Reflection on Writing

On Reading from an Old Blog

Clicking around on the backside of Blogger reminded me that I still have access to an old blog. This defunct collection of literary-themed posts was cowritten by myself and two friends, and a perusal of the titles took me back to a time when I did some fun creative writing in grad school.

What was it about being stressed for weeks on end, with no money and barely any free time, that led me to compose some of the most fun and witty and thoughtful essays of my life? Some of it is ridiculously silly (I'm thinking back to when I dedicated a whole paragraph to answering the question of "why should I move towards the bookshelf, instead of the bookshelf towards me?"). But some of the turns of phrase I used at the time captured my attention and had me pondering: Was I really ever that clever? 

Forgive me for tooting my own horn a bit - it's just so strange to compare my previous writing with what I do now. I'm grateful to have this blog and to keep the creative spirit going, but it seems like my brain doesn't work quite the same anymore. I don't sense the whimsy or vitality of thought that used to run through my sentences. And I have memories of feeling more creative in past years. I don't have an epic adventure novel-to-be-written actively developing in my imagination anymore. I haven't sat down for a serious fictional enterprise since I finished my one and only draft of a book based on Maid Marian from the Robin Hood legends (an idea that also grew out of my grad school brain). I admit one exception: last summer, after an enchanting walk through the woods on a cloudy day, I had a recurrence of the old imaginative impulse and sat down to write out the scene when I got home. 

I feel like I haven't been true to the creative gift God gave me, in whatever small measure I felt and appreciated it, and therefore, I wonder if I've lost the thrill of creating stories as a result.

Determination

Rereading that old blog has led me to the conclusion that I must not let go what I have, unless God wills it. I have a beautiful life, and I'm so grateful to have it, but I feel that I should keep writing, and writing more creatively than keeping a diary of books I've read. I want to write fun things, and not always serious ones. I will try to pray for God's guidance, in case He is calling me to put down these pursuits to make way for better ones. But I will try to write. There are so many ideas floating around in my mind - perhaps there'd be more space in my brain if I closed a few of those tabs and just flung the thoughts out onto the paper, as it were. 

I am a consumer. I eat up stories, and read and read and read, but don't end up doing much with what I have taken in. Perhaps it is time to make something of my free time other than another title whited out from my to-read list.

My goal is to, perhaps this Lent, make a point of writing something every day. It ought to be something related to my faith, and I have an idea about what project that could be. It wouldn't need to be much - just five minutes, but it must happen every day (excepting Sundays). It would not be a penance, perhaps, but it would be an attempt to use of an ability that feels like one of God's many beautiful, bountiful, unwarranted gifts to me. May God's will be done here, as in all things.

Post-Script

In case you are curious, here is a link to that lovely, quirky blog I contributed to back in the day. I hope to go back and enjoy the posts of my cowriters sometime soon.

https://narnianaustenites.blogspot.com/

Year 2024 Final Bracket

Finding the Best Book of 2024

This is it! It's the culmination of a year of reading, and my ranking of the best books I read this year.

Best in Genre

Spiritual Work: What Jesus Saw From the Cross, by A. G. Sertillanges

Fiction (Fantasy): The Complete Brambly Hedge, by Jill Barklem

Fiction (Classic): The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis

Fiction (Historical/Realistic): The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt (audiobook)

Auto/Biography: Different: The Story of an Outside-the-Box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him, by Nathan and Sally Clarkson (audiobook)

Literary Criticism/Book-Moir/Reference: The Read-Aloud Family, by Sarah Mackenzie

Nonfiction: Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv (audiobook)

Reread (besides Searching for and Maintaining Peace or other winners): Tales from the Perilous Realm, by J. R. R. Tolkien

Monthly Winners

January: The Read-Aloud Family

February: A Heart on Fire

March: Time for God

April: What Jesus Saw From the Cross

May: Saints Around the World

June: The Mouse and the Motorcycle

July: Madeleine Takes Command

August: In the School of the Holy Spirit and The Wednesday Wars

September: My Sisters, the Saints

October: The Screwtape Letters

November: Called to Life

December: The Complete Brambly Hedge

There has not been a year yet when I've had a full 12 books complete in the end-of-year bracket. Usually, there were months when I didn't really get a book read, or read just a few. Last year, I took The Lord of the Rings out of competition because I didn't want it in the bracket (I love the LOTR, of course). This year is the first year all 12 slots are open...and in fact, I have thirteen book titles! I couldn't decide on one winner in August, so I split the win between two excellent and very different books. Maybe someday I'll get smart and do a fiction bracket and a nonfiction bracket, but it is not this day.

I decided the easiest way to deal with 13 books was to group two Fr. Jacques Philippe books onto one line and keep the bracket at 12. Considering that there were three books by my favorite modern spiritual writer that made it to this final bracket, I didn't feel too bad about that decision. It would have been a nightmare to try to format 13 books in this bracket.

Five monthly winners were fictional works; three Christian living; five were spiritual works; one a reading reference book; one was about saints; and another was a memoir that incorporated the lives of saints that were important to the author, an autobiography of sorts.

This year, I managed to pick a singular winner, unlike last year, when I couldn't bring myself to choose a single title and decided that The Betrothed and Interior Freedom would both be the winners.

I reached decisions about the bracket based on reviewing my thoughts that I wrote down at the end of the month, as can be tracked on previous blog posts, as well as how the books have (or have not) stuck with me since then. Not all the books in this bracket wowed me, but I've read and listened to some amazing books this year. Best wishes to you and your reading goals in 2025!

