{"id":4457,"date":"2016-12-30T04:41:10","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T12:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4457"},"modified":"2017-12-30T10:29:54","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T18:29:54","slug":"my-favorite-reads-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/my-favorite-reads-of-2016","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Reads of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2016 was a very good year for reading. After a down year in 2015, this past year I surpassed my goal of 36 books, finishing number 38 on Christmas Eve. Here is what Goodreads tells me about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/user\/year_in_books\/2016\/327675\">my year in reading<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I read 11,553 pages.<\/li>\n<li>The average length of the books I read was 304 pages.<\/li>\n<li>The most popular book I read was\u00a0<em>Ready Player One<\/em> by Ernest Cline.<\/li>\n<li>The least popular book I read was\u00a0<em>No One Cries the Wrong Way<\/em> by Joe Kempf.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not only did I discover some great new books in 2016, but I also revisited some old favorites and found them just as good as I remembered. I also found new energy to write reviews for the books I was reading, and published eleven book reviews in November and December alone. That new energy came from two main sources: first, for my 50th birthday I decided to begin the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/50-classic-books-in-5-years-for-my-50th-birthday\">Classics Club<\/a> challenge of reading 50 classics in 5 years; and second, I participated in <a href=\"http:\/\/doingdeweydecimal.com\/2016\/10\/28\/nonfiction-november-is-here\/\">Nonfiction November<\/a>, my first online reading event. Through Classics Club and Nonfiction November I also discovered some new book blogs, met some fellow bloggers, and got some great book recommendations. In fact, my favorite book of the year was a recommendation that came out of Nonfiction November.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4535 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ready Player One\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne-195x300.jpg 195w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne-768x1184.jpg 768w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne-500x771.jpg 500w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/>And so, without further ado, here&#8217;s the countdown of my favorite books of 2016 (titles link to Amazon):<\/p>\n<ol reversed=\"\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2hmgL5c\"><em>The Nightingale<\/em><\/a> by Kristin Hannah &#8211; This book slowly grew on me, until finally it grabbed me and drew me into its moving story.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2i5wt8L\"><em>An Experiment in Criticism<\/em><\/a> by C.S. Lewis &#8211; This was recommended by David Coleman, president of the College Board (the SAT people). An excellent work on the experience of reading.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2ecmNbR\"><em>Three Hearts and Three Lions<\/em><\/a> by Poul Anderson &#8211; Don&#8217;t miss this heroic fantasy classic.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/three-hearts-and-three-lions-by-poul-anderson\">My review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2gEEdOc\"><em>Conan: The Definitive Collection<\/em><\/a> by Robert Howard &#8211; After all these years, the barbarian still entertains. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-book-5-conan-the-definitive-collection-by-robert-e-howard\">My review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2fB8fDH\"><em>The Betrothed<\/em><\/a> by Alessandro Manzoni &#8211; The first book I finished for my Classics Club challenge.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-book-1-the-betrothed-by-alessandro-manzoni\">My review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2iCzMBc\"><em>Ready Player One<\/em><\/a> by Ernest Cline &#8211; This is a really fun book, especially for those of us who grew up in the 1980s. I&#8217;m looking forward to the Spielberg-produced movie coming out in the summer of 2018.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2iCwpuj\"><em>Battlefield Earth<\/em><\/a> by L. Ron Hubbard &#8211; This book is even more fun than <em>Ready Player One<\/em>. (BTW, it has nothing to do with Scientology.)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/battlefield-earth-by-l-ron-hubbard\">My review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2ipcG1E\"><em>Contemplating the Trinity<\/em><\/a> by Raniero Cantalamessa &#8211; Interestingly, Fr. Cantalamessa was number three on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/my-favorite-reads-of-2015\">list from last year<\/a> with his book on the Holy Spirit. If everyone really understood the Holy Trinity the way it&#8217;s described in this book, then what a better world we would be living in.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2g8LF4K\"><em>Lord of the World<\/em><\/a> by Robert Hugh Benson &#8211; Frightening, prophetic, and yet ultimately hopeful.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-book-3-lord-of-the-world-by-robert-hugh-benson\">My Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2h0McCk\"><em>The Prestige<\/em><\/a> by Christoper Priest &#8211; This may not be the most life-changing book on my list, but it was certainly the one that had me hooked the most while I was reading it. I could not put it down.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/the-prestige-by-christopher-priest\">My Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>As 2017 arrives, I look forward to my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2017-reading-challenges\">reading challenges<\/a>\u00a0and a goal of 44 books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2016 was a very good year for reading. After a down year in 2015, this past year I surpassed my goal of 36 books, finishing number 38 on Christmas Eve. Here is what Goodreads tells me about my year in reading: I read 11,553 pages. The average length of the books I read was 304 pages. The most popular book I read was\u00a0Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The least popular book I read was\u00a0No One Cries the Wrong Way by Joe Kempf. Not only did I discover&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"My Favorite Reads of 2016","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[817,1024,36,223,860,874,875,183,843,626,864,850],"class_list":["post-4457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-alessandro-manzoni","tag-annual-favorite-reads","tag-book-recommendations","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-christopher-priest","tag-ernest-cline","tag-kristin-hannah","tag-l-ron-hubbard","tag-poul-anderson","tag-raniero-cantalamessa","tag-robert-e-howard","tag-robert-hugh-benson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ReadyPlayerOne.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-19T","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4457"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4539,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4457\/revisions\/4539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}