I must admit I wish this list was longer. I really do love to read … so much so that when I get absorbed by a book I drop everything …
… the kids go unfed — and/or dinner ends up ‘well done’ …
… homework goes unchecked …
… the dog un-walked …
… and I stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading, reading, reading.
When I started the blog, I turned my back on books … until this past week, that is …
… a major goal in 2012 is learning to forge a better balance between blogging and reading …
My 2011 reading list starts with my admission that I’m a Harry Potter freak …
… like I’ve read the series through 20+ times freak …
… like I re-read — at a minimum — one of the books in the series once a year freak …
… like I will re-read the entire series – end-to-end – before each new movie comes out in the theaters freak …
… or is released on DVD, for that matter freak …
… like I typically start with book one and read through the entire series end-to-end every other year freak …
… like I’m a fly to a candle when one of the movies (doesn’t matter which one) airs on tv freak …
… I think we’ve established my love of all things Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling … and that Harry Potter will always be on my annual reading list.
Now on to my non-Harry Potter reading in 2011. Let’s start with a few I recommend …
(The Rich Part of Life was written by a former boss of mine, Jim Kokoris …)
Here’s a fun beach read I grabbed for vacation because I’m a fan of the HBO series and movies based on her earlier book …
Continuing on my ‘HP genre’ theme, I can’t get enough of Young Adult fiction – I share these with my teen son – and even penned a novel myself (and shopped around) a few years ago that I may need to brush off and take another look at one of these days …
My son and I greatly enjoyed each and every one of these …
(All these titles were all amazing reads, but my son and I both highly recommend Before I Fall and Elsewhere)
And I’ll end with a few titles that I just Could.Not.Finish (sorry Oprah and anyone reading this who really enjoyed these titles) …
Now I’m looking for some suggestions for 2012 …
…”comment” away with your recommendations …
… and no need to recommend Harry Potter … I think I’ve got that covered …
Linking up:
“The Nester” at Nesting Place
That’s wonderful that you love to read … something I need to do more myself! And, thank you so much for your kind comment about my affair with paint this past year! *Becca* (now happily following along)
Sorry, I’m not much help with book recommendations. I’m not a huge reader of books. I’m more of a movie buff. I enjoy reading though when I find something that really resonates with me. Maybe I should be getting recommendations from you then. ha!
Oh I did NOT like “Freedom” at all. I read the whole thing and it was torture. My son just gave me his copy of “When You Reach Me”, I plan to read it after I finish The Hunger Games series. I love young adult fiction as well… with a 14 and 13 yo it’s good to stay connected.
I just found you through Nester’s link – I don’t blog, but love to read them — I also love HP fiercely – I just love everything about them and the movies. I also enjoy re-reading them yearly – and had to re-read the Deathly Hallows before and after the releases of DH Part I and Part II.
Thanks for the book recommendations. If you love YA books, maybe you have already read The Book Thief? I enjoyed it very much. Just read “The Art of Racing in the Rain” for book club and loved it, too.
Don’t bother with One Day. In my opinion – ick.
Thanks for this post.
Susan just reminded me that I did read One Day in 2011. Slipped my mind completely. What does that say about the book, right?
And Sugar Mama, bravo to you for struggling through Freedom. I could not care less about a single protagonist in that story! I cut up that book and used for a craft project! Ha!
Linda
Found another HP geek!! Our whole family has read the entire series! We play HP trivia at dinner … We are weird! Read The Help and my girls read When You Reach Me. Love to read too (currently in the middle of a Marilyn Monroe bio) and will check out some of your picks.
Kelly
Hi Linda, thanks for leaving me such a lovely message. I’m glad you happened upon my little corner of the world. OK, I’ll admit, this was quite the fitting post for me to find upon my first visit to your blog. I’m a Harry Potter freak too. I reread the books and am currently re-watching the movies in sequence of course, and am at my favorite one, “The Prisoner of Azkaban”. So, “Cheers” to all the HP Freaks out there!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and following! I’m following you now. 🙂
I love your book lists! I’ve read many of those and have wanted to read a lot of them too!
I too could NOT get through Freedom by Franzen! UGH! What was the point???
The books I read this year and really liked were, What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (light, fun read) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Those stood out the most.
I am a huge young adult reader fan! I have a 12 year old boy so its pretty fun to swap books! I enjoyed the HP books but didn’t get through all of them! He read most of them and seems to have one open along side his other reads.
Help is by far my favorite read. I devoured that book and since its been a year I think I need to pick it up again.
I read When you Reach Me and enjoyed it!
I’m currently reading too many books right now but thats kinda how I roll. They are….
A Simple Act of Gratitude – John Kralik
The Hunger Games – recommended by my son
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
The Radleys – Matt Haig
Small Graces – Kent Nerburn
Just found your blog, so happy I did!
Megan
http://1funkywoman.blogspot.com
Decision Points by George W. Bush, Glass Castle, I’m currently also loving Me and My Big Mouth and Simple Abundance. To be honest though, I can’t remember all the books I read in 2011 so if you are totally bored, you could go to my family blog and check under books.
My son is on his first reading of HP. He’s on Book 7. I started reading them when I was pregnant with him, and I do exactly like you. I read all of them before reading the new one, read all of them before seeing the next movie.
I think you’d really like the Pendragon series. They are incredible. Here’s a link to book 1 – I’m not an affiliate, so don’t worry that I’m gaining anything from this link.
http://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Death-Pendragon-D-J-MacHale/dp/1416936254/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327694086&sr=1-1
We own all 10 books in the series, and I now re-read these every year too.