Book Stats 2024

 

Data on 2024's Books Read

In the last year, I've come to embrace the fact that I like data. Well, I think I had already embraced this propensity for data, and I'm just verbalizing it more often now. It's time to set that data-crunching part of me loose on the books I read in 2024!

Totals

Total number of books read, all formats: 104 (increase of 41 books from 2024)

When comparing with the numbers from last year, I read or listened to more books every single month, excepting three months. The greatest number of books finished in any given month last year was eight, but this year, it was 15 - and I reached that number twice.

It was exciting to break the 100 book barrier this year! In 2020, I read about 95 books, courtesy of COVID lockdowns and auditing literature-heavy courses at my alma mater. Those were almost all physical books. I reached 100 books this year in large part due to Audible and the audiobooks I streamed there, most of which were included for free in my subscription. I'd love to read more physical books, or even ebooks, but there's so much to get done around the house that requires me to move and use my hands, making audiobooks a great way to access some books that have been mouldering on my to-read list for years.

Even though it seemed like I turned to audiobooks far more often in 2024 than I had in previous years, it looks like there was only an 8% increase in audiobook listening vs. reading a physical book. 

A Note About Audible

For those who may wonder if an Audible subscription is worth it, I'd say that it depends. The reason why I found Audible so useful this year was that I spent a lot of time searching Audible's app for titles that I could access for free with the subscription AND were either already on my to-read list or sounded very interesting. I already was in the habit of listening while I worked on chores around the house, either to audiobooks or podcasts, so it made sense that I'd enjoy the content I could access through this site.

I also have to note that I took advantage of sales. Audible will often advertise that you get to try the first three months for free, giving you access to one credit a month to use on an audiobook. Three free books is not bad. However, since I was no longer eligible for the free trial, I was able to capitalize on a deal that gave the highest level of subscription (usually $15 a month, I believe) for $1 a month, for three months. $3 for three books is not bad. But, in addition to those three, this deal gave me access to numerous other titles that cycle through being free to Audible users at that subscription level. 

I always ended subscriptions before they went to being the full $15 a month. But, sure enough, within the next month or two, there seemed to be another email advertising the same deal that I had cancelled not to long before. And, every time I clicked on the button to cash in on the deal, I was able to. There hasn't been any denial this year that I don't qualify for the deal because I've used it before; it's apparently a regularly-occurring discount that I can keep using. I keep feeling like it's too good to be true, and I'm waiting for Audible/Amazon to catch on, but nothing has happened yet.

Some Other Facts to Consider:

Total number of books attempted, but put down that were noted: 24 (significant increase from last year's 15), but:

Percentage of books started and completed: 81% (the same as last year)

Books being read, but not completed, at the end of 2023: 13 (increase of 6 over last year; audiobooks and books being read with my husband included)

Percentage of books that were rereads: 7%, or 7 books total (a slight decrease from last year's 9%)

This is another instance of having something feel like it happened more open, but the rate was consistent with last year's. I ended up putting down an average of 19% of the books I picked up without finishing them. I did this with 9 more books than in 2023, but it was still the same percentage.

I don't love that I'm rereading fewer books; I can now say it's a trend, since it has happened two years in a row now. However, as in the case of The Door in the Wall, a book I loved previously isn't always going to hit the same when I reread it. So, I would like to keep my goal of rereading a little more often, with the understanding that maybe I can put it down if I don't love it as much this time around.

Genre Data

The graph looks fairly similar to last year's, but I did notice that I read even more fiction than before, and slightly fewer spiritual works. However, as I noted in last year's post, some books that fall in the blue slices of this graph were included in the spiritual works graph (next graph), meaning that my religious content intake is higher than this graph indicates. 

Figuring out genres for books is difficult, as can be seen with the purple slice. This is the second year in a row that I've read no philosophy, so I took that heading out and replaced it with Literary Criticism/Book-moir/Reference. And, by that confusing combination heading, I mean books that are largely about books and reading or learning or someone's experiences, as explored through books (book-memoir => book-moir). I read many of those this year, and while they could fall within a nonfiction category, or are listed generically as "Christian literature" on Google, they're something of a genre unto themselves.

There was also a slight increase in nonfiction books. I credit this uptick to Audible's free titles and a Sunday sermon expounding the benefits of learning about the world God created. 

Spiritual Reading

Another year, another change in the headings on this graph. The first two headings are actually a split from last year, in which all four were combined under one heading. "Conversion" has been added to apologetics, since they seem to go together. The final two are the same as last year.

There were fewer books I read about Catholic living and marriage this year, but I did see an increase in books that I read that were about more concrete aspects of the faith, including God, Mary, the Church, and the saints, which indicates that I met a goal that developed last year.

Fiction

There was a big growth in the genre of historic fiction / realistic fiction, and that is due, once again, to Audible subscriptions. I've wanted to read many Newbery award winners, but haven't made them a priority to check out from the library. Enter Audible, with its rotating selection of free titles, and suddenly I'm reading all the historic fiction (mostly children's literature). I also started the Mitford series, which I grouped into this category as well.

There was also an increase in the number of fantasy books I read - and, by fantasy, I mean typical stories that have fantasy elements, as well as books that have anthropomorphic animals as characters. There were still a few titles that defied categorization or toed the line between multiple genres, but most fit pretty neatly into the headings I chose.

I read fewer classics this year, and that was with the added motivation of reading them for my book club! However, I'm at peace with putting some classics down if they're not right for me to read right now. Some classics also fall into genres that are not Fiction, so that also may account for why that category looks so small.

There will be a second post that focuses specifically on the best books of the year battling it out in a bracket.