Reading List 2019 - 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Read Around The World and Other Challenges

[Matchbox]

How have we made it two weeks into 2019 and no one has made a 52 Books thread yet?

What do we all have in mind to challenge ourselves with this year?




Personally, I’m off to a good start. It’s taken me six weeks at least, but I’m quite proud of this.

1: El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. A man reads so many stories about great knights that he goes a little mad and decides he HAS to be one. This is my mother’s all time favourite book, and now I think I see why - even for me as a native speaker this is difficult Spanish, because it’s so old-fashioned, but once you get used to how it’s written the whole thing is outrageously funny. I want to be Sancho Panza when I grow up.

[JennyJennJenn]

Oh man, I wish I could read Spanish, because I would LOVE to be able to read Don Quijote in it's native language. I spent some time in Spain when I was younger, and I remember our tour guide (his name was Roberto and he was the best!!) pointing out where the windmills as we drove through La Mancha, and that story always stuck out for me, I may giggle every time I see a windwill.

So far this year I have finished
1:City of Bone: Mortal Instruments book 1- basically it's a young adult fiction based on the life of Clary Fay, she finds out this whole different world exists after her Mom and her get into a fight and her Mom starts acting cryptic. I'm a sucker for Young Adult

My plans for this year reading wise... Read more than I read last year? But I didn't keep track last year, I just know it wasn't as much as usual lol. I also need to stop reading like 8 books at once and never finishing any of them, currently I'm reading: City of Ashes (Book 2), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (again), 33 Days to Morning Glory (it's a Catholic devotional about Mary), St Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary (it goes along with 33 Days to Morning Glory kind of), Great Expectations, and I'm following a "Read the Bible in a year" formula... I need to focus on one thing at a time

2019 the year of Jenn's brain going in 18 directions!

[Matchbox]

Oh man, I wish I could read Spanish, because I would LOVE to be able to read Don Quijote in it's native language. I spent some time in Spain when I was younger, and I remember our tour guide (his name was Roberto and he was the best!!) pointing out where the windmills as we drove through La Mancha, and that story always stuck out for me, I may giggle every time I see a windwill.

So far this year I have finished
1:City of Bone: Mortal Instruments book 1- basically it's a young adult fiction based on the life of Clary Fay, she finds out this whole different world exists after her Mom and her get into a fight and her Mom starts acting cryptic. I'm a sucker for Young Adult

My plans for this year reading wise... Read more than I read last year? But I didn't keep track last year, I just know it wasn't as much as usual lol. I also need to stop reading like 8 books at once and never finishing any of them, currently I'm reading: City of Ashes (Book 2), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (again), 33 Days to Morning Glory (it's a Catholic devotional about Mary), St Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary (it goes along with 33 Days to Morning Glory kind of), Great Expectations, and I'm following a "Read the Bible in a year" formula... I need to focus on one thing at a time

2019 the year of Jenn's brain going in 18 directions!

Reading Cervantes in Spanish is quite a lot like reading Shakespeare (or even Chaucer, maybe) in English. It’s very old-fashioned language, so it’s sometimes a little dense. Even Spaniards find it hard, and they of all people should get it. This may be deliberate, since the man himself is basically totally incomprehensible to everyone around him anyway!

But Mamá loves it, so I read it. Very slowly, and then once I found the sweet spot where it began to make sense I couldn’t stop laughing. The windmills, Sancho in general, the amazing flying horse...

I need to do a better job at religious things. You are almost definitely a better Catholic than I am.

And why would you read just one book at a time when you could be reading all of them???

[JennyJennJenn]

Reading Cervantes in Spanish is quite a lot like reading Shakespeare (or even Chaucer, maybe) in English. It’s very old-fashioned language, so it’s sometimes a little dense. Even Spaniards find it hard, and they of all people should get it. This may be deliberate, since the man himself is basically totally incomprehensible to everyone around him anyway!

But Mamá loves it, so I read it. Very slowly, and then once I found the sweet spot where it began to make sense I couldn’t stop laughing. The windmills, Sancho in general, the amazing flying horse...

I need to do a better job at religious things. You are almost definitely a better Catholic than I am.

And why would you read just one book at a time when you could be reading all of them???

Lol I'm probably not a better Catholic than you, I just decided last year that I needed to be more involved in Church, I was in a bad place mentally and it brought me peace, even if it was just the 30 minutes I was at daily mass, then I ended up starting to go to say the Rosary before Mass, and next thing I know I'm being installed as a Rosarian in February it brings me peace, and helps.me sort out my problems and life in general, so I'm sticking to it and holding on for dear life! Lol. So I've added some books and some Bible reading in (and I'm totally unprofessionally, and completely horribly talking about it on youtube)

I feel like I'm currently reading ALLLLLLLLL.of the books, but that's not helping me find peace :lmfao

[Matchbox]

Lol I'm probably not a better Catholic than you, I just decided last year that I needed to be more involved in Church, I was in a bad place mentally and it brought me peace, even if it was just the 30 minutes I was at daily mass, then I ended up starting to go to say the Rosary before Mass, and next thing I know I'm being installed as a Rosarian in February it brings me peace, and helps.me sort out my problems and life in general, so I'm sticking to it and holding on for dear life! Lol. So I've added some books and some Bible reading in (and I'm totally unprofessionally, and completely horribly talking about it on youtube)

I feel like I'm currently reading ALLLLLLLLL.of the books, but that's not helping me find peace :lmfao

Definitely better at it than me. Would that I had your discipline.

