by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

In the words of Austin Kleon, “I’m monogamous in my love life, but promiscuous in my reading life.” In 2019 I set a very lofty goal of 220 books on my Goodreads challenge, and while things looked iffy mid-year, I managed to surpass it. The number of books wasn’t the point of my goal, however. Here are the important reasons I had for setting this goal:

I just enjoy reading. I read for pleasure. I read to learn. I read to share what I read with others. I read for self-care. I read to build empathy. I read to escape into another world. I love books, and I am not sure it’s possible to have too many books, although it is possible to have too few bookshelves. If something I enjoy also comes with so many benefits, then all the more reason to increase my time in doing so!

Reading helps me connect with my children. As you will see in my overview below, a large number of books on my list were children’s picture books. I did this on purpose – my goal encouraged me to read to my children more, and it was further bolstered by what I learned from The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon and The Read Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarach MacKenzie.

Reading builds community. More Americans visited the public library in 2019 than they did the movie theater. Despite Amazon, independent bookstores are thriving. Free little libraries are popping up everywhere. Friends are on Goodreads checking out what the other is reading and saying about reading. This is because reading, no matter where it’s done, is never done in isolation. Books are better read together. Reading is being in community. While you are reading you are in another world, living with characters and thoughts and ideas for a time. How often have you wanted to discuss a book you just read with a friend? I know I have. So many people join book clubs, virtually and in real life, to meet and share their thoughts about what they’re reading.

Reading inspires writing. In 2017 and 2018, when I was in the throes of drafting my book, whenever I hit writer’s block I would take a break and read. I read books related to my topic, and books that had nothing to do with it. Reading gives me ideas and vocabulary. After a day or two of reading (as well as perhaps a walk or two outside), I would find my mind brimming again with ideas, and went back to my notebooks.

Now that you know why I did it, here is how I read 232 books:

1. I read in every possible format. Hard copy books, ebooks, audio books. I am often in the middle of at least three books in all three formats. Sometimes I’ll read a book on both audio and ebook (or print book), so that I can pick up where I left off and listen on the go. I use both my Kindle e-reader and the Kindle app on my phone. For audio books I use Audible, Google Play Books, Chirp, and through my public library, Overdrive, Libby and Hoopla. The electronic formats have not at all decreased my use of print format books – more reading simply drives more reading.
2. I carry books around every where I go. This of course has been made easier with digital format books (I now have a library on my phone now!), but I also carry around the hard copy book I’m reading, and there’s often a bag of children’s books in the car for those fifteen random minutes of waiting for a sibling to get out of school. This allows me to read in those “in between times” (at the doctor’s office, at a long checkout line) that can often be spent mindlessly scrolling social media.
3. I use a dedicated e-reader for ebooks. It’s very convenient to have books available on my phone, but the temptation to switch apps on my phone is high. With my e-reader, I can mono-task. The latest e-readers are attractive to the eye, lightweight, can hold hundreds of books, need only weekly charging, and can be used in the dark. My children like me to be in their bedroom with them as they fall asleep, and I’ve developed the habit of keeping my Kindle with me to read while they do. I can also use it bedside with the lights off in my bedroom without disturbing my husband’s sleep, and I have found that unlike my phone screen, it doesn’t seem to interrupt my sleep patterns (unless, of course, I’m reading a novel I can’t put down).
4. I don’t spend much time streaming video. I know there are so many great series out and available now on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and other streaming services, but I spend a lot less time on them. I do have a watchlist of movies to see when I’m in the mood for them or when I want to watch something with my family, but watching television is simply not an integrated part of my day to day (especially since Parks and Recreation ended!). This became a deliberate decision when I set higher reading goals, simply because I just gain so much more from reading.
5. I’ve streamlined my podcasts. When I first discovered podcasts, I went through a period where I added dozens to my playlist and listened to them all the time when I was on the road. Then I discovered audiobooks, and realized I needed to reduce the amount of time I spent on podcasts. In order to do so, I winnowed my podcast list down to about eight favorites that I follow on a separate podcast app. I keep a longer list of podcasts I occasionally enjoy or podcasts created by friends that I’d like to support on a separate podcast app that I visit every so often but are not on my weekly rotation. This has freed up much time for listening to audiobooks.  

6. I read lots of children’s chapter books and middle grade books. Often, these are on audio and all my kids listen together with me, most often in the car to and from church and our various activities and trips. Sometimes, I read them ahead to know if they are good for my kids. Sometimes they’re even books my kids recommend to me. Sometimes I read them aloud to my older two. Sometimes I read aloud books to them I didn’t read as a child (but felt I should), like The Hobbit.

7. I read many, many children’s picture books. As I mentioned above, The Enchanted Hour was a driving force in doing this. Reading to children is one of the best uses of time with them for both their brain development and for connection time as a family. To be fair, although I have read several of the children’s books more than once, I only counted them once on my Goodreads challenge. This actually encouraged me to read more and more. I used my public library for most of these books, and now regularly peruse the new book section and the librarian’s display for interesting stories. A HUGE obsession has been dinosaur books with my four-year-old. I have also discovered two new favorite children’s book authors, Patricia Polacco and Tomi dePaola.

