I set a goal to read 24 books this year

I set out to read one book per month in 2020. Little did I know how much life would change. As 2020 progressed into March, I realized reading would become a great escape for me, just like it was in high school. 

So far, I’ve read 14 books this year and I’m working on book number 15. I’ve got my 12-book goal in the bag, so I’m upping the goal to 24 books. 

When I decided last December to set this goal for myself, I had no idea how much the world and my life would change. Through all the stress of the change, I’ve been so grateful to be able to escape into a book for a while every day. 

Reflecting on all this reading reminds me of one of my favorite Emily Dickinson Poems:

There is no frigate like a book 

To take us lands away

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry--

This traverse may the poorest take 

Without oppress of toll

How frugal is the chariot 

That bears a human soul

Family members bought me a few books in February and then, after everything hit the fan, I seemed to just keep piling and piling up books. I made too many trips to 2nd and Charles. 

I now have a ~healthy~ reading list. 

Honestly, some of the books on my reading list are old news. Revisiting those old feelings reading brought me in high school made my mind wander back to some books I never got to read in high school. 

I bought the entire Twilight series--all four books. I didn’t read them in high school for a lot of complicated reasons, but I’m excited to do a little indulging in some silly, unrealistic vampire love story fiction. I’ve read the first book, and plan to read the rest. 

Speaking of young adult novels, I also re-read the entire Hunger Games series. I decided to do this after I heard about the new prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which was released on May 19. 

I finished the original trilogy and The Ballad of Songbirds of Snakes. (I have lots of feelings on this one, but that’s for a different blog post). 

I also read a few racial justice books in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. 

I read some more books related to my work as a journalist. 

Here’s the books I’ve read so far this year: 

• “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11” by Mitchell Zuckoff

• “Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson

• “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators” by Ronan Farrow

• “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster” by Jon Krakauer

• “Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta” by Richard Grant

• “Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith and Found It Again Through Science” by Mike McHargue

• “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

• “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins

• “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

• “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo

• “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo

• “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins

• “You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass: Understanding the Hidden Forces that Make You You” by Mike McHargue

• “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer

• “Shameless: A Sexual Reformation” by Nadia Bolz-Weber

• “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” by Joshua Harris (don’t read this one)*

• “Every Young Woman’s Battle” by Shannon Ethridge (also don’t read this one)

• “Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith” by Sarah Bessey

• “Educated” by Tara Westover

• “Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation and How I Broke Free” by Linda Kay Klein

*Joshua Harris has stopped publishing all of his books and says he now believes the teaching in IKDG is harmful. I read this book for some research I’m doing at work. 

There are 20 books on this list. I’ve got to read four more to meet my goal. I’ll write an update post after I meet this goal. 

What good books have you read this year? Let me know!