One of my 2019 goals is to read more. The intent is to spend at least 30 minutes/day reading, and I’ve set up a target on my Goodreads profile to hit at least 25 books in 2019 – that’s one book every two weeks, which is totally doable.
I got my old Kindle all charged up, and the first thing I did (after linking my Goodreads account) was to integrate all my Amazon Kindle purchases. It turns out I’ve bought quite a few books over the years that I haven’t yet read. All told, there’s 48 books on my to-read list at the moment (of the 130-odd in my Kindle library). A bit more than 25, but then I do love a challenge 🙂
These are all the books I plan to have read before the year is out. And if I can get through one book per week (should be completely doable on weekends) I may even add a few more.
History and Politics (9)
- The Dictator’s Handbook – Bruce Bueno De Mesquita
- People’s War – Anthea Jeffery
- On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder
- Algorithms of Oppression – Safiya Umoja Noble
- Countdown – Alan Weisman
- Democracy for Realists – Christopher H. Achen
- The Coddling of the American Mind – Jonathan Haidt
- Who owns the future? – Jaron Lanier
- The Death of Expertise – Tom Nichols
Psychology, Philosophy and Self Improvement (7)
- Games People Play – Eric Berne
- Atomic Habits – James Clear
- Wisdom of Insecurity – Alan W. Watts
- Zero Excuses – Gabriel Machuret
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Scott Adams
- Solving the Procrastination Puzzle – Timothy A. Pychyl
- Bowling Alone – Robert Putnam
Business and Startups (6)
- How to Measure Anything – Douglas W. Hubbard
- The Best Dick – Mike Sharman
- Traction – Gabriel Weinberg
- Drive – Daniel H. Pink
- The 7 Day Startup – Dan Norris
- The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton M. Christensen
Science Fiction / Fantasy (12)
- Split Second – Douglas E. Richards
- Why You Were Taken – JT Lawrence
- 3001: The Final Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
- Darknet – Matthew Mather
- Project Northwoods – Charles J. Bruce
- Arrival – Ryk Brown
- BrainWeb – Douglas E. Richards
- Failsafe – Daniel Gage
- Silo 7 – Daniel Gage
- AfroSF – Ivor W. Hartmann
- Departure – A. G. Riddle
- A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
Writing Craft (14)
- How to Write Short Stories – James Scott Bell
- How to be an Author – Ashton Cartwright
- Write to Market – Chris Fox
- How to Write Faster – Marcy Kennedy
- Writing Deep Point of View – Rayne Hall
- The 7 Secrets of the Prolific – Hillary Rettig
- She Sat He Stood – Ginger Hanson
- The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction – C.S. Lakin
- How to Write Dazzling Dialogue – James Scott Bell
- Super Structure – James Scott Bell
- Story Climax – H.R. D’Costa
- Techniques of the Selling Writer – Dwight V. Swain
- Rock Your Plot – Cathy Yardley
- Write. Publish. Repeat. – Sean Platt
I think you can tell by that last, largest category that I’m really interested in being a writer 😉
My progress will be tracked on my Goodreads profile – Kindle makes it really easy to flag which book you’re reading. Now it’s just about finding the time to sit down and do the reading.
If you’re doing a reading challenge this year, let me know!
good luck
LikeLike
Good luck with your goal! We hope you read some fantastic books in 2019! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck Wogan! That’s one ambitious reading list. It seems like I’ll be crafting up mine tonight. Have a blissful year full of wonderful reads AND writing!
LikeLike
Oh, and btw, if you ever found the time, you should check out Steven Pinker and his book The Sense of Style, really good!
LikeLike
Thanks for the well-wishes, and the suggestion! I’d be interested to see what your reading list for the year is. Will you also be blogging it?
LikeLike
I read 45 minutes every morning, soon after I wake up. This was prompted by the realization that I was spending one hour every morning reading the local newspaper, which wasn’t informative in the least. It featured very little national and state news, almost nothing about elections or candidates, and copied from the Washington Post and the AP almost exclusively. There just aren’t the investigative reporters that we used to depend on for the real local news.
I try to read the more difficult non-fiction books in the morning. My areas of interest at the moment are health, politics and local fiction writers from my state. I am more than pleased with this change in my life. Best of luck to you.
LikeLike