I love making reading plans. I like lists of books, books in categories, reading challenges, lots of reading plans. And I do follow through to some extent. However, I always get more ideas for books to read, both inside and outside the plans’ parameters, than I have time to read them all. So, my success a reading lots of books is good, but my success at reading strictly what I planned to read is bad.

Nevertheless, I have lots of reading plans for 2022. First of all my Facebook (private) page, Cultivating Beauty and Truth, which boasts 64 members, did a fall feast Charlotte Mason-style study including literature, poetry, art, music, hymns, Bible study, and psalms, and it was well received. So, I am planning a “Spring Picnic” of the same kind of study, and if you would like to join the group on Facebook, you can request to do so with this link.

For Cultivating Beauty and Truth, we will be reading The Hobbit, studying Romans and the first eighteen chapters of Exodus, looking at the art of Vincent van Gogh, reading poetry by Longfellow and Poe, and more, beginning in late January and lasting over the course of twelve weeks. I’ll try to remember to post the schedule here on Semicolon for those of you who are not on Facebook and who would like to join in. But most of the discussion will take place on Facebook or in person here in southeast Houston.

I also have a reading challenge for every one at Cultivating Beauty and Truth: 12 books for 2022. I’m challenging those who want to participate to read at least 12 books in 2022, in the following categories:

• Read a book of the Bible, any book, as long as Genesis or as short as III John. I’m looking at either Exodus or Romans for our Spring Picnic, or maybe parts of both. Read it slowly and carefully and prayerfully, and it might be the best book you read in 2022.
• Read one book that encourages you to pray. There are many books about prayer, but not all of them actually get a person praying. Suggestions anyone?
• Read one book that makes you laugh. I think we all need to laugh.
• Read one biography of an inspiring person. If you need suggestions, I can certainly give you some.
• Read one book meant for children: a picture book, a fiction book for older children, or even a Young Adult novel, or a nonfiction book for children. There are so many good children’s books, both classics and recently published.
• Read one book of poetry. Read it slowly, one poem a day or read it all in one day. I’ll be posting, and soliciting, suggestions for this category. We need more poetry in our lives.
• Read one book about art or music. Read about an artist (our Spring Picnic artist is probably going to be Van Gogh) or a musician, or read about how music works or how to draw or how to look at paintings or whatever fits into this category.
• Read one book about the Bible or commentary on a portion of the BIble or Bible study book. 
• Read one book that challenges your thinking, one well written book that has ideas that you disagree with or think you disagree with. Try to understand the opposing point of view thoroughly before you discount it.
• Read one classic book, fiction or nonfiction, that was published over 100 years ago. Get out of the rut chronological snobbery, and listen carefully to what someone from another time period had to say.
• Read one book that your spouse or friend wants you to read.
• Read one Christmas book.

If you’re interested in joining my reading challenge, you can sign up here or at the Cultivating Facebook page.

I’m also participating in the Literary Life (podcast) Reading Challenge: Two for 2022. I’ve already started reading Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth for my “book about an Inkling” category in this challenge. It’s a bit dry starting out, but I have learned some things about Tolkien that I didn’t know or had forgotten. For instance, I had forgotten that Tolkien was orphaned at the age of twelve when his mother died after having lost his father when Tolkien was very young, three or four years old.

One more reading challenge that I’m taking is the Spread the Feast Challenge from my new friend Crystin Morris at Delightfully Feasting who also does seminars on Charlotte Mason homeschooling and philosophy and has lots of online and print resources for CM educators. I plan to begin reading The Children’s Own Longfellow for my poetry book for this challenge, and it will fit into the Cultivating challenge and the Literary Life challenge, too.

I also have a Big Plan to do a century of reading, one book published in each year from 1851-1950. This will necessitate reading a couple of books a week on the list I’ve made, if I’m going to finish reading all 100 books by the end of 2022. So, for January, I have the following lined up:

• 1851: The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin.
• 1852: The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• 1853: Ruth by Mrs. Gaskell.
• 1854: Hard Times by Charles Dickens.
• 1855: The Warden by Anthony Trollope.
• 1856:
• 1857:
• 1858: The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• 1859: Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy.
• 1860: The Professor at the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

As you can see, I don’t have anything for 1856 or 1857. It had better be something short for both of those years since the other books are mostly rather long and dense. If you have suggestions for something good and short, published in ether 1856 or 1857, please comment.

If you think I’m crazy to make all of these reading plans, in addition to my regular impulse reading, you’re right. But crazy is fun. What are your crazy reading plans? Happy reading to all in 2022!

