The Good Book(s)

As you can see with my fancy new design here. I've been feeling very inspired lately. Inspired to read again. Reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies but for a long time I only read a new book when JK Rowling told me to.

This last year however I have read a lot of fun great books! Some were rereads of old favorites but I branched out into some fun new stuff and I've really enjoyed it. Yesterday an old friend and I were talking about how important it is to read good books and she asked what some of my favorites were. Well, Darci, here's your list of my guilty pleasures from this past year:

1. Anything by Agatha Christie- There is a reason she is the most published author of all time.

2. Treasure Island- A true classic I had so much fun reading this book.

3. Crucial Conversations- More along the lines of a self-help book, this is one I pick up whenever I'm feeling frustrated, or like I don't know how to communicate. Its all about how to get through those conversations that are so important to any relationship, be it romantic, work related or otherwise. I have learned a lot about why I feel the way I do and how to see things from other perspectives.

4. The Chronicles of Narnia- What can I say about C.S. Lewis? I love his honesty and his sense of right and wrong.

5. Meeting Amazing Grace- This is a book I would recommend to anyone who is married. It is a fictional story with very distinct lessons about setting boundaries and coming through for the people who need us. It deals with the relationships we have with our in-laws.

6. Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover- Well about 90% of my family read this book this year and we all jumped on the bandwagon together. A very motivational book with great factoids and tips about making your money work for you and steps to getting out of debt.

7. I also reread 1-5 of the Harry Potter books. I actually got bored with number 5 though and never finished it. Amazingly enough, Harry is really annoying to me after about a million pages of him.

8. Just finished reading Jurassic Park- I was suprised when my Mom recommended this book to me. But I really enjoyed it! It was exciting, scary and surprisingly philosophical.

9. The Little Prince- This is a bad movie, but a delightful book! I was impressed at how profound this book is for being less than 200 pages.

10. Alice In Wonderland- You can see now that I have a thing for children's classics, but I want to make sure my kids get to read the best books when they are young and this is one of them. Yes its got a creepy factor to it, but Lewis Carroll is great at the genre of Literary Nonsense (yeah apparently it's a real thing).

In all this excitement I finally decided to go get myself a library card and I checked out a book I haven't read for a long time. Enders Game. I'm really excited to live through this one again!