I feel like I’m not a very good reader. I have friends who are always brimming with excitement, talking about the books they’ve read – one or two books every week.
I read – but usually I have a half dozen or so books that I’m working on. None of which are anything anyone ever wants to talk about. And usually by the time I finish them so much time has passed that it seems like I’m the slowest reader . . . ever.
But the past couple years I’ve really thought about it – the books I’ve finished. And I guess I do read. Maybe not 52 books a year. But I read things that are interesting to me, that inform me of the world, that help me understand others, that even occasionally give me an escape.
This year I’m going to keep track of my reading. A little reading chart if you will.
Here we go:
2023 READING WEEK ONE
- 54 pages of Jesus the Christ Study Guide, by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas Wayment
- 5 Chapters (1-5) of Jesus the Christ, by James E. Talmage
- 4 pages of The Book of Mormon
- about 25 pages of The Gospel According to Matthew
- 5 chapters of Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis
- About 15 pages of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – because I picked it up randomly, but I probably won’t continue on.
- Madeline’s Christmas – Read to Olivia on my lap one night when we were goofing off.
- Olive the Other Reindeer – Read to Calvin on my lap one night after Olivia.
- Blizzard – Read to the Library kids like 12 times 😛
- All You Need for a Snowman – Read to the Library kids
- The first two chapters of From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Read to two of the four 4th grade library classes.
- The first two chapters of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Read to two of the four 4th grade library classes
- The first two chapters of Number the Stars – Read to the 5th grade library classes.
- The first two chapters of The Devil’s Arithmetic – Read to Roo & Nate as our new book since we just finished Chronicles of Narnia last month.
- Four chapters of I Conquer the Castle by Dodie Smith – A book for me! As a gift from Natalie Montague, and I’m really enjoying it so far!
UPDATE: November 7, 2025
I just came across this post as I was doing some blog clean up. I remember these books largely. I did finish them all except the study guide to Jesus the Christ. I read the New Testament that year, (I’m almost always reading it, along with the Book of Mormon. I probably read the BOM at least twice in 2023 – it seems like I read it 2-3x a year these days).
But the point is this: That was my first time ever reading “Jesus the Christ.” Obviously I’d heard of it. But everyone goes on and on about how hard it is to read – both stylistically and doctrinally. As I read it I was surprised: 1) The style didn’t bother me. It sounded – frankly- like me. Verbose. But if you wait, you get there. But even more surprising: 2) Doctrinally. Haha! I knew literally all the stuff from Jesus the Christ. There wasn’t anything I didn’t already know/believe/understand as doctrine of the church. Hahaha. Now I knew where the source of the doctrine thought process came from. But the doctrine itself . . . well, yeah.
And I’m not bragging (cuz really? who reads my blog anyway?) I’m just saying – I was surprised at how well versed I already was in the points he made. I’m an extremely good verbal learner. You tell it to me, I memorize it in real time. I got it. So it probably speaks well to my parents and others who taught me the gospel. But I gave up on the study guide fairly quickly as I found it to be unuseful as it restated the obvious.
Also- clearly I didn’t keep up with my reading log. Now that sounds just like me.