Reading Plans for 2025

 

Reading Plans

My buying ban has officially started so my plan is to read from my own shelves. I also love to read my books again and again, so the year will be interspersed with rereads.  Although I don't have a set goal for the year, if I get through my 10 x 10 categories, that means 100 books. Which is doable, but since my intention is to slow down, annotate, engage with my books, and write reviews in my book journal, we'll see what happens.  

1. Year long sip read - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

2. Delve into the books of Thomas Merton included reread of The Seven Storey Mountain.

3.  Complete 52 Books Bingo

4.  Complete Dragon Bookology 

5.  Complete A to Z and Back Again

6.  Read from my own shelves 

7.  Slow down / Annotate / Engage / Review 

8.  Ten x Ten Categories 

Books about Books

Dragons and other fantastic beasts

Fantasy/Science Fiction

Finish the series

Historical Fiction

Mystery/Thrillers

Non Fiction

Romance

Start of Series

Translated 

    

 9. Read and Journal through the New Testament in a year with Noteworthy New Testament which specifically includes note taking space.  How cool is that!

 

 

 

BW15: Sunday's Book Babble - The Cloistered Life

Saint Guilhem Cloister

It's week 15 in our 52 Books Quest and this week's 52 Books Bingo category is The Cloistered Life. 

Years and years ago when I was a teenager...  Why does it sound like the opening crawl to Star Wars?   "In a galaxy far far away...."   *grin* 

No, I did not wish to become a nun when I was younger, but was always fascinated by the idea. Our high school religious class took a field trip to a cloistered convent and it was an interesting experience to say the least.  We were allowed to talk to the sisters through a screen in which they could only see us from the waist up, a privacy screen raised in case any outside visitor was inappropriately dressed. They were a giggly group of ladies who enjoyed their simple life of prayer and work inside the convent walls.  

The experience stuck with me which is probably why I enjoy stories about hermits and anchorites, monks and nuns, abbeys and monasteries, and lives lived in solitude.  Books such as historical fiction The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader, biographical stories such as And Then There Were Nuns by Jane Christmas and  Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain, and fictional books such as Dean Koontz's suspense story  Innocence in which a young man lives beneath a city in solitude and Louise Penny's The Beautiful Mystery in which Armand Gamache tries to solve a murder within a cloistered monastery. 

I finished Genevieve Cogman's The Lost Plot #4 in the Invisible Library series  which was very very good and our spy librarian Irene was put to the test in trying to complete her mission while on the run from the fae, dragons, mobsters and gun molls, and the human police.  Continuing the Invisible Library series saga with #5 The Mortal Word.

 "Peace talks are always tricky, especially when a key diplomat gets stabbed. This rudely interrupts a top-secret summit between the warring dragons and Fae. As a neutral party, Librarian-spy Irene is summoned to investigate. She must head to a version of 1890s Paris, with her assistant Kai and her detective friend Vale, where these talks are fracturing. Here, she must get to the bottom of the attack – before either the peace negotiations or the city go up in flames.

Suspicions fly thick and fast and Irene soon finds herself in the seedy depths of the Parisian underworld. She’s on the trail of a notoriously warlike Fae, the Blood Countess. However, the evidence against the Countess is circumstantial. Could the killer be a member of the Library itself?"

This week's 52 Books theme fits right in with my 10 x 10 Get thee to a Nunnery category and I have a number of books on my shelves to choose from. 

Next up, Kathleen Norris's The Cloister Walk

52 Books: Blossom Bookology Challenge completed

I completed 52 Books Blossom Bookology spelling challenge and squeaked by with a couple with flowers mentioned in the stories as colors or characters.  I forgot to keep track of all the reference mentioned in my reads, but pretty sure there were more than a few mentions of a variety of flowers so I'm calling this challenge completed. 

