2024 Reading Wrap Up

I have participated in reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks again. Here are answers to the Wrap Up questions:

How was your reading year? 

I liked it. I didn't like some of the 1000 Books to Read List books. Mustich is scraping the bottom of the barrel on some of these books. Why did he include them on the list?

I read 8,000 fewer pages than last year! I was busy. I finished some certifications: Restorative Pilates, EMDR, and Spiritual Accompaniment of Children. There was a lot of online reading with all three, but those don't count as "books"!

Did you follow a plan or go with the flow?

I am continuing to work through the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List (read 21, about 1/2 of last year). I also had Renovare Book Club Books, and spiritual direction books that I am reading to decide if I would include them in the curriculum I am writing for the training I am starting in the fall of 2025.

Did you stick to tried and true authors or genres or explore outside your comfort zone?

Many books on the 1000 Book to Read List are outside of my comfort zone. So, I tend to read new authors all the time! I read one Science Fiction this year. It still isn't my favorite, but it is on the list. 

Where did your adventure take you? Outside of time and into space? 

I went to England (The French Lieutenant's Woman, Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman),  India (Midnight's Children), Michigan (The Virgin Suicides), Birmingham (Why We Can't Wait), the Sahara desert (The Sheltering Sky) Swiss Alps (The Magic Mountain), New York (The Bell Jar), Chicago (Sister Carrie),  France (The Day of the Jackal, Germinal), Space (Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey), 

There are more places, but that is enough.

Which stories made your heart sing or cry or laugh or fly. Do you want to hug the author or country or city or state?

CRY:  

A Well-Trained Wife

I know the author, and I have hugged her. To read all the details was devasting for me. I was a wreck for a week. I highly recommend the reading of this book. 

I loved Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. I think everyone should read this book. It shows how far Black Lives Matter has strayed from this man's amazing vision. 

I liked every single memoir/autobiography I read. It is one of my favorite genres (because I am a people person and love to see what makes people tick). 

I also loved the books I read on "neurotheology" and the influence of brain science on spirituality: Practice the Pause. 

Which stories made you want to throw it across the room in disgust?

I didn't have any ones that disgusted me this year. Some I couldn't wait to finish, but none that disgusted. 

Which authors did you add to your "I want to read more or again pile"?

Practice the Pause (I learned so much from it.) 

This was my favorite cover:

Next year, I plan to read Jean-Pierre de Caussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence, the last Renovare Book Club book, and continue on my journey with the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die List (I am 35 books away from first on the List Challenge List and 43 away from 500 books. I will stop after that because I do not like the remaining books and sometimes really question why they are on the list in the first place. Sometimes, I find a gem on the list though.)