What a Wonderful Book Year it Was

Well, I’m a tad embarrassed. I exceeded my reading goal by a wide margin; not because I meant to, but because I got the numbers wrong. 

You see, I thought I’d given myself the goal of 40 books, so to have read 43 was over, but nothing spectacular. I just went to check my booklist post from January, and found that I’d only committed to THIRTY books, not forty. Wow. How lame am I? 

So, yes, I read 43 books this year; some new to me authors, some old favorites, and a couple “Several days of my life I will never get back” books. 

I find I adore Gene Stratton-Porter; I’d read “Laddie: A True Blue Story” for the second time, and was asked if I’d ever read “The Girl of the Limberlost”; I said I hadn’t, and was encouraged to do so--thank you Anne! I devoured it, and moved on to four more GSP books in than six weeks. Wow.

Courage, compassion, honor, integrity, endurance, love, tenderness; all this and more are embodied in her novels, at least these six that I read.

I highly, highly recommend them. 

This was my first experience reading any Kipling; I think I’d tried once before and was not impressed and put the book away. I decided this year, that I knew “The Jungle Book” (you know, because of Disney, we know the Jungle Book, right?), and decided to give it a try. Boy was I surprised. What Disney gave us was a FRACTION of the story, and there are several OTHER stories that I had no idea were from “The Jungle Book”. I loved it, and will not ever trust Disney again to give me the whole story.

That being said, I loved it enough to go on to read “Captains Courageous” also by Kipling; I can’t say that I LOVED this book, but I can say that I have a greater appreciation for Kipling and I love the WAY he writes; I will be adding “Kim” to my reading list soon, maybe not this year, but soon.One that didn’t make the list, because I can’t officially say I “finished” it is “The Last of the Mohicans” by Hawthorne; {gasp} what a boring book!  If you loved it, I’m so sorry,  but I hated it! We listened to it going cross country last summer, and I COULD NOT stay awake; boring and confusing ( I fully admit that the confusion may be because I kept falling asleep, but my husband was driving and HE was bored and confused too); never again. Done.

Another one I hated was “Redwall”; I know, I know, don’t throw rocks, but BAH! What a boring book. I did finish it, because it was the first book of the New Year that I was reading and I HAD to, but good grief, I’ll not read the rest of the series, no thanks. 

I read several of the Narnia books, and that’s like a visit with an old friend-although we’ve only been acquainted for about 6 years, they go deep into my heart and will live there a good, long time.

As usual, I read plenty of non-fiction, which is my favorite place to be; there is great evil coming, but there is great strength and courage to draw from.
If I could recommend one, it would be “The Real Thomas Jefferson”; how I love this man.  The picture that has been painted of this great man through years of Progressive led education is made up of lies and distortions; read this book.

I also recommend “The Coming Insurrection” by the Invisible Committee; this book details the evil that was coming and is now here; the occupy movement handbook if you will.

Another one I highly recommend is “How Evil Works” by David Kupelian; I was enlightened on how evil grabs us, and how to watch for the snares. 

On to 2012. 

 I’m reading Glenn Beck’s “Being George Washington” right now, and so far I love it; I also have several holdovers that I didn’t get to in 2011, two of which I’m in the middle of, and while they are fabulous, I can’t go too fast, because there is SO much to take in; “An Enemy Hath Done This” by Ezra Taft Benson, and “Original Intent” by David Barton. Both highly recommended, thus far.

I also want to get to “Jesus the Christ” by James E. Talmadge this year as well as “George Washington’s Sacred Fire” by Peter Lillback.

I have a whole stack, I suppose I should get busy! 

I think this year my goal WILL be forty, obviously I can make it. giggle. 

All in all, it was a wonderful book year. How about you? What did you read? 

Happy New Year, go get a book!!