January - Chrysanthemum

C: Genevieve Cogman - The Masked City (fantasy) 

H: Thor Heyerdahl - Kon Tiki  (NF)

R: Robyn Cadwallader - The Anchoress (historical)

Y: Rick Yancey -  The Infinite Sea (fantasy)

S: Sharon Kay Penman - The Sunne in Splendor (historical)

A: Anna Richland - His Road Home (military romance) 

N: Natalie Goldberg - Writing Down the Bones (NF)

T: Thomas Merton - Thoughts in Solitude (NF) 

H: Mark Helprin - A Soldier of the Great War (WWI historical)

E: Emma Hamm - Silver Blood (Paranormal)

M: Haruki Murakami - Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball (literary)

U: Lisa Unger - Beautiful Lies (Mystery)

M: Haruki Murakami - A Wild Sheep Chase (literary)

February - Rose

R:  J.D. Robb - Dark in Death (Futuristic)

O:  Melissa Olson - Dead Spots (Paranormal)

S:  John Sandford- Secret Prey -  (Detective)

E:  Jennifer Estep - Bitter bite (Paranormal)

March - Clover 

C: Chosen - K.F. Breene (fantasy)

L:  Louise Penny - Glass Houses (mystery)

O: The Overlook - Michael Connolly (crime detective)

V: Carrie Vaughn - Discord's Apple (paranormal)

E: Elizabeth the First Wife - Lian Dolan (Literary fiction)

R: Rachel Caine - Ill Wind (paranormal)

April - Mountain Aven

A:  Atlantis Fallen - C.E.Murphy (Paranormal)

V:  Mud Vein - Tarryn Fisher (Suspense)

E:  Black Echo - Michael Connolly (Mystery) 

N: Nerd's Pocket Pets - D.R. Grady (Romance)

May - Lily 

L: Alan Alda – If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on my Face

I:  Innocence - Dean Koontz (Thriller) 

L: Lake Silence - Anne Bishop  (Paranormal)

Y: I Found You - Lisa Jewell  (Mystery)

June - Tulip

The Golden Tulip - Rosalind Laker

July - Edelweiss

E: Elephant Keepers Daughter - Julia Drosten

D: The Art of Deception - Nora Roberts (Romantic suspense)

E:  Jennifer Estep - Unraveled (Paranormal)

L:  Luke - Barbara Freethy (Romance)

W: Where Dreams are Born - M.L. Buchman (Romance)

E:  Jennifer Estep - Snared (Paranormal)

I:  Ice Hunt - James Rollins (Antarctic, thriller)

S:  Where There's Smoke-Susan May Warren (Romance)

S:  Spymaster's Lady - Joanna Bourne (Regency) 

August - Jasmine

J: James Rollins - Demon Crown 

A: Ash and Quill - Rachel Caine

S: Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch

M: Midnight Curse - Melissa Olson

I: Ink and Bone - Rachel Caine

N: Nora Roberts - Leverage in Death

E: Ellie Weisel - Night 

September- Lotus 

L:  Peter the Latvian - Georges Simenon (Detective)

O:  Nalini Singh -  Ocean Light, #2 Psy/Changling Trinity (e)

T:   Twyla Tharp - The Creative Habit

U:  Unfit - Keri Arthur (Paranormal)

S:  Shelter in Place - Nora Roberts (Suspense)

October - Marigold

Flowers from the Storm - Laura Kinsale: Marigold flower colored wall paper 

or Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch with Marigold gloves 

November - Daisy

The Cozy Tea Shop in the Castle - Caroline Roberts with a character named Daisy

December - Holly 

  Last Chance Christmas Ball - Word Wenches.  The Ball is being given by Lady Holly who is character in every story that makes up the whole book. 

January Reading Wrap Up

I've had a great start to my reading year and still working on January's Blossomology challenge spelling out Chrysanthemum and have H A E U and M to complete.  I decided to spell out using author names and have been successful so far.  Thank goodness February's challenge is to spell out Rose.  My reading goals this year are to read more physical books from my shelves, not spend any money on books for the first four months of the year and to read more non fiction. 

I finished twelve books this month including five nonfiction books, three of which were started last year.  James and I read Netanyahu's Fighting Terrorism and Leon Leyson's Boy in the Wooden Box together which took a bit of time. Reviews will be forth coming.   One of my goals is to read at least two non fiction books a month.  I completed Writing Down the Bones and Thoughts in Solitude, plus sailed from Peru to Polynesia with Thor Heyerdahl in Kon-Tiki.  