Three siblings William, Edmund, and Anna. Orphans evacuated from London to the country during the Blitz. A kind librarian. Difficulties with the natives. These and other elements of the story are timeless and not-so-oddly reminiscent of other beloved stories about children evacuated during World War II from bombed out London. Edmund is the naughty brother in this story just like Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. As in Noel Streatfeild’s When the Sirens Wailed, the children’s billets and foster families are not the best, and they are threatened with separation and even abuse. The children encounter cruelty and prejudice but also kindness (and they eventually gain a new home) just as the the child in Goodnight Mr. Tom by Michelle Majorian did. All of these echoes of other stories and the new characters and ideas in this one make this debut middle grade novel by an American author a delight and an adventure.

I did find one Americanism in the book (that an editor should have caught): British children carry torches or electric torches, not flashlights. I know this because for a long time in my childhood I wondered why modern day British children were carrying around torches, sticks with a flame on the end. I only found out that a torch was a flashlight much later in my reading life. (I won’t say how much later.)

The books that are not only alluded to but actually featured in this book make for pleasant reading and pleasant memories. William, Anna, and even Edmund are all readers, and they depend on books to comfort and defend them when life becomes difficult and even unbearable. Some of the classics that the children read over the course of the story: The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Winnie-the Pooh by A.A. Milne, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers, and best of all The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Only one of he books that these British children read was one I had never heard of: The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter. It sounds incredible, and I’m determined to find a copy and read it soon.

William, age twelve, is working on a multi-year project of reading the Encyclopedia Britannica straight through, beginning to end. He’s on the fourth volume HER(cules) to ITA(lic) as the children leave for the country, and he of course takes this volume with him on the journey. Unfortunately, volume 4 of the encyclopedia isn’t much help as William, Anna, and Edmund encounter bullies, nits, rat-killing, poverty, and neglect, but eventually they do find a home and a someone who thinks, like their Mum used to say, that these particular children “hung the moon.”

Book Girl: A Journey Through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life by Sarah Clarkson.

Book Girl Discussion Question #8: In chapter 4, the author says, ‘A great book meets you in the narrative motion of your own life, showing you in vividly imagined ways exactly what it looks like to be evil or good, brave or cowardly, each of those choices shaping the happy (or tragic) ending of the stories in which they’re made.’ In what ways have books shaped the story of your life?

These are the books I chose to list in a post about books that shaped or defined me back in 2005:

1. A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L’Engle. Why did this book impress me so much when I first read it several years ago? It’s about real people attempting to live authentic lives in New York City. It’s about community and how that community is formed. I’m very interested in how families interact, how intentional communities are formed and sustained, especially artistic communities and Christian communities. I think there’s something more there, too, but I can’t put my finger on it.

2. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Van Auken. Van Auken tells the story of how he re-lived his life with his wife, Davey, after her death, by listening to the music they listened to together and re-reading the books they read together. It may sound maudlin, but it’s not. He also comes to terms with his loss and with the flaws in their relationship and with priorities, how marriage partners who find their ultimate security in Christ and His love can grow closer to each other. But those who hold onto each other jealously and possesively lose the thing they most want to preserve. I think I’m married the way I’m married, very happily I must say, partly because of this book.

3. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. C.S. Lewis talks about joy as an elusive longing for Something that is just out of reach. Tragedy is also an elusive feeling that depends on just the right combination of circumstances. Paton’s book about South Africa under the apartheid system and about the power of forgiveness to redeem, sometimes, is truly tragic. I also think this is what life is like: essentially hopeful, but tragic in the short run. Sometimes the Good is too little , too late.

4. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Life-changing. Lewis puts into words what I believe and why I believe. Definitely part of my mind’s landscape along with the Narnia books, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and Till We Have Faces.

5. My first homeschooling book was John Holt’s Teach Your Own. This was before I had any children. Even though I use workbooks and curricula with my children, the unschooling, easygoing, let them teach themselves, philosophy is a part of my homeschool, too. I do want them to learn to learn and to enjoy learning, to be self-educators. I’m also drawn again to the sense of community that is present in Holt’s books.

6. The book that most shaped my life as a young Christian teenager was The Edge of Adventure by Keith Miller and Bruce Larson. I haven’t re-read this book in a long while, and I suspect it’s full of what I would now consider psycho-babble. But at the time the emphasis, again (note the recurring theme), on Christian community and basic Christian disciplines was exactly what I needed to hear. A lot of my ideas about prayer and discerning God’s will and following Christ in obedience came from this book.

