2021 Reads

I've stated elsewhere that I read a lot. And when I say "a lot" I mean hundreds of books a year. Part of that is because I have a fair amount of free time. I don't have a husband or children, and some of my other hobbies like taekwondo are less possible at the current moment with the virus. I also make time to read. I read when I wake up, I read before I go to bed, and I read on my lunch break. I listen to audiobooks while I walk the dog and do chores around the house. I'm also a fast reader. (Note: reading more and reading at a quicker pace does not make you a "better" reader by any means. If you read, you're a reader. End of story.)

We will see how updated I'm able to keep this space. 

January 2021 Summary

40 total

14 physical books (7 overlap with audiobooks)

19 audiobooks

14 short stories/letters/essays (including 6 Eudora Welty stories for #2021EudoraWelty)

12 written before 1921

23 written by men

17 written by women

20 nonfiction

    13 of which were a theological/religious bent

3 re-reads

Favorite fiction: The Professor's House, Willa Cather

Favorite nonfiction: Friendish, Kelly Needham

Favorite short story/essay: "The Family of the Vourdalak," Aleksey Tolstoy

February 2021 Summary

48 total

11 physical books (some overlap with audio)

24 short stories/letters/essays (including 6 Eudora Welty stories for #2021EudoraWelty but NOT including the novellas or short stories in the Brandon Sanderson collection Arcanum Unbounded--that was counted as one big book)

9 written before 1921

29 written by men

20 written by women

1 DNF (did not finish)

14 nonfiction (did not include essays in this count)

    9 of a theological bent

4 re-reads

Favorite fiction: a tie between Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson and Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope

Favorite nonfiction: The Story of a Soul, Saint Therese of Lisieux, followed by Divided We Fall, David French

Favorite short story/essay: a tie between "The Janeites," Rudyard Kipling and "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," George Orwell

March 2021 Summary

38 total

14 physical (2 of these had audio overlap)

16 audiobooks

4 ebooks/PDFs

9 short stories/novellas (6 Eudora Welty stories for #2021EudoraWelty but NOT including the 3 novellas in the Brandon Sanderson collection Legion, which I counted as one book)

4 published before 1921

18 written by men

24 written by women 

1 DNF (was a DNF of a re-read)

19 nonfiction

    14 theological bent

    5 autobiographical/biographical/memoir

    1 history

    8 lifestyle/living

2 re-reads (does not include DNF)

11 from my personal real-life TBR shelf

18 from the library

12 part of read-alongs (including the 6 Eudora Welty stories for #2021EudoraWelty)

Favorite fiction: The Ivy Tree, Mary Stewart

Favorite nonfiction: Multi-way tie of To Hell With the Hustle, Jefferson Bethke, The Gospel Comes With A House Key, Rosaria Butterfield, Consecration to Saint Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father, Donald H. Calloway, MIC, and George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans, Janet & Geoff Benge

Favorite short story/essay: Particularly liked "English and Welsh" from The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays, J.R.R. Tolkien, although that was not included in my short story count, it was lumped in with The Monsters and the Critics as a whole.