Started out my 52 books Open Roads adventure in Japan with Haruki Murakami and the first two books in his Rat Trilogy - Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball. I visited 12th century England through The Anchoress and 15th Century England through The Sunne in Splendour.   Explored the fantasy world of Venice with Cogman's The Masked City and the United States during an apocalyptic alien invasion in The Infinite Sea.   I traveled through history with Doucette's The Immortal from the beginning of man to the Roman Empire to the United States.  Then finished off my month with His Road Home, a romantic novella about a soldier disabled in war discovering how to walk, talk and love.  Quite an eclectic mix of stories.  


C: Genevieve Cogman - The Masked City (#2 Invisible Library)
H: Thor Heyerdahl - Kon Tiki  
R: Robyn Cadwallader - The Anchoress (e)
Y: Rick Yancey -  The Infinite Sea 
S: Sharon Kay Penman - The Sunne in Splendor
A: 
N: Natalie Goldberg - Writing Down the Bones
T: Thomas Merton - Thoughts in Solitude  (e)
H
E
M: Haruki Murakami - Hear the Wind Sing/Pinball 
U
M - 

The Boy in the Wooden Box -Leon Leyson 
Fighting Terrorism - Benjamin Netanyahu 
Immortal - Gene Doucette (#1 Immortal)(e)
Anna Richland - His Road Home (e)

Another goal is to read more slowly and do a review for each book completed.  I'm slightly behind with reviews on the four books that didn't match up with the flower spelling challenge.  

I'm currently reading Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War (chunky and dusty book) as well as Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase (ebook) which is the 3rd book in the Rat Trilogy.    I'm trying to decide whether to read Leon Uris or Umberto Eco for my U book.  I'm thinking Achebe for the A book. 

I also have ROSE to spell for February and won't be constraining myself to just author names and mixing it up with Author Name or Title of the book.  I received J.D. Robb's newest in her In Death series - Dark in Death which I pre-ordered in December so doesn't go against my buying ban.  So I may be mixing up things a bit because her book is calling my name loudly.  *grin* 

Meanwhile our 52 Books group will be traveling through England for February so I'm pulling a very dusty Sherlockian by Graham Moore off the shelves to read. 

Book Review: Thomas Merton - Thoughts in Solitude

I fell in like with trappist monk Thomas Merton several years ago when I read Seven Storey Mountain.  Since then I've collected several of his works and they are always enlightening and inspirational.  

Synopsis:  Thoughtful and eloquent, as timely (or timeless) now as when it was originally published in 1956, Thoughts in Solitude addresses the pleasure of a solitary life, as well as the necessity for quiet reflection in an age when so little is private. Thomas Merton writes: "When society is made up of men who know no interior solitude it can no longer be held together by love: and consequently it is held together by a violent and abusive authority. But when men are violently deprived of the solitude and freedom which are their due, the society in which they live becomes putrid, it festers with servility, resentment and hate."

Thoughts in Solitude is a short read of 130 and packed with Merton's philosophical and spiritual thoughts on humility and silence.  So much stood out and I'll probably be coming back to this time and again. 

Part one:  Aspects of the Spiritual Life.  

"What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?

The spiritual life is first of all a life.  It is not merely something to be known and studied. It is to be lived.  

Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.... It requires unending courage and perseverance and those who are not willing to work at it patiently will finally end in compromise.  Here, as elsewhere, compromise is another name for failure. To mediate is to think." 

Part Two: Love of Solitude:

"Words stand between silence and silence: Between the silence of things and the silence of our being.  Between the silence of the world and the silence of God.  When we have really met and know the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor from other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality. 

"Do not flee to solitude from the community. Find God first in the community, then he will lead you to solitude." 

He recommends reading the Psalms as well as Max Pickard's The World of Silence from which he found inspiration.  I fortunately found The World of Silence online in pdf format and began to read it last night. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done. 

2015 Reading Plans

As we all know, reading plans as well as buying bans often go astray.  I have more than enough books in my stacks, that I could probably get away without buys any new books this year at all.  *gasp* The horror!  Excuse me while I have heart palpitations.   

