The Kat Files

Congrats to me, dear reader! I surpassed my 2021 Reading Challenge on Goodreads. My goal for this year was 50 books, and I read a total of 52 books. I think my reading success this year is attributed to developing a daily reading habit, creating a book club, participating in a Halloween readathon, and adding books to my thematic fun lists.

I participated in Gretchen Rubin’s #Read21for21 challenge, and I am amazed by how many books I read this year just by reading for 21 minutes every day. Establishing a daily reading habit and sticking to it has been an eye-opening experience. According to Gretchen Rubin, “If you read for 21 minutes per day for 365 days, that’s 7,665 minutes, or almost 128 hours of reading. You can read a lot of books in 128 hours!” And, she was correct. I read a total of 24 books. With the exception of The Money Tree, a fictional story implementing the steps to running a successful business, the books chosen for this challenge were nonfiction selections. They fell into the following categories:

autobiographies/biographies

• The House of Kennedy by James Patterson and Cynthia Fagen
• I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart with Neil Strauss
• Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

self-help

• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Money Tree by Chris Guillebeau (business parable)
• High Performance Habit by Brendon Burchard
• Joy at Work by Marie Kondoand Scott Sonenshein
• Fish by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D, Harry Paul, and John Christensen
• How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick
• The Art of Work by Jeff Goins
• Refuse to Choose! by Barbara Sher
• Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

improv

• Improv Wins by Chris Trew and Tami Nelson
• Improv Nation by Sam Wasson
• How to be the Greatest Improviser on Earth by Will Hines

inspirational/spiritual

• Rewriting A New History by Havilah Malone
• Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly
• Everyday Grace by Marianne Williamson
• The Wisdom of Sundays by Oprah Winfrey
• Rediscover the Saints by Matthew Kelly
• Perfectly Yourself by Matthew Kelly

writing/literary criticism

• You Are a Writer (so start Acting like one) by Jeff Goins
• How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

I enjoyed the majority of these books and found some value in all of them. Reading the books on my list taught me some interesting facts, provided me with new strategies and resources, inspired me to take action in different areas of my life, and exposed me to new ideas and ways of looking at the world.

In addition to my daily reading challenge this year, I co-created the online Chills, Thrills, & Kills Book Club with my friend Kelsi. We scheduled a meet-and-greet with members in April where we voted for our first book club pick. In May, we met for our very first book club meeting to discuss our first selection, Later by Stephen King. No thanks to Hurricane Ida, I did not finish A Deadly Education. I am half way through it and plan to finish it (more like reread it) some time in 2022. And, as you can see from our list of reads this year, we opted out of reading a club selection in December since the holidays can get pretty hectic for everyone.

• Video Night by Adam Cesare (June)
• Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz (July)
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (August)
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (September)
• The Halloween Tree by Raymond Bradbury (October)
• The Reckoning by Ruby Jean Jensen (November)

We chose some terrific books this year. I enjoyed all of the ones I read; however, my favorites were Later, Mexican Gothic, and The Halloween Tree.

Reading is one of my absolute favorite activities, and I am grateful to have such a wonderfully rich reading life. I am looking forward to continuing my daily reading habit of 21 minutes per day; however, instead of using that time to read nonfiction selections, I will be reading children’s literature. This will allow me to read quite a few books I already have stacked up in piles waiting to be cracked open to take me on new adventures. I will also participate in the Goodreads challenge. For those of you who like to read, please follow me on Goodreads @ Katherine Loyacano. I would love to see what you are reading. The Chills, Thrills, & Kills Book Club will resume in January. Our January selection is Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar. It is our first nonfiction book club choice.

And, last but not least, Kelsi and I will be engaging in the Year of King in 2022. We are SUPER excited about this literary adventure. A couple of years ago, I did a Summer of Poe and spent the entire summer reading as many short stories, poems, and one novel written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was a wonderful experience. So, why not spend a year reading my favorite author? Kelsi and I have decided that we will devote each month to reading either a novel, a novella, or short stories written by Stephen King. In addition, we will watch the movie or television adaptations of the literary work chosen for the month. Towards the end of each month, we will do a livestream together discussing both the book and its screen adaptation. To kick of the new year, we have chosen Misery for January. We would love it if you would join us, dear reader. What’s more enjoyable than reading a book? Talking about it with others. Happiness!

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” ~ Garrison Keillor