So many books, so little time.

This week in the 52 Lists Project we are listing our favorite books.  

I am going to be honest, I do not like reading. But do I love books.  

Reading has not always come easy to me, but I love stories and I love listening to them, so when I found Audible...reading books, or listening books, has become something I love to do.  In the past year I have read way more than I have since school. It has become a real treat for me, which it should be. 

There are a few catagories I am most drawn to when it comes to reading...they are non-fiction, classics, and dystopian young adult fiction. I have a huge affinity for history (the classics) and the the future (dystopian fiction). Thankfully I also like non-fiction to keep me in the present.

Non-fiction for me is more about learning new things, bettering myself, understanding myself and others.  I love learning and making connections, so my favorite books in this category really gave me some ah-ha moments. I use their lessons daily and strive to live the life I am supposed to live for myself.

Dystopian fiction is purely an escape for me. This is my guilty pleasure reading. I have to say I was not always into futuristic tales. It was not until I started dating Jimi, and his affinity for Sci-Fi, that I started to notice how much I liked it. Dystopian fiction takes me to a world that is completely unknown. The rules are reinvented and skies the limit as for what can happen. I love learning about these worlds the authors create and the way they portray how it will bring out the best, or the worst in people in the face of fear, danger and survival. There is always love and adventure - literally what more could a girl ask for?? I know this is not the most scholarly of genres to be reading, but I am not afraid to share this, because when I have down time I just want it to be an entertaining, exciting, and easy story to connect with, that I cannot put down.

Classics take me back in time to eras I would have loved to experience for myself. These novels make you think about things. They are still so relative in everyday life, because the lessons and morals they are teaching through ordinary people, still hold value today - they are that timeless. I have read a lot of classics, but there are also so many that I want to read, and intend to change that.

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Week 16
favorite books.

Classics
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Young Adult
Divergent (Series) by Veronica Roth
Under the Never Sky (Series) by Veronica Rossi
Partials (Series) by Dan Wells
Legend (Series) by Marie Lu
Delirium (Series) by Lauren oliver
Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Non-Fiction
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Quiet by Susan Cain
A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz

Challenge
To read more books from my To Read list and to take the knowledge and the resonance and actually live those things in my everyday life. To live life with the same intensity that I find in dystopian novels, to live with the same thoughtfulness and courage of my favorite characters and to love like life were a fairytale, even when it is not.

Looking through my list I have found my "to read" list is much longer than my favorites. I would have had a much easier time with that list. What is on your favorites list? I need recommendations to add to my Audible Wish List...now that you know what I like. ;) What is on your To Read list? 

A few from my To Read List:
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown   
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (again)
Death at SeaWorld by David Kirby

Enjoy!

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If you are a Jane Austen fan...

I recently picked up a book called A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things that Really Matter by William Deresiewicz.  It has gotten great reviews and so far I love it.  It has been a great review of some of my favorite stories, a wonderful refresher on Jane Austen's personal history and a new perspective on what Austen was really trying to tell us with all the particulars.

It is very interesting to hear about Austen and her novels from a man's point of view, and how he fell in love with Austen and her writing.  The lessons and morals she teaches in her novels are closely looked at and compared to the modern every day life of Deresiewicz.  It also drives home the point that her novels are timeless, because Austen wrote about everyday people and occurrences, and they, along with their lessons, will always be applicable to our own every day lives.

So if you are a Jane Austen fan, like I am, I really recommend this book.  It not only sheds a new light on her stories and characters, but it also sheds a new light on your own everyday life and what really matters. 

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Fun Things for Costa Rica

I am in Costa Rica right now and here are some fun things I love to bring with me when coming here.

1. Bathing suits...it is so hot at this time of year there that all you want to do is be in the water.  Whether it is the pool or the ocean, that is where you will find me.

2. 3 or 4 good books....this one I always underestimate.  Last time I finished my book on the plane!  So this time I am stocking up so I have plenty reading material.  Thankfully vacations are good for knocking a few good books off of the reading list.  Here are some of the books I brought with me:

3. Fun sandals.  I have my faithful rainbows and a pair from Target that is a current style with a little brass flair.

4.  My iPod loaded with plenty of favorite books on tape and newly uploaded music to enjoy on and off the plane.

5.  Last, but not least, some great cover ups that I can wear at the beach or to the pool.  Fun right colors are in right now so I am making sure that all my suits and coverups have those great colors in them.  So very festive!

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