My New Year’s Resolution: Reading Challenge

Hello everyone! This will be an interesting post for me, as this is the first time I’ve ever made something called a “New Years Resolution”. Usually I just don’t do them because I’m so busy with other things, or I’ve already started doing what I want to do before the New Year. But now I’ve decided to do a small New Years “Resolution”, which I refer to as a challenge.

So I’m a writer. But I’m not one of those writers that reads a TON. First of all, I have a busy life and can’t read eighty plus books in a year. (Like, how is that even possible, lol?) I think it’s great for the people who are able to do that, because as a writer, I need lots of readers! But for me, I just don’t have time to read that much. Secondly, when I read, I generally get a lot of ideas for stories, stories that have nothing to do with my works-in-progress, and it gets very annoying and distracts me from what I need to be working on.

However, I do want to start reading more outside of school books and my daily Bible readings, so, for my New Year’s Resolution/Challenge, I have decided to try and read one book a month! Upon completion, I will write a review on it, and how I like it! I’ll maybe add some fun facts about the book if I can find any, or state my favorite character and/or quotes, so look forward to all the reviews!

So without further ado, here is my 2022 reading list!

#12: Tolkien’s Ordinary Virtues by Mark Eddy Smith

This book is twelfth on my list, thus I will read it in December of 2022. It is 141 pages, and it’s sub-title is “Exploring the Spiritual themes of “The Lord of the Rings“. Obviously, it is a non-fiction piece of work, which isn’t my favorite to read (thus why it’s last on my list), but because I have heard controversial things about Tolkien’s work, I am looking forward to reading it to see what insights it can provide on the subject.

#11: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

This is the eleventh book I want to read, and the reason it isn’t up higher on my list is because I’ve read it before. But because it is such a good book, I wanted to read it again. It is 133 pages, but the print is pretty tiny, so it makes it a little harder to read. The story is great though, and it’s set around my favorite time period, so I can’t wait to read it again.

#9-10: The Fields of Glory and The Ramparts of Heaven by Gilbert Morris

This year some time, I got a large book consisting of these two stories to add to my library, and I have not yet read it. I’m not quite sure what it’s about; the cover looks like it’s set in the Victorian or Colonial era, but because I’ve begun to read Gilbert Morris’ House of Winslow series and loved them, I wanted to try these. The Fields of Glory is 376 pages, and The Ramparts of Heaven is 361 pages, so I’m hoping I can complete them both in two months!

#8: The Dark Tower (and Other Stories) by C.S. Lewis

When I was making this list, I knew I wanted at least one C.S. Lewis book on it. I thought about Pilgrim’s Regress, and I actually had The Screwtape Letters on the list for a moment, but finally The Dark Tower won out. There looks like there’s six stories in my copy of this book, and it’s 214 pages, so each story looks to be a decent size. I think they’re all futuristic fiction, which is a genre I’ve hardly read in (besides the Left Behind books), so it’ll be an interesting read!

#7: Theobold the Iron-Hearted by E Thompson Baird

This one is my easy read, for just in case I get behind or want to get ahead on the next reads! It’s a children’s book, but it still looked good, so I figured I’d try it for a variety. It’s only 56 pages, so I’ll probably finish it in one day, which will help if I somehow get behind! It looks like its a classic love-your-enemies story, which I like, even in “children’s books”, and it actually looks interesting, and not cheesy like some kid books are.

#6: Dearer Than Life by Emma Leslie

This one was sort of a blind pick for me, but knowing the author, it’ll be good. A long time ago, my dad read us one of Emma Leslie’s books called Faithful But Not Famous, and though not my favorite book of all times, it intrigued me. So I decided to pick one out that sounded similar, and Dearer Than Life won! The time period is around 1366 according to the back cover blurb, which is one of my favorite time periods, so that gave it one of its winning points. It’s 265 pages, which is a pretty decent length.

#5: The Saintly Buccaneer by Gilbert Morris

This is the fifth book in the House of Winslow series I mentioned before. I’ve read the first four, but for some reason never got around to the fifth, so now I’m going to do that! This one is the second book in the series set in the American Revolutionary War, and the main character is actually on the side of the British, whereas his cousin, the main character of the last book, is a patriot, so it will be very interesting to see how this plays out! It’s 299 pages, so not the longest book on this list!

#4: Sir Kendrick and the Castle of Bel Lione by Chuck Black

This is a book I got for Christmas this year, and it looks really interesting! I think it’s an allegory, and it’s a series book, so if I like it, maybe I’ll get the rest of the series. It’s 169 pages, so it’s not super long, and from the sample I read, it looks good, so I’m excited to read it!

#3: Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

A few years ago, I read a short abridged version of Ivanhoe, and it intrigued me. I finally got my hands on a full copy sometime this year, and I really want to read it. I love stories set in the medieval time period (if you can’t already tell by some of the other books on this list), so this was a must read. It’s 268 pages, but the print is TINY.

#2: Sir Knight of the Splendid Way by W.E Cule

Okay, this is one I’m SUPER excited for! I almost put it as number one for my read in January, but I found a book that interests me even more that I want to read first. But I’ve heard this book is really, really good, and that it’s basically a Pilgrim’s Progress with knights. I love allegories, I love Pilgrim’s Progress, and I love stories about knights, so this was a definite choice for number two! It’s 179 pages, so it’s not as long as I originally thought it was.

#1: To Birmingham Castle by Alicia Willis

So I found this book while looking on Goodreads for some medieval Christian literature, and when I read the sample provided, I really enjoyed it (I even have a favorite character already picked out, lol!). It’s written by a homeschooler and a review on it says she writes sort of like G.A Henty, which I’ve read a lot of, so I’m pretty excited about that too! I did see a few negative reviews on it though, so I’m hoping the rest of the book will live up to the sample! It’s 465 pages, and I had no clue it was that long, so it’s actually the longest book on my list!

Well, that’s it for my 2022 reading list! I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep to it; I’m doing this challenge with a friend, so that’ll hopefully keep me accountable! Feel free to do the challenge with us if you so choose, and let me know in the comments if you do!

Have you ever read any of these books? Do you have any reading goals for 2022? Let me know in the comments below! Have a wonderful week and a Happy New Year! ~ Kay