I decided to try something a bit different. I’m going to dedicate myself to rekindling my love of reading and start to tackle my ever-growing ‘to be read’ list. This was the singular New Years Resolution that I’ve set for this year and I’ve committed myself into sticking to it.
With all the stresses going on in my life (and in the world in general!) this feels like taking a positive step towards my own mental health by focusing on taking a bit of ‘me time’.
As a kid, books were my world. I could get through a novel a night and had racked up quite the number of read books by the time I graduated high school. In college I made sure my elective course involved English in some form because part of me stick kicks myself that I didn’t pursue that instead.
Even now my shelves are filled with well loved and well read books – and I have personal favorites that I dote on like treasured keepsakes. (Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein”, Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, and Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn” are a few of those very treasured titles.)
So I am going to commit to taking time to read more and make a record of how many books I get through this year and take a few moments to review them (just based on my own opinions of course). At the end of the year I will take that number of books and donate the same amount out.
Let’s say I read through 50 books. At the end of the year I will sort out and pick through my collection and donate or give away that many books. Favorites I read this year will be kept, but I will make that up in other books that I’ve had around that I didn’t quite get into or enjoy.
They will get a chance to go off and make someone else’s ‘read’ list while I will free up space to bring more books into my collection as well. Win win!
Now that January is winding to a close with only about 5 days left, let me take a moment to do a brief recap of what I’ve read through so far for this months book list!
“The Institute” by Stephen King :
Stephen King is iconic for a reason. His style feels familiar to anyone who has read a lot of his work and this book was no exception. It was definitely a King book. The story revolves around secret organizations, kids with strange abilities, and of course plenty of horror as well.
I really did enjoy this one, but certain parts did seem to drag on a bit. Still it was a memorable story and does sort of flush out a lot of the shared world that some of his books seem to inhabit. It doesn’t rank as high for me personally as some of his other books do (“Doctor Sleep” is definitely my favorite so far) but it was still the best one I read this month. Finished on Jan. 10th
“The Shadow Glass” by Josh Winning :
I’m a child of the ’80’s and ’90’s. The nostalgia in this book made me smile a lot of the time. Although a bit of the book gets tangled up in a bit of a confusing storyline and action sequences – it was still pretty good. By the end of the book the story still stays with you and reminds you of various classic fantasy movies like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. It has a good heart behind it and I will keep my eye out on other books Josh may write in the future. Finished Jan. 15th
“The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules” by Catharina Ingelman-Sunderburg :
Okay. Honestly this one was tough. Firstly this book was one my Grandmother really liked, and the front page still bears her signature. She always signed the first inner page of a book that she read – and honestly now that she’s passed on it’s always bittersweet to see that. I love and miss that woman every day… and that’s why reading this book took me so long to get around to doing.
Secondly, the writing was a bit of a slog to get through. Don’t get me wrong, the premise and general story of the book was funny and lighthearted even when it dealt with some tough subjects for me. But on a personal level, completely unbiased, the writing style just wasn’t hitting with me well. I found the conversations written to be a bit stiff and the pacing to be a bit off. It didn’t flow well for me and I found myself speed-reading through parts of it.
However I won’t say it was ‘boring’ because that’s not accurate to how I feel. It was just… disjointed in spots. That being said, I am still very glad I read through it and the general story was heartwarming and funny in all the right places. I miss you Gram. Thanks for the book suggestion. ❤ Finished Jan. 22nd.
And lastly for January –
Doctor Who – “Big Bang Generation” by Gary Russell
I am a big Whovian. This book was a Value Village find that was sitting on my Doctor Who Collection shelf for a while. I picked it up mainly because it was Doctor Who, but also because it featured the cranky Peter Capaldi 12th Doctor regeneration which is one of my favorite portrayals of the Doctor.
I wish I could say that I enjoyed the story though. Unfortunately it just sort of struck out with me.
Again I find a lot of the problem was the dialogue and pacing of the story. It didn’t feel natural or well executed and the story itself was a bit… bland and uninteresting? I know things can get a bit chaotic and complicated with any sort of Time Travelling / Science fiction story – but this just didn’t feel well written and the characters didn’t really catch my interest or feel threshed out. Even the Doctor didn’t read like ‘the Doctor’.
Now this is all just my personal opinion – but for me this book was rather disappointing. Finished it on Jan. 25th.
— And there you have it. January is done.
By the way, I am not rushing myself through any of these books. I am trying to take the time to really enjoy the process and joy of reading and even though I’m curious how many I can get through by the end of the year – I am not considering this a race at all. I want to enjoy all the little hills and valleys of each story and come away glad that I at least crossed it off my ‘to be read’ list.
I wonder what stories February will bring?
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