Reading Challenge Update: What I Read in February

Welcome to my monthly Book-ish post where I share what I’ve been reading and what I’ve been reading aloud to my children. If you missed it, check out my Reading Goals for 2018 and the 2018 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge.

This month was a very light reading month for me. To be honest, I needed to re-think my reading goals.

At the start of this year, I thought I’d do the same challenge I did last year from Tim Challies, but I just don’t think this is feasible. Reading 104 books is a great goal, but ….

After some serious thought, I’ve decided that I’m just going to stick with one challenge, the Intentional By Grace Reading 2018 Challenge.

I really don’t need a huge goal to make me read.

I’m a reader by nature, but I have found that having this massive goal (again) is really threatening to take the joy out of reading for me.

However, I do like the idea of being intentional to read books around certain themes to grow in my spiritual life, so I think just doing the Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge will be enough this year.

I want to hold myself accountable to not just reading all about the same thing and actually get outside my comfort zone. But I also want some freedom to read more leisurely and on a whim than I’ve been able to do the last 14 months or so.

With that said, I did get some reading in this month, and below is what I read in February.

What I Read in February:

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

I confess, I had never read Pride and Prejudice until now. I picked it up a few times in the past, but I never could get into it.

I’ve never seen the movies either. *gasp*

But I’ve heard far too many wonderful things about this book to give up so easily, so this month I purposed to read the book through no matter how interesting (or not interesting) I found it.

I’m glad to say that I really did enjoy it. Perhaps I finally came upon it at the right time to appreciate it. It was just as wonderful as everyone said it would be.

George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans

I listened to this book on Christian Audio. They ran a sale on the Christian Heroes series a while back.

I knew George Muller was a man of prayer and that he ran an orphanage, but I wanted to learn more so I snagged this one.

What an encouragement to hear his story read aloud as I folded laundry, washed dishes, and sat in the car waiting on my boys at karate. His faith is just … I can’t even find the words. I was so encouraged by his life and testimony.

I plan to listen to this one with my kids when they are a little older.

What I Read-Aloud in February:

Hour of the Olympics (Magic Tree House #16) by Mary Pope Osborn

This was an easy read-aloud to go along with the Winter Olympics. I don’t really enjoy reading aloud the Magic Tree House series, but it went with our history reading so well I couldn’t pass it up. In the future, I will just assign these to be read by my son on his own.

2018 Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge: Breakdown & Favorites

Goal: 12 books
Current Books Read: 2
Number of Books to Go: 10

Note: Below are the books I have read so far for each category. In parentheses beside each book, you will find a link to the post where I share my thoughts on the book.

A biography: George Mueller: The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans , by Janet & Geoff Benge (above)
A book about prayer:
A book about worship:
A book about Christian living:
A book about the Holy Spirit: The God I Never Knew, by Robert Morris (January list)
A book about the Cross:
A Christian classic:
A book about discipleship:
A book about Church history:
A book about holiness:
A book about evangelism:
A book about relationships:
A book of your choice:

Want to take the Intentional By Grace Reading Challenge? Click here to get the details! (Plus I share my recommended reading list for each category on that post.)