Tag: reading

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Holy Cow, I’ve Read a Lot of Books This Past Year!

Just for grins, I decided to look back at all the books I’ve read over this past year. Over the past 13 months, I have read at least two dozen books. I knew I had read a lot of books, but I didn’t realize it was quite that many! The books generally fall into the following five broad categories: space, business, self-improvement, biking, and science fiction.

The Amazon Kindle’s Reading Insights feature shows you what you’ve read each year, as well as some statistics on your reading activity

How to Read a Lot of Books: Read Two Per Month

Here’s the list of books I know I read this past year. I may have forgotten a few, but regardless, that’s a lot of reading – nearly two books per month!!

  • Grit, by Angela Duckworth (“grit” is applying passion and persistence to achieve excellence and mastery for an extended period of time)
  • Mindset, by Carol S. Dweck (“fixed” versus “growth” mindset; heard about this book from the 12/16/2020 episode of The HKT Podcast)
  • Endurance, by Scott Kelly (about former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s year aboard the International Space Station)
  • The Last Campaign, by Martin L. Shoemaker (fiction; sequel to The Last Dance, below)
  • Stalling for Time, by Gary Noesner (written by a former FBI hostage negotiator about his experiences)
  • Do Hard Things, by Alex & Brett Harris (society expects much less of teenagers than they are capable of, wasting potential; do hard things for the glory of God)
  • Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy, by Timothy Zahn (fiction; covers Thrawn’s early years, before he joined the Empire)
  • It’s All About the Bike, by Robert Penn (an avid biker tells the story of building his dream bike with high end components from all over the world)
  • Rescue Mode, by Ben Bova & Les Johnson (fiction)
  • Space 2.0, by Rod Pyle (humankind’s endeavors in space are gaining momentum)
  • Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (fiction)
  • 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson (fiction)
  • Space is Open for Business, by Robert C. Jacobson (there are a significant number of space-related businesses and business opportunities, with more on the way)
  • Thuvia, Maid of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (fiction – part of the John Carter of Mars series… I actually thought I read more than one of the books on the series this past year)
  • Alone at Dawn, by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz (true story about recent special forces heroes)
  • Tap Code, by Carlyle S. Harris & Sara W. Berry (about POWs in the Vietnam War who communicated using codes based on tapping)
  • Imperial Earth, by Artur C. Clarke (fiction)
  • Clutter Free, by Kathi Lipp (how to eliminate clutter in your home)
  • Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon (for artists – how to get your work out there)
  • Elon Musk, by Ashlee Vance (Biography of Elon Musk of SpaceX, Tesla, etc. fame)
  • The Airbnb Story, by Leigh Gallagher (just what the title suggests, it’s about Airbnb)
  • Atomic Habits, by James Clear (how to develop habits)
  • The Last Dance, by Martin L. Shoemaker (fiction)
  • Can’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins (former Navy SEAL eliminates any excuse you’ll ever have)
  • Mining the Sky, by John S. Lewis (mining asteroids, etc. – this is my 2nd time reading it; I’m only halfway through at the moment)

I’ve really enjoyed the books I’ve read this past year. I’m not sure I’ll sustain the same pace over the coming 12 months, but regardless, I still plan to read a lot of books by reading every day.

By the way – as I mentioned in an earlier post, borrowing e-books from the library has been a big help in complementing my selection of books.

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Free eBooks: Borrowing Books From Your Local Library

I use the OverDrive app for borrowing eBooks from the library

Did you know that you can get free eBooks on loan from your local library? Here in the state of Connecticut, we use a tool called OverDrive, which is available both as a website and a mobile app. While I have been using this service for a couple years already, it’s especially convenient during this seemingly endless COVID-19 pandemic.

I Love to Read

I’m an avid reader – often reading more than one book at a time. I love books and love to read. For as long as I can remember, I have both bought books as well as borrowed them – from the library, or from friends. I do love the feel of a book in my hands, but I’ve also grown to love my Kindle and the (free) Kindle app on my phone. My Kindle eBook library has been growing over the past few years. At first I was hesitant, but now I read more eBooks than physical books. I can store a giant ‘stack’ of Kindle books on my phone, instantly available wherever I am, whenever I want to read. Some books I buy; others I borrow.

Free eBooks on OverDrive

To complement my purchased collection, I often borrow books from our state’s library system’s collection of eBooks. With the OverDrive app, I can borrow a book (usually in the Kindle format), request a hold on a book (i.e., waitlist), add a book to my wishlist, or recommend a book to be added to the library’s collection. The loans are generally 2 weeks.

One of the benefits of borrowing free eBooks in the Kindle format is that I can add highlights and notes in the Kindle app. As far as I know, these remain – in other words, if I borrow or buy the Kindle book later, I think my highlights and notes are retained.

Another useful tool is the ability to export your highlights and notes from Kindle. Obviously you can’t highlight the entire book, but if you can a ‘reasonable’ amount of highlighted text, the export feature is available.

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