Creating this summary each year is very helpful in reminding me of my reading adventure of the past year. Looking back, 2016 was a very good reading year; my average rating was a tad over 4 stars and I had a run of four five star books in the spring.
2016 Goals
Here is what I laid out as my reading goals for the year.
- Read at least 1 theology book. Status: Accomplished. I read two: How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian by John Dominic Crosson (one of my favorite authors), and Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy by John Shelby Spong.
- Read at least one American history book on the period between Reconstruction and World War II or the depression. Status: Accomplished. I read American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900 by H.W. Brand. I’m impatiently waiting for the Oxford History of the United States volume on this period.
- Read another of James Shaprio’s books on Shakespeare. Status: Accomplished. I read A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599. It turns out there is a lot of controversy over Shapiro’s analysis.
- Finish the book I started on the Sony A77II camera. Status: Accomplished. Actually, midway through the year I bought a new Sony camera – the Sony A7r II. I read The Complete Guide to Sony’s Alpha A7r II by Gary Friedman
- Read a non-recipe cookbook. Status: Failed. I read plenty of non-recipe stuff on-line and in some books but I did not read a book cover-to-cover
- Indulge my Southern fiction love by reading a William Faulkner novel. Status: Failed. I tried to read The Sound and the Fury but just couldn’t continue after the first section. Stream of consciousness was my jam in college but I just couldn’t make it through.
Favorite Book of the Year
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Not even a close second. This is the best book I’ve read since I first read Lonesome Dove in 1985. A young girl has been murdered and she looks down from her heaven at the havoc it has raised in her family’s life.
Favorites Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Pacific by Simon Winchester. We saw him speak earlier in the year – he is the real “most interesting man in the world”. He’s a great story teller and outlines what is going on in the world through 10 events which have occurred on or near the ocean since 1950.his books shows by President Obama pushed a pivot to the east. I got new insights into North Korea as well as China’s foray east into the Pacific ocean as they expand their influence.
The Complete List
Here is the list of books I read this year. I’ve continued to struggle capturing the spreadsheet in a format WordPress, HTML, and I will be happy with. I took the shortcut this year of taking a screenshot of the list. I wish I could provide links for each book so you could read my detailed review and get a link to purchase. You can see my reviews by picking the Category “Reading”from the right hand column of my blog. Or you can just click here: https://2for66.com/category/reading/
Goals for 2017
This year I set an unpublished goal of two books a month. I met the goal but I put too much pressure on myself. I read sometimes when I would have rather played doing something else. So – no numeric goals for this year.
I’m going to let my fancy dictate what I read as the year marches on. So no goals here either.