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In Books and Reading

Another Reading Challenge? Or, My Scholé Sisters 5×5 Challenge Picks

Author Kiel LemonPosted on Leave a comment

Call me crazy, but I have one more reading challenge to share with you for this year! The Scholé Sisters created the “5×5 Challenge” for 2020, and I decided to give it a go in addition to the Back to the Classics and 20 for 2020 Reading Challenges. The goal of the 5×5 list is to read both widely and deeply, so you choose 5 different topics/genres and 5 books in each of those areas. I am not quite as positive about completing this one as it is a bit more of a stretch due to the topics I chose. But I think even if I don’t finish all the titles, I will have made some good progress in self-education that I have been neglecting. Another part of the Scholé Sisters’ 5×5 Challenge is to read from your shelves or to reread books. So, I’ve noted with an asterisk which titles I have on my physical shelves or on Kindle. The only re-read is Til We Have Faces! Here are my choices so far:

Mathematics

    1. Here’s Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos
    2. A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
    3. The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz
    4. Math with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin
    5. ? (Maybe something more about teaching math, but I’m not sure what.)

Biography/Memoire

    1. Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser*
    2. An American Princess by Annette van der Zijl*
    3. Ocean of Truth by Joyce McPherson*
    4. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano*
    5. Night by Elie Wiesel*

Theology/Christianity

    1. The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer*
    2. In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen*
    3. Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman*
    4. Knowing God by J. I. Packer* 
    5. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton*

Health/Wellness

    1. The Wellness Revelation by Alisa Keeton*
    2. Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman
    3. The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer
    4. The Complete Homeopathy Handbook by Miranda Castro*
    5. ? (Possibly something about Swedish Drill or other exercise handbook for children.)

Literary Fiction

    1. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster*
    2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens*
    3. Silas Marner by George Eliot*
    4. The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
    5. Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis*

Yes, I still have a few blanks to fill in. I plan to fill those in with books referenced in the other texts in those areas. Or I may find some titles via Goodreads or someone else’s recommendation in the Scholé Sisters membership discussions. I guess we will just see where the spirit leads! Also, I’m curious…if you were to choose 5 topic areas from which to read in the coming year, what would they be? I’d love to get your responses in the comments! 

In Books and Reading

Joining the 2020 Back to the Classics Challenge

Author Kiel LemonPosted on 2 Comments

Hello again, dear readers! I’m back with another post about yet another book challenge! Am I in need of an intervention? Haha, maybe! But I don’t care. Bring on the books!

Last year I didn’t participate in the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate like I had in 2018. This year I wasn’t even sure if she was going to host again. It certainly must be a great deal of work to follow up on all the entries at the end of the year. But I checked, and sure enough, she is back at it again! This year’s categories looked like they would fit nicely with the other challenges I am doing. So I decided to dive in! Here are my choices. (You may notice some overlap from my 20 for 2020 challenge list, and that was entirely intentional!)

Back to the Classics 

Last year my reading was all over the place, and sometimes I felt like it was just too scattered for my liking. So having a few reading lists to keep me on track has already been really helpful. Of course, with the Back to the Classics Challenge the other part of the challenge is to keep up with writing the reviews! So I will have to actually come here and write now and then as I finish each book. I sure hope I can keep that going, too! Until next time…

In Books and Reading

The Literary Life 20 for 2020 Reading Challenge: My Book Picks

Author Kiel LemonPosted on Leave a comment

The lovely ladies on The Literary Life Podcast are hosting a reading challenge this year, and, of course, I had to join in! Yes, I joined partly because I love them (and work with them and got the list early), but mostly it was because the categories on this list are simply amazing! One of my other book goals this year is to read more from my shelves here at home. In light of that, I tried to plug in as many titles that I own as I could. But every category has one or more runners up that I might end up reading instead/also. All titles with an asterisk are books I own either in print or on Kindle. 

Aren’t these categories great? I mean, this list could go in so many different directions. It has been fun to look at other people’s lists on Instagram and Facebook, at least in the rare moments I have allowed myself to scroll social media. Some of these areas will be more out of my usual reading pattern than others, especially poetry and essays. I decided the best way to tackle these two categories was to add a page of poetry and an essay a day to my afternoon reading time. Enjoying a cup of hot tea with Emily Dickinson and Sir Frances Bacon is, admittedly, a pretty great way to spend a few minutes each afternoon! 

What, if any, reading challenges are you participating in this coming year? I’d love to hear all about it!

In Books and Reading, Uncategorized, Writing Life

Why Can’t I Write About the Books I Love?

Author Kiel LemonPosted on Leave a comment

Earlier in the month I finished reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and I have been wanting to write some of my thoughts about it ever since. The book moved me and has given me much about which to think, so it should be easy to write a post on it. Every time I think of it, however, the words just will not come.

