{"id":7032,"date":"2018-12-31T15:41:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T23:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=7032"},"modified":"2024-11-27T18:22:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T02:22:47","slug":"my-favorite-reads-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/my-favorite-reads-of-2018","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Reads of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7126\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7126\" class=\"wp-image-7126 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nick_in_LoC_Jefferson_Library.jpg\" alt=\"Library of Congress\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" srcset=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nick_in_LoC_Jefferson_Library.jpg 800w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nick_in_LoC_Jefferson_Library-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nick_in_LoC_Jefferson_Library-768x577.jpg 768w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Nick_in_LoC_Jefferson_Library-500x376.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Your Truly in the Thomas Jefferson Library at the Library of Congress in February of 2018<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After one of my most productive reading years ever in 2017, 2018 was a bit of a dip for me. I had to abandon most of my reading challenges because any free time I had was taken up by principal certification classes and getting used to my new role as an elementary school principal. Still, I was able to read quite a few books this year, and here are the details, with stats according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/user\/year_in_books\/2018\">Goodreads<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I read 38 books, consisting of 12,182 number of pages. Not a bad year, but my original goal was 52 books.<\/li>\n<li>The longest book I read was\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> and the shortest one was <em>Powerless to Powerful: Leadership for School Change<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>My favorite reading achievement this year was successfully hosting the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/tag\/les-mis-2018-read-along\"><em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> Chapter-a-Day Read-along<\/a>. About fifty people signed up for the challenge. I&#8217;m not sure how many actually finished the novel, but it it was a great way to connect with new readers and reconnect with formers students who studied the unabridged book with me in 8th grade. It was so much fun I&#8217;m planning on hosting a chapter-a-day read-along every year. If you&#8217;re interested, check out my <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/announcing-the-2019-chapter-a-day-read-along\">post announcing the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-along<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking of reading challenges, this was my second year attempting challenges, and although I signed up for ten challenges, I was only able to complete four:\n<ul>\n<li>I am pleased that I successfully completed the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2018-reading-challenges#nonfiction\">Nonfiction Reading Challenge<\/a> hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/doingdeweydecimal.com\/2017\/12\/16\/2018-nonfiction-reading-challenge\/\">Katie at Doing Dewey,<\/a>\u00a0because my nonfiction reading had really declined over the last few years. I actually exceeded my goal of 9 books, and read 17 nonfiction books in 2018, almost half of the total books I read.<\/li>\n<li>I also finished the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2018-reading-challenges#deal\">2018 Deal Me In Short Story Challenge<\/a> hosted by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bibliophilica.wordpress.com\/2016\/12\/21\/its-the-most-wonderful-day-of-the-year-announcing-the-7th-annual-deal-me-in-short-story-reading-challenge\/\">Jay at Bibliophilopolis<\/a>. I had to do a mini-marathon of short story reading to get it done, but I finished!<\/li>\n<li>Another challenge I completed at the last minutes was the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2018-reading-challenges#read\">Read It Again, Sam Challenge<\/a> hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/myreadersblock.blogspot.com\/2017\/10\/2018-color-coded-and-read-it-again-sam.html\">Bev at My Reader&#8217;s Block<\/a>. I reread four books this year, including\u00a0<em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>The final challenge I completed was the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2018-reading-challenges#charity\">Charity Reading Challenge<\/a> hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/blbooks.blogspot.com\/2017\/10\/charity-reading-challenge-2018.html\">Becky at Becky&#8217;s Book Reviews<\/a>. Since I read 38 books, I donated $38 to <a href=\"http:\/\/crs.org\/donate\/\">Catholic Relief Services<\/a>\u00a0this morning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>One other continuing challenge that I&#8217;ve been working on is the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/50-classic-books-in-5-years-for-my-50th-birthday\">Classics Club 50 Classic Books in 5 Years<\/a>. I only read 4 books for that challenge, but I was already ahead, so I&#8217;m still on pace. It&#8217;s been two years since I started the challenge and I&#8217;ve got 21 out of 50 books read.<\/li>\n<li>I also crossed an item off of my literary bucket list by visiting the Library of Congress in February. The visit was all too short, and I hope to return again sometime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And now, on to my favorite reads of the year. Unsurprisingly, in a year in which I read so much nonfiction, almost half of my favorites are nonfiction titles. Here they are, in reverse order of how much I enjoyed them, with links to my reviews where available.<\/p>\n<ol reversed=\"\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/the-drifter-the-last-gunfighter-book-1-by-william-w-johnstone\"><em>The Drifter<\/em><\/a> by William W. Johnstone<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-19-the-secret-garden-by-frances-hodgson-burnett\"><em>The Secret Garden<\/em><\/a> by Frances Hodgson Burnette<\/li>\n<li><em>Ready Player One<\/em> by Ernest Cline<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/just-mercy-a-story-of-justice-and-redemption-by-bryan-stevenson\"><em>Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption<\/em><\/a> by Bryan Stevenson<\/li>\n<li><em>Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America<\/em> by Joseph A. McCartin<\/li>\n<li><em>Mindset: The New Psychology of Success<\/em>\u00a0by Carol Dweck<\/li>\n<li><em>Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap&#8230;and Others Don&#8217;t<\/em>\u00a0by Jim Collins<\/li>\n<li><em>The Spy and the Traitor<\/em> by Ben MacIntyre<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-18-twenty-years-after-by-alexandre-dumas\"><em>Twenty Years After<\/em><\/a> by Alexandre Dumas<\/li>\n<li><em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>\u00a0by Victor Hugo &#8211; Still a favorite after all these years!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After one of my most productive reading years ever in 2017, 2018 was a bit of a dip for me. I had to abandon most of my reading challenges because any free time I had was taken up by principal certification classes and getting used to my new role as an elementary school principal. Still, I was able to read quite a few books this year, and here are the details, with stats according to Goodreads: I read 38 books, consisting of 12,182 number of pages. Not a&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7138,"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 2018","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":[5,1219],"tags":[1024,1104],"class_list":["post-7032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-chapter-a-day-read-along","tag-annual-favorite-reads","tag-library-of-congress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/LoC_pan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1Pq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032","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=7032"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7145,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7032\/revisions\/7145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}