8. I took classes at seminary. This included required reading (including Johannes Quasten’s Patrology Volume I) and added lots of books to my To Be Read list. It also helped guide me in my choices of “old books” to read, as I try to alternate between new books (those published in the last fifty years or so) and “old books” (everything before then). Here’s C.S. Lewis’ take on why we should read “old books”:

Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.

In 2019, one of my favorite “old books” was The Two Ways: The Early Christian Vision of Discipleship from the Didache and the Shepherd of Hermas (Plough/Indiebound/Amazon).

For more tips on how I find time to read and how to build (or re-build) a reading habit, see my post Building (or Rebuilding) a Reading Habit, and Finding Time to Read.

In 2019, my totals broken down by age range are 75 adult books, 60 middle grade or young adult books, and 95 children’s picture books. Here are some highlights from my 2019 reading life:

It was a Little House year for my family. The longest adult book in 2019 I read was Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible). This was a fascinating read that made me more, not less, empathetic towards the Ingalls families; it also renewed my hatred for the TV miniseries based very loosely on the Little House stories. I read it after listening to every single book of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder with my kids on audio. I also read the fictional Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible),the Little House on the Prairie story told from the point of view of Caroline. In May we did a literary pilgrimage and got a chance to visit Almanzo Wilder’s Homestead in Malone, New York (this is where Farmer Boy takes place). It was a highlight for my children and I (less so for my husband, who had not read the books with us and could not understand why this old house was so fascinating to us!)

My kids regularly ask me when the next book of the Vanderbeekers series comes out. We listened to all of the books in the series so far on audio (The Vanderbeekers of 141^st Street, The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden, and The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue),  and over the summer we got to meet Karina Yan Glaser herself at the Morristown Festival of Books! The next book in the series, The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found comes out in September 2020 (Indiebound/Amazon), and the first book has been optioned for a film by Amy Poehler!

Another family favorite (including my husband) was A Night Divided by Jennifer Neilson (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible). Her book Resistance, about World War II(which my son also loves) is often assigned in schools, but A Night Divided focuses on a family divided by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. We were captivated by the book on audio and of course enjoyed Words on Fire (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible), about the Lithuanian book smugglers,by the same author on audio as well.

I read so much middle grade and young adult fiction in 2019 that it is no surprise that Xenia the Warm-hearted became my 2019 Being in Community book of the year. This is a great middle grade/YA novel that is the fourth in a series adults will also enjoy (I did!). Read more and watch my interview with author Grace Brooks here.

In adult books, I read The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay overnight. It’s a sweet novel about love, friendship, and books (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible). I have already pre-ordered the sequel, Of Literature and Lattes, and can’t wait to read it cozied up with a hot latte. A close second was finishing the historical fiction Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan in two days (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible).

In adult nonfiction, my highlight was I Live Again: A Memoir of Ileana, Princess of Romania and Archduchess of Austria. I have listened to this on Audible twice over, have recommended it to almost anyone who asks me for a good audio book to listen to, and have made a literary/spiritual pilgrimage to the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood, PA, which Princess Ileana—when she became Mother Alexandra–founded. You can read my full review here (Ancient Faith Press/Amazon/Audible).

Other memorable nonfiction reads in 2019 include: Invited by Leslier Verner (my full review can be found here), From Red Earth: A Rwandan Story of Healing and Forgiveness by Denise Uwimana and The 21: A Journey to the Land of Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach. My reviews of both books can be found here.

In picture books, my four-year-old dinosaur loving son liked Dinosaurs Galore! By Giles Andreae  and illustrated by David Wojtowycz (Indiebound/Amazon)the best, and I enjoyed best The Dinosaur Expert by Margaret McNamara and illustrated G. Brian Karas (Indiebound/Amazon), a book about a young girl who discovers women paleontologists. In non-dinosaur books, his favorite picture book was Philo and the Faithfulness SuperHoly by Mireille Mishriky and illustrated by S. Violette Palumbo.

My seven-year-old daughter’s favorite book in 2019 was the Anne of Green Gables graphic novel by Mariah Marsden, Kendra Phipps, Erika Kuster, and illustrated by Brenna Thummler (Indiebound/Amazon). In 2018 we managed to get away to Prince Edward Island for a day and we got to see the Anne of Green Gables musical together. The graphic novel is beautiful, captures the story faithfully, and only makes her want to read the unabridged original by L.M. Montgomery together even more. I’m looking forward to that, with perhaps a return trip to P.E.I. together!

My ten-year-old son is his own voracious reader. His favorite genre is historical fiction, his gateway being the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales graphic novel series. He also enjoyed the Freeman Colby graphic novel series on the Civil War by Marek Bennett and A Forest in the Desert: The Life of Saint John the Short by Michael El-Gamal (Creative Orthodox). His favorite non-graphic novel in 2019 was Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Indiebound/Amazon/Audible).

My reading life in 2019 was so full, so pleasurable, so lively, and so inspiring that I set the goal of 220 books again for 2020. I’m looking forward to all I will learn, the connections I will build with my family, and the fun we’ll have together as we take our literary lives into our real lives. Stay tuned for my 2020 Lenten Reading list, and tell me how you make time for reading!

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