2018 In the Books

I love to read.

You probably know this.

But when I was going to school from 2014-2017, my reading habits changed. While I delighted in a lot of the reading required for my degree, I had to set aside reading for leisure. This year I've been able to start reading for my own enjoyment again.

My grand total of books read in 2018 is 47 (with 16 unfinished).*

(I have no expectation from year to year about the number of books I read. It just happens to be 47 this year. It could be five, or it could be 100. It doesn't matter to me as long as I enjoyed getting to that number).

This year I started listening to more audiobooks. I feel like I have a good balance between "listening" and "reading." It used to bother me when people claimed they "read" a book, but they actually "listened" to it. Now, I'm on that bandwagon. If I listened to it, I say I "read" it. Listening to the written word still takes skill.

Here are a few of the books I read in 2018:

Book I'd most like to see made into a movie:

I picked up a copy of this book from the "Lucky Day" shelf at the library. This is where they have a few designated copies of books that are currently popular (and have a lengthy hold list) available to check out for 7 days. I knew nothing about the book, but the title intrigued me.

In this story, a man wakes up in the body of a different person each day and experiences the events of a murder at Blackheath Manor. It's like a cross between Groundhog Day, Downton Abbey, Clue, and Back to the Future.

What a mess, right?

The book was confusing and jumpy, and it made my brain hurt. By the end, I probably only comprehended about 65% of it, but it was also really clever and would have required a lot of organization to write. Even with the difficulty in keeping everything straight, I thought this book was pretty awesome. Throughout the entire thing, I couldn't stop thinking, "This would make a really cool movie!"


Most interesting memoir:

Educated has gotten a lot of buzz this year, and rightly so. It's written in a way that reads a lot like a novel. The memoir is about Tara Westover who was raised in the mountains of Idaho by a manipulative and abusive father and a brain-washed mother. This memoir fed my fascination with family theory and made me want to write an essay about the Westover family from a social exchange and family systems perspective.

Interestingly, Tara Westover is still quite young  (32), and her parents and siblings are still living, meaning this memoir is only the beginning. She potentially has years ahead of her in which this story continues.


The book I probably needed the most:

Whenever I read a book like this, I try really hard to not put pressure on myself to become something I'm not. I'm getting better and better at discerning which aspects of another person's lifestyle and experience serve me well and which ones are "not for me."

Essentialism is all about simplifying and saying "yes" to the right things and "no" to all the rest. While I don't ascribe to 100% of this mentality, there are some practices outlined by McKeown that have been good for me.


Book that inspired the most continued learning:

A lot of books I read (even fictional ones and ones I don't like) inspire me to learn more about a topic or person. I often follow-up with podcasts, interviews, and articles to give me more insight and expand my knowledge.

For some reason, despite never having had an interest in Church history, I got really caught up in Saints. What I enjoy most about history is the interactions and behaviors of people - I'm fascinated by why people do the things they do.

As I read Saints in September, I kept a journal about my thoughts and impressions. I listened to the podcasts the Mormon Channel did on Saints, and I took a trip to the Church History Museum. I also read other Church history books that go into more depth. I'm still on this course of study and am currently reading Doctrine and Covenants and Church History in the Fulness of Times. 


Biggest surprise:

One aspect of reading that makes me incredibly happy is picking up a book at random, having no expectations, and discovering that it is amazing! That is what happened with the Chilbury Ladies Choir.

I found this book on the "Reader's Choice" shelf at the library. Every quarter, the Salt Lake County Library system does a "Reader's Choice" competition. There is a selection of books to read and vote on for a few months, and then one book is appointed the winner.

I've found some great books through Reader's Choice... I've also found some pretty awful ones.

When I picked up the Chilbury Ladies Choir, it was at random, and I knew there was a good chance I wouldn't actually read it.

And I didn't.

It came due before I started it, and I took it back and moved on. But for some reason, I put the audiobook on hold on Overdrive - again thinking I probably wouldn't listen to it. I mean, "Chilbury Ladies Choir" sounds pretty boring (I'm still kind of shocked that I selected it at all).

The audiobook came in right as we were leaving on our trip to Lake Tahoe in July, and I ended up starting it on our drive. It was a pleasant surprise! I spent every spare second of our vacation listening to this book, and I felt lonely when it ended. I loved the readers and the characters, and this may be a pretty bold statement, but I think this was my favorite book I read this year!

The Chilbury Ladies Choir is a story of women coming together in times of trial and of the healing power of music. And if that all sounds too fluffy for you, perhaps you will be enticed by the conniving, old, baby-swapping midwife.

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Here are some other books I read and wrote about in 2018:

Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel

Lighten Up!  by Chieko Okazaki

Harry Potter 1-3

*Someone asked for clarification on my numbers. The 16 unfinished are not part of my total of 47. Forty-seven is the number of books I read from beginning to end.