Goodreads Reading

I haven't been too reflective this New Year's and haven't made any resolutions, not because I don't think there are things I can improve, only that resolutions don't seem to work for me.

But I did make one explicit goal:  I hope to read 50 books, tracking them on Goodreads.

Last year, I set a goal of 52, which I think I missed by 6 or so (though, I think some of them--like McCollough's Greater Journey and Ulrich's At Night's Close should have counted as more than one.)  So this year, I'm subtracting two for holidays, etc., and, besides, 50 is a nice round number.  I don't really mind that I missed my goal because I really liked working on it and feel like I read more than I ever would've otherwise.

I'm also planning a more specific theme to some of my reading this year:  I would like to revisit the 19th-century British novel.  Yep, of course Austen, but also Eliot, perhaps Dickens, Hardy, Gaskell, (Wilkie) Collins.  And Trollope, who my paternal grandmother favored so.  But no Bronte; not any of them.  I don't really like the Brontes (well, I liked Jane Eyre), despite their being my dear Aunt Sis's favorite.  I might, if time allows or interest changes, add some Wharton or James, though of course they're not British.  And, of course, there's always my mindfulness/Buddhism books, my hospice/death and dying books, my American history/historic house/social history books, my poetry books, my cookbooks/food writing/food history books, my kids/parenting/education books, and now my growing collection of Doctor Who books.  You'll notice that I don't really ever read modern American novels.  It's a lacuna--and why I can never claim to be a great reader--but I'm fine with that.

First up, The History of English Food  by Clarissa Dickson Wright, formerly one of the BBC's "Fat Ladies,"

Should be a good year.

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Some ideas (and it's more than a year's worth . . . none of them new/current and almost all on my shelves!  I'm perpetually behind, by years, though I've read the Austens before.)

19th-century Novel

1. Eliot, Mill on the Floss
2. Eliot, Adam Bede
3. Eliot, Daniel Deronda
4. Eliot, Silas Marner
5. Hardy, Tess
6. Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
7. Austen, Pride and Prejudice
8. Austen, Sense and Sensibility
9. Austen, Mansfield Park
10. Austen, Emma
11. Austen, Persuasion
12. Austen, Susan
13. Austen, Northanger Abbey

Food

1. Dickson Wright, A History of English Food
2. Bijan, Maman's Homesick Pie
3. Engelhardt, A Mess of Greens
4. Stavely, America's Founding Food
5. Stavely, Northern Hospitality

Buddhism, mindfulness, etc.

1. Brach, Radical Acceptance
2. Boorstein, Solid Ground
3. Salzberg, A Heart as Wide as the World

History

1. Jaffe, The King's Best Highway
2. Farrow et al, Complicity
3. McCullough, 1776
4. Philbrick, Mayflower
5. Fenn, Pox Americana
6. Withey, Dearest Friend
7. Mantel, Wolf Hall etc
8. Wood, The Story of England
9. Swerling, City of Dreams
10. Shorto, Island at the Center of the World

Hospice:

1. Spencer-Wendel, Until I Say Good-Bye
2. Watt and Tomatsu, Buddhist Care for the Dying and Bereaved
3. The Arts of Contemplative Care (collection)
4. Ware, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying
5. Levine, A Year to Live
6. Byock, Dying Well
7. Anderson, Sacred Dying

Parenting, etc

1. Steiner-Adair, The Big Disconnect
2. Ripley, The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way
3. Bauer, The Well-Trained Mind
4. Faber, Sibling Rivalry
5. Faber, How to Talk so the Kids will Listen etc.
6. Gottman, Raising an Emotionally-Intelligent Child
7. Fontana, Teaching Meditation to Children
8. Greenland, The Mindful Child
9. Kabat-Zinn, Everyday Blessings
10. Kenison, Magical Journey
11. Shumaker, It's OK Not to Share
12. Wartenberg, Bid Ideas for Little Kids
13. Hanh, Planting Seeds

Poetry

1. Cries of the Spirit (collection)

Doctor Who

1. Stone Rose
2. Only Human
3. Krillitane Storm
4. The Slitheen Excursion

Misc.

1. Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford
2. Chevalier, Burning Bright
3. Lamott, Stitches

Goodreads Guilt

I set a goal at the beginning of the year through my Goodreads account to read 52 books this year, or one a week.  When I finish one, I enter it into my "read" list.  And for most of the year, it told me I was a certain percentage ahead of schedule.

Until now.  The last time I logged in, I was 5 books behind.

And my A-student guilt kicked in.  I finished off Being Well, a relatively short book on mindfulness and illness, and brought it down to only 4 behind.  Which still bothers me.  I've been considering reading shorter books, instead of the long and academic tomes I've been sampling for weeks now, including At Night's Close and The Greater Journey.  I could blow through The Five Regrets of the Dying or one of my Doctor Who novels, but I'm not really interested in those right now.

And so I have to remember that the point isn't the number (or the grade) but the experience--the pleasure, the learning.  I should read what I want to and not feel guilty about the computer's algorithm (though the goal was mine.)  I've really liked entering the books I've read and the encouragement the list-keeping gives me; I've read more books this year than I've read in a decade.  But I also really like 100%.

Funny how old student habits die hard.

Our Book Club

Yesterday afternoon, we held the first official meeting of the Hungry Family Book Club.  Mama was in absentia, but Sis, Bud, and I spread blankets out in the grass and read in the sunshine for more than half an hour.  While Sis munched Cheerios!  I wouldn't say it was quiet, as Bud kept giving us updates on his book, but otherwise there were only birds and windchimes, the sweet smell of hyacinths on the cool breeze.

That night, Mama and I had our own book club meeting, spending literally hours entering and scanning, rating and sorting, titles on Goodreads.  I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was to do this--we talked about books we'd read together a long time ago (Patience and Sarah, Bar Stories, Little Women--Mama and I had a long-distance book club the first year we were together, each choosing titles to share with the other), books we'd bought together (lots of Gettysburg titles), audiobooks she shared with me (Remarkable Creatures, Lady and the Unicorn), titles we liked (Caleb's Crossing) and didn't (March, me more than her).  It was even better than date night at the bookstore.  And free!  I've sent invitations to a few people to join us on this website--join us if you'd like by looking up Mommy Hungry.

Happy Reading!  And recording!