I read a lot. Probably about 2hrs a day. Or more. And by “read” I mean books, not social media or news. Add another few hours for that!
I mostly read fiction – between the hours of 2:30am and 4:30-5:30am.
I’m a slow reader. I like to savour each word, and often I will re-read passages to fully understand how the writer has done it – made me feel or think a particular way.
I read on a Kindle. Much as I miss the tactile sensation of reading a book-book, I like to be able to adjust the font size on an e-book. And I can read at odd hours and not need the light on, which would wake Jennifer.
Plus I like the percentage-read function on my Kindle. From a technical viewpoint it enables me to understand the way the writer has structured the material.
Reading for me is both a joy, but also tutelage.
This year I discovered two great writers – Ursula K Le Guin, and Hanuki Murakami.
The two best books I read were Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and Murakami’s 1Q84, a series of three books in fact.
In the spiritual realm, Paul Selig’s continuing series of channeled work, Alchemy and The Kingdom from the Beyond the Known trilogy once again deeply affected the way I see the world, and my place and function in it.
As you will see from the list below, my taste in material varies widely. I am a big fan of Stephen King, and yet I gobbled down Ursula K Le Guin’s Tales from EarthSea series of six books – not exactly light reading.
So here’s my list, roughly in chronological order from the beginning of the year:
Books I’ve Read / 2021
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens 👍👍👍👍
Die Trying – Lee Child 👍👍👍
The Suspect – Michael Robotham 👍👍👍
The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield 👍👍👍
The Alchemist (re-read)- Paulo Coehelo 👍👍👍👍
The Kingdom – Jo Nesbo 👍👍
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull (re-read) – 👍👍👍👍
The Cosmic Fire – Alice Bailey 👍👍👍
The LightWorkers Companion (re-read) – Amanda Guggenheimer 👍👍👍👍
AWE The Automatic Writing Experience – Michael Sandler 👍👍👍👍
The Six Books from EarthSea – Ursula K le Guin 👍👍👍👍
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K le Guin 👍👍👍👍
Mistborn – Brandon Sanderson 👍👍👍
The Well of Ascension – Brandon Sanderson 👍👍👍
The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson 👍👍👍
Billy Summers – Stephen King 👍👍
The Consciousness of the Atom (re-read) – Alice Bailey 👍👍👍
Saint Germain on Alchemy (re-read) – Mark L Prophet & Elizabeth Clare Prophet 👍👍👍
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway – 👍👍👍👍
The Old Man and the Sea (re-read) – Ernest Hemingway 👍👍👍👍
To a God Unknown (re-read)- John Steinbeck 👍👍👍👍
The Pearl (re-read) – John Steinbeck 👍👍👍👍
The Convoluted Universe Bk1 (re-read)- Dolores Cannon 👍👍👍👍
Later – Stephen King 👍👍
The Woman in the Window – AJ Finn 👍
The Flight Attendant- Chris Bojhalian 👍👍👍
Intimate Conversations with the Divine – Caroline Myss 👍👍👍👍
The Paris Crime Files – Pierre Lamaitre 👍👍👍
In the Woods -Tana French 👍👍
The Searcher – Tana French👍👍
Beyond the Known: Realization – Paul Selig 👍👍👍👍
Beyond the Known: Alchemy – Paul Selig 👍👍👍👍
The Interior Castle – St Teresa of Avila 👍👍👍
Between Death and Life -Dolores Cannon 👍👍👍👍
Divine Healing of Mind and Body – Murdo MacDonald-Bayne 👍👍
Dowsing – The Ultimate Guide for the 21st Century – Elizabeth Brown 👍👍👍
If It Bleeds – Stephen King 👍👍👍
Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu / Ursula Le Guin 👍👍👍👍
Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom 👍👍👍
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami 👍👍👍👍
1Q84 Bks 1 & 2 – Haruki Murakami 👍👍👍👍
1Q84 Bk 3 – Haruki Murakami 👍👍👍👍
Killing Commendtore – Hanuki Murakami 👍👍👍👍
PGS the Way 
Over here, I read all of the Jack Reacher novels and short stories including Better Off Dead ; most of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and novels on the Camino ; re-read The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, but I hadn’t read it for 15 years or so, and so wanted to once again (noticed some new things about it, and about Tolkien’s writing techniques) ; I’ve made a start on Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles series, so far The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman, starting The Lords of the North today, and each one takes me about 2 days, so I’ll read probably the next two as well by the start of 2022. I *think* finishing that bloated collection of Dune novels was at the start of this year ? (some of them are not very good, but the original novel is fantastic of course)
I still have a few unread Virginia Woolf novels held in reserve, and I’ve decided to crack one open soon, The Waves, plus a collection of her short stories.
I also made my best stab yet with the Old Greek (Koine this time rather than Ancient), so I’ve had a few peeks into the Greek New Testament. Got to the point when I can almost start reading it, which I should get back into after the Saxon Chronicles as I have no more lengthy book series lined up after that. I have Saint Augustine’s Confessions in the Latin, but that will have to wait for a bit, as I’ll actually need to buff up my Latin a little for it.
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