I had another great reading year thanks to my reading goals, so I knew I wanted to intentionally plan a list of books to read this year.
But, some big ideas that have been percolating in my mind have given way to a new desire for less structure in many different areas, including my reading goals. I really needed these reading challenges the last two years to get me reading different types of books and to push me to read "harder" books.
And that diet of excellent books has helped awaken my natural curiosity to read more widely. So I already have a great list of books on my TBR list. And it seems disingenuous to force them into arbitrary categories on a challenge.
So this year, I will plan to read most of the books on my list below. Maybe next year I will be back to Books and Chocolate, Schole Sisters 5x5, or this art one from Rebecca at A Humble Place.
This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure to learn more.
I've put the books into a few categories to keep them organized and see what categories I'm covering (and missing).
Nature/Science
- Adventure North by Sean Bloomfield
- The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon by Colin Fletcher
- The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry (And discussing via voxer with a friend)
- The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
- The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson (homeschool preread)
History
- The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber
- The Book of the Ancient Greeks by Dorothy Mills (homeschool preread)
- American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm by Gail Lumet Buckley
- The Young Oxford History of Britain and Ireland by Mike Corbishley, et. al. (homeschool preread)
- Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence: The Story of New York's African Burial Ground by Joyce Hansen & Gary McGowan
- Great Tales from English History by Robert Lacey
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- The French and Indian Wars: 1660-1763 by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier (homeschool preread)
Literature
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- The Odyssey by Homer (Fagles Translation)
- Poetic Edda translated by Lee M. Hollander
- Persuasion by Jane Austin
- Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
- Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
- The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
- Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
- Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott (or another Waverly novel)
Self Improvement / Parenting / Homeschooling
- This I Believe edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
- For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer-Macaulay
- Formation of Character by Charlotte Mason
New-to-Me Fiction Writers
- The Bat by Joe Nesbo
- The Midnight Witness by Sara Blaedel
- Sunstorm by Asa Larrson
- The Witch Hunter by Max Seeck
- The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
- State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
Other Nonfiction
- The Artists of Wyeth County: Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth by W. Barksdale Maynard
- Howard Pyle: Writer, Illustrator, Founder of the Brandywine School by Henry C. Pitz
- The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff
That makes a list of 36 books which is manageable but challenging for me at a rate of three per month. All of these books were already owned by me, except the two Howard Pyle books which I bought myself as birthday presents, or they are library books/ebooks.
I know I will read books that aren't on this list (I already read The Bat by Joe Nesbo and the next book in that series!) but I hope that this list will nudge me to read most of these titles before we ring in 2023.
I'd love to hear what you are excited to read this year.