Having spent a chunk of time compiling everyone else’s lists I thought I’d better get around to my own before the year runs away with me and the opportunity feels missed. I aimed for 75 books and managed 63 which is more than the year before but the 2nd year in a row I missed my target of 75. I’m not too worried about the totals especially, I set it to push me into the discipline of doing something I really enjoy. But I noticed that in the autumn in particular I really struggled to read books and not just blogs or emails. But each Christmas I get to read and it reminds me how much I love it. I also recognise, perhaps more than ever, that reading is a muscle that needs exercising and developing and that few things will atrophy my ability to focus and hold my attention as much as my phone can.

Goodreads offers up a few stats if you’re interested, as I invariably am.

Anyway, on to the books, favourites in bold.

Audiobooks

A chunk of my ‘reading’ if actually listening. These can be broken up into two distinct categories. Those I listened to with my kids and those I listened to on my own.

With kids

1. The Taylor Turbochaser by David Baddiel
2. The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
3. The Flying Flamingo Sisters by Carrie Seim
4. Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
5. The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne
6. Now we are Six by AA Milne
7. The Big Six by Arthur Ransome
8. Missee Lee by Arthur Ransome
9. The Picts & the Martyrs by Arthur Ransome
10. The Wind in the Willows (retold) by Dina Gregory
11. Just William’s Greatest Hits by Richmal Crompton
12. Rumblestar by Abi Elphinstone
13. The Strange World’s Travel Agency by LD Lapinksi
14. Amazon Adventure by Willard Price
15. My Brother is a Superhero by David Solomons
16. Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce
17. The Martian by Andy Weir
18. The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
19. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

Just me

1. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller
2. The Art of Writing & the Gifts of Writers by CS Lewis
3. Cosmos by Carl Sagan
4. The Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn
5. Post Captain by Patrick O’Brian
6. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
7. When we were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

Comics

I started last year with a binge of Calvin & Hobbes which I adored.

1. There’s Treasure Everywhere by Bill Watterson
2. Homicidal Pyscho Jungel Cat by Bill Watterson
3. It’s a Magical World by Bill Watterson
4. The Days are Just Packed by Bill Watterson
5. The Authoritative Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
6. Something Under the Bed is Drooling by Bill Watterson
7. Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons by Bill Watterson

Fiction

1. The Whistler by John Grisham
2. The Litigators by John Grisham
3. Gray Mountain by John Grisham
4. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
5. Harry Potter & the Cursed Child by JK Rowling
6. The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
7. The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
8. The Kingdom of the Wicked by Anthony Burgess

Non-fiction

1. Travel’s in the White Man’s Grave by Donald Macintosh
2. Deep Work by Cal Newport
3. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
4. There is no Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee
5. The Cosmic Mystery Tour by Nicholas Mee
6. Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall
7. Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones
8. The Almighty Dollar by Dharshini David

Christian

1. A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2. Choose Life by Simon Guillebaud
3. Mealtime Habits of the Messiah by Conrad Gempf
4. Jesus Asked by Conrad Gempf
5. The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Alison Barr
6. Parable of Community by Roger of Taize
7. 2 Kings by Dale Ralph Davis
8. Window on the World by Molly Wall
9. God Stories by Andrew Wilson
10. Sabbath Keeping by Lynne Baab
11. The Household Church by HL Ellison
12. Life through God’s Word by Christopher Wright
13. Let the Healing Begin by Jeannie Morgan
14. The Message of Mark by Morna Hooker