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| Jonathan Wolstenholme |
Well, my goodness. I just looked at my grand reading plans for 2015 and discovered I only read one of the books in my five categories of Dusty, Chunky, Luke, Translated and Philosophical. I usually don't plan out what I'm going to read and this is exactly the reason why. My year took off and I never looked back, too busy with writing and classes and reading whatever books called my name. Yes, I'm a mood reader so don't know why I bothered to make any plans. Unfortunately, posting on My Two Blessings took a back seat as well which means I didn't keep very good track of what I read when.
I'm reminded of Robert Burn's poem To the Mouse in which he says "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
I did end up reading more nonfiction thanks to my writing studies as well as historical books with James. Which lead to discovering some very interesting creative nonfiction writers and opening up a whole new world. Writing studies took a front seat this year and finished my writing group's reading of The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LePlante. Also completed
Charles Baxter – The Art of Subtext
Constance Hale - Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose
Dinty Moore - Rose Press Field Guide to Flash Fiction
Madison Smart Bell – Narrative Design
Peter Turchi – Maps of the Imagination
Statistics wise, I read 110 books and listened to 17 audiobooks out of which 36 are female authors, 15 male authors and 15 new to me authors. I reread 5 different series including Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels, Anne Bishop's Others, Keri Arthur's Dark Angels, Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter and Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. Pretty sure I ended up reading more e-books than physical books because my stacks haven't shrunk at all. In fact, my books had babies and the babies had babies. I leaned toward more comfort reads with the majority being paranormal, urban fantasy, or military romances with a few suspense novels thrown in for good measure.
Hard to say what my top five favorites are. However I fell in love with Karen Marie Moning this year and read the Fever series twice and listened to all the stories on audiobook as well. Anne Bishop's Other series comes in a close second with J.R. Ward's Black Daggerbrotherhood series right behind.
An author and book that I'd never thought I'd ever read is Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. I read Volume 1: Swann's Way this year and liked it enough to continue with Vol 2: In the Shadow of Young Girls in 2016.
The book that made me cry - Dean Kootnz last book in his Odd Thomas series, Saint Odd. I'll miss Odd. Also Hampton Sides true life adventure In the Kingdom of Ice. The book that made me laugh - it's a tie between the men of Black Dagger Brother hood and M.L. Buchman's fire fighters in his Firehawks series. The book that was most touching - Carrie Ann Noble's The Mermaid's Sister. The series that has me spellbound - Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I finished # 4 Shadow Rising and #5 Fires of Heaven and look forward to reading the next two in the series during 2016
Where did my armchair travels take me this year: The Arctic ocean and frozen tundra to Russia, Europe, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, China, as well as the United States. It's possible I hit South America at some point, but the visit was very fleeting. *grin*
Who knows where my travels and reading will take me in 2016. I have all kinds of fun plans in store for my 52 Books in 52 Weeks crew. Come join us!