Why is it so hard for me to write about books that I love? This is certainly not the first time I have struggled with the words to express how a book has impacted me. When I read My Antonia I had a similar struggle, and Watership Down is another book that I thought deeply about long after but could not find a way to put those thoughts down in black and white.

Perhaps one reason I have trouble writing about the books I love is that I don’t have a literary education, and I am not sure of the terms to use to talk about them. I feel somehow to discuss themes and structure and setting and all because I have no formal education in these things. All I know about literature has been picked up from places like the Circe Close Reads podcast or the Center for Lit podcast. Otherwise, my only qualification to talk about books is that I just love them so much.

And because I love books, I have trouble talking about them. It is almost as if the thoughts and feelings that I have about stories that I love feel too close and personal in some ways for me to express. Books have a way of getting to my heart in a way that other media don’t, especially fiction. The characters and settings somehow become a part of my personal experience, and I have a hard time telling others about that experience, even when I really want to do just that.

Reading The Good Earth was an incredibly moving experience, being part of the intensely human story of Wang Lung, the farmer, and his family. I felt like I was there watching his life unfold through all the trials and successes, the joy and the immense tragedy. But how can I tell you all my thoughts as I process this book? I hope that one day I will learn how to write about the books I love.

In the meantime, I will just have to content myself with recommending you read them, too! So, go get your hands on a copy of The Good Earth, and be prepared for a heart-wrenching story of the human condition. You can await my next report, in which I will likely have another book that I have come to love deeply and can’t find words for, because I have just started reading Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, and I’ve already been feeling swept off my feet!

In Books and Reading, Uncategorized

The Reading Report, Vol. 18: New Reading Goals for 2019

Author Kiel LemonPosted on Leave a comment

With January quickly coming to a close, it is definitely time for another installment of The Reading Report. I have so many bookish thoughts swirling around right now that I think I am going to need multiple posts for all of them. I want to tell you about what I am reading currently, as well as how I am trying to better organize my reading life, but those topics will need to be covered another time. For today, I am going to briefly review my reading goals from last year and tell you what my new goals are for 2019.

2018 Reading Recap-

Last year I set a goal to read 30 books, and I participated in the Back to the Classics Challenge in an effort to read some books I might otherwise not pick up. I ended the year having read 62 books, according to my Goodreads records, an accomplishment which frankly amazed me! I think that I made much better use of audio books to fit in extra reading time than I have in previous years. I also spent a lot more time reading a less time on the internet ding other things this year, which helped. I read mostly classic novels, with a decent number of those being kid lit, but there was a handful of nonfiction titles in the mix. Some of the books that most impacted me in 2018 were as follows, in no particular order:

Watership Down

Howards End

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Power and the Glory

Crossing to Safety

Reading Goals for 2019-

Now that I know I have a greater capacity for fitting in time for reading than I thought I did, I have set my goal at 50 complete books for 2019. I am pretty optimistic that I can beat that goal again this year, especially since I am not only doing a good amount of personal reading but am also pre-reading all my son’s school books this year. I decided not to do the Back to the Classic Challenge again this year because I have so many other book goals this year.

First, I like to keep up with the Close Reads podcast selections, as well as whatever the current Shakespeare play is being discussed on The Play’s the Thing. Another book discussion outlet I want to make better use of is the AmblesideOnline forum. This year, the parents on the forum are discussing books from AO’s Year 12 selections, which will all be a good challenge for me and excellent for my own educational improvement. In addition to these, I have been feeling the pull to read more of what is on my personal bookshelves, so I have compiled an ambitious TBR list just by perusing the bookcase here at home!

Finally, I have a goal of reading much more nonfiction this year, especially to actually read the nonfiction titles I started last year but didn’t finish. I am keeping myself accountable in this area using my habit tracker, marking off those days that I read at least one chapter of a non-fiction book. And pre-reading my son’s school books doesn’t count. So far, this habit is working well, and I am honestly enjoying and finishing the books in this category so much more than I have before!

I think it is helping that I am following a vein of interest, rather than reading the personal development or self-help books that seem popular among my friends. For example, I am currently on something of a brain research and the development of modern thought kick. The books Switch On Your Brain, Deep Work, The Shallows, and 10 Books That Screwed Up the World are all nonfiction titles I have been reading somewhat simultaneously. Even though these books are not exactly on the same topic, I am fascinated by all the connections I am making as I read about how our brains work, how we think and work best, and how society has changed with technology and the written word.

Read with Me!

Now it’s your turn! What are your reading goals for this year? I would love to hear what your hopes and plans are and what kinds of books you are going to be reading in 2019. Comment below and tell me all about them! Also, we can connect on Goodreads! I enjoy seeing what other folks are reading, and I often add to my own to be read list that way. Let’s read together, shall we?