At the beginning of this year, one of my goals for 2019 was to read 15 books. I thought it was pretty reasonable since the year before I was able to read one book a month, so reading 3 more would be an easy task to do. Boy was I wrong. I really slacked off at the beginning of this year with reading. I grew to love to read last year, but it was just one of those times where you just don’t get stung by the reading bug and you go a while without picking up a book. As I’m writing this post, I’ve managed to finish 5 books and I am halfway through number 6. Not bad, but considering I have less than 4 months of the year left and I haven’t hit the halfway mark on my 15 book goal, I have a way to go. So I thought the best way to accomplish this goal was to create a reading list up until the New Year of 9 books that I want to read. Here they are:
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
At the end of last year, I started re-reading Harry Potter for the second time. Fun fact: I never read Harry Potter until my freshmen year of college!!! Life. Changing. Never have I cried from reading a book before, yet I cried when I finished the Deathly Hallows. Spending all that time reading the series, growing with the characters and all that happens in the final book just really got me emotional!!! But anyways, tears aside, I stopped at the Prisoner of Azkaban in January and I really miss my friends Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so I’m excited to continue reading through the series, especially during the Fall season.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This would seem like a random one on my list, but here it is! This book was one of the books that we read during my Sophomore year of high school, but because I’m stubborn and I hated being told what to read back then, I never read this book. I know the basic premise of it, but this is a classic book that I should’ve read a long time ago and the time is now to read it! I feel like mentioning that it wasn’t until my junior and senior year that I actually read (some) of the books assigned in my classes. Oops!
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I feel like this is also kind of a random one, but I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic recently and I haven’t read this book since Freshmen year of high school. This book brings back the memories of staying up way too late because I could not put this book down because I needed to know if Katniss made it out alive or not. I remember telling myself that I would go to sleep when I got tired and it just never happened! I also remember going to Books-A-Million where they had the front tables devoted to everything The Hunger Games related since the movie was coming out soon. I came home with the Mockingjay pin as well as an overpriced magazine (both that I still have) that went behind the scenes of the film. When I think back to high school, this is one of the young adult books that I actually wanted to read in my free time!
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Although people say that the book is better than the movie, I absolutely love the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and have never read the book…completely. I’ve seen the movie about 100 times and it never gets old. I could watch it about 100 more times and still be just as happy as I was when I watched it for the first time! I remember getting a physical copy of the book during high school and starting it, but never finishing it because school and sports were so time consuming, and the language was some getting used to. However, during my Senior year this was an assigned read in my AP English class and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to finish it but…that didn’t happen. So, after all these years, I put this on my list to finally read it and FINISH it for the first time!
5. Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson
I don’t really know much about this book, but I picked it up for cheap at a used bookstore and it seemed promising! It takes place around WW1 and is about a woman who serves in the Women’s Amy Auxiliary Corps. I’m excited to read this one because I thoroughly enjoyed The Nightingale and the book description reminded me of it.
6. Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
This was one of my late grandmother’s favorite books ever, and although I began reading it a couple years ago, I didn’t make it very far and I want to take this chance to finally read it all the way through. It’s basically about how the author Frances Mayes moves to Italy and fixes up an old, abandoned villa. What a dream! I’m excited because even reading the summary gives me some major wanderlust and makes me want to move to Europe.
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
So the trailer for the new Little Women remake was released and it looks amazing! Emma Watson AND Saoirse Ronan? Sign me up! I’ve never seen the original with Winona Ryder, but I really want to go see this movie when it comes out in theaters this December. I was talking to my Mom and showed her the trailer, and she told me that this was also one of her Mom’s favorite books to read. I’m eager to read this book not just because of the movie, but because it was one of my Grandmother’s favorites. It’s another classic work of literature that I’m excited to add to my list. I actually think it was free through Amazon on Kindle, so that’s why there isn’t a physical copy of it in the picture above!
8. The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines
Any Chip and Jojo lovers have probably already read this book and is wondering why it has taken me so long to read it. Even though its been out for almost 3 years, I’ve never gotten the chance! This has been on my list for a while now and I stole it from my Mom after she read it, so I might as well cross it off the list now so I can finally give it back to her after all this time. Sorry Mom!!
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
I feel like I can’t finish off the year without having read another Harry Potter book, so here it is! Although all of the books are fantastic, this book is probably my least favorite of the series because we have to deal with the annoyance of Dolores Umbridge. I’ve never hated a character more than I have hated her, and I don’t think I’m alone when I say that either! But Umbridge aside, I look forward to reading the fifth book of the series. You have to go through the bad to get to the good!
So that compiles my reading list! I hope you drew some inspiration from this list even if you’ve already read most of them. Are there any books you didn’t finish or books you didn’t read, but were supposed to in school? I would love to read your comments and what you are currently reading or what you plan to read for the rest of this year!! Thank you so much for your time reading this post, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day wherever you are <3