Okay. I came up with some Author Flavors of the Month and Reading Themes over on 52 Books purely for selfish reasons.  I have those authors on my shelves and need incentive to read them.  The little shelfie above will change in a month or so and it doesn't matter whether those particular books have been read or not.  It will depend on my mood.  Yep, I'm a big mood reader. However, I am in the mood at this point of the year for stories that challenge me a bit more than just paranormal or urban fantasies. My fall back books when I'm stressed or bummed.   But I also realize I have eyes/stomach syndrome so giving myself a break by going with 3/5/15.   I've been perusing the shelves and discovered I have many, many nonfiction books just waiting to be read.   So the majority of my categories will be nonfiction. 

My plan (as of this moment) is 

Translated:

Isabel Allende - The House of the Spirits  (Spanish)

Mircea Cararescu  - Blinding  (Romania)

Halldor Laxness - The Great Weaver of Kashmir (Iceland)

Dusty:

Taylor Caldwell – Dear and Glorious Physician (also a chunky and part of study of Luke)

Sharon Kay Penman – The Reckoning

Bodie Thoene – Eleventh Guest

Chunky:

Mark Helprin -  A Soldier of the Great War (Rome 860)

Umberto Eco – Foucault’s Pendulum (Italy 623)

Vikram Seth - The Suitable Boy (India 1474)

Diana Gabaldon – Voyager (1059)  (bonus) 

Study of Luke:

Luke’s Story – Tim LaHaye (fiction – eb)

Luke: The Gospel of Amazement – Michael Card (NF)

Navarre Bible: St Luke (NF)

Philosophical

The Cave and the Light – Arthur Herman

Purgatorio – Dante

Essays – Michel De Montaigne

Plus I've fallen deeply in like with Thomas Merton and while I have The Book on Hours on my bedside stand I also plan on delving into The Way of Chuang Tzu and The Ascent of Man.

Currently up on plate is Haruki Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland, along with Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Medieval World which will be a year long read.  

What are your grand plans for the year?  More fiction or non fiction, book or author study or just trip the light fantastic and go where the muse leads you?  

Wednesday Wonderings - Poetry

Waterdrop by Zen

I had one of those I get it moments today.  I've never been one for reading poetry.  I've tried my hand at it, mainly as cryptic clues for a couple of my stories. Fun to do.  I'm willing to read for a class and analyze, but reading for fun and enjoyment, not so much.  So when I came across the section on Poetry in Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing, I almost skipped it.  But then the thought crossed my brain and I forget where I heard it how as writers we should expose ourselves to all kinds of writing, genres, styles in an effort to learn more about the craft.  So decided to power through and this particular essay rang a bell with me.  You get as much out of poetry as you put it into it.  A surface reading will only garner a surface understanding unless you take the time to think about the words. You get out of it, what you put into it.

The Psalms are poems, and poems have a meaning---although the poet has no obligation to make his meaning immediately clear to anyone who does not want to make an effort to discover it.  But to say that poems have meaning is not to say that they must necessarily convey practical information or an explicit message.  In poetry, words are charged with meaning in a far different way than are the words in a piece of scientific prose.  The words of a poem are not merely the signs of concepts: they are also rich in affective and spiritual associations. 

The poet uses words not merely to make declarations, statements of fact.  That is usually the last thing that concerns him.  He seeks above all to put words together in such a way that they exercise a mysterious and vital reactivity among themselves, and so release their secret content of associations to produce in the reader an experience that enriches the depths of his spirit in a manner quite unique.  A good poem induces an experience that could not be produced by any other combination of words.  It is therefore an entity that stands by itself, graced with an individuality that marks it off from every other work of art.  Like all great works of art, true poems seem to live by a life entirely their own.

What we must seek in a poem is therefore not an accidental reference to something outside itself: we must seek this inner principle of individuality and of life which is its soul, or 'form.'  What the poem actually 'means' can only be summed up in the whole content of poetic experience which it is capable of producing in the reader.  This total poetic experience is what the poet is trying to communicate to the rest of the world (excerpted from Literary Essays "Poetry, Symbolism, and Typology, 1953) pg 84-85 

 Merton's writing is full of these gems and I'm currently on the chapter about other writers. He seems to have had a great fondness for Boris Pasternak and his writings and it's making me want to move Dr. Zhivago up in the stack and see if I appreciate his writing as much as Merton did.   Back to my literary wanderings.