I know there are other months with 31 days, but for some reason January always feels like the longest month of the year. We filled it with tons of books in a variety of places. I finished 8 books this month, started a handful of others, abandoned a few, and made my way through the first third Ron Chernow’s Washington (which should count as 4 books in my opinion!) Here’s a glimpse at January through our reading life.
We started off the new year reading at the beach. Going to the beach on New Year’s Day has become an annual tradition. Some years it’s icy cold and we’re so bundled up you can barely see our eyes. This year, it was almost 60, so we brought our books and stayed a while.
Of course, even almost 60 at the beach in January feels cold, so it means lots of layers and her favorite owl hat. She’s on her fiftieth read through of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.
I started The Great Belonging, which I highly recommend. Bitty Baby agrees.
The next day, Leo and I resumed our normal reading position on the couch and I started A Year of Writing Dangerously.
I finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow in the car while waiting on my daughter’s dance lesson.
I started Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life over dinner at the YMCA, while waiting on the other daughter to finish gymnastics.
I read The Red Pony while on a solo retreat.
Then David went to NYC for work and the puppy was sad. So I let him snuggle me in the wee hours of the morning while I read Good Apple.
while she read Princess Academy by the fire. Now I understand why they call it Child’s Pose.
They shared The Meanest Doll in the World while eating breakfast (gosh, isn’t this the sweetest thing ever?)
And later that day, I read Seabird out loud while they did some stretching.
David caught me reading The Cloisters on the floor of our church while the kids were in Sunday School.
The next day we got a ton of snow, so we curled up on the couch and read. Me, The Cloisters; Her, Princess Academy.
We started reading Romeo & Juliet together. They prefer the original Shakespeare text rather than the modern; we all agree the cadence is much more fun.
On the next snow day, I devoured The Lions of Fifth Avenue in less than 36 hours. It was a perfect snowy day escape, especially because we were heading to NYC just a few days later.
When David had a second trip to New York City, we all tagged along and turned it into a school field trip. We tried to read Shakespeare on the train, but it didn’t work. out very well. We gave up after just a few lines.
It didn’t take us long to settle into our hotel and dive into the many books we loaded onto our Kindles. Little Women, The Menagerie, and The Masterpiece made great traveling companions.
Our first day in the city, we spent the entire day at the New York Public Library. We saw Shakespeare’s First Folio, Charles Dickens’ Writing Desk, a Gutenberg Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and the original handwritten manuscript draft of The Secret Garden, just to name a few. After seeing all the Treasures, we went back to the hotel for a lunch of leftover Chinese and books.
An afternoon at the children’s library was pretty much their idea of a perfect afternoon. (My kids are dreams to travel with, I’m telling you…)
The second day, we took the subway to The Strand. I made a mistake on the way back and went the wrong direction, but we saw it as a pleasant detour. We saw a few extra sights (World Trade Center, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty), and she finished the second book in The Menagerie series.
The end of our trip came too soon. We said farewell to Grand Central station and took the Commuter rail halfway home. One continued her journey through Little Women and the other finished the final book of the Menagerie series.
And I cracked up at Katherine Center’s newest book, Hello Stranger (coming in July). Preorder it friends. It’s going to be the perfect beach read.
The final leg of our trip was a 2 1/2 hour car ride from Connecticut home. She was quite happy to spend the time with the March girls.
Now that we’re home and book club is in two days, it’s time for me to finish reading Romeo & Juliet. I’ve found listening to the audio while reading along is the very best way for me to maximize comprehension.
Whew - what a month! What stories does your reading life tell??
You can see a complete list of the books mentioned in this post here. All links are affiliate links.