“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” // T.S. Elliot
Another year, another page. We are here yet again at the starting line of new year, a fresh slate, a clean stack of parchment paper built upon the foundation of last year’s providences whose surfaces are yet to be scratched, but are already told.
Our Lord alone knows what words will adorn these pages of two thousand and fifteen, what joyous words of a happy heart and perhaps tearful drops of a hurting one will etch those pages. We can trust in the fact that we do not write this story of a new year ourselves, but that it has been written from the foundation of the world by a Creator and Lord who is a better author than we can ever hope to be.
What a year 2014 has been! How I love looking back over these past blog pages of the year, seeing their variety and truly the opportunities the Lord has given!
I truly do look forward with the upmost excitement to a new year, to many more days of scribblings, and for more opportunities and adventures to recount!
But, as the new year commences, I not only like to look forward but to look back as well at all that the former year has brought, for it is looking back that gives us the foundation of the new year, and encourages us.
In light of this, let’s remember our bookish endeavors of the year past.
I seem to remember a hopeful book list for 2014 I posted on this little nook a year ago. So, without further ado, I would be delighted to share what my list actually looked like! Prepare yourself. I strayed from my original list so much, it’s almost embarrassing! 🙂
Books Completed 2014
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader // C.S. Lewis
Apostate // Kevin Swanson
Holiness by Grace // Bryan Chapell
The Scarlet Letter // Nathaniel Hawthorne
Uncompromising // Hannah Farver
The Uncivil War // Rebecca Clark Cornwell
Assumptions That Affect Our Lives // Christian Overman
Co. Aytch // Sam Watkins
Uncle Tom’s Cabin // Harriet Beecher Stowe
The New Answer’s Book Three // Ken Ham
My Heart in His Hands // Ann Judson
A March on London // G.A. Henty
Growing Up Duggar // The Duggar Girls
In Freedom’s Cause // G.A. Henty
A Very Violent Rebel // Daniel E. Sutherland
The Sinking of the Titanic // Bob Garner
The Silver Chair // C.S. Lewis
The Red Badge of Courage // Stephan Crane
The Horse and His Boy // C.S. Lewis
The Magician’s Nephew // C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle // C.S. Lewis
Billy Budd, Sailor // Herman Melville
Growing Up Christian // Karl Graustein
Beric the Briton // G.A. Henty
Unplanned // Abby Johnson
The Scarlet Pimpernel // Emmunska Orczy
The Laughing Caviler // Emmunska Orczy
Let’s Study 1st Corinthians // David Jackman
The First Sir Percy // Emmunska Orczy
Radical // David Platt
Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen
1776 // David McCullough
The Bronze Bow // Elizabeth George Speare
The Eagle of the Ninth // Rosemary Sutcliff
Johnny Tremain // Esther Forbes
Treasure Island // Robert Louis Stevenson
Equipped to Love // Norm Wakefield
Feminine by Design // Scott Brown
The Portrait of a Lady // Henry James
Life Together // Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Call of the Wild // Jack London
Sergeant York and the Great War // Tom Skeyhill
The Hour that Changes the World // Dick Eastman
To Kill a Mockingbird // Harper Lee
One Thousand Gifts // Ann Voskamp
Jacob Deshazer // Janet and Geoff Benge
God Owns My Business // Stanley Tam
The Old Man and the Sea // Ernest Hemingway
I Dared to Call Him Father // Bilquis Sheikh
Joni // Joni Eareckson Tada
Ahem, so as I tallied away, I calculated that I read nine of the books that I had listed for my 2014 list. I completed more books than I had originally listed but I put my 2014 booklist to utter shame. Let’s hope I can be more disciplined in 2015 not to be diverted from my list by all the other amazing titles out there! *chuckles*
As to my favorites from this year’s bookshelf, those would have to include The Scarlet Pimpernel (why, oh why, wasn’t I introduced to this sooner!) The Bronze Bow and In Freedom’s Cause. These were such stirring tales and gave me such inspiration as only a good book can to a writer’s eyes.
I do indeed have a book list for 2015 as well, some of the same titles from 2014 are being carried over because, well, their titles still are desired to read.
I will post that when another time avails itself of the opportunity.
Oh dear, I sincerely hope I haven’t bored you. Reading long lists of fifty two titles can create boredom in some minds, I do apologize if I have done so.
My desire has been that this has inspired you to compile your own list of many titles for the year, it’s such a grand thought to have a direction laid in place for our bookish minds to steer in!
~
I would be so interested to hear what you have read in 2014!
What titles do you hope to add to this new and forthcoming year?
Photo Courtesy: pinterest.com
I must say I’m a tad bit embarrassed to share what I read in 2014… quilt books. However, I’m not ashamed to say that my Bible became a little more worn out from my most treasured daily visits to God’s Word. It looks like 2015 may look the same for now. Keep sharing your book lists, they’re not boring at all. I love your writing!
Quilt books are a noble contribution! 🙂 I too, have been convicted by reading so many books last year that I did not spent as much time in the most important book of all. . . God’s Word. I do have a rather high ideal for 2015’s reading list, but more than ever the pages I want to devour most this year are those of the scriptures! Thank you for your example, I it SO good to keep in mind that while numerous pages of book lists are good and wholesome, our time is most wisely spent in God’s Word! <3
I am so relieved I didn't bore you, and I am even more pleased you enjoyed a few of my words! <3
My mom always said “you really ought to keep a list of books that you read”, but i’ve ever know someone to do it and never have. Not that I didn’t try a few times. It’s just that I read in mad bursts then not at all. Plus, I generally tend to read the same book over and over until I practically have them memorized. Anyway, enough about me 🙂 You have inspired me to start a book list this year. I’m going to start one and KEEP one! 😉 Soooo, we’ll see how it goes! Thank you!
Also, I’ve read most of the books on your list, they are great books! Keep reading stuff like that and your writing will become better and better (though that’s hard to imagine. You write so well now).
Love you sister!
You did a great job Abby! Love the style of writing and how it is written. Your reading plan from last year just displays how man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps. 🙂
Lovely words!