Personal Best

 

I did it. I accomplished one of my personal goals of reading 100 books in one year. I’ve never been able to read more than about 75. I think I was able to reach the goal because I had a little more time on my hands this year to sit and stitch or knit while listening to an audiobook. Not much good has come from the COVID pandemic, but this would be on that list of silver linings.

My list includes 47 book books and 53 audiobooks. To be perfectly honest, a few of them were pretty short, such as the one-hour audiobook Agatha’s First Case, by M.C. Beaton or the 125-page Healing Hope: Through and Beyond Cancer, by Wendy Harpham, MD. On the other hand, the list also includes American Ulysses, by Ronald C. White (826 pages about Ulysses S. Grant); and Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (26-hour audiobook). I also included the Bible; at least I didn’t count that for 66 individual books.

I read more fiction (72) than non-fiction books (38). Due to the COVID pandemic, I often just wanted to read something sort of mindless and fun. That said, some of the fiction books were tough to read, such as The Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah. On the other hand, a lot of the non-fiction was very entertaining, such as Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl.

Within non-fiction, I read several spiritual books and a ton of books about social justice/racial reconciliation. I learned a lot. I also read a number of books about the Christian approach to LGBTQ issues. I am still learning a lot there, too.

The one-hundredth book was The Short Stories of Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine. I read that book a few years ago and found it so intriguing, I wanted to read it again. It’s still intriguing and disturbing, which is what Dr. Levine wants for us to feel as we read the parables of Jesus.

Watch this space for some reviews or reflections on some of the books I’ve read this year. Let me know if you have any curiosity about my list.

Okay; I admit I may be bragging a little. Yet, this really has been a goal for me during the past few years when I started writing down each book as I finished it. I intend to read a few more before December 31, 2020. Who knows what next year brings? More enjoyable hours of reading, I hope. But fewer hours of being locked down due to COVID, I pray.