{"id":7491,"date":"2019-12-31T15:30:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T23:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=7491"},"modified":"2019-12-30T18:52:33","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T02:52:33","slug":"my-favorite-reads-of-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/my-favorite-reads-of-2019","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Reads of 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7521\" src=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"980\" height=\"624\" srcset=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02.jpg 980w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02-300x191.jpg 300w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02-500x318.jpg 500w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02-768x489.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When 2019 began I knew that my reading time would be limited, so I set a modest reading goal of 25 books for the year. I&#8217;m happy to say that just this morning I finished book number 30, exceeding my goal by five. I&#8217;m also happy that I was able to complete the three other reading challenges I set for the year, the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2019-reading-challenges#charity\">Charity Reading Challenge<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2019-reading-challenges#european\">European Reading Challenge<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/2019-reading-challenges#deal\">Deal Me In Short Story Challenge<\/a>. For the Charity challenge, since I read 30 books I donated $30 to <a href=\"http:\/\/crs.org\/donate\/\">Catholic Relief Services<\/a> earlier today. I also kept pace with the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/50-classic-books-in-5-years-for-my-50th-birthday\">Classics Club 50 books in 5 Years<\/a> reading challenge, reading ten classics in 2019. With a little less than two years left in the challenge, I have 19 books to go.<\/p>\n<p>Here a few other reflections on my year in reading (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/user\/year_in_books\/2019\">statistics from Goodreads<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Even though I read about ten fewer books than last year, I actually read slightly more pages. That&#8217;s because several of the books I read were very long: <em>Don Quixote<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The Old Curiosity Shop, <\/em>as well the last several books of the D&#8217;Artagnan series.<\/li>\n<li>The shortest book I read was\u00a0<em>Gaudete et Exsultate<\/em> by Pope Francis, and the longest book I read was\u00a0<em>The Count of Monte Cristo.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>\n<div id=\"attachment_7503\" style=\"width: 238px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7503\" class=\"wp-image-7503 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Alexander_Dumas-228x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"228\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Alexander_Dumas-228x300.jpg 228w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Alexander_Dumas-500x659.jpg 500w, http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Alexander_Dumas.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alexandre Dumas<\/p><\/div>\n<p>My biggest feat of the year was finishing the D&#8217;Artagnan series. Prior to this year I had read <em>The Three Musketeers<\/em> and its sequel <em>Twenty Years After<\/em>. The final book,\u00a0<em>The Vicomte de Bragelonne<\/em> is a massive work that is usually divided into three volumes: <em>The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Valli\u00e8re <\/em>and<em> The Man in the Iron Mask.\u00a0<\/em>I had only planned on reading the first volume this year, but I loved it so much I just kept going until I had finished them all. After reading these in the same year as\u00a0<em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, I can truly say that this year was the year of Alexandre Dumas for me. And I loved every bit of it. I have to admit to choking back a few tears at the end of\u00a0<em>The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em>. These are characters I have spent years with. I will certainly be visiting them again in the future. Perhaps the entire series would make a future chapter-a-day read-along! Hmmm&#8230;definitely worth considering.<\/li>\n<li>After facilitating a chapter-a-day read-along of <em>Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> in 2018, the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-along was a bit different. In order to have 365 chapters, I chose four different books, and not every book appealed to all the participants. If I had it to do over again, I would have replaced George MacDonald&#8217;s <em>Lilith<\/em> with something else. But everyone seemed to love <em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, and that turned out to be the hit of the year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And now it&#8217;s time to count down my ten favorite reads of the year:<\/p>\n<ol reversed=\"\">\n<li><em>Bernini<\/em> by Howard Hibbard &#8211; As we visited Florence and Rome last February, this book helped me appreciate the art I saw there.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Castle of Otranto<\/em> by Horace Walpole &#8211; A surprisingly readable novel that moved much more quickly than I expected, given its 1764 publication date. The original gothic novel.<\/li>\n<li><em>As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride<\/em> by Cary Elwes &#8211; As someone who has loved\u00a0<em>The Princess Bride<\/em> since seeing it in the theater, I devoured this book and loved every minute of it.<\/li>\n<li><em>One Shot<\/em> by Lee Child &#8211; This title represents the seven Jack Reacher books I read this year. A fantastic series that I look forward to returning to this year.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Rosie Result<\/em> by Graeme Simsion &#8211; I have loved every book in this series about Don Tillman not only for their humor, but also for challenging me to look at the world in a different, wonderful way.<\/li>\n<li><em>Wrestling with God<\/em> by Ronald Rolheiser &#8211; Another spiritual masterpiece by a great writer.<\/li>\n<li><em>Gaudete et Exsultate<\/em> by Pope Francis &#8211; This short volume on holiness is something I have continued to go back to over and over this past year.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Valliere, <\/em>and <em>The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em> by Alexandre Dumas &#8211; As I mentioned above, I could not put down this finale to the D&#8217;Artagnan series.<\/li>\n<li><em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em> by Alexandre Dumas &#8211; I have long loved the plot, but reading the unabridged novel in a chapter a day gave me a greater appreciation for the characters and their stories.<\/li>\n<li><em>Don Quixote<\/em> by Miguel de Cervantes &#8211; Still my favorite book of all time, though reading it a chapter a day may not be the best way to experience it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And now 2020 is just around the corner, with the <a href=\"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/announcing-the-2020-war-and-peace-chapter-a-day-read-along\"><em>War and Peace<\/em> Chapter-a-Day Read-along<\/a> taking center stage. I can&#8217;t wait to see what literary gems the new year has in store.<\/p>\n<p>Happy New Reading Year! Many blessings on you and your family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When 2019 began I knew that my reading time would be limited, so I set a modest reading goal of 25 books for the year. I&#8217;m happy to say that just this morning I finished book number 30, exceeding my goal by five. I&#8217;m also happy that I was able to complete the three other reading challenges I set for the year, the Charity Reading Challenge, the European Reading Challenge, and the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge. For the Charity challenge, since I read 30 books I&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7521,"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":"","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":[1024,36],"class_list":["post-7491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-annual-favorite-reads","tag-book-recommendations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/don-Quixote-banner02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1WP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491","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=7491"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7523,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions\/7523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}