This is the second year I managed to achieve my New Years Resolution of reading 52 books, something I am very proud of, as I do love reading, and it’s been a very difficult year. It, like last year, took some rushing towards the end, because of my ill health and a period of a few months being unable to concentrate (and therefore read), but this year I didn’t have to resort to picking very short books to meet the magic number, so there’s perhaps some improvement!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought I would share this year’s 52, much like last year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1-10: <\/strong>Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez<\/em>, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk<\/em>, The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo<\/em>, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James<\/em>, 100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Le,<\/em> History of Taste by Paul Freedman<\/em>, Prey by Michael Crichton<\/em>, The History of the Philippines by Luis Francia<\/em>, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Stevenson<\/em>, Debris of Debris by Vinh Quyen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 11-20: <\/strong>Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe<\/em>, Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure by Samira Kawash<\/em>, Castle of Ortranto by Horace Walpole<\/em>, The Bees by Lalline Paull<\/em>, The Calendar by Ewing Duncan<\/em>, Airframe by Michael Crichton,<\/em> The Chrysalids by John Wyndham,<\/em> Astrology for Real Life by Theresa Reed<\/em>, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden,<\/em> Young Henry by Robert Hutchinson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 21-30:<\/strong> The Eurovision Song Contest Official History by John Kennedy O’Connor, <\/em>Ancient Rome Infographics by Nicolas Guillerat, <\/em>Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane<\/em>, Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth<\/em>, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk<\/em>, Atonement by Ian McEwan,<\/em> The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory<\/em>, Q by Christina Dalcher,<\/em> School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan<\/em>, The Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 31-40:<\/strong> Citizen Coke by Bartow J. Elmore, <\/em>Human Monsters anthology (Dark Matter),<\/em> The Cadbury Wars by Deborah Cadbury,<\/em> Body Horror Stories anthology by Ellen Datlow<\/em>, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith,<\/em> Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (reread) by JK Rowling,<\/em> Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee, <\/em>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (reread) by JK Rowling<\/em>, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (reread) by JK Rowling,<\/em> Misery by Stephen King<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 41-50: <\/strong>The Long Walk by Stephen King,<\/em> Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn<\/em>, Howls Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones,<\/em> Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos,<\/em> Breakfast Cereal: A Global History by Kathryn Cornell Dolan,<\/em> The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey<\/em>, The Tiger by John Vaillant<\/em>, Elevation by Stephen King,<\/em> The Chalk Man by CJ Tudor<\/em>, The Institute by Stephen King<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 51-52: <\/strong>The Prime Ministers: Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to May by Steve Richards,<\/em> The Treatment by Cally Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Top Non Fiction: <\/strong>The Prime Ministers: Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to May, The Tiger, Invisible Women, The Body Keeps the Score. Honourable Mentions: The Epigenetics Revolution, The Cadbury Wars<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Top Fiction: <\/strong>Howls Moving Castle, Atonement, Child 44, Memoirs of a Geisha. Honourable Mentions: Misery, Castle of Ortranto<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n WOW, what a list. I love to look back at the books I read – it reminds me of the things going on in my life at the point I read that book. Somehow memories attach themselves to the titles. I’ve kept a log of the books I’ve read since 2016, and if you don’t, I really recommend it!! I also write reviews (just two or three sentences, unless I really LOVED the book) on the books, and they can be nice to look back on too, and useful if you’ve forgotten what the book was about, or if someone is asking you for recommendations! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway – one resolution achieved. I looked back on my resolutions, actually, fearing the worst, because while I knew I achieved my reading goal, I felt a little pessimistic about having achieved any other goals. The year has been tough, with a long period in hospital, and really struggling later on in the year to look after myself. I haven’t had much time to focus on my hobbies, for example, or improving myself. This time of year can trigger a lot of regret, frustation, anger, shame…sad feelings. But you know? It turns out I managed to achieve four of my eight resolutions, and I feel really proud of that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll continue this post once I’ve decided what resolutions I will be setting this year, so look out for a part two, but for now, I hope my book reading might inspire you, and that you know that it’s okay to struggle..resolutions shouldn’t be about being negative about yourself. Making any progress towards one or two of your goals, if you had multiple, is brilliant! And even if you didn’t – I am sure there will be achievements of some sort in your year, and they should be what you celebrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the second year I managed to achieve my New Years Resolution of reading 52 books, something I am very proud of!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[38,21,19],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-books","tag-mental-health","tag-reflections"],"featured_image_src":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/gulfer-ergin-LUGuCtvlk1Q-unsplash-scaled-e1704144450454.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"saffmae","author_link":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howsaffworks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}