A Bookish List

• Currently Reading: Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie, Mama Bear Apologetics: Guide to Sexuality by Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Amy Davison, and Rescue 911: Tales from a First Responder by Michael Morse
• Last Book Read: Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse in Scotland’s Western Isles by Mary J. MacLeod
• All-time Favorite book/series: King of the Trees by William D Burt or Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• An Author I always recommend: none. I’m very particular and will rarely recommend everything that an author has out. I am more likely to recommend specific books rather than authors.
• A book/series I DNF’d: Lord of the Rings. It is so dull to me, and the never-ending singing is beyond my ability to read and enjoy.
• A fictional place I’d like to visit: seeing as how I read very few books set in completely fictional places, I guess I’ll have to say Narnia 😉
• Favorite Book cover owned: as many books as I’ve read, I actually own very few, and most of them have very boring covers. I guess the most exciting book covers are the ones on the King of the Trees series.
• Last disappointing read: The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan. It just wasn’t as life-changing as I wanted it to be.
• A trope I love to see: I do tend to pick books with true-life exploits. (Is that an actual trope?) Real-life or true-to-life are my usual picks besides my favorite fantasy series.
• A trope I can’t stand: Love Triangles. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually read a book that contained this trope, but that’s likely because I read reviews, and if there is a hint of this trope, I probably won’t read it. Love triangles just seem ridiculous to me, as do most romance tropes. But that’s just me. 😉
• My favorite MC: anyone who doesn’t quite follow all the expected normal things, who challenges the status quo.
• A fictional character that reminds me of myself: never really found a fictional character that reminded me much of myself, but I’ve read many stories where I wished I was more like them
• A novel on my TBR: Island of the World by Michael D. O’Brien
• My comfort read: The Horse and His Boy or The Silver Chair from the Chronicles of Narnia series
• My favorite side character: Puddleglum from The Silver Chair. His character makes me laugh every time. I love his humor. I mean, he might be more of a main character than a side character, but he’s still my favorite.
• My favorite book-to-movie adaptation: not movie, but book-to-series adaptation. I’ve seen two good ones, All the Light We Cannot See (Netflix) and We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu). Of course, they’re not exactly true to the books, but they’re still very good. I just finished We Were the Lucky Ones series today and cried through more than one scene. (And it was more than just pregnancy hormones! 😂)
• A villain I love to hate: I’m not really sure how to answer this. Usually, the villains in the books I read are the Nazis or some other army or an idea rather than an actual villain. I guess it could be the White Witch out of Chronicles of Narnia.
• My favorite reading spot: anywhere I can get comfy and be undisturbed. Since that doesn’t happen very much right now, I rarely read a physical book. So now I listen to audiobooks wherever I happen to find myself, and that’s my favorite space.
• Longest book read: I’m not sure on this one, probably either My Share of the Task by General Stanley McChrystal or Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
• Shortest book read: I’ve been thinking on this one for a while and trying to figure out which is the shortest book I’ve ever read, so I think I’m just gonna take the easy way out and say it’s a children’s book that I’ve read to my children.
• My bookish goals for the year: I don’t have many goals this year. Last year, I attempted to read 100 books and finished 99. This year, my goal is to continue reading, but I’d love to find more inspiring books that are fully worth my time.

Bookworm Alert

What book could you read over and over again?

I love reading. I’ve always loved reading. Many were the times that my mom would have to work hard to interrupt my imagination that was completely captured by the book in my hands. I read all the books in our school library, even the ones that were hidden in the back closet and were deemed inappropriate for some reason to have on the shelves. (Perks of being the child of the school janitors!)

We went to the library every single week and borrowed hundreds of books over the years. We went so often that I actually memorized my library card number and knew exactly where on the shelves the books were that I wanted to read. We also ordered in books from other libraries and eagerly watched the wait list until we were next in line. One summer during the summer reading program at the library, when I was around 10 or 11, I read around 200 books in one week! (Most of them were actually age level appropriate.)

However, there are only a few books that I will read over and over and never tire of. One such series is the King of the Trees books.

The King of the Trees books were written in the early 2000s by William D Burt, who is an author from near my hometown in Oregon. (You can find his website here.) They are a Christian allegorical fantasy series, and for some reason, I absolutely love them. I was gifted the series a few years ago and read them about once a year. I can hardly wait till our children are old enough to enjoy them.

There are nine books in the series King of the Trees, Torsils in Time, The Golden Wood, The Greenstones, The Downs, Kyleah’s Mirrors, and The Birthing Tree. My favorites are King of the Trees and The Greenstones.

The other books I never tire of are the classics from the 1950s, the Chronicles of Narnia. I must confess, though, that my favorite version of these books is the dramatized audio versions from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. I have listened to them so many times that I can quote large sections of the audio.

This series has seven books, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician’s Nephew; and The Last Battle. My personal favorites from this series are The Horse and His Boy and The Silver Chair.

I love a good fantasy, but I’ve been spoiled by having read these two series, and now all others must compare. If they don’t, I don’t bother reading them. (And no, to all those who love the Lord of the Rings, I do NOT enjoy those books! Boo! 😄)

I have a goal to read more books this year than I read last year, and I’m well on my way to that goal. And now that I’ve written this, I might need to go get out my books and read them once again.

What books are you reading?