Looking Back; Looking Forward

Most of the time, I do one post wrapping up the last year's reading challenges and such, and another declaring my intentions for the new year.  However, a lot of my new challenges are just carrying on from last year, so I'm doing them all in one post this year.

A Literary Christmas (hosted by In The Bookshelf)

I said I wanted to read and review three Christmas books for this event, and I actually read six and reviewed five!  You can read them all here.  I'm sure I will participate in this event again next December, as it's always such fun to read and share Christmas books.

(All pictures are mine from my Bookstagram account.)

My Year with C. S. Lewis

I challenged myself to read at least five books by or about C. S. Lewis in 2020.  I read seven, though two of those were Narnia books, so they weren't new to me and I didn't review them on my blog.  You can read my five reviews here.

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2020

I started the year with 537 unread books.  I read more than 50 of them, and yet, I ended the year with 527 books on my unread shelves.  Um, yeah.

The lockdowns did help in that I didn't go to bookstores or thrift stores or library book sales nearly so often, but I bought quite a few books online, and some of those were the fault of lockdowns because I was comfort-buying.  I did finally start to get a handle on how to resist buying so many books, at least -- I am committed now to not buying books that just "look good," but rather to buying ones I already know I want to read.  

My original goal was to read 24 of my unread books and clear off a whole shelf in my bedroom.  Well, I read more than double that many, but I didn't clear off a shelf, so this was a half-success, half-failure.  You can read all my book reviews for this challenge here.  (I did read several that I never reviewed...)

#TheUnreadShelfChallenge2021

I'm doing this challenge again this year!  You can learn more about it here at The Unread Shelf blog.  My goal this year is to read 36 books off my unread shelves AND truly clear off a whole shelf.  I have plans to move some books from my library up to my bedroom to ease my crowding problem down there, and I think that will help keep me motivated to NOT buy more books all the time.

Heidi's Lord of the Rings read-along

We are just about finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring together at Literary Adventures Along the Brandywine.  Obviously, we will be continuing this for the next few months, as we read The Two Towers and Return of the King and discuss it together there.

My Year with Harry Potter

I want to reread all 7 Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling in 2021.  I have not read any of them since the last book came out in 2007!  It's high time I revisited that magical world.

Sense and Sensibility read-along???

I am contemplating hosting a read-along of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen here this spring or summer!  It's been a couple years since a led a read-along, and I'd like to get back to it.  I'd be doing it chapter-by-chapter like before.  If that interests you, stay tuned!

Did you have any goals for last year?  Did you meet any of them?  Do you have goals for this year?  Do tell!

"Aslan's World" by Angus Menuge

I. Loved. This. Book.

This Bible study is broken into six sections that each tackle some part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the Biblical truths that are presented fictionally by C. S. Lewis in that book.  I learned a lot from it, and I'm going to have my son use it for school later this year.  It's aimed at probably middle school on up, but younger kids could get a lot from it too, with more help from an adult or parent.  

There's a leader guide at the back with some explanations and answers, and also a list of additional resources for those looking to dig deeper.  My Christmas wish list just got longer, friends.

This was published in 2006 in book form, but it's out of print now, except as a downloadable Bible study offered by Concordia Publishing House.  However, you can find used copies other places.  I heartily recommend it for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the first Narnia book, or the Narnia world as a whole.

This has been another book read for My Year with C.S. Lewis, and also my 44th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"A Grief Observed" by C. S. Lewis

It's been a while since I read one of CS Lewis's books, and if I'm going to make my goal of reading six of them this year, I'm going to have to get reading, as I think this is only number four.  No, wait, we just finished listening to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe audiobook -- so this would make five.

Anyway, so, this is a really hard book to read.  It's excruciatingly personal.  Lewis was devastated by his wife Joy's death, and he wrote down his feelings and thoughts and questions and fears as he moved through the grieving process.  And then he shared them with us.  I'm glad this book is short, because there's so much raw pain in its pages, and I don't think I could have handled much more of it.

I am glad that Lewis was able to work through the spiritual crisis brought on by losing his wife, and that he shows others that just because you ask God a lot of hard questions doesn't mean you have lost your faith.  And also that just because you don't like what God seems to be giving you for answers also doesn't mean you're not still a Christian.  I think those are easy traps to fall into, and it's important to help people understand them.

But I don't think I will ever brave reading this book again.  I'm glad I did read it, though.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for dealing with some really hard situations that kids aren't going to want to read about anyway.  It's clean, it's just... heavy.

This is my 5th book read and reviewed for my third ride with the Classics Club and my 38th for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"C.S. Lewis: Letters to Children" ed. by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead

Well, now I just want to give C. S. Lewis a big hug and adopt him.  Or have him adopt me.  My goodness, what a delight this little book is!

As you can imagine, C. S. Lewis had many young fans who loved his books, especially the Chronicles of Narnia.  And many of those kids wrote to him, some of them repeatedly!  In fact, he carried on a years-long correspondence with quite a number of young people, even critiquing stories they sent him and so on.  Now, some of these letters were from his godchildren, or the children of friends, but many are from complete strangers.

And the kindness, the warmth, the compassion, and the understanding that he showed them just... endeared him to me in a way I was not expecting.  Lewis clearly remembered what it had been like to BE a child, and since that's something I also vividly recall, I feel a kinship to him now.

This is a wonderful collection, and I loved it.

Particularly Good Bits: 

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up (p. 5).

Remember that there are only three kinds of things anyone need ever do. (1) Things we ought to do (2) Things we've got to do (3) Things we like doing.  I say this because some people seem to spend so much of their time doing things for none of the three reasons, things like reading books they don't like because other people read them (p. 27).

