By CARLA OFFENBURGER 

COOPER, Ia., Feb. 17, 2015 – I didn’t waste any time or rest on my laurels as I could have easily done after having read 60 books in 2014. My goal, as it is every year is 52 books, and in years past it’s been hit or miss, but always really close. In 2013 I hit 52 and I made the decision to never read fewer than 52 books a year. That might not have been such a good idea, because it does really become a consuming part of my year. Of course, I can’t think of anything that would be more enjoyable to consume my time than reading. Can you?

Anyway, I logged my 52^nd book in 2014 on December 5 and went for “the moon” and set out to hit 60. That meant I was trying to read eight books in 26 days – with Christmas to celebrate in there. But since this turned out to be a holiday season where we wouldn’t be having our granddaughters and their parents here for the holidays, I thought I could fill that extra time with books.   And I must admit, I ended the year with some of my favorite “go to” books. But 60 it was!

You’d think after a nine-book December, I’d go easy on myself in January. But now I think the annual goal always has to be 60. Don’t you?

Then on January 1, I jumped into Plymouth Congregational Church’s “The Bible in 90 days” in Des Moines. You read that right – I joined another 100 or so folks at Plymouth who made the commitment to read 12 pages of the Bible every day from January 1 to April 9.   It’s going really well thus far. Twelve pages a day, a special Facebook “group” to comment and lament on the readings. And a Wednesday night discussion group in Des Moines – to dig a bit deeper into what we are reading. It’s an awesome experience.

Did you know there are 66 books in the Bible? As of February 14 and the completion of Psalms, I’ve read 19 of them. But, I’ve already reconciled myself to the idea that the Bible will count as one book in my tally for 2015. Albeit counting each book of the Bible is tempting, and I think of how hard reading 60 books will be when this one book is consuming so much of my reading energy.

It’s going to be a fast-paced reading year for sure. I successfully read five books in January, including the 426-page, “The Monuments Men,” by Robert Edsel. This week I hit the 500-page mark in the Bible and this seems to have slowed my other reading down a bit, as I’m only on my second book for February.

I promised I’d share with you the full 2014 list, and here it is. The 60 books I read totaled 24,204 pages. The italicized books were my favorite.

Carla Offenburger’s 2014 Reading List                                                                          

“David and Goliath,” by Malcom Gladwell
“The Daniel Plan,” by Rick Warren (& company)
“If the Church Were Christian,” by Philip Gulley
“The End of Your Life Book Club,” by Will Schwalbe
“The Books that Mattered,” by Frye Gaillard
“Frankenstein,” by Mary Wollstencraft Shelly
“March,” by Geraldine Brooks
“Walking Across Egypt,” by Clyde Edgerton
“The Runaway Quilt,” by Jennifer Chiaverini
“The House Girl,” by Tara Conklin
“Mary Poppins,” by P.L. Travers
“Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,” by Helen Simonson
“Forever Barbie,” by M.G. Lord
“Barbie and Ruth,” by Robin Gerber
“The Secret Garden,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
“Hidden,” by Catherine McKenzie
“I Still Dream About You,” by Fannie Flagg
“Thursdays at Eight,” by Debbie Macomber
“In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden,” by Kathleen Cambor
“To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
“Crazy Love,” by Francis Chan
“The Book of Mercy,” by Kathleen Cambor
“If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get out of the Boat,” by John Ortberg
“The Bingo Queens of Paradise,” by June Park
“Little Lord Fauntleroy,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
“Peace Like a River,” by Leif Enger
“The Thirteenth Tale,” by Diane Setterfield
“The House at Riverton,” by Kate Morton
“A Fitting Place,” by Mary Gottschalk
“Chasing the Sun: A Novel,” by Natalia Sylvester
“We Were Liars,” by E. Lockhart
“The Perfume Collector,” by Kathleen Tessaro
“The Story Sisters,” by Alice Hoffman
“Inamorata,” by Megan Chance
“Murder on the Orient Express,” by Agatha Christie
“The Falls,” by Joyce Carol Oates
“One Lavender Ribbon,” by Heather Burch
“State Fair,” by Phil Stong
“Portrait of a Girl,” by Dörthe Binkert
“Cooked,” by Michael Pollen
“Help, Thanks, Wow,” by Anne Lamott
“Island of the Blue Dolphin,” by Scott O’Dell
“Eat the City,” by Robin Shulman
“And Then There Were None,” by Agatha Christie
“Me Talk Pretty One Day,” by David Sedaris
“At Home,” by Bill Bryson
“Whiter Than Snow,” by Sandra Dallas
“Always Put in a Recipe and Other Tips for Living,” by Evelyn Birkby
“The Power of Habit,” by Charles Duhigg
“The Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel James Brown
“Tallgrass,” by Sandra Dallas
“The Glassblowers (Trilogy 1),” by Petra Durst-Benning/Samuel Willcocks
“Humble Pie,” by Anne Dimock
“Finding Her Voice,” by Rekha Basu
“Charms for the Easy Life,” by Kaye Gibbons
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” by Barbara Robinson
“The Ocean at the end of the Lane,” by Neil Gaiman
“O Pioneers!”by Willa Cather
“Jesus > Religion,” by Jefferson Bethke
“Small Victories,” by Anne Lamott

You can write the columnist at carla@Offenburger.com or comment using the handy form below here.