Hey, readers! It has been over a year (yikes!) since I posted an actual edition of The Reading Report. I have a ton of books going right now, but I don’t have any new reviews for the B2tC 2020 Challenge. So I thought I would pop on here today and give ya’ll an update on how I’m doing on all my current reading challenges. Brace yourselves…this could get long! 😉
Back to the Classics Challenge Report
I haven’t finished any new books on my B2tC list lately, but I am currently reading Gerald Durell’s My Family and Other Animals. I am likely going to use this title to replace Little Britches in the “Classic About a Family” category. I am also about to begin The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, and I will probably sub that for Til We Have Faces in the 20th Century Classic spot. After those are finished, I will have just 5 more categories to fill for that challenge.
The Literary Life 20 for 20 Challenge Report
For this challenge, let’s take a look at the titles and categories I have finished. The titles with an asterisk have been subbed for those on my original 20 for 2020 list:
- Shakespeare Play: A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
- Classic Detective Novel: The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart
- Classic Children’s Book: Gentle Ben by Walt Morley*
- Contemporary Novel: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey*
- Devotional Work: In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
- Guilty Pleasure: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
- Satire: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde*
- Out of My Comfort Zone: Here’s Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos
Currently, I am also working my way through the following categories and titles:
- Collection of Short Stories: Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie
- Biography or Memoire: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell*
- A Book About Books: Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson*
- Poetry: Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
- Essays: Essays of Bacon, Milton, and Browne (Harvard Classics)
Scholé Sisters 5×5 Challenge Report:
This is probably the challenge on which I have made the least numerical progress, but the work of stretching me outside my usual novel-reading habits has been good for me so far. Here is how my 5×5 Challenge list is going so far. Titles marked with a ^ are finished. Those with a ~ are in progress
Mathematics
- ^ Here’s Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos ^
- A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
- ^ The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz ^
- Math with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin
- ?
Biography/Memoire
- ~ Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser ~
- An American Princess by Annette van der Zijl
- ~ Ocean of Truth by Joyce McPherson ~
- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano*
- ~ My Family and Other Animals by George Durell ~
Theology/Christianity
- ^ The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer ^
- ^ In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen ^
- Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman
- Knowing God by J. I. Packer
- ~ Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton ~
Health/Wellness
- ~ The Wellness Revelation by Alisa Keeton ~
- Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman
- The Mind-Gut Connection by Emeran Mayer
- ^ The Complete Homeopathy Handbook by Miranda Castro ^
- ?
Literary Fiction
- ^ A Room with a View by E. M. Forster ^
- ^ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens ^
- Silas Marner by George Eliot
- ^ The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde ^
- Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Summing It All Up:
As you can see, I’ve been reading a lot for these challenges, and making some good headway for where we are in the year. This is also in addition to all the pre-reading I am doing for my son’s AmblesideOnline Year 4 books, plus family read-alouds that are not school related. Hopefully I can finish up some of my current reads because I am honestly having trouble juggling them all and still feeling like I’m making any visible progress. But, as the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race…and since reading isn’t a race anyway, I can feel good knowing I am learning and growing in my reading life at a steady rate!
How about you? How are you doing in your reading life? Are you doing any challenges, and if so, how are they going? You can always leave a comment with a blog post link so I can come read about your progress!