2015 Reading List

Have I ever told you that I love to read? Like, panicky-stressed-out when I finish a book if I don't know what to read next? Never go anywhere without a book because what if I suddenly have 30 seconds of free time? Spent recess through most of elementary school reading on the playground and getting annoyed with classmates who came up and asked what I was reading because, hello, I'm busy?

True story.

So I love to read, but I'm kind of dysfunctional about it. When I start a book I tend to neglect little things like sleep, laundry, and dishes until I finish it. And that doesn't seem work so well with the whole parenting thing, unfortunately. I've taken to reading in spurts--I'll read a book or three, then I'll go for weeks without reading anything substantial. No bueno. I miss reading.

This year I was inspired seeing reading lists pop up on a bunch of the blogs I've been following. I've never made a reading list before, but I decided to give it a try. I'm so excited. Not only does this mean that when I steal away for a couple minutes to read I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something (don't you just love being able to check things off lists?), but this way I'll avoid that awful panic when I finish one book and I can't decide what to read next. 

This is only a partial list, because it is awfully light on the fiction, and I kind of thrive on my fiction. So any recommendations to slip in between some of that heavier reading in the second half of the list would be most welcome. It is probably overly ambitious even without adding any other books,.. I got somewhat carried away in my desire to take care of books I've been meaning to read for quite some time. Alex and I have this bad habit of buying books much faster than we can read them. And Alex is not helping matters by bringing home daily loads of books the school library is giving away. I think he has doubled the number of books in our house in the last few weeks. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but if the library could give away a couple bookcases as well as all these books that would be fabulous.

So here is what I have so far:

Lilith -- George MacDonald (already finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it... may be adding more MacDonald when I need a break from the scholarly stuff)

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church-- Benedict XVI 

The Shadow of His Wings -- Fr. Gereon Goldmann

Angels (and Demons) -- Peter Kreeft

The Treasure of Homestake Gold -- Mildred Fielder 

Jesus the Bridegroom -- Brant Pitre

The Silmarillion -- Tolkien (a millionth-time reread, can you tell by the binding?)

Life of Christ -- Fulton Sheen

Ascendance Trilogy -- Jennifer Nielsen (read the first one last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it; our library finally made the other two available to checkout as ebooks)

Theology and Sanity-- Frank Sheed

A Pilgrim's Journey -- St. Ignatius of Loyola

A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms -- J. Clinton McCann

Kristin Lavransdatter -- Sigrid Undset (read it two years ago and may have liked it even better than Tolkien... maybe... possibly...)

Love and Responsibility -- JPII

Orthodoxy -- G.K. Chesterton

On the Reliability of the Old Testament -- K.A. Kitchen

no, Ignatius Press is not sponsoring my reading goals--but I wish they would!

Last year our family did a collective Big Year (it's a birding thing). We had so much fun with the friendly competition that this year we're doing a Big Year with books. Too bad I made this list before finding that out--I would have put much shorter books on my list! But I'm already loving reading with (a little) discipline, and looking forward to the accountability of having set actual goals (which now exist forever on the internet). I'm sure I'll be checking in to report on my progress. If not, you can just assume I got lost in Middle Earth and fell off the bandwagon.