2023 Reading Tally; 2024 goals

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