As I promised in my first post of this new year, I am back this week with an update on my reading life. With all the stress of renovating, selling our house, packing up and moving across the country, and just normal daily life “stuff”, reading became very difficult for me in 2024. I would start books, only to drop them a chapter or two in. I would turn on an audio book only to mentally tune it out while my mind filled with distracted thoughts and to-do lists. In the evenings when I would normally have picked up a book, I often felt too tired for any greater mental stimulation than watching something on YouTube. So my reading life suffered.
Moving, however, also helped me return to the joy of reading and gain the motivation to crack open a book and keep reading to the end. I was able to find not just one, but two lovely groups of ladies who are fellow Charlotte Mason homeschoolers reading books and meeting together to discuss them. In fact, out of the second group of readers, we found a few families to nature hike with, and a third miniature book club of sorts was born because us moms can’t stop talking about what we are reading! After years of wishing for just one or two friends who were interested in the same kinds of books to talk with in real life, the Lord has blessed me with an overabundance of IRL reading buddies, and I couldn’t be more pleased!
The Goals
So, on to my goals for reading in 2025. First off, I am determined to actually read between 50-52 books this year. When I first started tracking my progress on Goodreads, I often read 60 or more books a year. But I guess in this season a lower number is more reasonable. My strategy to finish about a book a week doesn’t really look like reading one book straight through over the course of 7 days. Instead, I usually have several titles going at the same time. I may have mentioned this before, but I like to keep one or two audio books (usually one fiction, one non-fiction) going, as well as at least one book on my Kindle (preferably two), and at least one print book. I have found that I like audio for nonfiction, but Kindle also is a good option for me. For some reason, I still struggle to read nonfiction in print a lot of the time. But I still do fit those in as well. It still surprises me, looking back at my younger self, that I actually do enjoy reading as much nonfiction as I do and that it makes up so much of my reading life these days. However, a good golden age detective novel or a cozy British book of manners will still always be my go-to comfort books.
The Challenge
As I also mentioned in my previous post, I will be joining in one reading challenge this year. In the past I have been very ambitious, trying to do multiple challenges simultaneously, or making long and detailed lists of books I intend to read in a year. Because of my last year’s reading slump, I felt that something less daunting and more simple would be in order. One of my local friends sent me a link to the 2025 Classics Reading Challenge hosted at the Tea and Ink Society, and it seemed to be the perfect combination of challenge and comfort reading to keep me on track. Like the old Back to the Classics challenges Karen used to host on her Books and Chocolate blog, this new challenge will keep me reading the old books I love. However, the Tea and Ink Society challenge just has one book topic per month, meaning a more manageable total of 12 books overall instead of 25. This will give me more wiggle room to read whatever else strikes my fancy along the way, which is much more my style as a whimsical (or moody?) reader. I will talk more about my choices for each month as we go along, but January’s book is something you find a used bookstore. I either need to peruse my shelves for books I have recently acquired or (which would be more fun) hop on over to my local library’s used book shop and pick up a new read before the month is out!
Currently Reading
At the time of writing this post, these are the books I am actually, actively reading. I have some back burner titles that I would like to finish up sometime, but unless they get moved to the top of my reading stack, I won’t include them in these updates.
Reclaiming Quiet by Sarah Clarkson (audio book) – This book came at the right time for me as I start the new year with the intention of reducing my mental clutter, spending more time doing things offline, being more present with my family and friends, and pursuing more creative activities.
Beyond Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins (Kindle) – One of my local book groups was reading this one, but I joined as they were wrapping up the final chapters. I decided to go back to the beginning and really dig into the whole book on my own now, and I am really enjoying it. As Cindy’s podcast producer, I am already pretty familiar with her thoughts on all the topics in the book, but it is nice to have this resource and interact with her through the written word, too!
Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman (audio book) – This is my walking the dog alone audio book, and one that has been on my TBR list for quite some time. It has a lot of great ideas about moving more and using natural movement throughout my day, which is another helpful way to start things off in the new year. I would like to get my hands on a copy of the print book sometime, though, since there are some resources and illustrations that I obviously can’t see since I am just listening on audio.
Rembrandt is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey (Kindle) – As one of my book group reads, this title will be ongoing for several more months. It is really an excellent book on artists and their art through a Christian lens, and I am loving it. I could easily have sped through the whole thing by now, but I am purposefully sticking to our schedule and savoring the slow read.
The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (print) – I am currently reading this aloud to the kids. I know I started reading it to J when he was younger, but for he ended up finishing it on his own and I never did. Hopefully I will actually get all the way through it this time!
Finished Titles
For my first book completed this year, I listened to Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read. I have had her books on my TBR for a while now, but it is a little hard to find even through the library system in the US. I think I was held up with the idea that I needed to read them in order, but I decided that wasn’t really necessary and just jumped in with whatever one was available and enjoyed it immensely. If you like stories about people in small English villages, you will like the Thrush Green books. I also would venture to say that if you like Jan Karon’s books, you would enjoy these as well. They have a similar feel, although I must be honest in saying that Karon isn’t my cup of tea, although I don’t know why. I wonder if perhaps I like more degrees of separation between myself and the characters in books…they need to be set in a very different time and place, or have some elements of magical realism if they are contemporary novels. Anyway, Thrush Green was a wonderful place to start off my reading year, and I hope to revisit it often in the future!
Wrap Up
Clearly at the time of writing, I have many more nonfiction books going than fiction. I need to rectify that because although I enjoy learning via nonfiction, I need fiction for relaxation and to give my reading life a bit of fun and frivolity! So as soon as I finish writing this, I will be off to the shelves (virtual and physical) to peruse and choose a new novel to perk things up. I would love to hear what you are planning to read this year and how you are going to try and meet your goals for 2025.
Until next time, happy reading!
Kiel
