All Things Reintjes: What I Read in 2017

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I'm afraid, for me, 2017 can only be described as the year of unfinished books. To say I have stacks of partially read books littered around the house would be an understatement. They are just everywhere, taunting me with all of the ideas trapped within them that I never got around to discovering because I was too busy scrolling Instagram.

I'm pretty sure they're judging me.

And laughing. Or maybe crying. It's hard to be certain with these things.

My first new year's resolution is to gather up all of the poor neglected things and make a plan for actually finishing them. And also not to buy any new ones until I've accomplished said plan. Aside from the books I just bought myself with my birthday money of course. I mean, I only got one book for Christmas. What would you have done?

We finally got an audible account this year so I listened to more audio books than I ever have before. I listed the ones I listened to by myself below, but we listened to so many more as a family--including The Hobbit and all of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy which were excellently done. I loved Hillbilly Elegy so much that I made Chris listen to it as well and he said it's one of his favorite books ever which is pretty high praise indeed. If you listen to it though, make sure there aren't any little ears nearby. It's read by the author and the language is more than a little rough.

Now as far as books that I actually read goes, a lot of my non-fiction reading centered around health concerns and healing yourself with food. I'm a firm believer that books find their way to you (or at least to me anyway!) just when you need them most. This year after a particularly bad month of near constant migraines/headaches I had the epiphany that I should maybe read actual books on the subject instead of just random things I found online. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me before, given my propensity to solve all of my life's problems by first reading as many things as I can and then, ideally, hopefully, translating that new knowledge into concrete actions--sometimes reading about things gives me an unrealistic feeling of actually having accomplished something when in fact, I've done approximately nothing but that's another post for another day. If you suffer from migraines or even just really bad headaches, you need to read Heal Your Headache. It describes the headache mechanism in a way that makes perfect sense and then walks you through why you need to make dietary changes to help prevent triggering migraines--i.e. what you eat is pretty much the only migraine trigger you have complete control of. The author has a way of explaining things and holding your hand through the parts where you start to feel overwhelmed that's well worth the price of the book.

On the heals of reading that I picked up some of Michael Pollan's books that I had grabbed at a garage sale the previous summer and went on a bit of a bender about where our food actually comes from, what we should eat, and why. Read Michael Pollan--start with the Omnivore's Dilemma and then go to In Defense of Food--his writing is so engaging and funny and it will change the way you look at your food forever. If you can't commit to reading it, although I'm serious--you really need to, he's got some documentaries out as well that will give you a taste before you realize that I'm right and buy the books.

The other non-fiction book that I read that had the most impact on me--and I'm totally giving away the character flaws I'm currently struggling most with here--is Overcoming Sinful Anger. This is a very short read but it is full of advice and wisdom to help you overcome your temper as well as sometimes not-so-gentle reminders of why it is so vitally important to do it now. If you find yourself struggling with anger, perhaps because you find yourself with an overabundance of little people underfoot with all of the demands on your energy and attention that that entails and an under-abundance of energy/time/help to meet those demands then do yourself a favor and put this on your reading list for 2018. You won't regret it.

As for fiction, I think my favorite read this year was Wives and Daughters but beware! There is no ending to the book because the author passed away before she finished it. Why this isn't plastered across the cover of the every copy as a warning to potential readers is beyond me, but there you are. You've been warned. The book doesn't end but it is good nonetheless and I'd read it all over again.

Here's the full list of everything else I read this year minus all the cookbooks (so. many. cookbooks.) just in case you're interested--which I assume you are if you've read this far.

What was your favorite read from 2017? I'll put it on my list of books to buy after I finish reading all of my current piles. I mean, unless it's really, really good and you think I should just go and get it right now ;)