Before I get too far ahead of myself, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you had a good time, and even if it wasn't perfect, it was perfectly acceptable to you. Yesterday we finished packing up and tidying out house (pine needles were EVERYWHERE and we had a fake tree!!), and began getting back to our routine. My house feels a little empty and spartan right now, but I am sure in time it will get cluttered back up!
So the goal that I have accomplished most recently is to finish reading 20 books! Instead of reviewing each one individually I am just going to do a few favourites. A lot of these books were just re-reads from my library. So here are all the books I have read for the last 28 months:
- Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
- Septimus Heap: Magyk by Angie Sage
- Septimus Heap: Flyte by Angie Sage
- Septimus Heap: Physik by Angie Sage
- Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James
- The Indwelling by Jenkins/Lahaye
- The Mark by Jenkins/Lahaye
- Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider
- Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- The Behavior Gap by Carl Richards
- One Year to an Organized Financial Life by Regina Leeds
- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
- The Eat Clean Rules by Tosca Reno
- By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Simarillion by JRR Tolkien
Septimus Heap series: This was a series that I picked up at my parents house, and then discovered it belonged to my sister. It is a children's book about the same level as Harry Potter, and also involves a young wizard. However the rules of this magical world are totally different. It was certainly not a challenging book to read, but it provided enough entertainment to enjoy reading through this first trilogy and I would be happy to read the rest of the books.
Organized Simplicity: Written by Tsh of Simple Mom (which is a blog I love, even though I am not the primary audience), this book is basically a primer on becoming more minimalist and walks step-by-step through the home giving tips and ideas to declutter your life and then clean using green methods. If the book was followed correctly your house would be ship-shape, perfectly tidy and you would have a bunch of stuff ready for a garage sale. I used it as inspiration rather than actually following the plan. I also got it from the library, which worked well since I think much of this information is very straight forward and probably doesn't require re-reading.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time: This book is very interesting as it is written in the voice of a boy with autism. There has been some criticism that it is not a very accurate account of living with autism, but as someone with no experience dealing with this disorder, it is a interesting look into the different ways that people can process the world. It is definetly something I would re-read in a few years and liked the change from the some of the mainstream books on my list.
Getting Things Done: This book was actually read on my laptop, because I somehow found this entire book on an open source and downloaded it. This book is a productivity treatise written from a business perspective and geared towards managers and executives who focus on projects and clients. It is basically a very complete, efficient paper system, which when used allow the person to ensure that they have received and process all forms of information directed at them. Then by following a "next action" list then can ensure that they are following-up on this information appropriately. I think it is a great read for everyone, as the basic premise of organizing all the information you receive into useable chunks is useful for everyone, in any setting. However this book goes into a lot of detail and describe very specific processes, which may not work in a non-business setting. The internet is full of people who have adapted this program to their own setting, so it is easy to find ideas for how to make this work for you. If this is an area that interests you then this is a book which you should definitely read, as so many other books and programs are based on it. I very much enjoyed this book and still use many of the ideas from it.
The Silmarillion: Instead of picking up The Hobbit to read before the movie came out, I, for some reason, decided to try reading the Simarillion. Having never read the Hobbit, and just barely finishing the Lord of the Rings Trilogies in middle school, my "Middle Earth" is remembered as Peter Jackson made it, instead of the true Tolkien creation. So for me to even attempt to read this book, which is widely known to be very hard to get through, seemed a bit crazy. But from the moment I started reading, and found the most beautiful description of a creation story that I have ever heard, I knew that I was going to finish this book. This book contains an enormous number of characters whose stories intertwine and who often change names or have several names, so it is incredibly easy to get confused. My copy had a glossary in the back including characters and locations which I flipped to very often. This book has so many beautiful stories, and rich characters, that even though it takes a long time to read it is a book you can easily keep coming back to. For this book you NEED a bookmark. And I would have to say this book was easily my favourite from the list.
For the next 4 weeks I am going to be attempting to work out 3 times a week!! My plan is to do 2 sessions of walking/easy jogging and then 1 session of a body weight routine or yoga. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am going to do more time, but less intense workouts as I haven't been working out at all recently, and really don't want any kind of injury getting in my way. So check in next week to meet my accountability friend and find out how we are doing!
Have you read any good books lately?
