Reading Challenge 2014 Summary

In 2013 I completed four reading challenges. In 2014, rather than try to one-up myself and end up reading for quantity rather than quality, I put a ban on my signing up for any reading challenges online. Instead, I self-imposed challenges which will hopefully diminished that behemoth To Be Read pile that swallowed up my nightstand, bed, and pretty much half my room.  

So here were my two challenges:

1) To read 100 books in a year. I have done this a few times before, but this time I restricted which books I actually count--viz., I will no longer count picture books (for the obvious reason that they're too short), graphic novels/manga (because they're mostly graphics rather than reading words...besides, I hardly read any of this category of books anyway), and how-to books such as cookbooks or sewing books (which I read voraciously, but again are very short). This way I was more likely to tackle the longer novels or nonfiction that have been tapping their proverbial foot in impatience.

2) To finish reading the books on my history bookshelf (yes, my books are organized according to subject. No, they're not in Dewey Decimal order...yet). Now that I have a job that sometimes allows me to read, I've been taking these books and slowly making progress. It's much like the stereotype of secretaries reading People Magazine while filing their nails or chewing gum...except I'm usually learning about the politics of Imperial Rome instead.

Now I am happy to say that while the TBR pile is NOT very much diminished, I DID reduce my Pending History shelf quite a bit, and even finished reading 100 books in time to have a few months left...during which I did some rare re-reading of books I've been meaning and wanting to revisit for some time now. But while I plan to review those books in separate posts, these are the 100 titles I read for the first time just this last year.

   

1. In A Pickle - Beth Overmeier (JF)

2. The Faith - Charles Colson and Harold Fickett

3. Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam - James M. McPherson

4. Homer and the Epic - G.S. Kirk

5. The Odes of Horace

6. Party Politics in the Age of Caesar - Lily Boss Taylor

7. Between Man and Beast - Monte Reel

8. The Tomb of Zeus: A Laetitia Talbot Mystery - Barbara Cleverly
9. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Religious Convictions - Gregory Koukl
10. Rome - M. Rostovtzeff

11. The Last Camel Died at Noon - Elizabeth Peters

12. The Golden Days of Greece - Olivia Coolidge
13. The Under Dog and other Tales - Agatha Christie
14. My Inventions - Nikola Tesla
15. A History of Egypt - James Henry Breasted
16. A Right to Die - Rex Stout

17. The Legacy of Greece - ed. Sir Richard Livingstone

18. The Kreutzer Sonata - Leo Tolstoy
19. The Minoans: The Story of Bronze Age Crete - Sinclair Hood
20. The Echo of Greece - Edith Hamilton
21. The Tesla Papers - ed. David Hatcher Childress
22. Laugh Again: Experience Outrageous Joy - Charles R. Swindoll

23. Five Children and It - E. Nesbit

24. The Idylls of the King - Tennyson
25. The Greek Way - Edith Hamilton
26. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie
27. In Search of the Castaways; or, The Children of Captain Grant - Jules Verne
28. "The Making of a Marchioness" and "The Methods of a Lady" - Frances Hodgson Burnett
29. The Near East -Isaac Asimov
30. The Egyptians - Isaac Asimov
31. How Right You Are, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
32. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom - Christopher Healy
33. The Greeks: A Great Adventure - Isaac Asimov
34. The Roman Republic - Isaac Asimov
35. The Roman Empire - Isaac Asimov
36. The Dark Ages - Isaac Asimov
37. The Shaping of England - Isaac Asimov
38. Dreamhunter - Elizabeth Knox
39. A Day in Old Rome - Davis
40. The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog - Elizabeth Peters
41. Such Wicked Intent - Kenneth Oppel
42. Parzival - Wolfram von Eschenbach
43. Fall of the Roman Republic - Plutarch
44. The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle - Christopher Healy
45. The Quest of the Holy Grail - trans. Pauline M. Matarasso
46. Cristoforo Colombo: God's Navigator - Douglas T. Peck
47. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling - Henry Fielding
48. Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God - Bob Kauflin
49. The Last Days of Socrates - Plato
50. Postern of Fate - Agatha Christie
51. The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty -Kenneth Libbrecht and Patricia Rasmussen
52. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts - Simon Garfield
53. Wisconsin Underground - Doris Green
54. Measuring America: How the United States Was Shaped by the Greatest Land Sale in History - Andro Linklater
55. Tristan - Gottfried von Strassburg (with "Tristran" by Thomas)
56. A Preface to Paradise Lost - C.S. Lewis
57. A Princess of Neptune - Quentin Dodd
58. Rocks and Fossils: A Visual Guide - Robert R. Coenraads
59. Medieval Mysteries, Moralities and Interludes  - ed. Vincent F. Hopper and Gerald B. Lahey
1. Abraham and Isaac
2. Noah's Flood
3. The Second Shepherd's Play (I'd already read this)
4. The Castle of Perseverance
5. Everyman (already read)
6. Johan, the Husband
7. The Four PP

60. I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude that Makes the Difference - Thom S. Rainer

61. Seven Steps for Planting Churches - Rodney Harrison

62. A Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw - Christopher Healy
63. Pandora Gets Frightened - Carolyn Hennessy
64. St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography - Philip Freeman
65. Wisconsin History

66. Thucydides' Complete Writings - Thucydides

67. Publishing Your E-Book - Daniel E. Harmon

68. Anatomy of Steampunk: The Fashion of Victorian Futurism - Katherine Gleason
69. In the Land of Invented Languages - Arika Okrent
70. The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime - William Langewiesche
71. Food - Ogden Nash

72. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

73. The Pirate Queen - Susan Ronald
74. From Alexander to Cleopatra: The Hellenistic World  - Michael Grant
75. The Enormous Room - E.E. Cummings
76. Eggs, Beans and Crumpets - P.G. Wodehouse
1. All's Well with Bingo
2. Bingo and the Peke Crisis
3. The Editor Regrets
4. Sonny Boy
5. Anselm Gets His Chance
6. Romance at Droitgate Spa
7. A Bit of Luck for Mabel
8. Buttercup Day
9. Ukridge and the Old Stepper

77. The Golden Spiders - Rex Stout

78. The 39 Steps - John Buchan

79. The Moving Finger - Agatha Christie
80. Elephants Can Remember  - Agatha Christie
81. Robur the Conqueror - Jules Verne

82. The Hippopotamus Pool - Elizabeth Peters

83. The Black Mountain - Rex Stout

84. 12 Years a Slave - Solomon Northrup

85. Sketches by Boz - Charles Dickens

86. The Romans - Alfred Duggan

87. The Byzantines - Thomas Caldecot Chubb

88. The Northmen - Thomas Caldecot Chubb

89. The Prairie - James Fenimore Cooper

90. Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

91. And Be A Villain - Rex Stout

92. Black Orchids - Rex Stout

93. Three Act Tragedy - Agatha Christie

94. Witness for the Prosecution - Agatha Christie

95. The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk

96. English and Its History: The Evolution of a Language - Robert D. Stevick

97. An Introduction to Modern English Grammar -Jean Malmstrom

98. Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie

99. Cress - Marisa Meyer

100. The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinth and Mazes - David Willis McCullough