With just a few days left in 2023, it's unlikely that I'll finish reading another book this year, so here's the tally. I've organized them very roughly by category - spiritual, classics, poetry, mysteries, and so on - though some works could have been put in a couple of categories.
2023 – 69 Books – Page Count - 14,577
Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) by Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
The Message of St. Francis
Untroubled by the Unknown by Father Mike Schmitz
See God and Live by Father Matthew Swizdor, OFM.Conv.
Diogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski Collection edited by Philip F. Lawler
The Fire of God by John Michael Talbot
The Tree of Life by Saint Bonaventure
I Heard God Laugh by Matthew Kelly
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
Perelandra by C. S, Lewis
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Sir Thomas More - Various writers, some input from Shakespeare
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne
A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J Gaines
The Lighthouse by Michael D. O’Brien
Plague Journal by Michael D. O’Brien
Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O’Brien
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Steeple Bush by Robert Frost
In the Clearing by Robert Frost
Two Masques by Robert Frost
Rochester Area Haiku Group 2020 Members’ Anthology
Cats in Spring Rain (haiku)
Seeds from a Birch Tree (haiku) by Clark Strand
A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thmoas (with illustrations by Chris Raschka)
Fractured by Cattails: Haiku Society of America 2023 Members’ Anthology
Talking God by Tony Hillerman
Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman
Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman
A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman
People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman
The Scandal of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
All the Dead Heroes by Stephen F. Wilcox
Advent of Dying by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie
Killing Custer by Margaret Coel
Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Glory Road by Bruce Catton
Man of Fire: William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War by Derek D. Maxfield
Kindertransport by Olga Levy Drucker
The Broons and Oor Wullie: The 1960s Revisited
Small-Town Hearts by Ruth Logan Herne
Winter’s End by Ruth Logan Herne
The Doom Stone by Paul Zindel
The Story of the Three Wise Men by Tomie dePaola
Tomie dePaola: His Art & His Stories by Barbara Elleman
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber
Childless by Brian J. Gail
The Night the Saints Save Christmas by Gracis Jagla
So how did I do in terms of the reading goals for the year? Here's what I wrote last December:
Goals for 2023: 50-70 works, 12,000+ pages
More spiritual reading, including some encyclicals and Mere Christianity by Lewis
Finish the Hillerman Navajo mysteries
Finish the Father Brown mysteries (Just 9 stories to go!)
Read at least one more of Frost's poetry books
Reread David Copperfield by Dickens
Read Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Read Saint Thomas More by several writers, with input by Shakespeare
Read all of Shakespeare's sonnets
Results:
69 books, 14,577 pages - goal met
Spiritual reading - some, including one encyclical. I did read Mere Christianity - overall, mixed results.
Hillerman - goal met
Father Brown - goal met
Frost - finished them all, so goal met
I did not reread David Copperfield, but I did read Hard Times. A pass.
I started Don Quixote, but just could not get into it. Goal not met, and may never be met!
Saint Thomas More - goal met
Shakespeare's sonnets - goal met.
Overall, not bad.
Some good works in there. There were a few clunkers, but in general a pleasurable year of reading.
My only real disappointment was with the amount of spiritual reading. The 2023 tally was okay, but I could have done better.
So goals for 2024:
60-70 books, 15,000 pages
More spiritual reading, 13-15 works, including at least 2 encyclicals
Reading the Bible daily, including finishing all the OT books I have not yet read
Read at least five Dorothy Sayers Wimsey mysteries
Read a couple of Agatha Christie mysteries
Read at least one Dickens novel that I haven't read before
Read at least one Chesterton novel that I haven't read before
Read all of Emily Dickinson's poetry
Read another Michael D. O'Brien novel
Read Winter's Child by Margaret Coel
Pax et bonum