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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Influence, Vision and Beauty

Both of the these videos are done by Karen Walrond of wildly convinced that you are uncommonly beautiful and the author of the bestseller The Beauty of Different.

The mission is to change the perception of beauty and accept the fact that we are beautiful in our differences and that the only way to change the world's perception and definition of beauty is finding the beauty within ourselves and in our differences.  

She has found her calling and how she can contribute to the gift of life through the spirit she was given by showing you how to love yourself.  It is inspirational and amazing.  We are all here for a reason, we all wish to influence some or many people, but the question is how?

This comes to a book I am reading by Jessi Connolly Be Quiet & Say Something.  She talks about how we need to look past ourselves and our own lives to see the greater picture, to see the bigger plan that is dealt to us.  The plan that gives us purpose and that allows us to share our gifts and spirit with the rest of the world...to make the world a better place, a beautiful place.  Her vision is equally inspirational and amazing.

I have not finished her book and I have not read Karen's book, but I can tell you right now, that these are the kind of women I want to read with, learn from and maybe someday actually be living proof of their influence.

I too want to influence, maybe in a smaller way, to capture the attention of the few and make this world a better place.  I have an idea of what, but I am not sure of the when, the who and the how.  I am for sure still learning, and have so much work to do...but I at least hope I am on the right track.

That is what influence does.  It gives you hope for something better, something bigger, and something beautiful.  We all have it, we can all find it, and we all get to contribute, but we all get to do it in our own beautiful way if we allow ourselves to go out and get it.

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