7. All the Way Home by Mary Pride. I know that Mary Pride is a lightning rod for criticism and controversy, but her ideas about home and family being a center for economic, spiritual, and social influence were and are liberating for me.

8. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Either I’m focused on the ideal of community tonight or else the theme of my whole adult life is comunity and how families come together to form real communities. I’ve wanted to live in Hobbiton, in a nice little hobbit-hole, ever since I first read Tolkien in the late 1960’s.

9. No Graven Image by Elizabeth Elliot. A young missionary finds that God is trustworthy, but not necessarily fathomable. I find the same to be true in my Christian life. This novel and the book of Job are my mainstays in the time of suffering and difficulty.

10. Cheaper by the Dozen by Ernestine and Frank Gilbreth. Was it from this book or somewhere else that I got the idea that it could be fun to have a lot of children and to teach them things in my own home? I think some of the nonfiction I listed above (and life) fleshed out the details, but Cheaper by the Dozen planted the seed of an idea long before I even realized the idea was there.

Hard task. On another day, I’d probably pick an entirely different set of books. And I didn’t even begin to list my childhood influences–the picturebooks that formed my imagination and the chapter books that made me think and made me grow. I’ll save all that for another post, but the ten books above have definitely shaped and do continue to define who I am. What books made you who you are or confirmed your direction in life and work?

I might tweak the list a bit after more than ten years of continued contemplation:

Instead of Mary Pride’s book, I would list The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. Mrs. Schaeffer’s books about incorporating art into everyday life is and was inspiring to me as I lived a typical suburban life—and did it in sometimes not-so-typical ways.

The Hobbit was certainly an influence, but perhaps The Lord of the Rings did even more to give me images and role models for courage and perseverance and finding joy in the small things in life.

What books have shaped or defined your life and thought?

Book Girl: A Journey Through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life by Sarah Clarkson.

Book Girl Discussion Question #7: The author gives her ‘Beloved Dozen’ list in chapter 3. What titles would you include on your must-read list?

I have a list of 79 of the best fiction books I’ve ever read. To narrow that list down to 12 will be difficult, but I’m game. Note that these are only fiction, not nonfiction.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I read this tome long before there was a musical version, and I devoured it. I stayed up until I fell asleep after 2:00 AM, reading Les Miserables in my dorm room bed, exploring the convents, battlefields, and sewers of Paris and of France, even though I had an 8:00 class to attend that same morning. I recommend plunging headfirst into an unabridged version and enjoying every single minute detail of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Such a good story. I wish I could find time to re-read it.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. The Chronicles of Narnia may be my favorite C.S. Lewis books, but The Great Divorce is the one that I would recommend that everyone read. Just remember that it is fiction, not theology, a supposing, not a prophecy.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I also read these books as a teen, long before Peter Jackson made them even more famous than the books already were.

No Graven Image by Elizabeth Elliott. A young missionary finds that God is trustworthy, but not necessarily fathomable. I find the same to be true in my Christian life. This novel and the book of Job are my mainstays in the time of suffering and difficulty.

Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott.

Kristin Lavransdattar by Sigrid Undset. So surprising and so right. Actions and decisions have consequences, and living out the aftermath of good decisions and bad ones is how we learn and grow.

Well, actually the final two books that everyone should read are nonfiction:

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Such a good autobiographical story of a family that followed Christ into hard places, step by step, in World War II Holland.

Joni by Joni Eareckson (Tada). Joni was also led into some very hard places, but she found the Lord already there.

I also made this list of “10 books that shaped or defined me.” It includes both fiction and nonfiction.

I think Professor Tolkien was a genius and one of the best writers England ever produced. If you disagree, we won’t argue. I’ll just wait for you to come round to the truth.

I’ve blogged about Tolkien and his books many times here at Semicolon. Here are links to few of my thoughts on the professor and his hobbitish books.

Tolkien’s birthday, 2004
Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien, 2005
Happy Birthday, Mr. Tolkien, 2010
Thoughts on The Silmarilllion
Poetry Friday: Goblin Feet by JRR Tolkien
Review of The Fellowship by Philip and Carol Zaleski.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Chapter 1, An Unexpected Party
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Chapter 2, Roast Mutton.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Chapter 3, A Short Rest.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Chapter 4, Over Hill and Under Hill.
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 5: Riddles in the Dark
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 6: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, chapter 7: Queer Lodgings

I only managed to get through chapter 7 in my blog posts on The Hobbit, although I’ve read the entire book many times. Maybe this year I’ll finish up this series.