I’ve recently become something of a Goodreads addict. For those of you who don’t know Goodreads is like Facebook for people who read a lot. You can rate, review, and recommend books to your friends. You can find new books that you might not otherwise have heard of. You can keep track of all the books you want to read without having to worry about forgetting the title or who wrote it – no more going into the bookstore saying “Do you have this book I heard about that’s got this girl in it who does stuff. The cover’s got red and black, or maybe gold and there are stripes…maybe.” (There are booksellers who can find a book based off a description like this, which I’m pretty sure is a superpower).
But anyway. Goodreads. I’ve been a member for almost five years, but it’s only in the last five months that I’ve started using it religiously to update my reading progress and to review the books I’ve read (you might have noticed the lovely goodreads sidebar that’s appeared on this page over there —->).
I discovered recently that you can set yourself a reading challenge for the year. Last year I set myself the goal of reading 50 books. I succeeded in reading 55. This year I’m aiming for 60, but besides setting myself a quantitative reading goal I’ve also decided to set a qualitative goal. Looking at those 55 books I read last year only three fall outside of the fantasy genre. So, this year I’m going to alternate between reading fantasy and something nonfiction. I’m off to a strong start – of the two books I’ve finished so far this year, one was a fantasy book in which the Napoleonic Wars were fought with dragons, (His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novak), and the other was a book about the female soldiers of the Civil War, (They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War by Deanne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook), that I picked up when I was in Harper’s Ferry this fall.
It was interesting reading the Civil War book because I haven’t read a serious piece of historical nonfiction since I left school in the Spring of 2012. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed books with plainly stated facts. I’ll admit that the book was somewhat dry and could have benefited from a more narrative structure, but I enjoyed it immensely. I feel like I gained a better insight into the mind of those women who ran away from home, disguised themselves as men, and joined the army. This is a subject that has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, but I’ve always veered more towards fictional accounts that towards historical record. I think I gathered a lot of good information and inspiration for my own writing and can’t wait to see what other hidden gems I find tucked between the covers of nonfiction books this year.
Thank you for Reading.
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