One of my goals for 2019 was to read 52 books. I didn't make it.
I'm a natural goal setter and put a lot of thought into my goals and how I will achieve them. I'm not someone who sets a resolution and ten days later can't even remember what it was I wanted to do.
When I told my husband I only made it to 49 books, he said, “how long do they have to be? Can you read some children's books?” I was okay with 49 books, and here's why I won't make that kind of goal again.
- Forty-nine books – not something to be embarrassed about.
- It's an arbitrary number and didn't take into account how long the books were. I read Tony Robbins – Master the Money Game, which was 688 pages, Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Accessory to War, Judd Apatow's Sick in The Head and Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind, none of which were short.
- Until recently, Goodreads didn't allow you to reread a book and count it, so I avoided reading Wallace Wattles even though I wanted to. All because of an arbitrary goal I set for myself.
What does this mean for 2020? No goal. I don't need one for reading because I. Love. To. Read. I'm going to read no matter what. I know that Ben Greenfield's book Boundless is going to be a doozy when I get it. I know I want to reread all of the Wallace Wattles and Think and Grow Rich. I'm getting another certification in nutrition from the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and that involves studying.
My lesson earned from last year's goal is that there are some things I don't need to set goals for. With my personality, when I do, I might end up doing something silly (not reading Wattles) to achieve it. On a good note, Marcey 1.0 would have felt like a failure. Marcey 2.0 is completely content knowing what I achieved.
So what were my favorite books?
So. Hard. To. Choose.
But if you're threatening to pull off my toenails one by one and making me give you ten must-reads of 2019, it would be (in no order except #1)
- Educated by Tara Westover (OMG)
- So You've Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson (it could happen to any of us)
- The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman (I could listen to him read a car manual, and I would be fascinated)
- A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman (sobbed at the end while reading it on my FitBike)
- Bad Blood – John Carreyrou (this woman needs to get with the guy from the Fyre Festival)
- Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (INTENSE and now I have my assistant taking extreme ownership over tasks)
- Essentialism – Greg McKeown (have this as a reread for 2020)
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz – Heather Morris (beautiful love story)
- The Last Black Unicorn – Tiffany Haddish (I have never seen her movies, just her interviews, and stand-up and I love her)
- Tony Robbins – Money: Master the Game (I love all books about money and how to manage it).
There you have it. My books of 2019 are posted to Goodreads. I review every single book I read because, as an author, I know how important it is to have reviews. I use Goodreads to keep track of what I've read and what I want to read.
Right now, I have three books going.
- The Love Dare, which is a personal challenge I am going to do in 40 weeks (instead of days) for my husband.
- Food Freedom Forever by Melissa Hartwig
- Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion by Neil Gaiman
What is your most recommended book in the last year, and what are you reading now?