...it is so interesting to hear exactly what people do like and don't like, which is just what grown-up readers never really tell (p. 33).

You see, I don't think age matters so much as people think.  Parts of me are still 12 and I think other parts were already 50 when I was 12 (p. 34).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G for good, clean, wholesome, uplifting, delightful, kind, serious, important, beautiful writing.

This is my 28th book read from my TRB shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"The Great Divorce" by C. S. Lewis

My latest book for my quest to read lots of C. S. Lewis this year was... very unusual.  Kind of a long pondering on the nature of heaven versus hell, but written as a fable-like story.  It reminded me a little of things like Pilgrim's Progress, but without the heavy-handed and repetitive obviousness.

While I tend not to be a big fan of stories with a lot of symbolism or allegory to them, I did actually enjoy this story -- maybe because it was fast-paced?  It didn't bog down in details, and Lewis didn't belabor the allegories, but trusted the reader to figure out what he was trying to say or point out.

Basically, it's about an unnamed (IIRC) narrator who doesn't realize he's living in Hell until he gets on a tour bus to visit Heaven.  He discovers that even though God has invited everyone to live in Heaven, most people are too hung up on their reason, their preconceived ideas, their desires, or their appetites to want to stay there.  

Because this was all presented as a dream, I'm not going to be too critical of Lewis' theology here -- it's more like an exploration of fantastic what-ifs than either a religious book or a work of plain fiction.  I do think that not mentioning Jesus or the Bible may have been a missed opportunity, but again... it's like a religious fable, so I will not fault it for not being factual there.

Particularly Good Bits:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done" (p. 75).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some bad language sprinkled throughout.

This is my 44th book read and reviewed for my second Classics Club list and my 9th for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"Till We Have Faces" by C. S. Lewis

I had really zero idea what this book was going to be about because I don't know the story of Psyche and Cupid, so people telling me "it's a retelling of the story of Psyche and Cupid" didn't really mean anything to me.

Anyway, I'm soooo glad Olivia hosted a read-along for this because it's not a Lewis book I had any real interest in reading, so I probably would have gone YEARS before getting around to it.  But I dug it very much indeed.  Thank you, Olivia.

It's hard for me to explain what this book is even about.  On its surface, it's about a king's ugly daughter, Orual, who is fiercely possessive and protective of her younger half-sister, Psyche, who is even more beautiful than Orual is ugly.  They live in an ancient kingdom in the Middle East-ish sort of area, I guess?  And their father is a tyrant, they have a sister who's a fool, and they have a Greek slave called The Fox for a tutor.  

The Fox teaches them all sorts of fairly athiestic philosophy.  Their own culture worships a rock-goddess and believes in many deities.  But Orual basically worships her sister.  Until she loses her.  And gets freaked out by what she finds when she goes looking for her sister.

Basically, the whole thing is all about what it's like to be an unbeliever who loves a person who becomes a believer.  How left out you would feel, then how rejected, how angry, how confused.  How betrayed and bewildered.  Orual cannot accept or believe what happened to Psyche, and her unbelief drives her to desperation.  It's masterfully told, of course, and I think that when I re-read it, I'll enjoy it even more because it wasn't until the very end that I finally got what Lewis was saying about unbelief and belief, so I spent most of the book going, "Um, wait, what?"

Particularly Good Bits:

The days were endless.  The very shadows seemed nailed to the ground as if the sun no longer moved (p. 102).

I was with book, as a woman is with child (p. 281).

Memory, once waked, will play the tyrant (p. 287).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16.  Much more raw and adult than I was expecting, yet never crosses over into being explicit or dirty.

This is my 42nd book read and reviewed for my second go-'round with the Classics Club and my 3rd for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.  And my first for My Year with C.S. Lewis!

Reading Plans for 2020

Time to gather up my plans for next year's reading and share them with you.  Because I can.  Mwahahah.

So, I didn't do a "My Year with..." personal challenge in 2019 because I just couldn't settle on one.  But I have figured out one for 2020!  It will be My Year with C. S. Lewis.  I'll kick that off by participating in Olivia's read-along of Till We Have Faces over at Meanwhile, in Rivendell... which you can learn about here.  

Besides it, I aim to read some books about Lewis, and maybe reread Narnia, but also maybe read some of his books that are sitting on my to-be-read shelves.  Especially since Cowboy gave me a boxed set of a bunch of Lewis books for Christmas.

Which brings me to the rest of my reading plans for 2020.  Y'all, I have too many unread books.  How many?  This many:

That picture's a little misleading.  The books piled on the floor are ones I've already read, but don't have homes for.  The books ON all those shelves are ones I haven't read, plus about 60 more that are in the basement on our nonfiction shelves.  Grand total of unread books I own and want to read (so, not counting research resources) is 537.  EGAD.  That's crazy talk.  Ouch.

I've been trying to get a handle on these for a couple years now, by doing the Mount TBR Challenges and so on, but it hasn't helped much.  So this year, I'm participating in #theunreadhselfproject2020 challenge from The Unread Shelf.  My goal is to clear off one whole shelf in my bedroom so I can put those books piled on the floor onto an actual shelf instead.  I'll be tracking my progress on Instagram and probably talking about it here too.  

This project comes with specific month-to-month challenges, which will be an interesting twist on the "read books you already own" sort of thing I've done previously.

I've dedicated a couple of pages in my bullet journal to keeping track of what I read, especially as regards this project.

So.  Those are my reading plans for next year.  Do you have reading plans?  If so, what are they?