Years ago, someone who is no longer blogging used to host a “Fall Into Reading” and “Spring Reading Fling,” where participants would share what they planned to read for the next few months and then come back and share what they actually did read. I always enjoyed reading those and added to my TBR list exponentially.
Susanne misses those posts, too, and has decided to start up an informal quarterly reading list sign-up. I thought this might be a good way to break up my larger reading plans into smaller goals. You can find more information here and join in here, if you’d like.
Planning for the month or the quarter just involves looking through the unread books on my shelves, in my Kindle app, and in my audiobook library and deciding which I want to read next. It helps condense the reading decision time by doing it this way rather than every time I finish one book and look for another.
My two biggest challenges are the Back to the Classics Challenge and then two others that focus on reading books we already own (Mount TBR) or have had on our reading list a while.
For classics:
- I’m currently listening to The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.
- Hard Times by Charles Dickens
- I might start Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson next. My copy has three volumes in one, so it’s rather large. But I have also been wanting to watch the series based on these stories as well, and want to read the books first.
I’ll be hosting my last Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge Feb. 1-29 and will share on Feb. 1 what I am reading for that challenge. I have one book on hand and am considering another.
From my current stash:
I just finished Panosian: A Story of God’s Gracious Providence by Chris Anderson. Next are:
Nonfiction:
- Good Tidings of Great Joy: A Collection of Christmas Sermons by Charles Spurgeon (currently reading)
- Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done by Laura Vanderkam (currently reading).
- The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan about the Biltmore House. I loved what she did with The Girls of Atomic City, so I’m eagerly looking forward to this book.
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life by Susan Hertog
Fiction:
- Promise Me This by Cathy Gohlke, a novel involving a couple of people on the Titanic, one who survived and one who did not, and those who wished the results had been reversed (currently reading).
- The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix
- The Shopkeepers by Nancy Moser, a sequel to The Pattern Artist and The Fashion Designer, novels about a young women going into those professions in the early 1900s.
- Castle on the Rise by Kristy Cambron, sequel to The Lost Castle, a novel involving three different timelines touching an old castle.
- The One True Love of Alice Ann by Eva Marie Everson, a novel set in 1940s Georgia about a girl waiting for the one she loves to come home from WWII.
Those should keep me busy for a while! I’m looking forward to all of them. I probably won’t finish them all this quarter, but whatever I don’t finish will just go on next quarter’s list.
What’s on your reading horizon?
(Sharing with Susanne, Global Blogging, Senior Salon, Hearth and Soul, Happy Now, InstaEncouragement)
Stray Thoughts 
Hi Barbara. Your last two posts were both great. That book about your Armenian History professor sounds great. That reminds me of a guy named Brigham Madsen who was my Freshman History 101 professor at the University of Utah back in the day. Listening to him really cemented my love of history. I love your reading plans and I have decided that since Intentional is my word for the year, I am going to make a reading plan too and be intentional about it, so look for a post about that one day soon. Thanks for your great posts and inspiration. I think it is really cool that you went to Bob Jones University. š
Thanks, Deb. I find that some kind of plan helps cut down on the “What should I read next?” time after every book. Plus, there are some that I wouldn’t just pick up automatically: I have to plan for them (usually the more thought-provoking non-fiction).
Wow that’s a lot of books you’re planning to read. I tend to set myself a reading challenge of 52 books in the year. (I’ve managed to surpass that the last two years.) I’m part of an online book group which gives me a challenge each month and this year I’m determined to read at least 12 books on my TBR pile. Having said that, I went to the library yesterday to collect a book that’s on the online list this month and came back with 3 others! I also like to read a book before watching the film/TV adaptations.
I don’t wander around the library much, or else I would bring home even more books. Then I’d also have the pressure of having to read them before exhausting all the due dates and renewals. But our library does have a way to place a hold online, so I frequently do that. I averaged 50-60 books a year until the last two years, when the total jumped to over 70. Not sure why!
What a great idea to break it into quarterly reading goals. I don’t think I’m that organized but I love the thought of it. I still need to get a grip on the reading challenges I signed up for. š Some had specific types of books to read whereas others were more generic. The generic lists will come easy, but the ones with named genres I’ll have to specifically choose books for.
Yes–most of the reading lists I signed up for were types of reading I already do, so I thought they’d be easy. But keeping up with the logistics might prove to be more trouble than they are worth. We’ll see.
I miss the What’s on Your Nightstand posts with monthly goals. This seems next best. At least it cuts down on the decision-making after every books is finished. š
Barbara, oh you’re so incredibly organized! I tend to read the next book that readies itself on my library request list …
It’s random but somehow it works.
š
I did that for many years–it does work. š
I enjoyed Girls of Atomic City, so will look forward to this as well. –Ann
Let me know if you read it!
Lark Rise to Candleford is one of my favorite EVER series! I watched it first and then bought the book – but have yet to read said book! And I bought a gorgeous second-hand hardcover. I really want to get to it this year! I will be signing up for your LIW reading challenge for February! I received the first three Little House books as a gift and I’ve been wanting to get to those too.
I’m looking forward to having you for the LIW challenge! And I hope you get to Lark Rise this year!
You have some great books on your list, happy reading. #SeniSal
Thank you!
I imagine it’s good discipline too … after posting you have to read and comment on your books, so you have to follow through! #GlobalBlogging
That’s true. Even when I give myself permission not to finish a challenge, I still feel the urge to complete it.
Someday I”m going to take on one of these reading challenges. Right now, for me, the challenge is to keep up with books I”ve promised to review!
I signed up to be a reviewer for one company, but they sent a box of six books a month. :-0 I didn’t want all my reading taken up by review books, so I stopped pretty quickly. I think with some of the newer review sites, you can sign up for as few or as many as you want. I may get into that if I can make a dent into the ones I already own or hope to own.
I like the idea of planning out reads, but I don’t always stick to them. I do want to read more of the books on my own shelves, so that’s my big goal.
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
That’s a great goal.
What a great list! I just finished The War Outside My Window, again. It’s a book written from 5 years of diaries of a teenage boy during the Civil War. It is fascinating!
That does sound interesting!
Great idea to break your reading into quarterly goals. My goal this year is to read books from my bookshelf. At the moment Iām busy preparing for the April A-Z challenge which involves posting every day. Visiting from #senisal Will share
That’s a great goal. I am always amazed at how many I have stacked up that I have not gotten to yet. And I keep adding to them. š
I used to read a lot. Could finish a book in a day. Cant put it down. So I have joined a bookclub we meet each month have the same book talk a bit about the book and all over a coffee. I volunteer in a opportunity shop and the amount of books that come in…First thing I do each time I’m in is sort out the books tidy them up and display a few – hoping we sell lots. I have about 6 that I need to read including my book club book…Wish me well. #SeniSal
Sounds like fun! I’ve participated in a few online book clubs, but not one in person.
Hopefully it will be fun….
I heart reading goals! laurensparks.net
Me too! š
I tend to read books for my blog now rather than classics or modern releases. I have read everything else by Jane Austen but not Sanditon and was a bit disappointed by the TV adaptation last year so hope the book is better (off to look for a copy…) Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging
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It always amazes me how you delve right into the classics. I find most of them harder to read. I have read both Promise Me This and Space Between Words and really liked both of them. Happy Reading!
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