What didn't make the list: #31Days of Books

I'm sure you're wondering what didn't make the list of 31 books. There are so many great books that I have read and loved, and even if I wrote for 365 days for years on end, I'd still never run out of books. My annual reading goal for the past ten years has been to read 100 books per year. Most years I exceed that goal.

My criteria for choosing the books for October was narrowing down the list to the books that have had the most influence on me personally, and that hold special meaning for me in some way. This included many books I read in my teens and twenties.

So what didn't make the list? Many, many, many books.

Fiction:

Too many fiction books didn't make it on the list. But my groaning bookshelves are testament to the fact of my love of books and my love of story.

Here are a few of my favorite authors:

• Sarah Jio
• Kate Morton
• Susan Meissner (I shared A Fall of Marigolds but I cannot wait for her Gone With the Wind-themed book coming out next year.)
• Siri Mitchell
• Elizabeth Berg
• Liane Moriarty
• Allison Pittman
• Maeve Binchy
• Jill Mansell

(I guess I read a lot of women writers.)

Nonfiction:

 

Several other nonfiction books that have helped me that I have not examined:

• The Wall Around Your Heart by Mary DeMuth
• The Me Project by Kathi Lipp
• Many Beth Moore books and studies, such as Esther and When Godly People Do Ungodly Things
• Women of Faith writers Sheila Walsh, Luci Swindoll, Patsy Clairmont, and Marilyn Meberg have all written some pretty great books.
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Good and influential book.

One genre I enjoy is what I call the "year-long memoir." I like the ones like Sara Horn's My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife or A.J. Jacobs's The Year of Living Biblically. Or Julie Powell's Julie and Julia. Books where the author has lived and written about the concept for an entire year. Fascinating, wonderful books. I'd love to write one if I could come up with a decent idea.

Another genre I enjoy is one that is immensely popular right now, and that is a novelization of the life of the wife of a famous man. Some recent examples are: The Paris Wife, The Aviator's Wife, and Call Me Zelda. I've thoroughly enjoyed these historical novels firmly planted in facts and research.

November brings National Novel Writing Month--so I do not plan to blog, only to write a 50,000 word novel. We shall see if I can do it this year. The good news is that I don't have ear surgery this November.

To read more of this #31DaysofBooks series, visit the introduction post.