Books Keep Me Going

 Today's post is going to be about the reading I did in 2020. To satisfy those who come here to see quilts, I will share one from the way-back machine - March of 2018. If you are interested, you can stay for the book stuff. If not, at least you had a quilt to look at. This is called Prairie Vine; I chose not to add the applique vine to the border, so the name is misleading, but oh well.

Retirement has afforded me so much more time for sewing and quilting, however my other love - reading - suffered. While I taught (high school English), I could justify my voracious reading; I kept up with the literary trends, read lots of YA literature, and tried any way I could to engage my freshmen and juniors (the two grades I mostly taught). My goal was to get them hooked on reading, and to have it become a lifelong love like it was for me.

I had a conundrum: while full time teaching, my quilting suffered; in retirement, my reading suffered. 

What to do??

Enter audio books. It completely surprises me that I have enjoyed listening to books as much as I do. I was reluctant to get on the audio bandwagon initially. Friends sang the praises of listening while driving, but it just never clicked with me.

Then I tried listening while I sewed, and VOILA!! 

I have been an avid listener for several years, and have tried several of the standard audio services: Kindle, Nook, Audible. The one I have come to use the most is Overdrive, a service from my local library that allows me to borrow audio versions of books. All those others, to the best of my knowledge, have some expense involved. 

Overdrive links to my library and allows me to place holds. I use it from my smart phone, and like any app, learning it and becoming proficient comes by using it. 

Somewhere along the line, I decided that I needed to keep a steady stream of enjoyable books lined up in the queue. I dislike down time between books. It made sense to me to queue in titles by some of my favorite and most prolific authors. There are many, but in 2020, I went with Brad Thor, Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and Philippa Gregory. Quite a difference between Thor and the others, yes, but those spy and espionage thrillers are fun! 

I have introduced and explained enough; let me get to the actual 2020 reading. I read 56 books in that calendar year, a personal best, I do believe. Here is the breakdown by author:

Thor - 16 titles - finished all that he's written; did not read in order, but it didn't really matter.

Penny - 11 titles - finished all her titles; should have read in order, but didn't.

Cleeves - 8 titles - trying to read in order; the hold list is long.

Gregory - 6 titles - I'd read a couple of her books over the years, but realized that if I wanted a complete look at the long history of English royalty, I should work through them chronologically. That is a very  long list of titles, and I am working through them in order, rereading any that I may have already read (there's a good chance I don't remember a smidgen of them anyway). She has several different series, so I keep a list nearby and check them off as I read them. Sometimes, the waits are rather long. She has a large, loyal fan base.

Others - 15 titles - three by Elizabeth Berg; the rest were just one apiece from 12 different authors. Do you want some specific titles? This post is already word-laden (although, if you are still with me, I suspect you must be a book lover, and don't mind all the words). 

I will mention a few favorites. Oddly, my top two favorites are nonfiction. I really loved Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. I actually listened to it twice, and then had the pleasure of seeing the movie. Both very good. 

I also liked The Pioneers by David McCullough. Living in Ohio and visiting Marietta, it was especially relevant, but this book would appeal to all history buffs. The whole idea of coming to this vast, forest-filled land with plans to tame and settle it fascinates me.

In the fiction department, I enjoyed Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing. Amazing read; I was so glad to have read it after hearing various friends give it positive reviews. Of Elizabeth Berg's, I liked best The Story of Arthur Trulove. It reminded me a bit of Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove. 

Ann Patchett's The Dutch House was another book I listened to twice. I loved her characters and the descriptions of the house. It was read by Tom Hanks, and if this book is ever made into a movie, he HAS to be cast as the main character. He did a great job. 

I hope this brief review of my reading has inspired the book lovers in my audience with some new titles to investigate. I am on Goodreads, so if you are, too, you can peruse the titles in my "Read" list or my "To Be Read" list. I am not overly prompt at keeping my titles up to date, but I am trying to do better.

Happy Quilting, Friends! (And Happy Reading, too!)