How are you finding Dickens? I’ve never had the cojones to try him, he’s so...wordy. My English is good (it’s been long enough that I’d HOPE my English was good by now) but I’m far less confident when I’m dealing with older language, and Dickens is so damn verbose about every damn thing that I find him really intimidating!

One day. One day I will try Dickens.



The list continues.


1: El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. A man reads so many stories about great knights that he goes a little mad and decides he HAS to be one.

2: Río Subterráneo (Underground River) by Inés Arredondo. A book of short stories.

[JennyJennJenn]

Definitely better at it than me. Would that I had your discipline.

How are you finding Dickens? I’ve never had the cojones to try him, he’s so...wordy. My English is good (it’s been long enough that I’d HOPE my English was good by now) but I’m far less confident when I’m dealing with older language, and Dickens is so damn verbose about every damn thing that I find him really intimidating!

One day. One day I will try Dickens.



The list continues.


1: El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. A man reads so many stories about great knights that he goes a little mad and decides he HAS to be one.

2: Río Subterráneo (Underground River) by Inés Arredondo. A book of short stories.

My discipline comes from a need for inner peace, nothing else. It's been good for me! (As Im sitting here contemplating if I really want to go out in the freezing weather to go to church when I could stay in my warm bed longer )

Dickens hasn't been so bad this time, I've read other Dicken's books, like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities in high school. Oh and A Christmas Carol of course, but this book doesn't seem quite as wordy, the only times I've been like, "Hold up I need to reread this" is when it's been a part where one of the "less educated" people are speaking and letters are dropped to signify their drawl. I bet you could handle Great Expectations!

[Wild*Rose]

1. Girl Wash Your Face- Rachel Hollis
2. Red War- Vince Flynn

[JennyJennJenn]

1. City of Bones
2. City of Ashes (the second book in the mortal instruments series)

Now I'm onto City of Glass. I'm actually enjoying these books quite a bit. Although teenager angst drives me crazy haha.

[Matchbox]

My discipline comes from a need for inner peace, nothing else. It's been good for me! (As Im sitting here contemplating if I really want to go out in the freezing weather to go to church when I could stay in my warm bed longer )

Dickens hasn't been so bad this time, I've read other Dicken's books, like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities in high school. Oh and A Christmas Carol of course, but this book doesn't seem quite as wordy, the only times I've been like, "Hold up I need to reread this" is when it's been a part where one of the "less educated" people are speaking and letters are dropped to signify their drawl. I bet you could handle Great Expectations!

We’ll see. If I can find a copy, I may try.

1. Girl Wash Your Face- Rachel Hollis
2. Red War- Vince Flynn

I was doing some googling (I google the books that I don’t know from lists like these), found a blurb for Red War, saw the fictional Russian president’s name and started giggling. President Krupin. Subtle. I’m sure he has nothing in common at all with his distant cousin Vladimir.

It doesn’t help that the first time I saw his name, something in my head misfired and I somehow misread “Maxim” as “Vince”




The list continues.


1: El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. A man reads so many stories about great knights that he goes a little mad and decides he HAS to be one.

2: Río Subterráneo (Underground River) by Inés Arredondo. A book of short stories.

3: Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get A Life by Maureen McCarthy. Three girls from a small country town have very little in common, but share a house in the city as they start university. Carmel is shy, overweight and needs with all her soul to be anywhere that isn’t the family farm. Jude lives with her dead father’s ghost and is totally okay with that, thanks. Katerina is rich, beautiful, ambitious and thinks she’ll be just fine...until she’s not. It’s quite weird for me to go back to this book as an adult, because I distinctly remember having a lot of feelings about it when I was sixteen. Jude especially. I had a lot of complicated feelings about Jude, and it turns out most of them are still here. Jenn, if you have an eye for YA, you might enjoy this.

[JennyJennJenn]

We’ll see. If I can find a copy, I may try.



I was doing some googling (I google the books that I don’t know from lists like these), found a blurb for Red War, saw the fictional Russian president’s name and started giggling. President Krupin. Subtle. I’m sure he has nothing in common at all with his distant cousin Vladimir.

It doesn’t help that the first time I saw his name, something in my head misfired and I somehow misread “Maxim” as “Vince”




The list continues.


1: El Ingenioso Hildalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. A man reads so many stories about great knights that he goes a little mad and decides he HAS to be one.

2: Río Subterráneo (Underground River) by Inés Arredondo. A book of short stories.

3: Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get A Life by Maureen McCarthy. Three girls from a small country town have very little in common, but share a house in the city as they start university. Carmel is shy, overweight and needs with all her soul to be anywhere that isn’t the family farm. Jude lives with her dead father’s ghost and is totally okay with that, thanks. Katerina is rich, beautiful, ambitious and thinks she’ll be just fine...until she’s not. It’s quite weird for me to go back to this book as an adult, because I distinctly remember having a lot of feelings about it when I was sixteen. Jude especially. I had a lot of complicated feelings about Jude, and it turns out most of them are still here. Jenn, if you have an eye for YA, you might enjoy this.

I will check it out!!! I'm always looking for new books! I've added a few more books to the books I'm reading... I need an intervention! �� I'm getting close to finishing a few though! (What can I say, I like reading different things at different times of the day aka I'm like a drug addict, I'm making excuses for my addiction haha!)