{"id":3371,"date":"2020-01-10T07:18:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T13:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2020-01-10T07:18:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T13:18:42","slug":"my-reading-list-for-2019-courtesy-of-goodreads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/my-reading-list-for-2019-courtesy-of-goodreads\/","title":{"rendered":"My Reading List for 2019, Courtesy of Goodreads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s time for the annual review of books read in the previous year. I use the Goodreads app, which allows one to catalog the books finished, what I\u2019m currently reading, and what is on the to-read list. The social-media app is owned by Amazon, which is well on its way to controlling the world.<\/p>\n

Like Facebook, one has \u201cfriends\u201d on Goodreads, who spy your name on the list and decide to join your online book club. I welcome all but don\u2019t spend much time searching for friends who are on Goodreads. The app\u2019s primary function for me is to replace the handwritten list of books read, which I once kept in the loose-leaf spiral notebook I lug around in my satchel bag. Goodreads is handier.<\/p>\n

So, to tally up: In 2019, I read 40 books amassing a total of 15,098 pages. The longest book read \u2014 and hands-down the most masterful biography I have read in years \u2014 was Churchill: Walking with Destiny<\/em>, by Andrew Roberts. At 1,105 pages, it is heavy enough to break a barefoot toe if dropped.<\/p>\n

But what a wonderful book. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I were fortunate enough to hear Roberts speak at LeTourneau University last February. He kindly personally inscribed a copy to us, which I treasure. That\u2019s an idiosyncrasy of some bibliophiles, including me. I collect signed copies by authors I enjoy reading.<\/p>\n

The shortest book read was Risen Light Nature Photography & Devotional<\/em>, at 101 pages. I used some of its devotionals while teaching a photography class at the university last fall. Interestingly, the most popular book I read among the 90 million users worldwide on Goodreads was A Room of One\u2019s Own<\/em>, by Virginia Woolf, which was recommended by a non-Goodreads and actual physical friend. It\u2019s a compilation of two essays Woolf wrote about the constraints women faced at the time \u2014 and still likely face \u2014 if they wished to become writers: time, space, the traditional duties expected of females during the early decades of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Wolff wrote: In the first place, to have a room of her own, let alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question, unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble, even up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.<\/em> Nearly a quarter-million Goodreads folks also read A Room of One\u2019s Own<\/em> last year. Clearly, it resonates with many people, as it did with me. It\u2019s also one of just two books I read through the Kindle app. The other one was The<\/em> Mueller Report<\/em>. Yes, I read it in its entirety. More people should have.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, of the 90 million<\/strong> Goodreads users, I\u2019m apparently the only one who read Heart Mountain: The History of An American Concentration Camp<\/em>, by Douglas W. Nelson. Heart Mountain, in Wyoming, was one of this country\u2019s Japanese internment camps during World War II. My interest lies in a long-research project concerning my father\u2019s side of the family. My grandfather was a professional Boy Scout for many decades. As a young man, he helped supervise the Scout troops formed on Heart Mountain for the boys held in the camp. I don\u2019t know where that project is headed, but this was a fascinating, if heart-breaking, account of one of the more shameful incidents (there are many) in our country\u2019s history: interring Japanese-American citizens during that war.<\/p>\n

A brief sampling of my favorite books of all those read in 2019:<\/p>\n