December, 2013 – Megan Miln

2013 in Review: Books

One things I wanted to do in 2013 was read more. Growing up, and right though university, I read a lot. Somewhere along the line, I lost the habit, and I wanted to get back into it. I wanted to read more of the classics, the ones that inform popular culture, that I was so often unfamiliar with.

We gave away most of our book collection before moving to France. We kept a few favourites and any we hadn’t read. It was difficult to justify the cost of shipping books that would most likely sit in a box untouched for years.

Among the books that came with us was Dracula. This is the book I started with during our holiday last Christmas. It was frightening. So frightening that I had to stop reading it before bed, but I couldn’t put it down.

Next, and the only other unread book in our collection, was Moby Dick. I say unread, but I had started it a long time ago, and given up part-way through. I found the beginning boring and difficult to get through. Happily, it improved the further I read, and by the end I really enjoyed it.

Then, the real change happened. I got a Kindle for my birthday. I wasn’t sure about the idea of a Kindle. I can’t read for long periods on the computer, and imagined the Kindle would be much the same. I was wrong. The experience is very different. I finished reading Moby Dick on my new Kindle, and found it much easier to read than the cheaply printed paper copy I had. I was hooked, and I can’t imagine being without my Kindle now.

It also opened up a whole world of free classics for me to read, downloaded in moments with just a few clicks. My only problem is deciding what to read next.

What I Read in 2013

Here is the list of books I read this year: