New Year's Resolution I have ever kept in my life.  The confidence boost I got from being in a state of constantly meeting and exceeding my goal provided the impetus for a lot of other small, but meaningful, changes and good habits in my life this year.

In addition to that, I experienced a lot of literature that I just never would have otherwise in the normal stream of my life.  I'd pull out The Poisonwood Bible and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as pieces that definitely put me into really interesting shoes that I couldn't possibly experience on my own.

I also learned to drop things I just wasn't feeling.  After I slogged through The Fountainhead, that was a jumping off point for forgiving myself for abandoning Catch 22 and A Brief History of Time.

What's next?  I'll probably keep reading at a similar pace, maybe even get into some of the series I sampled this past year, but I'll stop tracking the books.  Maybe.