A new year and new resolutions? Do you make New Year's Resolutions? Maybe the proverbial diet and exercise plan that fitness centers love?
I try very hard not to make new year's resolutions, but I find that Christmastime is a time I naturally seem to assess the past year and point a new focus. When I homeschooled my kids, sometimes we changed gears entirely or found new impetus to continue.
Bookreads let me know I had missed my book goal for 2014. Not by a lot, but a bit, and it wanted me to set a new challenge for 2015. So I set a goal to read 50 books this year. According to Goodreads, that's an average number. For some people like my husband, that's not very many. He read more than that last summer! For me, it was about 10 more than I read last year. I don't think I recorded every book, but it was probably close.
As vacation progressed and I looked over my Bookreads' Currently Reading list, I realized that I was a great starter last year but terrible finisher. I probably won't finish some of those books, but I want to finish most of them so I made my stack of books to read NOW. As I began reading some of them, I felt a need to become better versed doctrinally, and I had already decided that I wanted 50 seriously enriching books--not quick novels. It's perfectly fine if I read those too, but I need to improve myself and make sure I'm setting a good example for my kids.
So here's my current, currently-reading stack:
Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage
Choose Higher Ground, by Henry B. Eyring
New Testament (which I'm reading with my kids)
Teaching of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson
The Power of Everyday Missionaries, by Clayton M. Christensen
I chose several of those titles because they relate to what we are studying at church. The book, Jesus the Christ, has always taunted me from its place on the bookshelf because I've never finished it. I read about 3/4 of it and laid it aside and never picked it back up. It's a scholarly work and I've always tried to plow straight through it. I'm tackling it a chapter at a time now, and that seems to be working better. I also have more time to devote to my own studies now.
Other books I need to finish:
Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
Inkspell, by Cornelia Funk
Natural follow-ons will include Words of Radiance and Inkdeath.
So are you setting a book goal for this year? I recommend using Goodreads and then reviewing the books. I use the review feature to help me remember each story. They tend to get jumbled in my mind or I forget which titles I've read. That's very frustrating if it was a book I really like and would like to reference again. Plus, it's nice to have the attagirl to see that I've made progress!
Follow me on Goodreads and help keep me on track!
I try very hard not to make new year's resolutions, but I find that Christmastime is a time I naturally seem to assess the past year and point a new focus. When I homeschooled my kids, sometimes we changed gears entirely or found new impetus to continue.
Bookreads let me know I had missed my book goal for 2014. Not by a lot, but a bit, and it wanted me to set a new challenge for 2015. So I set a goal to read 50 books this year. According to Goodreads, that's an average number. For some people like my husband, that's not very many. He read more than that last summer! For me, it was about 10 more than I read last year. I don't think I recorded every book, but it was probably close.
As vacation progressed and I looked over my Bookreads' Currently Reading list, I realized that I was a great starter last year but terrible finisher. I probably won't finish some of those books, but I want to finish most of them so I made my stack of books to read NOW. As I began reading some of them, I felt a need to become better versed doctrinally, and I had already decided that I wanted 50 seriously enriching books--not quick novels. It's perfectly fine if I read those too, but I need to improve myself and make sure I'm setting a good example for my kids.
So here's my current, currently-reading stack:
Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage
Choose Higher Ground, by Henry B. Eyring
New Testament (which I'm reading with my kids)
Teaching of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson
The Power of Everyday Missionaries, by Clayton M. Christensen
I chose several of those titles because they relate to what we are studying at church. The book, Jesus the Christ, has always taunted me from its place on the bookshelf because I've never finished it. I read about 3/4 of it and laid it aside and never picked it back up. It's a scholarly work and I've always tried to plow straight through it. I'm tackling it a chapter at a time now, and that seems to be working better. I also have more time to devote to my own studies now.
Other books I need to finish:
Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
Inkspell, by Cornelia Funk
Natural follow-ons will include Words of Radiance and Inkdeath.
So are you setting a book goal for this year? I recommend using Goodreads and then reviewing the books. I use the review feature to help me remember each story. They tend to get jumbled in my mind or I forget which titles I've read. That's very frustrating if it was a book I really like and would like to reference again. Plus, it's nice to have the attagirl to see that I've made progress!
Follow me on Goodreads and help keep me on track!
